As a marketer, you don’t have much time to spend on social media. Well, unless you’re a social media consultant. You need automation. This article will review the best social media scheduling tools that can help you spend more time with your clients and focus on generating revenue.
Given social media’s reach, it is no wonder the platforms have become an integral part of marketing.
Some marketers favor one social media platform over another. And there’s a growing ‘less-is-more trend, meaning that many people are becoming more focused on posting quality content over quantity.
Of course, there might be some debate here, but for many of you, this is good news.
So your social media posts need to count! Therefore, you need to focus on planning and optimizing your posts.
Social media strategist Felicia Lin shared an anonymous quote, “Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan.”
Any marketing plan can benefit from choosing the best social media planning apps, which can automate and optimize your posts.
This article will look at some of the best social media scheduling tools in 2022.
For those of you who want to skip to the end, here are the social media tools we’ll review:
- Buffer: Simple, powerful, and fantastic tool for any user
- PromoRepublic: Good for saving time and generating ideas from its library
- Sprout Social: Best for teams and social media management
- Hootsuite: All-in-one social media scheduling, monitoring, and analytics
- MeetEdgar: Fantastic automation without the hassle
- Tailwind: Ideal for Pinterest and Instagram power uses
- Social Pilot: easy to use scheduling, planning, and publishing on all platforms
- CoSchedule: Great for the add-ons like its headline analyzer
- Loomly: Lots of features to go along with scheduling
- ContentCal: Tons of features to streamline the content creation process
Best Social Media Scheduling Tools
There are many social media apps, but only a few might be considered THE BEST social media planning apps. The tools are not in any particular order, so consider the pros and cons of each one to find out which one will be the best for you:
Buffer
Buffer is a social media management platform for scheduling, integrating, and publishing all your social media posts on one dashboard.
It supports integrations with Chrome and WordPress as well as Android and iOS platforms. In addition, Buffer has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows even novices to easily use and edit their posts, making its social scheduling function its greatest claim to fame.
Features
Among its unique features is Pablo, an image curator, which matches images and their sizes to fit any social media image specifications.
It also has browser extensions and RSS Feed integration to easily view and schedule posts across multiple accounts. Buffer for Instagram also solves the perennial issue of publishing a post from outside the Instagram platform.
Advantages
- Simple and easy to use for social scheduling
- Well-designed user interface for straightforward navigation
- Shallow learning curve
- The optimal scheduling tool guides the user for the best posting times
- Streamlined process
- Prompt and friendly customer support
Disadvantages
- Advanced analytics and social interaction are not in the basic plan
- Limited integration with some social networks
- Lacks content creation or recommendation features
Pricing
Buffer has two plans: Free and Essentials. The Free account allows up to 10 posts for three social media accounts per user per month. In addition, free users have access to most integrations and can post, schedule, and customize posts.
Essentials users pay $5 a month (paid annually) per social media channel to schedule and publish unlimited posts. The plan includes one user but purchasing the Team Pack Add-on (+$5 a month) unlocks account access to unlimited users and clients.
Summary
Buffer is consistently ranked one of the best social media scheduling tools on the market. The tool is highly accessible for occasional and new users, making it ideal for most marketers.
PromoRepublic
PromoRepublic is a web-based social media marketing platform with content distribution systems ideal for agencies, small businesses, franchises, and marketing departments. It helps users customize the content, run ads, and manage multiple accounts.
Features
PromoRepublic uses artificial intelligence to automate post scheduling across different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Administrators control who can edit and upload posts.
Workflow management, collaboration, content planning, custom branding, and analytics are among the platform’s features. Additionally, PromoRepublic has a built-in image editor to upload image posts to iOS and Android devices, as well as an interface for integrating the platform with other services such as HubSpot, Buffer, and Hootsuite.
Advantages
- Intuitive scheduler, providing recommendations for when to publish posts
- Includes a library of templates and customizable posts.
