A strong social media presence is a must-have for brands that want to engage their audience and boost their reputation.

But it’s not as simply as just firing off the occasional post on X or putting up a quick snap on Instagram. If you want to make social media work for your brand you need to think strategically about what you post, the platform you use and also when you post it. And, that almost always means posting well-crafted content, on multiple platforms and outside office hours, when you can maximise the chances of customers having the opportunity to engage and respond. 

Getting all of these things right can be the difference between the belle of the social media ball and being a social media wallflower, with your beautifully created posts unliked, unshared and unloved.

If the idea of targeting your posts to hit the morning-coffee-X-scroll, or the commuting-Tik Tok-browse, or the pre-bed-Instagram-check-up fills you with dread, do not fear! This is exactly what Social Media Schedulers were made for.

With a Social Media Scheduler in your tool-box you can plan out your social media content across the different platforms and social media accounts that work for your brand. Schedulers let you get an overview of your social campaign so that you can make sure that everything you are doing is optimised for the audience you want to attract.  They also let you target your posting-times and space out your content so that you get the best possible return for your work.

So what are the best Social Media Schedulers out there and which one is right for your brand? Don’t worry, like with all things social, Social Chameleon has got you covered.

Sprout Social

Best for Sprouting Understanding

Sprout Social has great tools to boost your posting-efficiency. It lets you post on multiple platforms, has a fantastic interactive calendar and social-media managers rave about its scheduling tools.

But where Sprout Social really comes into its own is with its analytics.

Users who are paying for the ‘Professional’ tier and above get access to cleverly-designed software which lets you easily apply tags to posts. These can then be used to track impressions, interactions and see how your follower-numbers are growing. The level of analysis Sprout Social offers gives you the insight needed to help you to hone your voice and interactions to get the best responses possible, boosting your numbers and growing loyalty.

Brandwatch

Best for Listening

Many of the biggest and most recognisable brands in the world trust Brandswatch with their social media scheduling. There’s good reason for that, it’s hard to think of anything that Brandwatch doesn’t do well. Its Campaign Planner lets the team see and understand every aspect of the campaign and encourages collaboration, while also creating an audit trail to track every interaction and make sure the whole team is clear about what’s going on.

But what really has social media managers singing its praises is Brandwatch’s remarkable listening capabilities. It provides a view of conversations across all of the different platforms, allowing the team to listen to their target audience, monitor mentions, and engage with trends as they happen. That kind of valuable insight is crucial when it comes to converting likes into real brand loyalty.

Hootsuite

Best for a Big Team

One of the biggest social media schedulers is Hootsuite. They let you manage multiple accounts across all the major platforms. A major benefit is its use of columns so that you can customise content for each channel instead of just cross-posting the same material over and over. It also has great analytics but where it comes into its own is the way it facilitates collaboration and understands the challenges of managing socials in a team.

Users who pay for Hootsuite’s ‘Team’ tier and above get the ability to customise approval settings in the team (so you can really lock down what the intern can do!). It also makes it easy to share digital assets and even offers the ability to assign DMs within the team. Bigger teams can build a custom package which uses all kinds of clever tricks to make sure you are really getting the best out of the expertise and skills within your social media management team. 

Later

Best for Being Picture Perfect

Later works across multiple platforms but where it really stands out is Instagram. Later is an image-first tool, its calendar and planner are highly visual, which means you can always see, and take control of, the look of your campaign.

The built-in media storage offers a safe home for all your photos and videos and also makes it easier to repurpose content, getting the most out of every pixel. Another useful feature is the “Link in Bio’ tool. This is a mini web page that Later creates, and automatically populates with your posts and linked pages, making the content you are posting about findable. Adding this link into your brand’s bio drives traffic to your website and helps customers deepen their relationship with your brand. 

Airtable

Best for Content Planning

Airtable is all about bringing social media scheduling and content planning together. It is set up a bit differently to the rest of our list, with the focus on creating workflows to help your brand to create the right content for your audience, and then using triggers to auto-post to key social platforms.

Airtable understands that, when it comes down to it, what really matters on socials is that your content is tailored to your audience, meeting their needs, speaking to their interests and posted at the right time for them to be able to engage with it. The Airtable asset manager is a great feature, helping your team to see what the content will look like before they hit ‘publish’ and helping your brand’s profile to stay consistent and polished across every platform.    

NapoleonCat

Best for Saving Time 

NapoleonCat is clear that managing your social media shouldn’t be taking over your team’s life. Social media schedulers Like Napoleon Cat promise to win you back time to strategise, plan and tackle the rest of your to-do list while still building your audience and driving engagement.

It might sound too good to be true but they can back up this claim with evidence of the hours they have saved for the many brands signed up with them. They offer an all-in-one social media management platform which promises to streamline your team’s work, helping them to plan, schedule, post and respond seamlessly and hassle-free. NapoleonCat also offers automation features, including auto-moderation of comments and replies to standard queries, helping your social media operation to run 24/7 without running your team into the ground.

Sendible

Best for Agencies

Sendible describes itself as ‘Built for Agencies’ and it’s set up to make it easy for social media managers who are working across multiple brands. Its calendar lets you filter by client so you can make sure that you are hitting your targets for every brand. 

The social media collaboration features are also designed for agencies, allowing you to create personalised dashboards for clients so they can view the interactions for their brand, without sharing passwords or compromising confidentiality for your other clients. 

The automated reporting features are designed to create custom overviews of each brand’s, engagement levels. Highlighting the most valuable posts so that clients can see just how hard the agency is working on their behalf.