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7 BEST Free Social Media Scheduling Tools to Schedule Social Media Posts

Best free social media scheduling tools. thinkmaverick

Are you wondering how to schedule your social media content?

 

Do you want to know how to manage multiple social media channels all at the same time?

 

We’ve got you covered.

 

In this article, you’ll find the best social media scheduling tools that can help you save time and make sure your content reaches the right audience at the right time.

 

To build a strong social presence, you will be required to put in a lot of work and effort. From creating and publishing content to tracking post performance and measuring ROI. 

 

But the outcome is worth it.

 

More than 3.8 billion people now use social media (out of 4.5 billion internet users!), so if you’re not taking advantage of that as a brand then you’re losing out on the goldmine.

Thankfully, there are tons of awesome social media management tools that make it easy for you to automate mundane, repetitive tasks – leaving you time for what matters most: your business.

 

I definitely won’t be able to grow this blog in just a couple of months without the help from social media scheduling.

 

To help you do the same, I’ve performed some detailed research and turned over a fair few rocks to bring you this tantalizing list!

 

No matter what’s your budget, niche or marketing goals, you can find one (or two) tool that works for you.

 

But, as they say, you gotta crawl before you can walk. Let’s cover the basics of social media scheduling first.

 

What is Social Media Scheduler and Why should you use it?

Social Media scheduler is an application that lets you schedule your posts and will automatically publish them at a particular time or date on your specified social media account/s; whether that be Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Twitter.

 

Fact: Social Media Strategy plays an important role in building brand awareness, expanding audience reach, generating leads and sales. According to Pew Research, most people use Social Media at least once a day (rather than older channels like Google)

 

As we all know, social media never sleeps. Putting your life on hold or waking up at absurd times to post is not a sustainable way to grow in the long run.

 

Consistency is the key.

 

You don’t want to sprint like a hare. Posting 5 posts a day when you have content and having nothing posted for a week is NOT an effective way of social media marketing.

 

You want to plan like a tortoise. Make sure you have a steady flow of content for your audience.

 

That’s why you need a social media scheduling tool.

 

The social media scheduler will suggest the optimal time to schedule the posting, ensure the content you create is always fresh and stay consistent.

 

Not only that, but some of these tools will also provide analytics, reporting, hashtag suggestions, and content planning. 

 

Why Schedule Social Media Posts?

Here are the main benefits of using social media scheduling tools:

  1. You’ll save a lot of time. You can allocate a time every week or month and schedule all the posts out, instead of logging in and out of every social media account to post each day.
  2. You can be active without being physically available. With social media scheduling, you can publish content automatically on your social media accounts without having to lift a finger!
  3. You won’t forget to post. Social media scheduler makes sure your content will be posted at the best engagement time to your social accounts while you’re on the road, busy at work or tucked into bed. You don’t have to worry about your social channels, blog or website being stagnant.
  4. Space out your posts. Instead of bombarding your followers with 5 posts in an hour, social media scheduling lets you space out your posts -to get more engagement.
  5. Manage multiple different profiles and networks from one place. With social media scheduling, you can manage multiple different social accounts in a single dashboard.
  6. Schedule your posts ahead of time. You can bulk schedule your posts and auto-publishing everything directly from your computer for a more efficient work-flow. As well as schedule content on the go from your smartphone.

 

Pro Tip: Each social media scheduler offers different benefits and interfaces. Carefully read through the features provided such as unlimited social accounts, bulk scheduling, competitor tracking etc.

 

The best social media scheduling tools for 2020 and beyond

 

1. Apphi 

What is Apphi Scheduler

I’ve used a lot of tools over the years, and Apphi is now my #1 favorite social media scheduling tool it’s what we use here at Think Maverick.

 

Apphi makes it easy to visually plan, bulk schedule your content, auto-post, track results and manage multiple social accounts from one dashboard.

 

It allows you to schedule your Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts weeks in advance and then automatically publishing them for you at the best time. Read my full review of Apphi here.

 

Here’s how it works:

You can Bulk Schedule anything on your phone or computer.

 

When you create content, use the Drag-and-drop scheduling to rearrange images of your upcoming post. If you’re scheduling Instagram, you can easily craft a visually-appealing Instagram feed.

 

Use the Smart Features to optimize your posts- apply suggested hashtags, saved captions, emojis, tag people, location.

 

Apphi is particularly great for scheduling Instagram content. You can hide your hashtags and Apphi will automatically post your hashtags as your first comment for each post. Plus, you can auto-apply captions, so you won’t have the same caption used in a row.

 

Once your post is live, you can measure its performance. With this valuable data, you can reschedule your top-performing content for reposting with just one click! This way, the best posts will work for you over and over again, without any extra work on your part.

 

Also, you can set with expiration dates for posts that might be related to a specific event or promotion, so that Apphi will automatically delete the post on a specific time.

 

If that’s not enough, Apphi will help you track your competitors, see what posts get the most likes, comments, engagements. And you can add them to your queues for automatic publishing.

