Fantastic and (mostly) Free Software for Social Media Management

Today we are presenting a list of tools that can do magic when it comes to social media marketing. If you are looking for a way to boost the productivity and efficiency of you work in social media, this is a list for you!

With the help of this software you will be able to:

• Plan the publication of your posts in the most popular social network services
• Create an automatic publication queues
• Receive notifications and alerts whenever a comment about your brand appears
• Gain access to accurate information about the profiles
• Increase the amount of shares of your content

Interested? So let’s get to the list. The programs are in random order, and they were designed for many different purposes. That’s why we explain for which social media management services they are made and what do they offer (oh! and also how “free” they actually are).

Hootsuite

For: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, WordPress, Instagram, YouTube

How does it work: It offers a tool for creating articles. Once they are made, you can link them to particular social network service and set a date for their publication. It also gathers statistics that help in analyzing your actions. Perfect for busy people who, for example, like to plan their actions for a week or more in advance.

Free version: You can manage publications on three different social media services, and you have access to basic reports.

Hootsuite is integrable with TimeCamp thanks to Zapier. Try it out

Awario

For: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, WordPress, Instagram, YouTube and also many blogs and Q&A sites.

How does it work: It connects to your social media accounts and allows you to manage them from its interface. You can track the keywords and plan posts.

Free version: Displays the 70% of mentions for first 15 days, after this period, only 30%. It also allows you to use 100 keywords on a project and plan up to 20 posts.

IFTTT – If this, then that

For: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, WordPress, Instagram, YouTube (and about 300 more services)

How does it work: As its name suggests, this software automates tasks (not only in social media). With its help you can create task queues, so your content is published automatically on many services at once. Also, it facilitates the interaction with other media users. It can even be set to help you with daily activities or training.

This software is completely free which is a great asset.

Twitter Analytics

For: Twitter

How does it work: It presents the gathered date concerning your Twitter account. A number of visits, best tweet, information about followers, and most important news that appear on Twitter. You can compare your Twitter results with those from previous months to see what can be changed, optimize your work, and readjust your social media efficiency.

This software with all its features is available for free.

Buffer

For: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest

How does it work: You can plan your tweets and posts in time, so they will be automatically published whenever you want. Buffer also provides thorough analyses on the number of shares, likes, clicks, mentions etc. It also displays the most popular posts, so you know on what you should focus your attention. The interface is intuitive and simple, a fitting tool for automating the content publications.

Free version: Program can be linked with one account for each social media platform and you can plan 10 posts a day for each of them.

Buffer is integrable with TimeCamp thanks to Zapier. Try it out

Sprout Social

For: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +. It can also be integrated with tools like Google Analytics, Feedly, Bitly or Zendesk.

How does it work: Facilitates the publication of posts, interaction with your viewers/followers, provides the statistics on profiles, and gives the possibility to monitor hashtags. Sprout Social gives you the opportunity to observe and analyze the activity on many different social media channels without logging into each one of them separately.

Free version: A free version of each plan is available on a 30-day trial.

Social Champ

For: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, TikTok, and YouTube.

How does it work: The social media management tools offer multiple premium features, including Auto RSS, Bulk, Suggestions, Analytics, Calendar, Social Inbox, Workspaces, and more. You can create, edit, schedule, track, and organize years’ worth of content in one go using Social Champ.

Free version: You can use the free plan for up to 3 profiles with all premium features forever.

TweetDeck

For: Twitter, of course.

How does it work: Shows your twitter profile, notifications, messages and account’s activity on one panel. You can now manage your Twitter account with ease, without searching for anything and skipping between tabs.

This software is free.

Addict-o-matic

For: Yahoo News, Digg, Bing News, Wikio, Ask.com, Youtube, Twitter, Google Blog Search, Technorati, WordPress

How does it work: This is a web-based app. Visit the main page and enter the key word that you need. This software displays all the results in an elegant and accessible view, segregating them on the basis of media network services they appeared at. Great tool to follow the news about your brand and the competition.

