Social networks today are not just a space for communication and news exchange. It’s a powerful tool for popularizing and promoting products and services.

Did you know that over 2020, the number of active users in social networks has increased by 13% (490M)? Isn’t that one great motivation to create an effective SMM strategy? It is, and to do that easily, you can use high-quality social media automation tools and services. This will help you to automate social media marketing for your brand.

Auto-posting services are among the most mandatory tools for bloggers, SMM professionals, marketers, and companies that post content on multiple social networks. Such services save a lot of time, help structure content, and work more effectively to promote the brand.

Of course, automated services will not replace a real SMM specialist, just as a powerful engine in a vehicle can not replace an experienced driver. However, they will allow you to achieve much greater results since they take away the lion’s share of the routine.

In this article, we’ve gathered 7 popular social media automation services used by our SMM specialists for efficient performance. Read on to choose one for yourself

Top 6 Social Media Automation Services To Use in 2021

Sendible

Sendible is one of the best social media management tools available today, offering features that everyone can enjoy. You can publish content to the most popular social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.

With Sendible, you can do more than just schedule your posts on social media. It also allows you to create and schedule content for blogging platforms (WordPress, Tumblr, Medium, and Blogger) as well as Facebook Ads and Google My Business. That’s why it’s a reliable and versatile tool for business users.

The tool makes it easy to schedule content for multiple platforms simultaneously and provides detailed information about your published content. With its report templates, you also have a client-side social media report ready in just a couple of clicks.

Understand how your audience feels about your posted content and adjust your strategy accordingly. You can also use the social media monitoring feature to see if you reach your engagement goals. Find out when you’ve been mentioned and respond to it right away.

Sendible Pros

• Best for expanding your business;
• Simultaneous scheduling of publications across multiple platforms;
• A wide range of collaboration and communication tools, etc.;

Additional Key Features

• Centralized message management via your social media inbox, from where you can respond immediately;
• Ability to easily share your best content on various social media platforms;
• Team tasks and workflows to improve collaboration and communication;
• Content recommendations to get more reposts and likes.

Pricing

Sendible’s pricing starts with low-cost monthly plans for individuals as well as small and large teams. Plus, all plans have a 30-day free trial so you can test the service at no charge to see if it works for you. No card required. Cancel anytime.

• Creator ($29/month) – 1 user, 1 social accounts, 1-click reports;
• Startup ($49/month) – 2 users, 12 social accounts, 1-click reports;
• Traction ($89/month) – 4 users, 24 social accounts, 1-click reports;
• Scale ($199/month) – 7 users, 49 social accounts, 14 custom reports.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is probably one of the most famous services chosen by America’s largest Fortune 1000 companies. It has been around for more than a decade and has many features for bloggers, small business owners, and even teams. Hootsuite allows you to combine social media marketing campaigns on a single platform, as well as schedule, publish, and review content before publishing it on more than 35 channels.

In addition, you can constantly monitor the effectiveness of publications in real-time, generate analytical reports, study industry trends, and give feedback to your customers.

Automate your work with popular social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Tip: Enter your WordPress credentials, and you can also post to your WordPress blog through the free version of Hootsuite.

Compared to Buffer https://buffer.com/ or Sendible https://www.sendible.com/, the interface of this app looks a bit outdated, but when it comes to its functionality, it’s very good. Monitor and respond to social media content directly from the platform. This will save you a lot of time when it comes to social media management.

Another great feature of Hootsuite is that, unlike some SMM tools, you’ll have analytics on all of your social media content, not just what’s been published through the platform. This makes it easy to track your strategy’s success. However, this feature is only available in the paid version.

Hootsuite Pros

• Best all-in-one social media tool;
• Full-fledged content analytics;
• Team-wide content library;
• Integration with Google Analytics (monitor conversions from social networks);
• UTM tag support for links;
• Android or iOS apps.

Additional Key Features

• Recommended content for publication based on tracked hashtags and saved searches;
• Ability to visualize and manage social media content via a drag-and-drop calendar;
• Content approval features for teams;
• Easily add social media content directly from the dashboard.

Hootsuite is one of the best free social media tools, allowing you to work with three social profiles and schedule 30 posts in advance. For analytics, unlimited post scheduling, ten social profiles, and more, you’ll need to upgrade to an affordable paid plan.

Pricing

You can use Hootsuite in test mode for free during the first 30 days. The trial version is available in paid plans.