 

Main features:

 

Best for bloggers, marketers, brands, influencers and agencies who are looking for a single tool to manage unlimited accounts, schedule, and auto-post everything to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

 

Schedule platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (*Apphi allows you to manage unlimited social accounts even with their free plan, while other schedulers will charge you for each social pages added)

 

Pricing: Take Apphi for a Test Drive. It’s free and you can add unlimited Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to manage. If you want to have advanced features, it starts at $9/month. (Get 10% OFF here on your First Payment)

 

2. Tailwind

What is Tailwind

Tailwind is a powerful social media scheduling tool for Pinterest and Instagram- allowing you to bulk schedule pins and IG posts for days, weeks, and even months in advance.

 

Tailwind is an official Instagram and Pinterest Developer partner, so you can rest assured that your account is safe with Tailwind.

 

If you want to grow on these two visual-centric social media platforms, then Tailwind is the perfect choice for you.

 

Tailwind for Pinterest is by far the best Pinterest marketing tool that will save you maximum time – automatically publish your scheduled Pins to multiple boards at the optimal time when most of your audience is active. For more information on how use Tailwind to grow your blog, visit this article with all my tips.

 

Main Features:

 

Tailwind for Instagram helps you plan your grid, auto-schedule posts, Stories and videos, find the best hashtags, monitor comments, track results, all with one tool.

 

Once you create and schedule your Instagram posts, videos or Stories, then Tailwind will automatically post them to your Instagram. Everything is fully automated.

 

Tailwind’s Smart Bio Link is a $0, Free Forever tool that allows you easily and quickly add as many links as you want in your Instagram bio.

 

When someone clicks the link in your IG bio, they’ll see a beautiful landing page with rich links to your best content. Use it to link to your popular blog posts, product pages, free downloadable content, website, podcasts, videos and any link you want. Learn how to supercharge your Instagram bio link here.

 

Best for bloggers, freelancers, small businesses, agencies and large enterprises who want to fully automate Pinterest and Instagram marketing.

 

Schedule platforms: Pinterest and Instagram

 

Pricing: Do note that Tailwind for Pinterest and Tailwind for Instagram are two different products.

Each Instagram/Pinterest Plus Plan costs $15 per month, $9.99 per month if paid annually. And, as a reader of this site, you can test out this tool and schedule for free up to 30 Instagram posts and 100 Pinterest Pins for Free  (+ include $15 credit for your FREE second month)

 

 

3. Social Pilot

What is Social Pilot

Social Pilot makes it easy to maintain a 24/7 presence on social media. 

 

The Auto-scheduling allows you to automate posting to Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google My Business and Vkontakte all in one place!

 

You can upload, edit and schedule up to 500 social media posts and Tweets with text and images at once, by simply uploading a file. It’s a huge time-saver. 

 

If you find something interesting that’s worth sharing while browing the Internet, you can schedule it directly with SocialPilot’s browser extension. No switching windows.

 

And Social Pilot will automatically publish your content at the best engagement time. Also, you can share content (anytime) on-the-go with SocialPilot’s iOS and android app.

 

Moreover, you can use it to monitor your branded hashtags and competitors. You’ll be able to analyze and measure the performance of your posts and account right on your dashboard too.

 

Main Features:

 

Best for individuals, businesses and agencies who want to manage all social profiles from one single dashboard.

 

Schedule platforms: Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google My Business and Vkontakte

 

Pricing:

Social Pilot has a range of subscription plans for small teams through to large enterprises. Each plan can be customized by adding additional users or profiles, rather than paying for features you don’t need. Prices start from $30/month or $25/month when paid annually, and include all the scheduling features.

 

4. Promo Republic

What is Promo Republic

Promo Republic is a little (bit) different from other schedulers. Think of it like Canva within a social media management tool!

 

With Promo Republic, you can design and manage all your social profiles and automatically schedule effective social content from a single dashboard.

 

The built-in intuitive Graphics Editor lets you create beautiful posts without leaving the app.

 

Choose from 100,000 quality images, GIFs and pre-made templates. Add texts, banners, shapes, colors and your brand logo to your images.

 

You can even organize, and store editable branded contents in custom folders for easier navigation.

 

Once you are satisfied with your design, you can schedule your posts to major social media channels with a single click. 

 

To save time and effort, schedule image posts in bulk with Promo Republic.

 

Let the AI system does the work – Smart Posting Time helps you publish posts when your audience’s engagement is at its peak and figure out how often you should post to each social media account.

 

The analytics tool will provide easy-to-digest reports, so that you can better improve your social media performance. You can see reach and engagement rates of all published posts, the number of comments and shares

 

You’ll have the option to export your reports into PDF.

 

If you have multiple members on your team, you can easily collaborate content with your team, create a separate workspace for each client, share comments and ideas all in one place.


Main Features:

 

Best for individuals and businesses who’re looking to design social media content, schedule, automate publishing, collaborate with teams and analyze results in one dashboard. No separate graphic software. 

 

Schedule platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business

 

Pricing: Promo Republic offers subscription plans based on how many social media pages you want to manage. Prices start at $49/month.

