9 Best Social Media Marketing Tools for Small Business

Are you running a business and want to level up your social media presence? Do you want to increase your brand awareness with high conversion rates? If your answer to all these questions is yes, then you are at the right place.

In the current digital age, social media is rapidly becoming one of the most crucial aspects of digital marketing. As of 2024, there are around 5.17 billion social media users worldwide and the number is going to continue to grow.

With some of the best social media management tools, you can reach your target audience quickly and cost-effectively. Additionally, it will also help you build trust, brand authority, and authenticity.

In this article, we will discuss the 9 best social media marketing tools as your marketing weapon. Let's dig in.

What is a Social Media Marketing Tool?

Social media marketing is a powerful tool to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales. However, managing multiple social media accounts can be time-consuming and complex. That's where social media marketing tools come in. 

These tools can help you save time, improve your social media marketing results, and gain valuable insights into your audience.

They can help businesses get the most out of the social media platforms (currently trending) like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.

For instance, if a business is concerned about what people are saying about its brand image, it can use social media tools to monitor social media conversations. 

Functions of Social Media Marketing Tools

When marketing social media tools were first used, they started with publishing. Businesses started sharing their content on social media to attract people and increase traffic and consequently sales.

However, gradually, social media tools started being used in multiple ways. Some major functions social media tools for marketing can perform are:

• Engagement Tools: Social media engagement tools allow you to improve your brand’s visibility. They also allow you to streamline your social media management process through a variety of features like unifying messages from all networks, showing the history of users, notifying when a profile is tagged, etc.

• Publishing Tools: Any business's most important goal is to create brand awareness and gain recognition. With correct publishing tools, you can publish relevant content online and generate conversation around your brand.

• Listening Tools: Listening to what consumers are saying about your brand can help you modify your engagement strategy. There are various spaces on social media platforms where people voice their opinions, for example, Twitter’s “What’s Happening” section. With the right listening tools, you can identify the main points and cater to your customers in tandem with their needs.

• Reporting and Analytics Tools: If your data is not accurate, your strategy will also never be accurate. With the right reporting and analytics tools, you can track the performance of all your social networks, gather relevant data, along much more.  

Why is Social Media Marketing Tools Good for Your Business?

Statistics reveal that around 90% of consumers visit the brand’s website or app when they come across it on social media. This proves that social media marketing is good for your business. Some of its major advantages are:

• Creating brand awareness
• Driving traffic to your website
• Generating leads
• Building brand trust and loyalty
• Improve search engine rankings
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Gain marketplace insights

9 Best Social Media Marketing Tools

Now that you have a basic understanding of what social media marketing tools are, let’s take a look at the top 9 in the game!

1. Sprout Social: Grow with Insights

Trusted by over 30,000 world-class brands, Sprout Social allows its customers to embrace social media as an essential part of their overall business strategies. Designed to keep the whole business in mind, Sprout Social strives to decrease time spent doing manual tasks. It helps and allocates more time to reach out to audiences through relevant content and personalized experiences.

Sprout Social goes beyond the typical scheduling features offered by many social media management tools. It delves deeper, providing powerful social listening and analytics capabilities.

Imagine having a social media crystal ball! Identify brand mentions, understand industry trends, and gain valuable insights into your audience's behavior. It's the perfect tool for small businesses seeking a data-driven approach to social media management.

Key Features

Monitor and Engage

• Smart Inbox: Use a unified inbox to monitor messages for all social media platforms.
• Conversation History: View the complete conversation history of social media users and customers.
• Message Tagging: Keep your unified inbox organized by creating and applying custom tags.

Plan and Publish

• Unified Content Calendar: Manage posts across all social platforms via one collaborative calendar.
• Sprout Queue: Make a queue system for automated scheduling and posting.
• Bulk Scheduling: Create and plan up to 350 messages at once.