Hootsuite offers plans depending on the number of accounts you intend to manage and the number of users. The cost of using the tool starts at $19/month. Each of the following plans includes features of the previous one:

• Professional ($19/month) – 1 user, 10 social accounts, unlimited/multiple posts that can be scheduled, all messages can be accessed in a single inbox, etc.
• Team ($99/month) – 3 users, 20 social accounts, unlimited posts, all messages in one inbox, manage team access and roles, assign posts or comments to team members;
• Business ($599/month) – 5+ users, 35 social accounts, unlimited posts, all messages in one inbox, review messages before publishing, extend functionality with premium apps, 24/7 priority support;
• Enterprise (custom pricing) – unlimited users, 50 social accounts, unlimited posts, access messages in one inbox, automatically assign posts or comments to team members, receive a quarterly business review, promote unlimited posts, report on team performance, custom solutions.

IFTTT

Great for companies that are just starting their journey to success in social networks. IFTTT works on the principle of task implementation (the “if this, then that” approach). With it, you can automate routine business operations and combine various apps on your device via Applets – yours or those created by other users.

An Applet is a very small application, i.e. a utility program performing a couple of simple functions. It consists of two parts, i.e. “Trigger” and “Action”. The Trigger is a specific condition under which the Action is to be executed. Simply put, the event you specify commands another event to happen. An Applet connects two or more apps or devices together, enabling you to do something that those apps (or devices) couldn’t do on their own.

Applets created by other users are also available, which you can use, leaving them as they are or customizing them to suit your needs. The service allows you to support multiple Applets as well as multiple physical devices simultaneously.

You can set up a large number of Action combinations, e.g. customize the interaction between apps, such as setting the Wi-Fi on your smartphone, getting notifications about weather changes, or reminding you to meditate. The service is trusted by 650+ brands, including Google, Telegram, Twitch, Weather Underground, Instagram, Alexa, Evernote, Dropbox, Uber, Spotify, Twitter, etc.

Pricing

IFTTT has 2 plans – the Standard free plan on a permanent basis and the IFTTT Pro plan with a monthly fee. Plus, there are 3 paid plans for developers.

• IFTTT Standard ($0/forever) – create 3 applets of your own, turn on unlimited Applets;
• IFTTT Pro ($4/month) – unlimited applet creation, multi-step applets with queries, conditional logic and multiple actions, faster execution for polling and real-time Applets, customer support.

For Developers:

• IFTTT Developer ($199/year) – 20M users, 200K developers, 650+ services, x1 service with triggers, Actions & queries, Works with IFTTT badge for marketing materials, API Performance, and Health, Email support;
• IFTTT Team (pay as you go) – includes everything from Developer + Launch and Embed Your Integrations in any digital channel, incl. mobile apps, website, and email; Monthly price per connected user, Standard analytics and user insights, Priority support;
• IFTTT Enterprise (custom pricing) – everything from Team, Behavioral insights, Enterprise reliability, Dedicated support, Unlimited services for your products, Premium analytics and business insights, Enterprise SLAs with a dedicated account manager.

Buffer 

Buffer is a great tool if you’re looking for something affordable and easy to use. It takes no more than 2 minutes to create a weekly content plan – just add your social media account (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest) and choose the date/time of publication. The service is also suitable for analyzing promotion results. It has already been chosen by 75,000+ companies including Shopify, Food52, Dress Up, Burrow, and Spotify.

Buffer is a complete set of tools for brand promotion with a quality minimalist interface, which is very easy to work in. You can plan and schedule tailored posts on each social network, collect post reports, integrate with various platforms, invite additional users, assign access, get support on social media, and much more.

Some people might think that the service lacks functionality compared to more established applications like Hootsuite. However, at the same time, it’s much cheaper and easier to learn. Plus, it has all the basic features for effective social media management. There’s a free plan and 3 advanced with monthly and annual fees. There are also plans focused on analytics https://buffer.com/pricing/analyze.

Buffer Pros

• Best free social media tool;
• Easy to use content scheduler;
• Deferred scheduled posting;
• Work with RSS;
• Comprehensive knowledge base;
• Add UTM tags to links;
• Trial analytics of advertising campaigns;
• Ability to upload videos and GIFs.

Moreover, Buffer also has a unique additional app, Pablo, where you can create visually beautiful diagrams in under 30 seconds to share them on social networks.

Keep in mind that you won’t find recommendations on the Buffer platform about what content is best to publish, thus novice marketers will have to learn that elsewhere.

