Top 6 Best Social Media Schedulers 2020

With a social media scheduler, you can plan your content in advance and schedule posts to be sent out automatically. There are a host of features built into these programs, designed to teach you how to build a bigger following and increase engagement.

The best social media schedulers could reduce your weekly workload by a significant amount if you promote your creative work through social media. Stats say that users who share above seven posts in a week are likely to gain the most engagement across their social media pages, and that takes time.

6. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a pretty basic scheduler that was bought by Twitter, and, unsurprisingly, it only encompasses Twitter itself. However, though there are not many other features, it does do Twitter scheduling well – in an uncomplicated way. It may only be a browser platform but it has a clean, bright UI, plus there are a few nifty tricks that will improve your experience immensely.

Content is organised through custom columns, which you can create yourself to track pretty much anything you like through targeted streams. Think keyword mentions, lists and saved searches.

5. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the leading social media management tools, and it truly does do it all. It offers a free forever plan that will do the job well if you just want to schedule content.

The Streams tool is a clear winner, allowing you to schedule, manage and sort your posts across social media channels without having to log in to your separate accounts. It can be hard to find a decent free scheduler that works this well across all channels, and Hootsuite's free plan even has basic analytics. 

4. Postcron

If you're looking for a scheduler that does just what it says on the tin, this is your best bet. Postcron is ridiculously simple in its focus: it schedules and auto posts, and that's it. You can bulk upload, which saves time, and the ability to add a watermark is a nice touch.

There are no extras here – there are zero analytics, and no editing or curation tools. But if you just want to be able to schedule, for a reasonable price and with a clean, useable UI, this is a safe choice.

3. Sendible

A powerhouse of a social media management tool, Sendible really does do it all. Aimed at increasing productivity for agencies managing multiple clients, the platform has a slick dashboard interface that allows you to switch between clients easily, and the facility to collaborate with teams/clients on content and campaigns.

Functions for scheduling and auto-posting are included in the toolkit, alongside powerful analytics via reports, automation tools (like automatic replies), grouping posts by teams, and content libraries that house all your evergreen content for reuse.

2. Later

Later provides stats on your account that become more detailed as you move up the price plans, but these are pretty limited at the lower price points, and even the most in-depth analysis doesn't match that of other schedulers.

And it does that job really well. Due to Instagram's regulations, you can't auto post content on the site unless you're a business page (and even then, only on single image posts), so bear in mind that if you're not, you'll only be able to schedule posts then publish them manually.

Later is unapologetic about being mostly for Instagram, in fact it tags itself as the number one Instagram scheduler. But, you'll get notifications from Later at the specified times, and all you need to do at that point is press publish on the content you've already created.

1. Smarter Queue

Smarter Queue's analytics are pretty powerful and will give you information on optimum posting times, enable you to compare engagement between content types and analyse your social history plus your competitors.

Smarter Queue is a young tool but it's shaping up to be a fierce contender in the social media tools space. You do this by inputting urls or dragging and dropping into the visual calendar so your plan is laid out clearly in front of you. The platform is category-led, which means you set up multiple categories each with different posting plans, such as which profiles are to be posted to, and add content to each category as you create or find it.

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Top 10 Instagram Marketing Tips

Instagram can be a very tricky platform to use for marketing purposes simply because there have been a lot of new regulations and community guideline updates in recent years. While these new guidelines do restrict how you can approach marketing on the platform as a whole, there are still some very effective and viable ways for you to reach a larger audience.

Nothing can beat organic engagement and interaction with your followers, even when you buy Instagram likes you still will not be engaging with your audience in a way that brings real value to them. In order to be successful with your Instagram marketing strategy, you will need to find ways that you can connect with people in a meaningful way instead of posting repetitive comments that are bland and general.

Look at the top 10 Instagram marketing tips below if you still want to experience the benefits of how powerful the platform can be for business and other areas of your endeavors.

