Helpful tools for small business social media management

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It’s 2021 and we all know social media is the place to be. But how do you find the time to post often and consistently? 

With tools.

Today we’ll talk about a variety of tools to help you save time and be more active on social media. You’ll be scheduling your social media posts — your own content and valuable content from others — in no time.

Social Media Management Platforms

There are SO many social media management platforms, it’s hard to keep track of them all! Here are a few I’ve used (and continue to use).

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the first social media management platform I want to mention. Their free plan allows you to connect up to three social media profiles and schedule up to 30 posts. Paid plans start at $29/month and include 10 social accounts and unlimited scheduling.

Buffer

Buffer is another well-known platform. Although it’s hard to find info on their free plan, I think it allows you to connect up to three social accounts and schedule up to 10 posts per account. They also have a browser extension for many common browsers. Paid plans start at $15/month and include eight social channels and up to 100 scheduled posts.

BulkBuffer is a neat, third-party scheduling tool. Create a text file, add the posts and links you’d like to schedule, upload, choose your profiles and push to Buffer. After that, head over to Buffer and reschedule if needed. You also can’t choose images, but if there’s a featured image associated with the link, it will pull that in.

Publer

I started using Publer last year and I LOVE it. Their free plan allows you to connect up to five social accounts and schedule up to 50 posts. Publer has extensions for Chrome, Edge and FireFox and you can upload media directly from Google Drive, Dropbox and Unsplash. Paid plans start at $10/month and include five social accounts, unlimited scheduling and more.

I snagged a lifetime deal for Publer on AppSumo, so I can also:

  • Pull images in from Canva
  • Connect RSS feeds (which is really helpful when I’m looking to post content from others)
  • Schedule an unlimited number of posts
  • Schedule recurring posts
  • Automatically recycle posts
  • Get hashtag suggestions

Speaking of AppSumo, you may find some great lifetime deals for up-and-coming social media management platforms, so if you’re in the market for one, check there often.

MissingLettr

Missinglettr solves the problem of writing content and sharing it once — they help you easily create up to 12 months of social posts from one blog post. Their free plan gives you one social profile and 50 social posts. Once you publish a blog post, a campaign is created for you. Pick the hashtags (they suggest some), pick the images and pick the quotes (from your post), then schedule away! Paid plans start at $9/month and include three social profiles and up to 500 scheduled posts.

Other Helpful Tools

Revive Old Posts

Revive Old Posts – Social Media Auto Post and Scheduling Plugin is a plugin you can use on your WordPress website to automatically post your links to your social networks. The free version allows you to post to Twitter and Facebook and their paid version (starting at $75/year) allows posting on LinkedIn, Tumblr and Google My Business as well as some additional features.

Online Automation Tools

There are several online automation tools that connect different apps together. Zapier may be the most well-known, but IFTTT and Integromat are others. Check the tool to see what integrations they support. Generally these services look for an action (let’s say when you publish or update a post) and then do an action (like post to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn).

RSS Feed Reader

Feeder.co is a feed reader and allows you to see recent posts from all the sites you follow in one place. Browse through the list and share any that look interesting using a social media management tool.

Too Much Automation

While automation is a great addition to your social media strategy, don’t let it be your only action. Make sure you visit each of your platforms on a regular basis. Engage and connect with people personally. If your post got any engagement, respond. Reply to and share other’s posts as well.

Combining automation with personal engagement will help you maximize your social media impact. 

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