5 Best Social Media Marketing Tools for 2020

Social Media Marketing is becoming a critical component of running a successful business. Many companies started experimenting with Facebook and Twitter by having their kids manage their accounts. Now, businesses that are serious about marketing are hiring Social Media Marketing Managers with 6 figure salaries.

If you can’t afford a full time Social Media Manager, or you are working on your skills to become one, you’ll need to master the tools of the trade. Apps can help you save time and money. They have matured in recent years to help companies and consultants maximise their return on investment (ROI).

The leading Digital Sales Agencies like Loaa continually monitor the state of the art in apps by testing them for their strengths and weaknesses. In this article we explore several of the best apps for social media marketing in 2019, that will continue to gain momentum in 2020.

What Makes a Social Media Marketing App Best of Class?

The apps in this article excel in different ways which made them best for different types of users. For example, some go to great lengths to integrate with large numbers of networks. Other focus on deep integration with just a few. Some offer extensive features for managing teams but that comes with a higher cost. Others are best for individuals who are more price conscious.

The apps we review in this article are not ordered from best to worst. They are all excellent apps chosen from thousands of competing products. We zero in on their strengths and what types of users can most benefit from them.

If keeping up with the latest tools and techniques in social media marketing is taking precious time away from higher value activities, you may want to consider working with Loaa. We provide proven value at a fair price and we guarantee our work. Contact info@loaa.io to find out how we can contribute to your success.

We hope you’ll find our round up of the best apps for social media marketing to be helpful in growing your business or non-profit organization.

Hootsuite

Web, iOS, Android, Chrome



Hootsuite helps you find social media content, schedule posts and analyze your results. It manages over 35 social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube. Additional networks are supported through the Hootsuite App Directory.

What makes Hootsuite one of the best apps for social media marketing is the breadth and depth of its features.

Hootsuite provides a scheduler for queuing posts in advance. You can choose the time to post content or let Autoschedule optimize times based on algorithms perfected the company. Posts can be scheduled several months in advance which saves time. An intuitive interface allows you to schedule posts manually using drag & drop, or by uploading a CSV file.

Analytics is an increasingly important part of a successful social media strategy. Hootsuite tracks more than 200 metrics to help you measure the efficacy of your marketing campaigns. You can use these reports to measure your social ROI and compare it with other marketing expenditures. If you are an agency or consultant, you can export these reports and share them with customers to prove the value of your work.

Hootsuite allows you to set up social streams to monitor mentions, likes and retweets of your posts. You can search social conversations by keyword hashtag or location to understand what people are saying about your brand and competitors.

Content curation is the sharing of content from other sources, while adding your own voice. It’s a good method for keeping your feed fresh and establishing partnerships with like minded people or groups. Hootsuite provides tools discover and approve content for posting by your team.

If you are lucky enough to have a group of people contributing to your social media marketing, then tools to manage them can be helpful. Hootsuite team management features allow you to share access to your social media accounts without having to give out your passwords. You can set custom permission levels for contributors and approve tasks as they are completed.

Hootsuite’s broad range of tools make it the best app for large organizations or agencies that aren’t particularly price conscious.

Plans
Professional: $29/month, 1 user, 10 social profiles
Team: $129/month, 3 users, 20 social profiles
Business: $599/month, 5 users, 35 social profiles
Enterprise: Negotiable
A free tier is available for 1 user and 3 social media accounts but it is often hard to access on the site.

Buffer

Web, iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari, Firefox



Buffer develops a suite of features to help businesses publish, analyze and respond to social conversations from a team inbox.

Using Buffer, you can post content to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn from a single dashboard. You can customize posts for each social network. For example, the most popular hashtags on Twitter may be different than those on Instagram. Optimal image sizes may be different as well. Tailoring each post allows you to maximize the impact of each post.

Scheduling can be done manually or by letting Buffer choose for you. Buffer analyzes reams of data to determine optimal times to post. By posting at typical break times in schools and businesses, you can increase the number of likes and followers from a single post.

Buffer includes features that help teams work more efficiently. Users can draft posts together and submit them to managers for approval. Team members can see when others are posting to avoid overloading a time slot. Managers can give permissions access networks without having to share company passwords for social networks.

Analytics for Facebook and Instagram are provided in one dashboard. You can track Followers, Reach and Engagement Rates for specific content or campaigns. Statistics include demographics so you know if you are reaching the right audience.

You can create customer reports or choose from numerous templates. Reports can be exported with your own logo, title and description. This is particularly useful for consultants and agencies that want to highlight their contribution to customers.

Responding to social media is often overlooked by companies. This can lead to damaging conversations that go viral. Buffer includes a shared team inbox for social customer care. Team members can all contribute to driving down average response times and turning difficult online conversations into opportunities to satisfy customers.

