Back in the day, people used to get quite uppity about scheduling Social Media posts.

There were a lot of false arguments that anything not posted natively (i.e inside the application) was somehow punished and not seen by viewers - as if that was the only reason! People saw it as inauthentic, against the open and immediate nature of social, or just plain lazy.

They were wrong.

In the age of content marketing, you cannot post natively and stay sane!

No-one wants to spend their mornings at work popping from one platform to another and keeping track of what you said where...nevermind trying to respond to comments as you go.

The social media world has matured and common sense has prevailed; not only do social media moderation tools save considerable time, the more sophisticated versions of these also provide valuable insights into the best time to post, allow you to post and comment across all major channels AND also provide content curation tools ( as sharing content via social media isn’t always just about you!)

Our business was a very early adopter of Hootsuite and we still are quite fond of that platform - however we found that to access the all important metrics that we needed to gauge whether our social media activities were actually working for us was simply far too expensive.

Sorry Hootsuite - you might want to revisit this for small business at some time in the future!

So I then went on a search of what was new in the world of social media moderation tools.

There is now quite the list - and all of them are designed to save your sanity! If you like organisation, then you will love these tools.

SOCIAL MEDIA MODERATION TOOLS

Hootsuite
One of the most popular social media tools available - they still have a great free version if you only have a few channels. If you need reports though to track your ROI - Hootsuite is not terribly helpful here if you have multiple accounts as you are charged for each report - OUCH!

Also don’t be fooled re: posting to instagram - it is cumbersome and not really posting at all.

Find out more here. 

Sendible
This is our current platform of choice.

We like that Sendible helps us curate content and sends suggested articles that we may choose to share with our followers daily to help with content curation. Their reports are also very easy to use and customise. You can post to all channels (with the exception of Instagram - but you can comment, like and reply inside Sendible to instagram.) Posting to Pinterest is also a little tricky - each of your boards needs to be set up as a separate service (or platform) which is cumbersome in the setup phase.

Find out more here. 

Sprout Social
Similar to Sendible, Sprout Social has always had great reports and a really beautiful interface. We choose Sendible  as we had experience with Sprout Social in the past and wanted to try something new, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great platform. It does however get more expensive when compared to Sendible for small businesses, particularly if you want to know when is the best time to post.

Find out more here. 

Post  Planner
Currently this platform only includes Facebook  and Twitter,  so if you are only focussed in those areas  then this could be the platform of choice for you.

Find out more here. 

Agorapulse
I have not used Agorapulse personally, but reviews are good and it does have a nice, easy to use interface and great introductory price point.

Find out more here.  

APPS TO HELP

There are also a few other little apps that make content posting and review easier for you and can reduce unnecessary double handling of posts as well as trying to dig around for traffic data.

Crowdfire
Give Crowdfire a go - great for watching who follows, unfollows and is a true fan for Twitter and Instagram. Go to your app store to download.

Iconosquare
The best instagram reporting tool. Track engagement, best posts, reach of your posts, follows and influencers. We love this tool

Tailwind
If you are a big pinner, then you might benefit considerably from reviewing TAILWIND. The bonus of this little program is that you can also schedule your Instagram pics to your Pinterest account. This makes great sense and is a fantastic time saver to connect these two highly visual mediums.

So tell me your favourite scheduling tool? Are you still using Hootsuite, who out there is using Agorapulse ( I hear great things ). Any died in the wool Sprout Social people?

When approaching your Marketing Strategy, particularly Social Media, it's important to be consistent, planned and on brand. That's why we've created a simple worksheet for you to define your brand personality. Living the personality that your customers want to connect with helps build trust and, in turn, will grow your business.