• Skylark Team

The main motive of a social media management tool is to turn all the desires into reality by buying you more time to spend on your to-do list. All the entrepreneurs know the importance of Social Media Optimization, but they cannot put every second of the day in managing them. As effective as social media is, it demands a lot of time and attention. This is what rings a bell, and social media management tools come into the play.

Basic features of these tools that highly affect your tasks and time are:

1. Scheduling Posts

It almost eradicates the need of staying online at the time of posting or tweeting. One can easily schedule as many posts required for the day and can leave it on the tool to publish them.

2. One Platform

With the help of this feature, you can handle all the social accounts using only one application. Therefore, it diminishes the requirement of opening the social networks individually and simply saves the time and efforts of the user.

3. Works as an Analyst

These tools keep an eye on all the posts and tweets and observe the most beneficial time and types of posts that bring the most engagements. These reports can be very helpful in building an audience, and improving the rank or status of your products and services.

4. Other Benefits

Tasks like shortening URLs, saving & re-using social posts, finding targets, etc. no longer remain a load on the user’s shoulders. They can effectively be managed by these social media management tools.

There are plenty of social media marketing software available online, and most of them have quite a few features in common but vary in terms of pricing. Therefore, it is really necessary to choose the right tool so as to optimize social media management without digging much into your budget.

To help you adopt the most proficient tool, we have listed below the top social marketing tools along with their cost.

1. Hootsuite

One of the most used applications with over 9 million users, Hootsuite offers its services for free for a maximum of three social network accounts. Hootsuite can be used to monitor, post, schedule posts, etc. for the following social media platforms: Youtube, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Foursquare.

Benefits of the ‘free’ plan are as follows:

* 3 social profiles

* Basic Analytics Report

* Message Scheduling

For an entrepreneur, ‘Pro’ plan with exciting features like up to social 50 profiles, one enhanced analytics report, access to premium apps, etc. are available for $9.99 per month. You can also get a free 30 day trial with the ‘Pro’ plan. Similarly, to cater small or mid-size businesses, there is a ‘business’ plan that can be customized according to your requirements and budget. Besides including the features of ‘Pro’ plan, this plan offers real-time analytics, publishing approvals, 6 social campaign templates with 5-10 users and much more.

2. Sprout Social

With over 16,000 brands trusting this application, there is no chance it can ever let one down. With a free trial for a month, there are three packages provided by the company, which are:

* Deluxe: This plan is basically for the start-ups. Introduced with a subscription of $59 per user/month, it will accommodate all-in-one social inbox, social media content calendar, unlimited PDF or CSV report exports and network, profile & post-level reports. It will also aid you with monitoring profiles, keywords & locations plus it will also do the publishing, scheduling & drafting for you. Also, up to 5 profiles can be added to the program.

* Premium: This package can be subscribed for $99 per user/month. The offerings of this package are help desk integration, publishing send-time optimization, Google analytics integration, engagement reporting, and basic listening of trending reports. Here you can have upto 10 profiles. It is beneficial for social businesses.

* Team: For growing teams, this package comes in handy at $500 per month, wherein 3 users will have direct access to it. In addition to the features of the Deluxe and Premium plans, it brings on the table attributes like team reporting & permissions, advanced keyword listening, message & content tagging, dedicated account management, and message approval work-flow. The number of profiles that can be added has been increased to 30.

Note: All plans include a free 30-day trial.

3. MeetEdgar

According to Locowise, organic reach for Facebook pages has come down to 4%. Pew says, around 46% of the Twitter accounts are accessed on a daily basis. Wisemetric survey tells that a tweet is half-dead after 24 minutes, and Facebook post stands tall for 90 minutes. Therefore, to deal with these problems MeetEdgar has come up with a social media management strategy that helps a post display more numbers on the graph.

Edgar automatically updates an old post after the scheduled posts are updated, so that it could muster more audience. There are some other intelligent plays as well that are offered by this social media management tool, which helps you win more traffic and reach. There are two plans to opt from:

* Starters: You can pay $49 per month or $490 per year. You can add up to 10 social media accounts while you will also get free space to save up to 1000 content pieces. Integrated with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, this is an intelligent tool that manages your social profile smartly.

* Premium: This package’s monthly fee is $99 while you can also subscribe to the annual for $990. This plan has a free space for 5000 content items along with 25 social account connections. Other than this, all the other functionalities of both the packages are same.

4. AgoraPulse

AgoraPulse is a one-stop destination where you get integrated inbox, one publisher for all networks, advanced monitoring, reports, the betterment of customer relationship and many others. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn are the networks integrated with AgoraPulse. There are four plans created for individuals, small firms, medium businesses and large organizations with scheduling, publishing and mobile applications as a common feature and the plans are:

* Micro: Designed for an individual, it includes one social profile, access to one team member, inbox, and monitoring. On a monthly basis, it costs $15, and if you pay on a yearly basis, it is $180.

* Small: To fulfill the needs of a small business firm, there can be three social profiles, access up to 2 team members, reports of last 30 days and comparison of your page with your FB competitors. Its monthly cost is $49, and yearly it costs $468.

* Medium: This is the most popular plan as it offers up to 10 social profiles, access up to 5 team members, advanced sync inbox, advanced sync monitoring, regular reporting, user profiling, FB ads monitoring (10 ads campaign per page), contests (up to 10,000 participants) and comparison of your FB page with your competitors. The monthly fee for the plan is $99 and yearly charge of the plan is $948.