Report and Analyze

• Group, Profile, and Post-Level Reporting: Report across all social media platforms simultaneously.
• Google Analytics Report: Integrate your social media account with Google Analytics and understand how to drive traffic to your site.
• Instagram Competitor Report: Benchmark your Instagram growth against other competitive brands.

Listen and Inform

• Query Builder: Build queries to track search results.
• Listener Dashboards: Facilitate real-time and ongoing social listening by analyzing specific topics and trends.

Share and Amplify

• Amplification: Gain exposure to new audiences by connecting your brand with the social media accounts of your employees.

Pros	Cons
Powerful social listening and analytics.	More expensive than some other options.
Track brand mentions and industry trends.	Can have a steeper learning curve.
Manage social media advocacy programs.	Not as strong on visuals compared to some tools.
Gain insights to improve content strategy.
Features for social media advertising.

Pricing

Plan	Standard	Professional	Advanced	Enterprise
Price	$199 per seat/month	$299 per seat/month	$399 per seat/month	Contact Website
Billed annually	$249 per seat/month	$399 per seat/month	$499 per seat/month	Contact Website

2. Buffer: Simplicity Wins the Day

Is social media management a new frontier for your small business? Buffer offers a user-friendly platform that prioritizes simplicity. Effortlessly schedule posts and leverage their "queue scheduling" feature to automatically publish content throughout the day, ensuring a steady stream of engagement. 

But Buffer goes beyond basic scheduling. It throws in Pablo, a free design tool to create eye-catching visuals that complement your content, and Buffer Reply, a centralized hub to manage all your social media conversations in one place. It also allows you to work flexibly on the go through its Android and iOS mobile apps.

These bonus features make Buffer a compelling choice for small businesses seeking a simple yet effective way to establish and manage their social media presence without getting bogged down in complexities.

Key Features

Publishing

• Direct Scheduling: Plan and schedule your posts directly to Instagram.
• Queue Scheduling: Automatically publish content at preset intervals.
• Reminders: Plan a post and set a reminder for posting.
• Shop Grid Link in Bio: Utilize your Instagram bio to drive traffic and sales to your store.

Analytics

• Boosted post insights: Compare paid vs organic results of boosted posts.
• Audience demographics: Check whether you are reaching the right audience.
• White-label reports: Add your logo, title, and description to each report.

Engagement

• Pablo (Free Design Tool): Create eye-catching social media graphics.
• Prioritize important conversations: Know immediately if a post questions, negative responses, positive comments, etc.
• Buffer Reply: Manage social media conversations from a centralized location.
• Simple dashboard: View all unanswered comments in one simple dashboard which can be added to your desktop.
• Canva: Create and import images directly from Canva.

Pros	Cons
Simple and user-friendly interface.	Limited features compared to other tools.
Free plan available for basic needs.	Not ideal for large-scale social media campaigns.
Queue scheduling for automatic posting.	Analytics can be basic for some needs.
Free design tool for social media graphics.
A centralized hub for managing conversations.

Pricing

Plan	Price
Free	$0
Essentials	$6/month for 1 channel
Team	$12/month for 1 channel
Agency	$120/month for 10 channels

3. Sendible: Manage Multiple Clients with Confidence 

Juggling social media for multiple clients? Sendible simplifies this for agencies and small businesses with multi-client management under one roof. But it goes beyond just organization. Sendible allows white-labeling, letting you present social media reports under your own brand for a professional touch. 

Security is top-notch, ensuring your client's data is always protected. Sendible offers advanced scheduling with approval workflows for streamlined content creation, social listening for staying ahead of industry trends, and comprehensive reporting for data-driven decision-making. 

This feature-rich platform empowers small businesses to scale their social media management services with confidence.

Key Features

Publishing

• Advanced Scheduling & Approval Workflows: Streamline social media content creation and approval processes.
• Scheduling with Queues: Schedule with queues to make promoting easy and consistent.
• RSS feeds: Seamlessly share quality content with RSS feeds.
• Security & Compliance: Manage user permissions and ensure data security.
• Social Inbox: Manage all social media conversations in a unified inbox.

