Did you know the optimal posting frequency to keep your company relevant on social media is between 3 – 7 times per week. Multiply that by each platform and the time required to create a scintillating post, and you’ve got a full time job on your hands.
And quite frankly, who’s got the time to be jumping in and out of numerous social media apps all day?
All hail the emergence of apps that do the dirty work for us.
Scheduling (or social media management) apps allow you to upload your content – including graphics, captions, tags and all – and set a time that you would like it to be posted to the relevant feed.
We’ll explore just why these apps are a godsend to the marketing world, and how to find the best one for you company goals, budget and digital prowess.
What Is the Benefit of Scheduling Your Social Posts?
You may ask: isn’t scheduling your social media posts just complicating a simple a one-click task?
It absolutely isn’t. In fact, it’s about to make your whole social media approach flow like a well-oiled machine. Trust us – once you dabble in scheduling apps, you’ll never look back. Every feature built into them has been designed to optimise digital marketing performance – and boy do we love them for it.
These apps essentially streamline your entire social media strategy, allowing you to bang out a large batch of content in one go. The key here is that you can now execute an in-depth social strategy while maintaining workflow. You can ditch having to formulate a new post idea on the spot each day.
The appeal of these apps isn’t purely rooted in laziness, though.
When paired with insights from social media analytics – you’re equipped with the ultimate digital marketing weapon. If you’ve formulated an effective social media strategy informed by analytics, you should have a clear idea of when your audience is most likely to see your content. The beauty of scheduling apps is that you can time your posts to ping out at these exact moments.
Below are just a few bonus benefits to using social media management apps:
- Ensure you are posting consistently, with optimal dispersion of content
- Make use of addition app features, such as layout previews, analytics and insights
- Don’t need to worry about missing a post deadline – simply set and forget
- Conduct A/B testing to determine the best time / content / platform, elevating your social media strategy
- Publish content to various social media platforms from one convenient portal
- Provide a one-stop-shop for the whole team to access company social media channels
How to Choose the Right App
Each tool or application is going to do things a little differently. Its important to find one that ticks all your boxes. Below are a few questions to ask yourself before embarking on the hunt for your new digital assistant.
Are you managing one or multiple social media platforms?
Do you need an app that allows you to set your Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts from one place? Or are you more focussed on laying out your Instagram stories, posts and reels?
Is it just scheduling you’re after?
Or do you want a tool that’ll track your clickthrough rates, and audience demographics?
Am I willing to pay?
How much are you willing to spend, if anything, on these apps? Depending on the intricacy of the program you opt for, subscriptions can range from entirely free, to upwards of $600. Knowing exactly what functions you require from your scheduling app can prevent you paying through the roof for fancy add-ons that you don’t use.
How advanced do I want these to be?
Are you a quick learner at new programs? If so, then you might find a more complex program to be a perfect way to finesse your social campaigns. If you’re more technology-challenged, a beginner friendly app is going to save you several headaches and keyboard-slamming rages.
With all that in mind – lets set you up with our top app recommendations.
Best Social Media Scheduling Apps
Best Free Apps
- Later – best for Instagram but can also manage Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and TikTok
- Buffer – offers basic publishing tools for up to three social channels
- Crowdfire – offers basic publishing tools for up to three social channels and scheduling of up to 10 posts at a time
Best Beginner Friendly Apps
- Canva – an online graphic design platform that has evolved to allow you to schedule your creations directly to social media
- Buffer – this platform is not only free, but relatively simple to use
Best All-Encompassing Apps
- Hootsuite – a little on the pricier end, Hootsuite is one of the most comprehensive social media management tools. It schedules, tracks analytics, formulates reports, and pulls all your social data from numerous platforms, into one dashboard
- Sprout Social – Sprout is similar to Hootsuite, although more affordable and simplistic. It still offers cross-platform publication from a unified dashboard, with great collaborative features and automation.
- CoSchedule – unique appeal of integrating with WordPress and HubSpot to schedule blog posts. It also has a great social media calendar layout.
Want us to let you in on the ultimate social media hack? It’s got a little something to do with enlisting the expertise of our Wordly social media elite. Why not give us a buzz to find out how your socials could benefit from our magic touch?