1. Change your profile to a Business account

By changing your profile to a business account, you will change the way that Instagram looks at your profile in its algorithm. Business profiles are promoted more often and get more engagement because they are seen as more legitimate profiles than individual users alone.

2. Use what Instagram provides

Instagram is already packed with a lot of integrated features you can use to further your marketing efforts, the sharing feature and direct messaging are two of them.

3. Tease your audience

Post previews and upcoming announcements about your products or services before they are released to get people engaged that will keep coming back to your profile.

4. Sponsor some influencers

Consider reaching out to people who already have a large following that would likely be interested in your products or services as well and ask them if they would like to do a paid advertising partnership with you.

5. Utilize Instagram stories

Instagram stories is a fairly new feature however people engage with user stories a lot so by adding one or two stories a day, you can see a dramatic change in your engagement numbers.

6. Use Instagram Ads

This can be a really great way to reach a wider consumer base because it allows you to target specific people with specific interests making more efficient use of your advertising budget.

7. Use hashtags

Hashtags are an essential part of the Instagram platform so consider creating your own unique hashtags that represent your brand to reach a wider audience than you currently are.

8. Choose the times you post wisely

Instagram has a weird algorithm that pushes content to people when they are expected to be online the most. Let’s say you post some content to your profile at 3 am, if you posted the exact same post at 3 pm you would see a significantly higher rate of all-around engagement and likes because people are likely to be online at 3 pm more than they would at 3 am.

9. Track the proper analytics

Instagram provides you with in-depth analytics reporting and tracking as a standard feature with business profiles. However, there are many different metrics that the platform tracks, to make sure you’re gaining real results. You should only pay attention to your follower growth rate and the amount of engagement that you get ie likes, comments, etc.

10. Give your profile a theme

People tend to interact with brands and people who are familiar with and maintain a sense of uniformity. By making sure that your profile maintains a similar look and “personality” consistently, you can increase your engagement sustainably.

Instagram is a powerful platform that allows you to brand and market like no other, take advantage of it and buy Instagram likes to start seeing the interaction you want.

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Get Ready To Post Long-Form Instagram Video Stories Soon!

Instagram is soon rolling out a new feature for existing and new users. Excited! What’s it? Long-form video-based stories. Yes, you’ll soon be able to share videos more than one-minute to almost an hour longer on your favorite social media platform. With almost 800 million active users, Instagram is in its golden phase of popularity, all because of the rich user interface and ease of use. 

Last year, Mark Zuckerberg himself reported that Instagram features, especially the story one, attract the most of daily active users. This article provides you with the information on posting Instagram Video Stories.

Uploading short videos on social channels is now on trend, that is getting a lot more popular than any time before. If you are a regular user of Instagram, you might be aware of the current video feature which is limited to just one-minute videos, thereby restricting the user to post lengthy videos. However, the recent report issued by the Wall Street Journal has surprised by Instagram users by announcing that Instagram will soon allow its users to post hour-long videos on the platform.

Instagram was founded in 2010, by the Stanford graduates Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, as a photo sharing social app. Designed for the iPhone users, it soon became a sensation. The ultimate photo filters it offered to transform the way a photo looked boosted its online success. Now, Instagram is supported by all iOS, Windows & Android devices.

To further enhance its popularity, the new long-video support is believed to an interesting feature which will surely amaze the new users to create a profile and enjoy the long video stories. There are several other reports, like the one from the TechCrunch which is also announcing the Instagram’s new plan of adding a new section in its app for long-format videos, so as to compete its top-most rival Snapchat’s Discover. Before deciding to roll-out the new feature, Instagram has been secretly meeting with the content publishers and creators for the proposed feature and its potential.

Though the date of launch is June 20, it’s all tentative and can change anytime. There are rumors indicating that the videos will be in a vertical orientation and support 4K resolution. The main point of the long-term video is it’ll be taller than it is wide.

Meanwhile, Instagram users will get an option to continue watching to prolong the video viewing session. To make it easy to find the content or story uploaded by a user, their profile will display the video content in story highlight bubble. Moreover, only pre-recorded videos are allowed for upload without any option of image editing. 