Collaboration

• Multi-Client Management: Manage social media for multiple clients from a single platform.
• Limit Access: You can limit access to certain users with customer hierarchies and permissions.
• Approve Posts before Scheduling: Create user workflows for clients and team members to approve content before publishing.

Mobile

• One App: Manage all your social streams through one mobile app.
• Respond from Anywhere: Respond to messages from anywhere and anytime and enable message notifications.

Analytics

• Email Reports: Keep your clients in the loop by sending them regular automated reports daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Google Analytics: Get deeper insights by integrating Sendible with Google Analytics.
• Campaign Management: Plan, execute, and track social media campaigns.
• White-Labeling: Customize the platform with your own branding.

Pros	Cons
Manage social media for multiple clients.	No free plan is available.
White-label platform for professional branding.	Complex features may overwhelm new users.
Advanced scheduling with approval workflows.	Not the most user-friendly interface.
Comprehensive reporting and data analysis.
Secure platform for client data protection.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Users	Social Profiles
CREATOR	$29 /mo billed monthly	1	6
TRACTION	$89 /mo billed monthly	4	24
WHITE LABEL	$240 /mo billed monthly	10	60
WHITE LABEL+	$750 /mo billed monthly	50	300

4. Hubspot: All-In-One Platform

HubSpot empowers you to focus on what matters, attracting high-quality leads, nurturing relationships, and converting them into loyal customers. Craft a captivating website with the built-in Content Management System, design beautiful email campaigns, and manage your social media presence with ease.

HubSpot offers even more. Rank higher in search results with built-in SEO tools. Convert website visitors into leads with high-performing landing pages. Automate repetitive marketing tasks with marketing automation. Manage customer relationships from a centralized location with CRM integration. Gain valuable insights with comprehensive analytics and reporting tools. 

HubSpot is more than just a marketing tool; it's your growth partner, allowing you to streamline workflows, attract leads, nurture relationships, and convert prospects into customers – all from a single platform.

Key Features

Marketing Hub

• Attract High-Quality Leads: Leverage AI for targeted content, conversion optimization, and personalized outreach.
• Automate Marketing Tasks: Save time with email nurturing, social media scheduling, and lead scoring.
• Measure Marketing Performance: Gain valuable insights with comprehensive analytics.

Sales Hub

• Manage Deals Efficiently: Track deals, collaborate with teams, and prioritize leads using pipelines and forecasting tools.
• Automate Repetitive Tasks: Free up your sales team's time with automated follow-ups, meetings, and lead qualification.

Service Hub

• Offer Omnichannel Support: Manage customer inquiries across various channels for a seamless experience.
• Leverage AI Chatbots for 24/7 Support: Provide continuous support with AI-powered chatbots.

Content Hub (New)

• Maximize Content Reach: Repurpose existing content into various formats (social media posts, infographics) for wider reach.
• Maintain Consistent Brand Voice: Ensure consistent messaging across all content with AI-powered suggestions.

Operations Hub

• Sync Data Seamlessly: Eliminate data silos and ensure consistency across your CRM by syncing data with other business applications.
• Analytics & Reporting: Gain valuable insights into your marketing performance with comprehensive analytics and reporting tools.

Pros	Cons
Streamlines marketing efforts and eliminates the need for multiple tools.	Higher pricing plans for comprehensive marketing automation and analytics.
Grows with your business, catering to both small and large companies.	May require some time to learn all the functionalities.
User-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality.	Customization options for website design might be limited.
Actionable data and reports to optimize marketing campaigns.
Offers limited features to get you started.

Plan	Price	Seats
Marketing Hub Professional	Starts at $800/mo	3
Marketing Hub Enterprise	Starts at $3,600/mo	5

5. Hootsuite: Your Mission Control Center

Feeling overwhelmed by juggling multiple social media accounts? Hootsuite acts as your mission control center, allowing you to oversee everything from a single dashboard. Think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more – all under one roof! Schedule posts in advance, stay on top of brand mentions, analyze performance metrics, and collaborate seamlessly with your team. 

