The essentials: 15 social media apps and services to improve your marketing
Few business owners question the importance of social media marketing today, but doing a consistently good job with social media marketing is not easy. In fact, it can become very time consuming.
Whether you take care of it yourself, or you have someone on your team who’s in charge of your social media marketing, it’s always a good idea to get outside help.
This help can come in the form of an agency, a specialist, or any number of apps or software as a service (SaaS) websites.
Below is a curated list of popular apps and services. There are certainly many good free apps available that will serve a lot of small businesses quite well. Further, for $20 or less a month you can start to get into some apps that are quite powerful. The apps and services provide these kinds of services:
- Find content for you to share
- Provide easy manual scheduling,
- Provide automated scheduling,
- Analyze followers, keywords, growth, etc
- Manage your accounts for followers
Browse the list. Find the social media platforms you target and the prices where you feel comfortable, then start comparing all their features. Take some of the paid services out for a free trial run.
(Legend: F=Facebook, T=Twitter, IN=LinkedIn, P=Pinterest, TM= Tumblr, G+=Google+, Insta=Instagram.)
| Service | Platforms | Free Plan | Price Range | Service |
| DrumUp | F, T, IN | Trial | $15-$159/mo | find, schedule |
| Upflow | F, T, IN, P, TM, | Y | $29-$99/mo | find, schedule |
| Social Jukebox | F, T, IN | Y | $13-$100/mo | schedule |
| Socialoomph | F, T, IN, P, Plurk | Y | $6.50-$39/mo | schedule, automate, analysis management |
| Crowdfire | F, T, Insta, P, TM | Y | $10-$200/mo | content, schedule, management |
| Buffer | F, T, Insta, P, IN, G+ | Y | $10-$400/mo | schedule, analysis |
| Good Audience | F, T, Insta, P, IN, G+ | N | $300-$2000/mo | agency service |
| Boostagram | Insta | Trial | $80-$160/mo | Instagram growth service |
| InstaSchedule | Insta | Trial | $20-$90/mo | schedule |
| Round Team | T | Y | $12-$144/mo | automate |
| Hootsuite | F, T, Insta, P, IN, G+, YT | Y | $20-$500/mo | schedule, analysis, engage |
| SocialQuant | T | Trial | $50-$300/mo | automate |
| Hypergrowth | T | Trial | not revealed | automate |
| Followed | F, T, IN | Trial | $99-$250/mo | content, schedule, automate |
| Sprout Social | F, T, Insta, IN, G+ | Trial | $100-$250/mo | schedule, manage, CRM, analysis |
The essentials: 15 social media apps and services to improve your marketing
Few business owners question the importance of social media marketing today, but doing a consistently good job with social media marketing is not easy. In fact, it can become very time consuming.
Whether you take care of it yourself, or you have someone on your team who’s in charge of your social media marketing, it’s always a good idea to get outside help.
This help can come in the form of an agency, a specialist, or any number of apps or software as a service (SaaS) websites.
Below is a curated list of popular apps and services. There are certainly many good free apps available that will serve a lot of small businesses quite well. Further, for $20 or less a month you can start to get into some apps that are quite powerful. The apps and services provide these kinds of services:
- Find content for you to share
- Provide easy manual scheduling,
- Provide automated scheduling,
- Analyze followers, keywords, growth, etc
- Manage your accounts for followers
Browse the list. Find the social media platforms you target and the prices where you feel comfortable, then start comparing all their features. Take some of the paid services out for a free trial run.
(Legend: F=Facebook, T=Twitter, IN=LinkedIn, P=Pinterest, TM= Tumblr, G+=Google+, Insta=Instagram.)
| Service | Platforms | Free Plan | Price Range | Service |
| DrumUp | F, T, IN | Trial | $15-$159/mo | find, schedule |
| Upflow | F, T, IN, P, TM, | Y | $29-$99/mo | find, schedule |
| Social Jukebox | F, T, IN | Y | $13-$100/mo | schedule |
| Socialoomph | F, T, IN, P, Plurk | Y | $6.50-$39/mo | schedule, automate, analysis management |
| Crowdfire | F, T, Insta, P, TM | Y | $10-$200/mo | content, schedule, management |
| Buffer | F, T, Insta, P, IN, G+ | Y | $10-$400/mo | schedule, analysis |
| Good Audience | F, T, Insta, P, IN, G+ | N | $300-$2000/mo | agency service |
| Boostagram | Insta | Trial | $80-$160/mo | Instagram growth service |
| InstaSchedule | Insta | Trial | $20-$90/mo | schedule |
| Round Team | T | Y | $12-$144/mo | automate |
| Hootsuite | F, T, Insta, P, IN, G+, YT | Y | $20-$500/mo | schedule, analysis, engage |
| SocialQuant | T | Trial | $50-$300/mo | automate |
| Hypergrowth | T | Trial | not revealed | automate |
| Followed | F, T, IN | Trial | $99-$250/mo | content, schedule, automate |
| Sprout Social | F, T, Insta, IN, G+ | Trial | $100-$250/mo | schedule, manage, CRM, analysis |