This software is free.

Keyhole

For: Twitter and Instagram

How does it work: To use it you have to enter the hashtag into the search engine and wait for results. It displays the demographic data of people writing about a particular subject, the range of posts, number of users using the hashtag in a certain period, and also shows the number of tweets. With this tool, you have a full control over hashtags connected to your brand, so you can react to any notifications, mentions and comments on it on the spot.

Free version: Allows you to search for hashtags and displays the accurate information about them but with a few hours delay. To receive information in real time you have to pay for this tool.

Tailwind

For: Pinterest and Instagram

How does it work: it allows you to publish 100 posts without a time limit. For $10 you can buy a version with an unlimited number of publications, analytic tools, and history of previously performed activities. Great tool for anyone who uses Pinterest or Instagram.

Twazzup

For: Twitter

How does it work: Like it to your Twitter account and you will be able to watch the posts concerning it. It will also display the most popular tweet or links that are trending and are connected with the key word you suggested.

A version with all features is available for free.

Riffle

For: Twitter

How does it work: Displays the data about every account that you want to check – number of tweets, followers, country, popular tags, and much more. Simple and fast, provides you the opportunity to quickly check your account, as well as those of your competitors.

This software is free

Followerwonk

For: Twitter

How does it work: You can use it to compare influencers and choose those that will me most valuable for your marketing target. It gathers and displays the statistics, biographical data, localization, authority and number of followers.

Free version: You can link one profile to it, check 50 influencers and 100 biographical notes per day, as well as analyze the profiles that have up to 25.000 followers.

FreeReviewMonitoring

For: Checking opinions about online services

How does it work: Using this tool you can monitor opinions and reviews about your brand or product and respond to them immediately. It requires the address of your company, as this software is designed for businesses interested in opinions in their area. This software is a great option for everyone who wants to keep their reviews as high as possible – it also provides some suggestions how to respond to negative reviews and take care of your reputation.

Free version: You can monitor up to 3 different localizations at once.

Fanpage Karma

For: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube

How does it work: It gathers and displays statistics on the brand’s involvement in social media. Sends notification about the current situation of your profiles and shows the most popular posts from the current week. Thanks to this tool you can adjust your strategy to perform better as a social media marketer.

Free version: The free plan backups the data on your 3-months activity, allows you to link one fan page to it, and sends reports with statistics every week.

Pixlr

For: Creating content for marketing purposes.

How does it work: It is a simple software for advanced image processing. You can use it to add filters, text, effects and many different elements to your graphic. Great if you have to add graphical content to your fan pages and you would like to avoid set patterns.

This software is free

XMind

For: Mapping strategies

How does it work: With the use of  XMind you can create mind maps. You share your ideas and together with the team you can use this program to prepare diagrams, presenting your project ideas in an accessible and nice way. You can send your mind map to others, share in on your website, or save to a file (but only in the paid version)

Google Alerts

For: Checking opinions and articles about online services, responding to mentions about your mark.

How does it work: Very simple – just enter the keywords about which you would like to receive notifications, and every day you will get the list of pages, blog articles, forum posts and more where this particular keyword has been used.

This software is free.

Dashboard

For: Twitter

How does it work: Use it  for a better connection between you and your followers (and the rest of community.) Dashboard is available as a desktop application and also has a native iOS app. You can check what your clients say about you, plan the publication of tweets, analyze them and monitor the marketing actions you and your team performs.

This software is free.

Summing up

There is plenty more fish in the sea so you will find many different tools that were made to help you in your marketing wars. However, we analyzed and checked those (also, we use some of them on a daily basis) and we can honestly recommend them as SSS – Seriously Solid Software.

What is more, we especially looked for those that are available for free, so you can try them right away. Some of them do not offer all functionalities for free, but you should still be able to decide if they are good for you or not.

And one more thing, if you are (by any chance) looking for time tracking software, try TimeCamp, the SSSS – Super Seriously Solid Software.