10 of the Best Social Media Scheduling Tools for Small Business in 2023

Planning and creating your social media content is only half the battle with your small business social media marketing strategy. Getting it published is the next, and albeit most crucial step - after all, if it isn't published, it doesn't really matter. Still, you may not have the time to stop what you're doing every day to post your content.That's where social media scheduling platforms come in.

10 of the Best Social Media Scheduling Tools for Small Business in 2023

Social media scheduling software allows business owners to automate their social media accounts by bulk scheduling social media posts in advance. In addition, many schedulers feature options like analytics as well, which help you understand how your content performs.

Below is a list of ten tools I think are some of the best social media scheduling apps out there to help you automate your social media marketing and get on with your day.

Social Media Scheduling Apps

Hootsuite

HootSuite is one of the most user-friendly social media management tools available.. Whether you’re using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or other social networks, HootSuite simplifies your social media experience.

With powerful analytics built right in, you can easily track the performance of your posts and campaigns — anytime, anywhere. Bonus: With their free plan, you can try it out first to find out if its right for your needs.

FEATURES

• Post Scheduling

• Social Media Calendar

• Social Media Analytics Tools

SproutSocial

SproutSocial provides a full suite of Social Marketing software solutions designed to help businesses create engaging, interactive experiences in real-time on the web and mobile devices. While Sprout Social is pretty expensive compared to other services, it does offer a wide array of features to help small businesses maximize their social media presence.

FEATURES:

• Social Media Publishing

• Social Media Calendar

• Analytics Tool

CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a great resource to organize your social media marketing for a bird's eye view of what you'll publish and when. Promising to help you "get more done in less time" their work management software features task management options, integrations with marketing and project management apps, and publishing. Bonus: Coschedule's Marketing Calendar is free forever, so you can get a feel for the platform and what it offers before committing.

FEATURES:

• Marketing / Social Media Calendar

• Publishing

• Task Management

• Campaign Templates (Paid)

Buffer

Buffer is a great app that allows you to schedule content in advance. Offering publishing, analytics, engagement, and start page (more on this next), Buffer is a great option for small businesses Facebook, Google My Business Profile, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social accounts. Bonus: Buffer's Start Page is a "flexible link in bio page that brings together all of your best content in one place. Share it in your bios on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or any other social profiles."

FEATURES:

• When to publish guidance

• Suggested hashtags

• Publishing

• Permission and Approval Workflows for Collaboration

MeetEdgar

Meet Edgar is a little different than other social media schedulers, as it uses evergreen content as the cornerstone for your social media publishing (Evergreen content is content that remains valuable and relevant over time). According to their website, "Edgar has a very simple flow where you just need to load evergreen content to the platform and our helpful octopus friend and his many arms will do the rest. While I've never tried the platform, I admit I am intrigued!

FEATURES:

• Evergreen content repurposing

• Post Scheduling

• Monitoring and A/B Testing

PostPlanner

PostPlanner combines content creation with content curation under one platform. With the typical content scheduling features of other social platforms, PostPlanner holds its own with a variety of features to help you maximize the performance of your content. With the addition of content curation features, you can quickly and easily locate the top performing content on many platforms.

FEATURES:

• Content Scheduling

• Content Curation

• Post Recycling

• Post Ideas

AgoraPulse

AgoralPulse is an all-in-one solution for managing multiple social profiles at once. The tool helps you manage your company's presence across various social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, etc. by providing complete visibility into your brand's activities across different social media platforms.

Three of my favorite features are the calendar, social inbox, and social media analytics reports to track social media performance. I love being able to see my social media calendar and drag/drop items to rearrange as I need, and having my inbox in the app saves so much time.

AgoraPulse also gives you access to detailed metrics such as number of likes/shares, comments, so you can measure your content's performance and adjust your strategy as needed. It is however, a bit pricey, FYI.

FEATURES:

• Social Listening Tools

• Advanced analytics features

• Social Media Inbox

• Seamless Social Media Scheduling

• Visual Content Calendar

Hey Orca

Hey Orca is social media management software makes it pretty easy to create, edit, get approvals (making it great team collaboration), and schedule posts in one place across most social channels. Bonus: Among its many features is an Instagram grid preview, so you can effortlessly design your small business Instagram appearance before you publish.

FEATURES:

• Social Media Posting Tool for Advance Scheduling

• Simple Approval Process

• Collaboration Tools for Client Feedback

Later.com

Later is a social media marketing platform and link in bio application that makes it easy to schedule, publish, and analyze your social media marketing content. Their visual calendar approach helps you consider the finished look of your social media strategy with their preview function. (I'm getting ready to switch scheduling apps and I'm leaning toward using Later.com!)

Bonus: Later now features Instagram Reels scheduling!

FEATURES:

• Social Media Post scheduling - including Instagram Reels

• Drag & Drop Visual Feed Planner

• Analytics Tools

Meta Business Suite's Planner

If you already have a Facebook Company Page or Instagram Business Account, did you know you already have access to a scheduler? Meta Business Suite offers a basic but effective scheduler for your content (Facebook and Instagram only) that does the job if you want to keep everything in one house. I use it on occasion to schedule stories for some of my client's accounts and it's reliable and extremely user-friendly.

When pressed for time, scheduling apps like these can be a life-saver. Not to mention the insights many of them offer regarding audiences and engagement.

Which scheduling apps have worked best for you? (I'd really like to know because I am currently shopping around :)

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