Currently, the time limit for videos is 60 seconds in Instagram feeds or posts and 15 seconds in the Instagram Stories. The Wall Street Journal report claimed that the new video posting feature will allow users to post videos of up to 60 minutes in length. With this amazing feature, Instagram aims to attract more users which will simultaneously boost its success.

Since many social media platforms allow users to upload video statuses and even live videos, this is a small effort taken by Instagram to take over its competitors. Basically believed to be a photo sharing app, Instagram is no more just a photo sharing app now, instead, it’s on the way to become a long video sharing app soon. Though the company held several discussions with the content creators, it’s still not clear; the new time limit will only be applicable to the Snapchat-styled features. Instagram is working to extend the time limit to the non-broadcast clips.

Instagram provides support to advertisers by playing advertising videos. The long-video feature will be of great benefit to the brands, services, and advertisers who want to attract more loyal customers with a long story or moral telling advertisements. Also, playing advertisements over this extended platform owned by Facebook could help in monetizing the sizeable audience of this so called photo-sharing app.

According to a recent report, Instagram boasts near around 800 million active users, out of which almost 500 million use this social media platform every day. With the rolling out of this new feature, Instagram will be the first in line to take on YouTube which is one of the most popular platforms among teenagers. Many tech savvy’s believe that Facebook is expanding its battle with YouTube and other services with the Instagram’s new extended video feature.

So, you all might be excited to upload long-video stories to your Instagram profile, so are we. Let’s wait until June 20, as most possibly the feature will be rolled out on this date or within this month. Get ready to capture your precious live moments in video format and stay in line to upload them to let your social circle watch what you are doing or how much fun you are having. Wait for the best!

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5 Awesome Social Media Management Tools

Today’s entrepreneurs do all sorts of things to stay ahead of their competition, which clearly has reached new heights. So, they spend huge amounts of money on creating some of the most spectacular websites, work on building powerful brands and invest in a variety of digital marketing channels including social media. 

In fact, there are countless reasons why your business needs a strong social media presence today more than ever. But do you know how you can make the most of it? With a social media management tool, of course!

What is a social media management tool?

A social media management tool is a software or web-based service that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts, collaborate with your team, track performance of your campaigns and much more in a well-organized environment.

If you want to get the best results from your social media campaigns, then using a proper social media management tool is a must. However, there are a variety of options in the market which have different features and prices. So, which one should you pick? Let’s find out!

What are some of the best social media management tools?

Although there are dozens of social media management tools that you can use today, the following are the ones that are highly recommended:

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite was one of the pioneers of social media management and the years of experience it has now is apparent in the performance it delivers.

Hootsuite supports over 35 popular social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. and allows you to manage all your profiles from a single dashboard. You can set up a stream for each account individually and organize multiple streams into groups with tabs. You can also auto-schedule your social media activities so that you are connecting and interacting with your fans even when you aren’t at the desk. You can easily upload your content files in bulk in advance and it will upload them for you as per the conditions set by you.

Some of the salient features of Hootsuite are:

• Advanced team management facility
• Customer service management for Twitter
• Cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX, and even mobile platforms)
• Free reports via email

2. TweetDeck

As the name suggests, TweetDeck is a social media management tool designed only for Twitter. However, if it’s only Twitter that you are focusing on, then it will help do you a terrific job at marketing and connecting with your target audience. It can help you fix all the problems because of which you are not getting results on Twitter– easily and quickly!

The first thing you need to know about TweetDeck is that it’s owned by Twitter (acquired it 2011) itself. Thus, you know you are in the right hands. However, you don’t have to trust it going by the face value alone. It does pack quite a punch with numerous options and features that make Twitter management more efficient and faster.