* Large: To manage the social media of a large organization, the monthly cost of this package is $199 and yearly payment can be made of $1908. The features and functions of all the plans create a large plan, although, it includes up to 20 social profiles, access up to 10 team members, FB ads monitoring (40 ads campaign per page) and contests with competitors.

Note: You can experience a 15-day trial of AgoraPulse services. Other than that, The social profiles and team members accessibility at $19 per profile/member can also be purchased. Also, you can add new competitors at $5 each.

5. Buffer

Another tool that emphasizes on reducing the expenditure of time on managing social media. Bringing together Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn on its platform, Buffer is ready to post, schedule, analyze and make you experience growth. Below are the various plans drew for the users benefit, wherein common features are Pablo (image creator), mobile application, browser extension, video & GIF uploader, optimal timing tool and link shortening and tracking.

* Individual: It’s a plan for free with all the above-written features, which will only be usable by 1 social profile. A maximum number of scheduled posts at a time will be 10.

* Awesome: At just $10 per month, this plan offers 10 social profile and up to 100 posts to schedule. Two new features that add to the list of benefits are RSS feed and calendar from this plan onwards. It is free for trial but just for 7 days.

* Small: Here, the social profiles have been increased to 25 and schedule posts to 2000 while it cost $99 per month. Another addition to the list of benefits is social analytics, which is one the most important features for a social media management tool. Furthermore, you can add 5 team members to work along.

* Medium: With twice the number of social profiles and team members in comparison with a small plan, the price of the package is $199 per month. However, all other features remain the same.

* Large: It’s definitely large as it provides 150 social profiles with 25 team members to join at a cost of $399 per month.

Note: There is a free 30-day trial for Small, Medium, and Large plans.

6. IFTTT

To be pronounced like ‘gift’ without a ‘G’, it is a smart social media application, which is an acronym for “If this then that”. However, it is much more than just a social media manager, as its approach is hell bending. There are thousands of “recipes” created by the users that one can actually make his/her lifestyle easy and effortless. Bridging every gap and extra effort, this tool is free of cost and is highly compatible to work for any purpose of business. There are more than 300 channels through which a person can connect and reduce the redundancy of human efforts. It can also help you manage other social media management tools in a more effective way.

7. Mavsocial

Being a freemium social media management software, Mavsocial is highly effective and noteworthy. It saves time and is quite user-friendly. There are two editions introduced by the company, the first one is for the small businesses and the other is for big brands.

* Small Business Edition: To help small firms grow for free, this edition consists of 1GB digital asset library, social media campaign planner & content calendar, native scheduling & publishing, 50 social profiles with 6 social networks to interact with, limited social inbox, 5 RSS feeds, Bit.ly integration, digital asset analytics and dashboard & reporting. You can also purchase over 50 million stock images from the application and can add-on MavRepeater for $29.99 per month.

* Enterprise & Agency Solutions: The features of this edition are advanced digital asset library, MavRepeater, 8 social networks, customized dashboard & reporting and dedicated onboarding specialist for customer success & support. Plus, limits from social profiles, social inbox & RSS feeds have been removed. Other than this, all the features remain the same like purchasable images.

Note: The advanced version is not free of cost.

8. Canva

Canva is an amazing add-on tool that aids you with millions of eye-pleasing images. You can either choose or customize an image accordingly with the help of photo filters, free icons & shapes and hundreds of fonts accommodate by the tool. There are more than 9.5 million users who have created over 69M designs since inception. You can create photo collage, presentations, Facebook cover, Twitter or Google+ header and many other images via Canva. High-quality images can also be purchased to improve your social media profile look better. It can either be subscribed for $12.95 per month or the annual plan can also be opted where the monthly cost will be $9.95.

9. TweetDeck

As the name conveys, TweetDeck is basically a Twitter manager where more than one account can be handled simultaneously with ease. It helps the user oversee home, notifications, messages and activity, which saves time. You can schedule tweets and direct message (DM) someone from the same place. You can also post from all the accounts at the same time and much more. The best thing about it is that it’s totally free of cost even with all the advanced features.

10. Sendible

Last but not the least, covering all the aspects of social media management, Sendible is serving over 20,000 companies. It not only integrates social networks but also does Email and SMS integration. Out of 8, we have mentioned four major plans of this application.

* Startup: As the name speaks all, the plan has the capability to manage up to 30 services. With a monthly payment of $59, you are getting flexible profile grouping, report builder, automation tools, up to 4 branded reports, Google analytics integration, and includes 2 team members. These features are also included in the next plan.

* Business: Here, the number of services that you can manage are doubled as the cost is also increased to $99 per month. Generally adopted by growing companies, the plan provides them with email support, up to 8 branded reports, team collaboration tools, and includes 4 team members.

* Corporate: Along with the above-mentioned features, this plan renders you with live support, up to 18 branded reports, work-flow features, up to 120 lists, and includes 6 team members. These features help the established companies to manage around 90 services. Its subscription costs $139 per month.

* Premium: As the needs of the agencies grow, this plan has everything to cater them. All the features you have known are available with this application by now are presented with this plan. Other than this, dedicated support, replace “via Sendible” on Facebook, Twitter & Google+, unlimited customer reports and includes 20 team members are the additional benefits. While managing 360 services, there is a monthly cost of $499.

CONCLUSION

The cost of social media management tools can either be negligible or sky rocking. An individual can use freemium tools and stun the market while a medium sized firm, after investing a plenty, receives zero substantial progress. It only varies according to the way you make use of these tools and manage your social networks.

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