Hootsuite empowers you to centralize your social media efforts, saving precious time and ensuring a consistent brand presence across all platforms. It's the perfect command center for small businesses seeking a comprehensive and streamlined social media management solution.

Key Features

Publish

• Schedule & Publish: Plan and schedule posts across multiple social networks.
• Engage & Monitor: Track brand mentions, conversations, and messages in a unified inbox.
• Integrations: Integrates with various marketing and CRM tools.

Monitor

• Assign Posts and Comments: For better monitoring assign posts and comments to team members.
• Team Performance Report: Monitor the performance of your team members and employees through monthly reports.
• Social Listening: Gain insights into industry trends and competitor activity.

Analytics

• Multi-channel analytics: See a complete picture of your performance across all social media platforms.

• Measure & Analyze: Generate reports to understand social media performance.
• Advanced Analytics: Deep dive into social media data for informed decision-making.

Advertise

• DeeperOrganic Engagement: Let the audience know your brand at every stage of their customer journey.
• Security & Compliance: Securely manage social media access with user permissions and activity logs.

Pros	Cons
Manage all social media in one place.	Limited free plan features.
Schedule posts in advance.	The interface can be overwhelming for beginners.
Track brand mentions and conversations.
Analyze social media performance.
Collaborate with team members.

Pricing  

Plan	Price	Users
Professional	$99 per month/month	1 User, 10 Social accounts
Team	$249 per month/month	20 Users, 20 Social accounts
Enterprise	Custom pricing	50 Users, 50 Social accounts

6. AgoraPulse: The All-in-One Engagement Machine

Imagine a unified social inbox where you manage messages and conversations across all platforms – Facebook comments, Twitter mentions, Instagram DMs – all in one place. AgoraPulse delivers this dream for small businesses seeking an all-in-one solution. It takes engagement a step further with AI-powered writing assistance for crafting compelling captions. 

Want to leverage influencer marketing? AgoraPulse provides tools to help you identify and collaborate with brand ambassadors. This feature-rich platform also boasts social listening, reporting, and analytics, along with team collaboration features to keep your social media efforts organized and impactful. 

With AgoraPulse, small businesses can manage their social media presence, fuel engagement, and gain valuable insights – all within a single platform.

Key Features

Social Listening

• Content Calendar & Scheduling: Plan and schedule social media content for optimal publishing.
• Boolean operators: Listen and focus on what is important and drill down on specifics.
• Label important content: Organize content by labeling what is important and on priority.
• Social Media Advertising: Manage paid social media campaigns across different platforms.
• Social Listening & Monitoring: Track brand mentions, industry trends, and competitor activity.

Insightful Analytics

• AI-Powered Writing Assistant: Craft compelling social media captions with the help of AI.
• Measure teams’ Performance: Easily monitor the response time of each team member to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Power Reports: Create custom reports based on metrics and data range of your choosing across all social media platforms.

Intuitive Publishing

• Easy Communication and Collaboration: Share notes and comments with your team members in real-time.
• Big Pcture Content Overview: Share a big picture content overview by accepting, rejecting, or giving feedback on individual posts.
• Rescheduling: Maximize content potential by rescheduling content more than twice.

Pros	Cons
Unified social inbox for all conversations.	Limited free plan features..
AI-powered writing assistance for captions.	The interface might be overwhelming for beginners.
Influencer marketing tools for brand partnerships.
Powerful social listening and reporting.
Offers team collaboration features.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Users	Social Profiles
Free Plan	Free	1	3
Standard Plan	$49 per user/month (Billed annually)	1	10 (additional $10/mo per profile)
Professional Plan	$79 per user/month (Billed annually)	1	10 (additional $10/mo per profile)
Advanced Plan	$119 per user/month (Billed annually)	1	10 (additional $10/mo per profile)

7. Loomly: The Visual Command Center

For small businesses that thrive on visuals, Loomly shines. Imagine a drag-and-drop calendar where you plan your entire social media strategy with a birds-eye view. Loomly excels at this, allowing you to visualize your content pipeline and maintain a consistent posting schedule. 