Buffer is one of the most progressive companies in the tech industry. The salaries of all collaborators are public. Their code is open sourced. They even provided data on inclusion and diversity.

Plans
Buffer Publish. Buffer Analyze and Buffer Respond are sold separately.
Pro: $15/month, 1 user, 8 social accounts, 100 scheduled posts
Premium: $65/month, 2 user, 8 social accounts, 2,000 scheduled posts
Business: $99/month, 6 users, 25 social media accounts, 2,000 scheduled posts
Free trials with credit card.
A free tier is available for 1 user and 3 social media accounts.

Sprout Social

Web, iOS, Android, Chrome



Sprout Social provides features to help businesses reach their audience, engage with the community and measure the performance of social media campaigns. They affirm having over 20,000 organizations such Subaru, Evernote and Ticketmaster that use their app.

Sprout Social provides a complete set of tools to manage social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. You can use Sprout Social monitor trends, schedule posts, measure engagement and analyze the results of online marketing efforts.

Listening tools allow you to monitor keywords and hashtags. For example, a language app developer like Vidalingua might want to monitor keywords like “french” and hashtags like #iphone. Sprout Social gives you the ability to track conversations about relevant topics. You can use this to better understand the interest of potential customers and insert your brand into the discussion.

Publishing tools can help you schedule posts at the best times and reuse content across several networks. Sprout Social’s web app displays a calendar to visualize your post frequency. Scheduling a new post is as easy as dragging and dropping media into the calendar and customizing it for each network. Sprout provides an image editor and an asset library to store multimedia content.

Metrics are important to understanding the performance of a marketing campaign, but too much information can lead to confusion. Sprout’s analytic tools are streamlined to provide actionable reports that you can use to make decisions.

Sprout Social provides additional tools to message users and manager reviews. You can improve team productivity by assigning tasks and approving content for publishing across different channels.

Sprout Social is best for medium and large organizations that require a comprehensive set of tools including team management capabilities.

Pricing
Standard: $99/month, 1 user, 5 social profiles
Pro: $149/month, 1 user, 10 social profiles
Advanced: $249/month, 1 user, 10 social profiles, additional tools
30-day free trial, no credit card required

Sendible

Web, iOS, Android, Chrome



Sendible focuses on features to help teams collaborate and schedule social media content. They provide extensive reporting and integration with Google Analytics to help organizations make educated decisions on deploying their social media investments.

Sendible integrates with over 20 social media networks including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Youtube and Medium. You can schedule posts individually or in groups. Sendible provides an interactive calendar view to make posting easy.

Each network has different requirements for image sizes and character limits. Sendible gives you the tools to customize content for each network to maximize the impact. It includes a built-in editor to compose posts and integrates with Canva, a popular design tool for non-professionals.

You can showcase results with standard and custom reports. Determine which of your posts are generate the most engagement, optimal times to post and the website traffic from your posts. You can send reports to clients on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and give access to live metrics.

Sendible is a good solution for organizations that require a complete set of tools, including advanced analytics.

Price
Starter: $29/month, 1 users, 12 services
Traction: $99/month, 3 users, 48 services
Growth: $199/month, 7 users, 105 services
Large: $299/month, 12 users, 192 services
30-day free trial, no credit card required

Agorapulse

Web, iOS, Android



Agorapulse provides a suite of features to schedule content, report on metrics and engage followers. The app integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and LinkedIn.

Agorapulse supports flexible scheduling options so you can schedule posts manually, reschedule content or bulk upload posts. If you have content with high engagement rates, you can choose options to Republish regularly or to Schedule again. You can create queues for posts and organize them in categories.

A unified content calendar allows you to see all your scheduled posts in a familiar visual format. Agorapulse includes additional features such as queue shuffle, cross publishing and an emoji picker to assist you in keeping your feed fresh.

Agorapulse allows you to monitor trends, hashtags and brand ambassadors in a simple, intuitive format. Your brand is monitor automatically so you can follow relevant conversations. You can specify words you don’t want to include in saved searches and track language or location for Twitter searches.

Teams will appreciate assigning roles for Admin, Editor, Moderator and Guest. Marketing managers can delegate tasks and set up a content approval process.

Agorapulse is a good solution for medium and large companies that require a complete set of features for managing teams and are not overly price conscious.

Price
Medium: $89/month, 2 users, 10 social profiles
Large: $179/month, 4 users, 25 social profiles
X-Large: $269/month, 8 users, 40 social profiles
Enterprise: $459/month, 20 users, 60 social profiles
28-day free trial


Other articles you make like.
- Top 8 tools for creating eye-catchy graphics for your Social media
- Free Tools to Create Compelling Social Media Videos and Graphics
- 7 Online Graphic Design Tools for Social Media

Have you written an article our readers might find interesting? Email info@loaa.io and we just might share it.

Marc Bolh
Founder & CEO