- Content generator provides curated content and ideas
- Tracks engagement and mentions
- Provides reports and analytics
- Robust collaboration tools
- Separate workspaces for each account
- Responsive customer service
Disadvantages
- Puts limits on the number of accounts per tier
- No capacity for sharing published posts across platforms
- Analytics need improvement
- Limited support for social networks
Pricing
PromoRepublic has no free plan, although it does have a Solo Plan ($9/month, billed annually) for Solopreneurs with one user, three social media pages, and includes the Social Media Calendar and Library of Content Suggestions features.
For other types of business, PromoRepublic has Standard ($39/month billed annually), Professional ($79/month billed annually), and Enterprise (custom pricing) plans. Standard is best for small businesses with two users and ten social media pages. The Professional Plan is best for marketing agencies, allowing 15 users and 30 social media pages.
All plans come with a free trial.
Summary
PromoRepublic is a good choice for social media planning for any user, from small business marketers to big enterprises. However, it is a little pricey for a web-based social media planning tool with only basic analytics and somewhat problematic integrations.
That said, PromoRepublic’s content curation and topic suggestion features make it a unique, innovative proposition that’s been successful for many companies.PromoRepublic’s feature-rich platform is one of the main reasons it lands on the list of the best social media scheduling tools for marketers.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a social media planning tool designed for corporate use. It has an intuitive interface that simplifies social media post scheduling, publishing, engagement monitoring, and analytics for the user.
Sprout Social enables users to post on major social networks such as Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Features
Sprout Social does very well in social media management, including features such as Social Analytics (Competitor Analysis, Follower Analysis, Post Performance), Campaign Optimization (identify trends in campaigns), and Social Engagement.
Report Customizability also allows users to manipulate the data to gain insights into their engagement and campaigns. It also has a Smart Inbox, which collates all interactions on posts so that the user can read, understand, and respond to any comments from the platform.
Advantages
- Intuitive Scheduler
- Integration of multiple accounts
- Dashboard view of statistical data
- Robust reports
- Content creation tools
- Ability to monitor competitors
- View records in real-time
Disadvantages
- Challenging to navigate because of updates to the system
- The interface is not intuitive
- Pricey for advanced features
Pricing
Sprout Social has three price tiers:
- Standard ($89/month per user, billed annually)
- Professional ($149/month per user, billed annually)
- Advanced ($249/month per user, billed annually)
The Standard plan includes all the essential tools for publishing posts on five social media profiles, including the Smart Inbox.
All plans have a free trial; no credit card is required.
Summary
Sprout Social is a robust social media marketing analytics platform with a scheduler. As such, it is most appropriate for big enterprises that require data to inform their marketing plans. While marketers can benefit from the features offered in its Standard plan, the price might be too much of a pain point for them.
Hootsuite
Similar to Sprout Social, Hootsuite could be an enterprise-level social media planning tool and comparatively complex.
Hootsuite was one of the earliest tools for social media marketing and supports major platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Features
Hootsuite connects well with different social networks, allowing users to sync messages across all platforms. It also has a social stream function that enables users to engage with the audience and monitor social accounts right from the dashboard.
Aside from connecting with over 150 productivity apps for easy collaboration, Hootsuite tracks social media analytics and creates custom reports in an easy-to-use, time-saving platform.
Advantages
- Intuitive user interface
- Social streams feature
- Social media analytics
- Connects with multiple apps and social networks
Disadvantages
- Too expensive for smaller enterprises
- Additional services such as analytics reports require separate payment
- Requires the use of Owly short links
- Limitations on Facebook integration
- Poor customer support
Pricing
Hootsuite has a free plan good for two social accounts and five messages scheduled by one user. Paid plans include:
- Professional ($19/month, billed annually)
- Team ($99/month, billed annually)
- Business ($599/month, billed annually)
- Enterprise (custom pricing)
Professional and Team plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Summary
Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media management platform that works well for enterprises or power users that prioritize in-depth reports and analytics for their marketing plans. However, it might be too complex and expensive for users only looking to schedule their social media posts.
MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar might be the best option for marketers that want a solid tool.
It supports Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Features
MeetEdgar has a simple user interface boosted by AI integrations. However, the unique thing about this tool is its evergreen posting feature saves all posts in a library. Furthermore, the tool reuses these posts automatically, so the queue is never empty.
Advantages
- Evergreen posting
- Category-based scheduler
- Simple user interface
Disadvantages
- Limited reports
- No management for paid ads
- Limited options for scheduling
Pricing
MeetEdgar currently has two pricing tiers:
- Edgar Lite ($19/month)
- Edgar ($49/month)
The site categorizes Edgar Lite as appropriate for “side hustlers, and those just getting started,” including three social accounts with unlimited posts scheduled in four content categories and ten weekly automations.
Edgar is suitable for enterprise marketers and small businesses with 25 social accounts. It gives you unlimited scheduled posts, unlimited categories, and 1,000 weekly automations.
MeetEdgar comes with a 7-day free trial.
Summary
MeetEdgar is ideal for enterprise marketers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs who want to automate a few posts across multiple platforms. However, if you need in-depth analytics and reports, this might not be your best social media scheduling tool.
Tailwind
Unlike most of the entries on this list, Tailwind only schedules posts for Pinterest and Instagram. This is an app for marketers and bloggers who want a simple tool for automating social media posts on these platforms.
Features
It is very easy to schedule posts using Tailwind with its SmartLoop feature. Users upload images and graphics to the platform in bulk and schedule the publishing of the posts throughout the day. It also has Tailwind Create, which transforms one image into multiple designs for posting.
However, what makes Tailwind unique is Tailwind Tribes. In essence, it manages a pool of content from a community of Pinterest members in the same niche to drive traffic. Tribe users can upload posts to get shares and share the posts of others to their profiles.
Advantages
- Evergreen content
- Automate image creation
- Community support for sharing posts
Disadvantages
- Tailwind Create is hard to use
- It takes time to build a Tribe
- Limited to just Instagram and Pinterest
Pricing
Tailwind has a free forever plan that includes one Pinterest and one Instagram profile that one user can schedule 20 posts a month. It also comes with five Tailwind communities, a Smart.bio Custom Link, and Basic Analytics.
The paid plans include:
- Pro ($9.99/month) for one user
- Advanced ($19.99/month) for two users
- Max ($39.99/month) for five users.
The paid plans come with advanced analytics and other features not available with the free plan. Tailwind comes with a free trial.
Summary
Tailwind is an excellent way to grow an audience on Instagram and Pinterest if you are a marketer or solopreneur in a niche market. However, the inability to expand to other platforms might be inappropriate for some business owners.
Social Pilot
Social Pilot is one of the best social media management scheduling tools, including content curation and reporting features. Intuitive and flexible, it is a good option for enterprise marketers and small businesses.
Features
Social Pilot has scheduling and publishing automation for all major social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Pinterest, TikTok, and Tumblr. In addition, its Calendar function is intuitive, and users have the option to post content natively.
Advantages
- Affordable for Good value small businesses and teams
- Works with major social networks, including Facebook ads
- Integrates with Canva, which is helpful for graphic creation
- No contract
Disadvantages
- Limited support
- Does not post automatically to Instagram
- Not as polished as other platforms
Pricing
Social Pilot does not have a free plan. Instead, it has four paid plans:
- Professional ($30/month)
- Small Team ($50/month)
- Studio ($100/month)
- Agency ($150/month)
The most popular pricing plan is the Small Team plan, which includes three users, 25 accounts, and unlimited clients. In addition, all plans included RSS feeds, Social Analytics, Bulk Scheduling, and Curated Content. All programs, however, have a free trial offer.
Summary
Social Pilot is an excellent option for enterprise marketers and small businesses that require automated scheduling capabilities and not advanced features such as competitor analysis.
