The 8 Best Social Media Management Applications of 2023

These tools make promoting content and managing engagement easier

By
Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau
Elise Moreau
Freelance Contributor
  • University of Ontario
  • George Brown College
Elise Moreau is a writer that has covered social media, texting, messaging, and streaming for Lifewire. Her work has appeared on Techvibes, SlashGear, Lifehack and others.
lifewire's editorial guidelines
Updated on January 13, 2023
Reviewed by
Christine Baker
Reviewed by Christine Baker
Christine Baker is a marketing consultant with experience working for a variety of clients. Her expertise includes social media, web development, and graphic design.
lifewire's editorial guidelines

The best social media apps offer a range of solutions that can help you easily organize multiple accounts and share information across several social networks without ever needing to post anything separately to your accounts directly from the web. 

Here are a few of the most popular social media management tools available today. Use them for personal reasons, for your blog, for your small business or for your large brand.

01
of 08

TweetDeck

TweetDeck website
What We Like

  • Twitter users don't need to create a separate account.

  • Surprisingly powerful for a free tool.

What We Don't Like

  • Limited customization, no option to create user groups.

  • Takes time and patience to set up.

TweetDeck is another popular web app used for managing Twitter. This popular platform used to support other social networks as well, but once it was acquired by Twitter, it stripped all that away and made it specifically for managing Twitter accounts.

TweetDeck is totally free and perfect for those who need to manage multiple accounts, follow specific hashtags, reply to lots of other users and see exactly what's being tweeted in real-time. You can organize everything you need in separate columns so you can see all of it on one screen. Keep in mind that TweetDeck is meant for the desktop web only.

02
of 08

Hootsuite

Hootsuite website
What We Like

  • Analytic tools for social media marketing.

  • Reliably identifies influencers.

What We Don't Like

  • Some features come at a cost.

  • Cumbersome to curate content across platforms.

Hootsuite is arguably the most popular social media management app out there. It's very well known for supporting lots of different platforms while offering a wide range of settings and dynamic features.

You can monitor and post to several popular networks including both Facebook personal profiles and business pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. And with its built-in custom analytics system, the ability to monitor selected keywords plus the option to conveniently schedule posts whenever you want (and do this all for free), HootSuite sets the bar high for competing social media management tools. Pro and enterprise plans are also available.

03
of 08

SocialOomph

SocialOomph website
What We Like

  • Queue content to re-post automatically on a recurring basis.

  • Extensive help documentation.

What We Don't Like

  • No mobile application.

  • Clunky interface.

SocialOomph can help you manage your Twitter accounts for free — plus Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, RSS feeds and more if you upgrade. Schedule your tweets, track keywords, promote your profiles, shorten URLs, purge your direct message inbox, and create an unlimited number of profile accounts completely free of charge.

A free account gets lots of great features that aren't terribly limited, but a premium account will get you more—including follow-backs, automated DMs, quality users worth following and more. Premium members are billed every two weeks rather than monthly.

04
of 08

Buffer

Buffer website
What We Like

  • Flexible pricing plans.

  • Integrates with news aggregator tools like Feedly.

What We Don't Like

  • Free version doesn't connect to Pinterest or LinkedIn.

  • Content feed lacks a search feature.

Buffer helps you plan out a schedule to optimize your social updates by scheduling them and spreading them out to publish throughout the day. You can use it with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

The dashboard is super simple to use, giving you full customization of your posting schedule and the ability to view your analytics. Using the Buffer mobile app and the web browser extension makes it easier than ever to quickly add web page links (including title and images) to your Buffer schedule. You can upgrade for more posting privileges and social accounts to manage.

05
of 08

SocialFlow

Social Flow website
What We Like

  • Displays most popular posts in real time.

  • Predictive scoring shows how content might perform.

What We Don't Like

  • Automation features could be better.

  • Toggling between accounts is more difficult than it should be.

Like SpredFast, SocialFlow takes a data-driven approach to social media with tools that let you publish according to when your users are most active, launch goal-based advertisement campaigns and more. This is the type of app you want if you really need to make sense of your social activity.

This is another one that involves requesting a demo before you can sign right up and get going on your next social media marketing campaign. It's typically meant to be used by larger organizations that have big audiences and lots of engagement happening.

06
of 08

Sprout Social

Three Sprout Social iPhone app screens

Lifewire
What We Like

  • Notifications, mentions, and messages in one feed.

  • Mobile app includes push notifications.

What We Don't Like

  • Mobile app doesn't include analytics.

  • Expensive compared to the alternatives.

Sprout Social is another app for serious social media marketers. In addition to being able to easily publish to a variety of social platforms, this tool was built for providing excellent customer service via social media and looking for hidden engagement opportunities.

There's a free trial, but after that's up, be prepared to pay a minimum of $60 per month to keep using all of Sprout Social's advanced features. Enterprise and agency solutions are perfect for customizing your social media marketing needs to fit your business and is completely scalable.

07
of 08

Tailwind

Tailwind website
What We Like

  • Browser extensions for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

  • Suggests ways to improve your Pinterest account.

What We Don't Like

  • No mobile support.

  • Not as useful for posting on Facebook and Twitter.

Like Everypost, Tailwind is focused on visual social content—particularly Pinterest and Instagram. For Pinterest, you can use this tool to schedule posts, find trends through insights, monitor your brand, launch contests or promotions and get access to analytics and reporting.

For Instagram, you can take advantage of the Instagram "listening" feature, schedule posts, monitor hashtags, manage your audience, manage user-generated content and also get access to analytics and reporting. There are plans for everyone from bloggers and small businesses to agencies and enterprises. 

08
of 08

IFTTT

IFTTT website
What We Like

  • Easy to use mobile app for iOS and Android.

  • Integrates with many apps, services, and smart devices.

What We Don't Like

  • Better for personal use rather than professional use.

  • Automatically adds hashtags to all posts.

IFTTT stands for If This Then That. This tool lets you build your very own automated actions, called applets or "recipes," so that you don't have to perform them manually. 

For example, if you want all of your Instagram photos automatically saved to a public folder of your Dropbox account, you can create a recipe with IFTTT. You can choose from existing applets, as well.

There's no limit to the number of IFTTT recipes you can build, and it works with almost any popular social website.

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