It boasts a centralized content library for organized social media assets and integrates with graphic design tools like Canva for seamless graphic creation. Loomly streamlines collaboration with team features and provides social listening tools to keep you on top of industry trends, making it a visually-driven powerhouse for small businesses.

Key Features

Dashboard

• One Platform: manage all your social media accounts through one platform
• Drag & Drop Calendar: Visually plan and schedule social media content.

Publishing

• Automated Publishing: Set and forget social media scheduling.
• Post Previews: Preview how your content will look before publishing.
• Unsplash and Giphy integration: make your posts more interactive and fun with integrations

Analytics

• Analytics For All Posts: access analytic reports for all posts, even for those not published via Loomly
• Account, Post, and URL Metrics: identify immediately which content the audience is most interested in

• Content Library: Organize and manage social media assets in one place.
• Canva Integration: Design stunning visuals for your social media posts directly within Loomly.
• Social Listening: Track brand mentions and industry trends.

Pros	Cons
Visually plan social media content with drag & drop.	Limited free plan features.
Organize social media assets in a content library.	Analytics can be basic for some needs.
Integrates with design tools like Canva.	May not be ideal for managing large teams.
Track brand mentions and industry trends.
Offers basic team collaboration features.

Pricing

Features	Base	Standard	Advanced	Premium
Social Media Accounts	10	20	35	50
Users	2	6	14	30
Price (Monthly)	$32	$60	$131	$277
Total (Yearly)	$384 total a year	$720 total a year	$1,572 total a year	$3,324 total a year
Free Trial	Start 15-Day Free Trial	Start 15-Day Free Trial	Start 15-Day Free Trial	Start 15-Day Free Trial

8. Constant Contact: Social Media Friend

Constant Contact is your secret weapon. This all-in-one marketing platform empowers small businesses to ditch the struggle and nurture connections that drive sales. Imagine crafting beautiful, mobile-friendly emails with just a drag and drop – no design experience needed. 

Constant Contact boasts a library of pre-designed templates to jumpstart your creativity, ensuring your messages look polished and professional across all devices. But email is just the beginning.

Constant Contact helps you conquer social media by scheduling and publishing posts across various platforms, saving you time and keeping your audience buzzing. And if you've ever dreamed of having a user-friendly online store, Constant Contact has you covered. Build a professional, mobile-friendly website without needing to touch a single line of code. 

Key Features

Social Media Management

• All-in-one Social Posting: Manage Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts from a single platform for effortless social media management.
• Social Scheduling: Schedule posts in advance to save time and ensure consistent content flow across your social channels.
• Multi-Platform Engagement: Respond to comments, messages, and mentions directly within Constant Contact, simplifying social media interaction.

Email Marketing

• Drag-and-Drop Email Builder: Create visually appealing and engaging email newsletters with user-friendly drag-and-drop tools.
• Email Marketing Automation: Automate email workflows to nurture leads, segment audiences, and send targeted campaigns.
• List Management Tools: Organize and manage your email subscriber lists efficiently with built-in list segmentation and growth features.
• Email Analytics: Track email performance with detailed analytics to understand open rates, click-through rates, and campaign effectiveness.

Additional Features

• Landing Page Builder: Create high-converting landing pages to capture leads and grow your email list.
• Basic Ecommerce Tools: Manage online stores and product listings (limited functionality compared to dedicated ecommerce platforms).
• SMS Marketing (Limited): Send targeted text message marketing campaigns to reach your audience directly (may require additional fees).
• CRM (Limited): Manage basic contact information and track customer interactions within Constant Contact (limited functionality compared to dedicated CRM systems).
• Free Image Library: Access a library of royalty-free images to enhance your email and social media content.