But it might not be the tool of choice for larger organizations that need analytics for informing their marketing campaigns.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule is a web-based SaaS platform used mainly to coordinate the scheduling of social media and organizing content. It is a good tool for content and social media marketing collaboration.
Features
CoSchedule has some neat features for creating optimized content, such as its Headline Analyzer. It also provides some SEO tips and connects to WordPress. However, the best use for this tool is for linking social media posts to blog posts – synchronizing your overall content spread.
Advantages
- Organizes content in one place
- Customizable calendar
- The streamlined approval process for content and scheduling
Disadvantages
- Occasional publishing errors in scheduled posts
- Task templates need to be updated manually when modified
Pricing
CoSchedule has two plans:
- Marketing Calendar ($29/month per user, billed annually)
- Marketing Suite (custom pricing)
Unfortunately, it does not have a free version, but the tool does have a free 14-day trial.
Summary
CoSchedule is more of a marketing calendar and project management tool than a social media scheduling tool, but it does the job.
However, this is one of the best social media scheduling tools, provided that you need a way to unify content between social media accounts and websites.
Loomly
Loomly calls itself a brand success platform for social media. The main goal of using the tool is to manage the brand messaging through its various features.
Features
Loomly has all the standard tools for the best social media planning tools, such as content management and multi-account management.
However, it also has collaboration tools, customer segmentation, keyword filtering, and social media monitoring to help reach the target audience through social media.
Advantages
- Affordable
- Easy to use
- The streamlined approval process for posts
- Preview feature
- Topic suggestions
- User friendly
Disadvantages
- It does not include Instagram
- Calendars sometimes disconnect with social media accounts
- No capability to interact with social media accounts from the platform
Pricing
Loomly does not have a free version. Instead, it has five price tiers:
- Base ($25/month, billed annually)
- Standard ($57/month, billed annually)
- Advanced ($119/month, billed annually)
- Premium ($249/month, billed annually)
- Enterprise (custom pricing)
The site offers a ‘Wizard’ to help determine the best plan for a particular user or company.
Summary
Loomly is perhaps best for startups and marketers with limited social media presence as it can help build awareness for the brand. However, Loomly can also benefit established brands by promoting new products or services or making the audience part of the story.
In terms of its social media scheduling prowess, it is comparable to other apps on this list.
ContentCal
ContentCal is a simple web-based tool designed to help marketers plan and publish social media posts. Its primary purpose is to streamline content creation and publication to save time.Â
Features
Among the critical features of ContentCal are keyword filtering, filtered search, post scheduling, editing, approval workflows, collaboration, and feedback analysis. As a result, ContentCal functions more like a project management tool more than a scheduling app. ContentCal’s reach feature set is why it landed on our Best Social Media Scheduling tool list.
Advantages
- Easy and straightforward to use
- Easy to connect and maintain social media profiles
- Collaboration tools help in planning content strategies
- Good customer service
Disadvantages
- It does not work with Pinterest
- Some limitations with Twitter and LinkedIn
- More analytics would be an improvement
Pricing
ContentCal does not have a free version. Instead, it has three pricing tiers:
- Essential ($30/month billed annually)
- Advanced ($96/month billed annually)
- Expert (custom pricing). Each plan comes with a free trial.
Summary
ContentCal is very easy to use and a boon to marketing teams for content planning and marketing. However, for small businesses and solopreneurs, the prices might be a bit steep.
Conclusion
Automating social media posts is an excellent idea for a marketer who wants to harness the power of social media. The trick is choosing the best social media scheduling tools to meet requirements.
Many of the tools listed above offer capabilities beyond scheduling and social network integrations that can be pretty useful.
It is all a matter of deciding on the price point to achieve a specific goal. Most people will undoubtedly find one of the apps on this list is the best fit for them – so sign up for free trials and discover what’s suitable for your needs.