Pricing

• Free ($0) – social channels, 10 scheduled posts, 1 user;
• Pro ($15/month) – 8 social channels, 100 scheduled posts, 1 user;
• Premium ($65/month) – 8 social channels, 2,000 scheduled posts, 2 users;
• Business ($99/month) – 25 social channels, 2,000 scheduled posts, 6 users.

Zoho Social

Zoho Social offers a comprehensive sales and email marketing solution. It’s just as convenient as Hootsuite, allowing you to schedule an unlimited number of publications for the times when your audience is most active, using a convenient content calendar. With this service, it’s easy to interact with your audience and stay on top of everything relevant to your brand, as well as create reports (or use out-of-the-box) on your SMM strategy results.

Zoho’s CRM system primarily focuses on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ but it also has integration with other platforms that implement workplace functionality, such as Slack, Zapier, and Zendesk. With this app, users filter social media pages, manually select potential customers, and transfer their contacts to this main platform.

Zoho Social Features

The Automatic Lead Generation feature, based on customizable triggers, allows you to focus on attracting new potential customers. It identifies quality leads with certain characteristics, such as demographics, likes, or buying habits. You can monitor customer feedback, follow up on correspondence and interactions, receive notifications, and sync leads between your social media accounts and your CRM account.

Pricing

Zoho offers a 15-day free version, which is limited to one employee and one brand. Switch plans anytime. No credit card required.

Zoho Social offers a free 15-day trial. Then you can switch to one of their paid plans with an annual/monthly fee.

• The Standard plan is €10/month (paid annually). It includes one team member and one brand (7 channels) and works for Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Twitter Profiles, Instagram Business Profiles, LinkedIn Profiles, LinkedIn Company Pages, & Google My Business listings. There are also the following features: 24/5 Email Support, Home Dashboard, Recent Posts, Multi-Channel Publishing, Published/Scheduled Posts, Activity Log, User Tagging, Summary Reports, Drafts, etc.
• The Professional plan is €30/month (paid annually) and includes 1 team member and one brand (7 channels). This plan includes every feature from Standard + Livestream, Notifications, CustomQ, Repeat Posting, Bulk Scheduling, Popular Posts, Post Insights, Bit.ly link shortener, Image library, RSS feeds, Cloudpicker, Pause/Resume Content, Mute & Block Accounts, Connections, Custom Video Thumbnail, etc.

The Premium plan is €40/month (paid annually) and includes 3 team members and 1 brand (8 channels). This plan includes every feature from Professional + SmartQ, Content Approvals & Workflow, Exporting/Discussing Posts, Collaboration, Team Member Audio/Video & Chat, Reports Dashboard, Manage Custom Roles, Content Targeting, UTM Parameters, Lead Ads (Facebook & LinkedIn), Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk integrations, CRM Leads & Contacts, Lead Generation, etc.

Special Tip: To improve prospect engagement, Zoho helps video prospecting to get actionable traction and views.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a versatile marketing tool designed to help small businesses promote themselves on social media platforms. It “knows” how to plan publications, monitor competitors’ activity, track keywords, identify Influencers, find brand mentions, and organize teamwork.

This tool is one of the most famous comprehensive solutions designed for brand management in social networks. Sprout Social includes a wide range of engagement, publishing, and analytics features. Among its 25,000 customers are industry leaders interested in staying in touch with their audiences.

You can publish and schedule content for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest, and manage content on Facebook Messenger, getting closer to your target audience.

Sprout Social gives you access to unfiltered thoughts, opinions, and feedback on subjects critical to your business. This can help you effectively measure the results of your current marketing strategy and plan your future business activities.

With this service, publishing and scheduling content for multiple social networks at once is effortless. However, only five social media profiles are available in the basic version. But you can also view and manage content through the social media calendar.

Sprout Social Pros

• Best in terms of customization options;
• Customizable report templates available;
• Keyword and hashtag monitoring;
• Simplest social media calendar.

Sprout Social Features

• Monitoring brand, competitors, or specific keywords considering location and time parameters;
• Post scheduling based on time, ability to add comments;
• Wide range of team tools;
• Job scheduler;
• Content monitoring based on type and industry;
• Advanced analytics with criteria such as profile effectiveness, competition, content effectiveness, audience engagement, the effectiveness of paid campaigns, etc.;
• Integration with Zendesk, Google Analytics, Feedly, etc.