Sign-up for a free 14-day trial to test out all of the Promo Republic’s features.

 

5. SEMRush

What is SEMRush

Unlike other social media tools on this list, SEMRush is an all-in-one marketing platform that offers all the tools you need for SEO, advertising, content marketing, competitive research. And now they offer Social Media Toolkit that goes beyond social media scheduling and provides features like tracking and analyzing your competitor.

 

Let’s take a quick look at SEMRush’s Social Media Toolkit:

Social Media Poster is a social posting tool that allows you to create, plan and schedule posts on different social media platforms including Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

 

With the visual editor and content calendar, you can easily create, plan and edit your image (add texts, adjust brightness and saturation) without leaving SEMRush. Social Media Poster will also find the best time for your post and automatically publish them to respective social media accounts (Except Instagram, you can schedule posts only, no auto-post).

 

Social Media Tracker is an analytics tool that allows you to find, track and analyze your competitors’ campaigns, hashtags, promotions, special offers, and top-performing posts to enhance your own social media strategy!

 

Here’s what makes SEMRush stand out: the UTM builder and link shortener. Your links will be shortened automatically with Bitly integration. All you need to do is add the UTM option for more accurate tracking. 

 

With the short, trackable links, you can easily know how your visitors find and interact with your content, where they’re coming from to better optimize your social media strategy. 

 

When your post is live on each network, the built-in analytics will help you find out which content works the best so you can recycle top-performing content, add evergreen content on repeating queues as well as repurposing old content to maximize your reach.

 

What’s more, you can also learn from your competitors, see what content they’re posting across the major social channels and generate customizable reports.

 

Main Features:

Here are some of the things you can easily do with SEMRush:

 

Best for bloggers, freelancers, marketers, small businesses, agencies and large enterprises who want to manage and track all social profiles, SEO, SMM, paid search and more in a single tool.

 

Schedule platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram

 

Pricing: SEMRush has 3 different subscription-based plans catered for businesses of all sizes – from freelancers to small and medium-sized businesses, and agencies. All the plans include the Social Media Toolkit.

Plans start at $99.95/month. Take advantage of their 7-day free trial to enjoy all the social media scheduling features.

 

6. TweetDeck

What is TweetDeck

Acquired by Twitter in 2011, TweetDeck is a FREE all-round tool marketing for Twitter. It allows you to manage, schedule and post tweets to your Twitter account.

 

If you’re just looking to grow your Twitter account, and nothing more, then this tool is best for you.

 

Here’s how it works:

Since it’s part of Twitter, you don’t need to create a new account.

Simply sign in to your Twitter account at TweetDeck on your desktop.

Now you’re at TweetDeck, you can add multiple Twitter accounts to manage.

 

Main features:

 

Best for individuals and businesses that want to better organize their Twitter and manage multiple accounts all in one place on the screen.

 

Schedule platforms: Twitter only

 

Pricing: 100% Free Forever

 

7. Buffer Publish

 

What is Buffer Publish

Buffer is a real time-saver in managing your social media profiles. It allows you to schedule, craft the perfect posts, publish content for Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, all in one single place.

 

Compared to fully-fledged tools like Apphi, Buffer offers limited scheduling functionality. For example, you can’t bulk upload content to Buffer.

 

However, this simple tool has everything you need to plan, schedule and auto-publish your content across all major social media platforms.

 

Here’s how it works:

To get started, simply connect your social accounts.

 

Then, create a preset publishing schedule for each social account. Once you create a custom posting schedule for each platform, you don’t have to think about the posting date and time anymore. Just upload your posts, add them to the queue, and Buffer will automatically place them into the next available slot for smooth workflow. 

 

Customize your posts -add hashtags, caption, emojis to tailor your posts for each social network.

 

Have a bird-eye view of your content (both published and scheduled posts) with the Content Calendar.

 

You can see the engagement rate for published posts and how your upcoming posts will look like at a glance.

 

That’s it. Buffer will automate posting at the best time for maximum impact.

 

Main Features:

 

Best for individuals and businesses who’re looking for a simple tool to handle all their social media scheduling.

 

Schedule platforms: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn

 

Pricing: Buffer offers a 14-day free trial for all the plans. Pricing for Buffer is split into 3 key plans:

 

 

Conclusion

So there you have it! 7 best social media scheduling tools to save you time and boost your social presence. 

 

You have nothing to lose. Many of them are 100% free or at least offer a free trial. 

 

Don’t just post randomly on social media and wait for the magic to happen.

Take advantage of this free tool, easily schedule, publish and repost great content to your social accounts.

 

You can always make money back. You can NEVER make one minute of time back. 

Automate your social media posting with social media scheduler, save time on repetitive tasks, live more and achieve more.

 

Do you schedule your social media posts in advance? Why or why not?

Which apps do you use for scheduling social media posts?

Did I miss out your favorite social media scheduling tool?

Tell me in the comment!

 

Related reading:

 

Last but not least, if this post was of any help to you, please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!

Thank you so much!

 

If you are interested in learning more about my entrepreneurial journey, Check this out.

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