Pros	Cons
Ideal for beginners with little marketing experience.	Limited design customization.
Affordable pricing plans.	Free trial has limited features
Wide range of integrated marketing tools.	Higher pricing tiers.
Comprehensive analytics to track campaign effectiveness.
Many features are under one platform.

Pricing

Plan	Starting Price
Lite	$12/month
Standard	$35/month
Premium	$80/month

9. Zoho Social: Great for All Size Business

Zoho Social offers a powerful solution for businesses of all sizes. In today's digital landscape, maintaining a consistent and engaging social media presence across multiple platforms can feel like an insurmountable task. This all-in-one social media management platform empowers you to ditch the juggling act and take control of your social media strategy.

Imagine scheduling eye-catching content for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and beyond – all from a single, intuitive dashboard. Zoho Social goes beyond just scheduling, allowing you to foster meaningful connections with your audience. Respond to comments and messages efficiently, keeping conversations flowing and building brand loyalty and improve retention rate. 

Stay ahead of the curve by tracking brand mentions and industry conversations through Zoho Social's powerful social listening features. Zoho Social doesn't stop there. Gain valuable insights into your social media performance with comprehensive analytics reports, allowing you to measure success and optimize your strategy for maximum impact. 

Key Features

Scheduling & Planning:

• Schedule posts in advance for optimal engagement based on Zoho's best-time predictions or create custom schedules.
• Visualize your content pipeline with an intuitive calendar to plan posts across platforms.

Monitoring & Engagement:

• Stay on top of conversations with multiple listening columns to track brand mentions.
• Respond directly within Zoho Social to comments, messages, and mentions for better engagement.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Gain valuable audience insights and understand how they engage with your content.
• Track key metrics like reach, engagement, and click-through rates to measure performance.

Additional Features:

• Schedule posts directly to Instagram and manage your Instagram presence.
• Manage social media for multiple clients with a centralized platform ideal for agencies.
• Manage social media on the go with Zoho Social's mobile app.
• Integrate with Zoho CRM & Desk for a unified customer experience.
• Leverage Zia, Zoho's AI assistant, to automate tasks and get content suggestions.
• Connect with various tools like Canva and zShare Browser Extension.

Pros	Cons
User-friendly interface, ideal for beginners and social media managers alike.	Free plan has limitations on scheduling and team collaboration.
Affordable pricing plans with features scaling to your business needs.	Limited built-in image editing tools (may require third-party integration).
Streamlined management of all major social media platforms.	Advanced features like social listening require higher-tier plans.
Powerful analytics to measure and optimize your social media strategy.

Pricing

Plan	Price
STANDARD	US$10/month
PROFESSIONAL	US$30/month
PREMIUM	US$40/month

Choosing the Right Social Media Management Tool for Your Business: Key Considerations

While this article explores various social media management tools, remember there's no magic one-size-fits-all solution! The key to success lies in understanding your business's specific needs.

Here's what to prioritize when making your choice:

• Know Your Needs: What matters most to you? Scheduling posts? Tracking results? Engaging with followers? Prioritize features that fit your goals.
• Test Drive Before You Buy: Many tools offer free trials and demos. Take them for a spin to see if they're user-friendly and offer the features you need.
• Consider the Extras: Integrations with other tools you use can save tons of time. Reliable customer support is also a big plus.

To make it easy, ask yourself:

• Is the price affordable for you?
• Is the platform offering a free demo or trial period?
• Is the platform offering the integrations you require necessarily?
• Is the customer support team quick and efficient?

Conclusion

Each social media management platform offers basic features. All these include the likes of publishing tools, listening tools, reporting and analytics, advertising tools, monitoring tools, and engagement tools.

It is important to understand each of these tools in depth before deciding your pick. Research carefully and patiently to identify the best social media management tools and invest accordingly.

We wish you good luck in finding a platform best suited for you. Don't forget to share your opinion in the comment section below.