Pricing

You can try Sprout Social for free with a 30-day trial. Paid plans are Standard, Professional, and Advanced:

• Standard ($99/month) – 5 social profiles, All-In-One Social Inbox, Scheduled Posts, Social Content Calendar; Review Management, Profiles, Keywords, and Locations Monitoring; Tasking and Social CRM tools; Group, Profile and Post-level Reports, Promotion Tools to boost FB posts, iOS, and Android mobile apps;
• Professional ($149/month) – 10 social profiles, Everything in Standard, plus Competitive reports for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, Incoming and outgoing message content tagging, Custom workflows for multiple approvers and steps, Scheduling for optimal send times, Response rate, and time analysis reports, Trend analysis for Twitter keywords and hashtags, Paid social reporting for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, Helpdesk integration;
• Advanced ($249/month) -10 social profiles, Everything in Professional, plus Message Spike Alerts for increased message activity, Digital asset, and content library, Chatbots with automation tools, Saved and suggested replies,
• Inbox rule builder for automated actions, Automated Link Tracking, Twitter surveys to define CSAT or NPS.

Sprout Social plan prices make it obvious that this service is aimed at large businesses that can offer a reasonable budget. Despite the immodest rates, the interface of the platform is simple and easy to use, not distracting from the variety of features and capabilities offered.

With comprehensive analytics reports, great publishing tools, one of the most powerful built-in social media image editors, and even a CRM system, publishing, and managing content become an incredibly easy process.

Planable

Planable is literally a centralized hub for all your social media content, feedback, and ideas. As social media marketers, we often engage in time-consuming preview processes for our scheduled posts. This leaves extremely little time for experimenting with our marketing strategies.

It allows you to preview your social media posts as though they were live. You can create engaging visual content along with your team members in one go. In fact, they call it “content creation on steroids”. It is rich in details and allows you to duplicate posts for the intended channel separately.

With this automation tool, you can streamline your marketing efforts by adding your posts into a predefined time slot and power up your social media scheduling.

Bonus Point: It allows you to gather feedback where it makes sense, right next to the post. You can tag team members and choose to send notifications to the right people.

With Planable, you can automate your social media posts for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram (both grid & stories), and Google My Business.

Planable Pros

 Best social media collaboration tool that’s out there;

• Multiple views: feed view, grid view, list view, calendar view;
• Fully customizable, drag & drop calendar.

Planable Features

 Post creation and previewing in context;

• Content sync button to tweak your content for different platforms;
• Sleek weekly/monthly calendar view;
• Post previewing exactly as they’ll look live;
• Comments in context — right next to the post (internal comments available);
• Approval configuration – from none to multiple levels of approval with one single click;
• Flexible publishing options;
• Media storage;
• Guest sharing;
• Version history.

Pricing

Start with Planable’s free limited plan. Paid plans are Starter, Premium, and Enterprise:

• Free ($0/month) – For social media teams wanting to try out Planable; unlimited workspaces, unlimited users; Self-service; First 50 posts;
• Starter ($33/month) – For freelancers & startups with up to 3 team members; 1 workspace; 3 users; Self-service; unlimited posts
• Premium ($83/month) – For small agencies & brands; 5 workspaces; 7 users; Self-service; unlimited posts
• Enterprise (custom pricing) – Custom workspaces; Custom users; Unlimited posts; Real-time support; Unlimited pages; Personalized team onboarding; Role-based access control; Audit logging; Unlimited storage; Advanced security.

Planable’s pricing plans are tailored to accommodate any type of business that aims to automate its social media publishing process. However, the core features this tool offers are created for large teams. You’ll get the best out of Planable with an Enterprise plan – the more, the merrier.

Summary

As you can see, there are quite a few services that automate posting to social networks. Before choosing one, you should first make sure that it works with the social platforms you need. An additional advantage of scheduled posting services can be their analytics features.

Today, most auto-posting services offer free trial periods, thanks to which bloggers and companies can evaluate the comfort of operation, functionality, and efficiency of the tool. If the frequency of adding publications to social networks is not too great, you can choose either free tools or the most affordable ones (typically, they don’t offer any additional functionality). As a result, you are sure to find a tool that is easy and convenient to work with.

But SMM-agencies should use those services that provide in-depth analytics and additional features.

When choosing a service, you should also pay attention to whether it’s an official partner (authorized application) of the social network in which you plan to post content.

With that out of the way, choosing and adjusting any of these tools to suit your goals will speed up the process of maintaining business accounts in several social networks at once. Thus, you will be able to focus on other tasks or have some free time (at last).