It’s a pretty daunting task at the best of times right? From remembering to schedule posts to designing them perfectly in the first place, measuring up nextdoor’s content to simultaneously analysing and reporting on your own, marketing in the social media space sometimes asks a lot… 

That’s why having the right tools for the job is so important. You wouldn’t go fishing without a rod, or painting without a brush. Well, you shouldn’t go marketing without automated analytics, scheduling systems, design generators and reporting software tools either. 

But where to find such fabulously useful things you ask? Ah, great question. We put together a little smorgasbord of the year’s best and shiniest social media marketing tools so that you don’t have to. Enjoy. 

Social Media Marketing Tools 

 

Competitor Benchmarking & Industry Analysis 

One of the aspects of a marketing drive most critical to getting the overall strategy right is knowing what your competition is up to. The following social media marketing tools are fine-tuned to help you do just that. Affording you unique access into the goings-on of the industry in general, whilst at the same time giving you specific information on what the other lot are up to, these tools are for benchmarking your competition and analysing movements across the market.

Social Blade

 

 

With advanced technology, Social Blade offers benchmarking tools that get you ahead of the curve by providing key performance data on the competition, including user engagement information across a global public database. 

Working across platforms to analyse user statistics from YouTube, Instagram, Twitch and X, the service boasts a reach as impressive as it’s reputation – overseeing 94.5 million accounts worldwide.

Pricing: 

Social Blade business ‘Gold’ plans start at $39.99 per month.

Phlanx

 

 

With cross-channel competitor tracking and auditing software to suit everything from engagement checks to growth projections, Phlanx has got your back when it comes to providing useful and clear data in colourful and no-nonsense packaging. 

Pricing: 

Business plans start at $90 per month if billed annually or $100 per month if billed monthly. Analytics / Reporting 

While it’s all well and good peeking over the garden fence, what about what’s going on at home? Effective social media strategy planning begins with you; more specifically it begins with you understanding you. The following tools are designed to give you confidence by providing effective ways of analysing, tracking, and reporting on key performance and growth data over time.

Loomly

 

 

The built-in Loomly dashboard organises your performance data and levels visual assets in a way that just makes sense. Putting you in charge of your information with their handy labelling feature, the app enables for an efficient filtering of reports to make planning ahead just that little bit easier. 

Pricing: 

Loomly’s most popular ‘advanced’ plan starts at $131 per month if billed annually, $175 per month if billed monthly.

Rival IQ

 

 

Custom reports, advanced analytics and handy “oops-that was close” alerts. These are the features that comprise Rival IQ’s answer to that age old marketing challenge: how do you stay on top of your campaign at the same time as killing it in your business in general. Well, as a social media marketing tool we think Rival IQ’s trend analysis and social listening capabilities offer a pretty convincing solution. 

Pricing: 

Their most popular ‘drive plan starts at $199 per month if billed annually and $239 per month if billed monthly.

 

Content Ideas 

 

Generating content that not only grabs the attention of users but stays true to exactly what it is that makes you you, is paramount to creating and growing an authentic brand. Here are our picks for the tools that will best help you keep the ideas, and the interest, flowing.

ContentShake AI by SemRush

 

Producing engaging content that suits your brand and gets you noticed, in just one click, sounds rather nifty right? Shame that the perfect marketing tool for providing that doesn’t exi… Wait a second, it does exist! ContentShake AI by SemRush offers AI-supported content generation solutions, utilising real-time competitor data, to give you that added edge on those slow content days… 

Pricing: 

There’s a free trial to start you off, after that you can expect to pay $60 per month.

Publer

 

The Publer Content Curation and Media Integration features allow you to make from scratch, organise, preview and publish engaging visuals and copy in half the time. Moreover, their Browser Extension gizmo lets you share content from almost anywhere online at the click of a button, meaning that you stay connected to your audience wherever you happen to be! 

Pricing: 

With business plans starting at £16.78/month. 

