There may not be an abundance of social media scheduling tools, but there are a few that always seem to pop up in the ‘Best Of’ lists. Regardless of your feeling about social media, there is no doubt about its value to businesses looking for their next engagement. Posting, however, can be time consuming if you don’t a have a built-in marketing department or capable social media coordinator. Scheduling becomes important for time management and relevancy. People follow business pages to stay in the know. When you let your networks lapse, you risk losing an audience that desperately wants to stay up to date with your practices, products, and content. Here are Valorous Circle’s top social media scheduling tools you can use to develop better networks.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite’s basic functions allow us to deliver meaningful social media content to our followers on Facebook and Twitter. Throw in a few clients and we can take care of a week or a month’s worth of shareable content in a matter of hours. If you’re familiar with TweetDeck, the Twitter-only scheduler, then you’ll appreciate the streamlining layout of Hootsuite. What we like: Editing. Elements of Hootsuite’s editing functions work better than the originating social media apps themselves.
Buffer
What’s the difference between Buffer and Hootsuite? Size and Scope. Buffer allows for more control of more accounts. It’s the perfect scheduler for the large advertising or marketing agency, but not worth the price for the lone small business. What we like: While many schedulers are compatible with LinkedIn, they don’t go the extra step for LinkedIn’s business pages. Buffer’s LinkedIn Company Page integration hit the market over five years ago and it’s a shame other schedulers didn’t follow suit. What’s the difference between Buffer and Hootsuite? Size and Scope. Buffer allows for more control of more accounts. It’s the perfect scheduler for the large advertising or marketing agency, but not worth the price for the lone small business. What we like: While many schedulers are compatible with LinkedIn, they don’t go the extra step for LinkedIn’s business pages. Buffer’s LinkedIn Company Page integration hit the market over five years ago and it’s a shame other schedulers didn’t follow suit. 
Sprout Social
Take all the ingredients of Hootsuite and Buffer and marry it with analytics and the coziest user-interface you’ll ever see for something so technical. That’s Sprout Social. But all of it comes at a steeper cost once your free trial ends. What we like: Creating a system where all of your posts in one giant, interactive calendar is sweet. Adding suggestions for the ‘optimal posting times’ is the cherry on top. What’s the difference between Buffer and Hootsuite? Size and Scope. Buffer allows for more control of more accounts. It’s the perfect scheduler for the large advertising or marketing agency, but not worth the price for the lone small business. What we like: While many schedulers are compatible with LinkedIn, they don’t go the extra step for LinkedIn’s business pages. Buffer’s LinkedIn Company Page integration hit the market over five years ago and it’s a shame other schedulers didn’t follow suit.
Zoho Social
Brand management and customer relationship management are not mutually exclusive. While Sprout Social is a brand manager first and CRM second, Zoho Social is a CRM first and brand manager second. If your higher ups require hard data to back up social media spending, trust Zoho Social’s ability to create meaningful reporting data. What we like: Zoho, unlike Buffer and Sprout Social, supports Google My Business. With over 90% of all search engine market share, maintaining a Google My Business page is one of the key indicators for search engine success.
Still undecided? Discover more of the top media schedulers in the links below.
Top 10 Social Media Management Tools 9 Top Scheduling Tools for 2019 The 7 Best Free Social Media Management Tools in 2019 The Top Scheduling Tools That Should Be on Your Radar
