Every business in 2023 needs to have an online presence, especially on social media platforms.

These platforms can help you find new customers, engage existing customers and get more traffic on your site. However, being online and being relevant online are two different things.

Relevance on social media depends on several factors, including the management of your social media platforms. The problem, though, is that it can be a herculean task managing your business’s social media platforms. Especially if you also have to handle other work responsibilities.

That’s where social media planners come into play. In this post, we will review five top social media planners you can use to implement your social media strategy. With little ado, let’s get right into it.

#1. Hootsuite (Web, iOS, Android, Chrome)

Hootsuite is a great app for helping you cover all your social media bases. It is a social media app that you can use to schedule messages, create and manage potential posts, and monitor your various inboxes.

With Hootsuite, you can run boosted post-advertising campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest.

The app also provides you with comprehensive analytic tools that show you how your social media accounts are performing. In addition, it provides you with data about other businesses in similar industries to your business, so you can see how you’re doing compared with the competition.

Hootsuite is pretty cool if you need your target audience to engage with you and convert to revenue. For instance, it has a feature that gives you the opportunity to thank new followers on Twitter.

Another feature Hootsuite offers is one which allows you to view your social feeds and build your customized social media dashboard. You can also view the feeds of your competitors. This is a useful feature for marketing.

It’s quite easy to work with Hootsuite; little wonder it’s one of the most popular social media planning apps.

Hootsuite has a free plan which includes 1 user, 3 social profiles, and 30 scheduled updates. Its professional plan costs $49/month (this is billed annually). The Professional plan includes 1 user, 10 social profiles, and unlimited scheduling.

If you want more, you can go for the Hootsuite team plans, which cost $249/month for three users. The bill is also paid annually.

The app is a bit pricey, but you’re sure to get your money’s worth if you go for it.

#2. Buffer (Web, iOS, Android)

Buffer is a social media management tool and is the best choice for you if you’re looking to schedule posts in a straightforward way. It is perfect for social media scheduling, and it supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Google My Business Pages.

Buffer is an app that’s not new to the social media management scene, and so it has seen various updates and shifts. Like Hootsuite, it offers you the opportunity to schedule your posts, get access to analytics, and manage your audience. But it comes with its own unique features too.

One of its unique features is that it gives you the ability to create and update a small mobile-friendly website. There you can showcase your content or products.

Buffer has a free plan that allows one user, 3 accounts, and 10 queued posts per profile. Its Essential plan costs $6/month per social channel. This plan offers 2,000 queued posts per profile. Its Teams plan, going for $12/month per social channel, allows an unlimited number of users. Both paid plans will enable you to engage with your audience directly from the Buffer app.

Buffer’s free plan is ideal if you run a small business and only need to line up posts for a week. If you need more, you have to go for any of the paid plans. At least those are less pricey than Hootsuite’s paid offers.

#3. SocialPilot (Web, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Edge)

SocialPilot is simple and functional. It supports Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Tumblr. The app has tabs on its sidebar that let you manage your accounts and posts.

Using those tabs, you can access your inboxes or analytics, line up content from RSS feeds, configure your team and client setup, and run ads. It also integrates with Zapier, allowing you to add content to your SocialPilot queue automatically.

SocialPilot has great features for social media planning and management. To top it all, its Team plan option comes at a price that’s 80% less than what HootSuite offers. So while Hootsuite charges almost $3,000 per year for a team of three, SocialPilot’s Small Team plan goes for a starting rate of $50/month, plus it allows you to add two other team members who can manage up to 20 social media accounts. Sounds too good to be true.

#4. Loomly (Web)

Loomly hits all the right notes if you’re looking for all the basic social media planning features. Talk about post-scheduling, having a multi-service inbox, automating your social media service, and basic analytics. It also integrates Zapier and can be used to post to social media.

It supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. Of course, it gives you a Custom Channel, which you can use to post to other services like Reddit or send an email.

Loomly has a particular unique feature: it lets you customize a social network which you can post to almost any service as part of your social media management. It also allows you to have multiple scheduling calendars for your different social media needs.

What’s more, it connects all your social networks by allowing you to post the same content on Twitter, Instagram, and your custom network simultaneously. You don’t have to manage multiple apps.

It is also affordable, going for a price of $35/month for the Base plan, which comes with 2 users and 10 social accounts.

#5. MeetEdgar (Web, iOS, Chrome)

MeetEdgar is great for automating your social media posts. You can use it to create and adjust posts for your different social networks. It works with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. Unlike the others above, MeetEdgar does not provide any analytics feature.

MeetEdgar is quite special because it focuses on being a scheduling and automating tool, and it does that well. You can use it to pull useful text and images from any links you give it, and it will compose updates to go along with them. Its ‘Suggest Variations’ option creates four alternative updates based on the content.

It can also review your previous content and create new, unidentical updates. It also gives you posts that are suitable for your audience. Additionally, it has a built-in ed.gr link shortener, which you can use to track clicks. This is basically for you to know your content that has gained popularity, but unlike Hootsuite, it will not give you detailed analytics.

MeetEdgar uses Zapier, too, so you can use it to post your content to social media. Its Eddie plan goes for $29.99/month and allows 5 social media accounts, an unlimited media library, 4 categories, and 20 team members.

Bottom Line

Social media planners are great tools that can help you implement your social media strategy ahead of time. It will also help you with the task of posting across platforms and make your work easier and more efficient.

All you need to do is choose the social media planner that is most appropriate for your business. You can check out the free trials and use that to determine the app that’ll work best for you. Once that’s done, you can get started on managing your business’s social media platforms effectively.