 

Design 

 

Marketing and Design. Those who make the graph and those who make it look pretty. 

Where the two used to be pitted in separate camps, increasingly it’s becoming more common for marketers to have a go themselves. So, if what you’re needing are some handy ways to expedite the journey from creating content to publishing, by giving you a way of more easily making the place look nice before having your audience over, the following gizmos are just the ticket…

Adobe Illustrator

 

 

In conversations about design, it’s never long before Adobe comes up. Best Friend to both those new in the game, as well as those more seasoned designers, Adobe Illustrator is one of the best social media marketing tools that offers a widely respected and hugely popular option for designing anything from dummy-proof vector graphics to crisp and inviting site layouts. 

Did you know you can also use Adobe Illustrator to turn prompts into editable graphics? That means making customisable and scalable options that do even more for you as social graphics and brand assets. Now that’s clever. 

Pricing: 

Plans start at £21.98/month.

Canva

 

Truly a democratising tool, Canva offers much of their stuff for absolutely nothing! Diddly-squat! That’s nice, isn’t it? What’s even nicer is the fact that Canva gives you the option to get the whole team collaborating on a project before in-service platform links let you publish wherever your content is most needed! 

Pricing: 

For business plans beyond the free version, you’ll have to contact the Canva sales team! Scheduling 

We all know that little dark cloud. You know the one. It hangs over you with the persistent nagging sensation that you’ve forgotten to post that post at the right time. Respond to that comment. Wouldn’t it be great to have clear skies, with sophisticated software to remember these things for you? Better yet, to do the darn things as well? We think so too, and so do the clever-clogs behind the below scheduling and automation tools.

Buffer

 

 

Buffer steps in to stop you juggling your busy schedule along with remembering a never-shortening set of post and publish to-dos. 

With custom controls and analytics that guide you toward finding the right time to post for your audience, their growth-centred approach keeps your campaign on track – leaving you to focus on the important stuff. 

Pricing: 

Their ‘Team’ plan starts at $10 per month if paid annually or $12 per month if paid monthly.

Hootsuite

 

 

Just a few mouse clicks, taps and an exhalation of a deep breath. That’s what the process of having Hootsuite take the reins on social media marketing scheduling involves. With historical performance data analytics and an eye to the algorithm, the Hootsuite scheduling function lets you know the perfect time for your audience to see you shine – what’s more, it then does all the publishing for you as well. 

Pricing: 

After the Hootsuite free trial, the ‘Team’ plan comes in at £249 per month with the option to get 20% off if you skip the trial. 

 

Influencer Vetting 

 

90% of marketers – that’s right, you heard us, 90% – agree that influencer marketing is one of the most effective forms of reaching and scaling audiences online. Having the right influencers in your network then, ones that can be trusted with your brand, image, and reputation is more than just a little important. The below are some of our favourites when it comes to data-driven Influencer discovery and screening tools.

CreatorIQ

 

 

CreatorIQ comes out batting hard. With their AI-powered Creator Discovery tool, they scour the landscape so that you don’t have to – locating the best individuals to do your brand justice, while scaling your following to new heights. 

With a “search the way you talk” quick-search bar, alongside new spangled semantic modelling tools, discovering the right people is faster, more efficient, and far less hassle. 

Pricing: 

CreatorIQ doesn’t publicly list their pricing offers online so you’ll have to reach out to their Platform Specialists if you fancy a quote.

Upfluence 

 

 

From micro-influencers to celebrities and KOLs, Upfluence lines up talent that already has a love for your brand. With data profiles covering engagement rates, audience size and demographics intel, you get everything you need to vet the talent that will work best for you. 

Once they’re onboard, Upfluence then provides a comprehensive management system for making sure that everyone remains happy!

Pricing: 

Upfluence doesn’t list their prices, so get in touch for a demo and a quote via their website! CTA 

Want To Know More About Finding The Right Tools For The Job? Get In Touch Now!