For starters, TweetDeck allows you to interact with your followers with multiple customizable columns rather than a single timeline. You can separate these columns on the basis of factors like hashtags, search results, and messages. You also get to schedule your Tweets (you can schedule tweets for multiple accounts too). Plus, there is a built-in analytics module that helps you keep a close eye on your Twitter performance across multiple accounts.

3. Tailor Social

Tailor Social is another top-quality social media management program that’s relatively newer than its counterparts. However, it offers many features that are non-existent in the old ones. This because apart from standard content automation features and social calendar support, it also helps you create premium content for your platforms on the go.

With Tailor Social’s design feature, you can create beautiful and unique images that you can share on your social media accounts directly. You can customize every small detail from font sizes to colours, and from photo filters to backgrounds. It also has a simple yet powerful analytics feature that allows you to track the performance on every individual post on the basis of factors like engagement and audience, all of which are presented in numerical values for measurable results.

4. Sprout Social

Simply put, Sprout Social is a collection of tools that are designed to help you manage all your social media channels with greater control and flexibility. Some of the features that make it stand out from the other options include influencer identification, smart inbox, and social listening. It even has a decent support for customer relationship management which is really important if you want to learn about your customers and enhance business efficiency.

5. Buffer

Although Buffer is known as a social media management program, it’s more along the lines of a “content publishing platform”. That said, it’s a powerful tool to have nonetheless.

You get all the features you would expect from a tool like Buffer including publishing and RSS. These include scheduling and adding posts and publishing posts from your blogs (with RSS). In For social engagement, you can use its Reply feature which makes it easier for you to respond to social conversations in a single team inbox. 

This means that you don’t have to switch from Facebook to Twitter or Instagram as you can respond to the messages from one location. You can also assign conversations to your team members or communicate privately with internal notes.

Overall, Buffer is indeed a quality product that you can benefit from a lot. The only thing missing here is support for influencer search but that’s not really a deal breaker unless you need it absolutely.

So, there you have it- some of the best “bang for a buck” social media management tools that you can use today. You can use most of these on trial and invest money only if you are satisfied. So, why not give them a shot and see for yourself what they have to offer? Good luck!

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Top Instagram features for business

Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks for sharing videos and photos. The developers developed this primarily for only iOS users on October 6, 2010, and published through the App Store. After one year, they found that they have revolutionized the social sphere in the virtual world, so they created an application for both Android and Windows users.

In gaining popularity, Instagram developers just took two months, the registered users were one million and within a year it increased to 10 million. In April 2012 Facebook acquired its services in US$1 billion in cash and till 2015; 40 billion photos had been uploaded from this service.

In the previous months, Instagram brought five new features which are significant and useful from a business point of view. These five characteristics are video chat, a brand new video channel, music and questions for Instagram Stories, and an updated ‘explore page’. Let’s understand each point one at a time.

IGTV for long-form video content

This feature came into existence in June and moreover, this feature is available on both Instagram app and new standalone IGTV app. The difference between this video content with any other TV experience and YouTube is that it is only vertical videos. With this, you don’t require any fancy camera equipment or editing software. This feature is the best as in IGTV video you can shoot, edit, and upload to IGTV from your Smartphone. 

The size of the video can vary, ranging from 10 minutes to 1 hour which helps you to connect worldwide. It is supercharged version if you are thinking to use IGTV for the business or brand. With the help of IGTV, you can record behind the scene action of any event, upload a recorded webinar to share skills with your audience, showcase your products in an editorial-style video, or give your followers access to the faces behind your brand. For your business, you can upload a small or spontaneous clip which can attract your prospective clients.

Video call to your followers from Instagram

Video call will assist in enhancing your business as it will bring people closer together regardless of the location and moreover you can have group video chats as well. Several meetings were done to bring this feature ‘out’ but, finally, this feature became live in July 2018. With this feature, you can do a live video call with up to four friends at a time. The only problem is that you can call to only that follower with whom you have an active Instagram direct conversation or otherwise if you want to call someone else so, you have to send them DM first. This feature is very much helpful for the brands and business as they can introduce their products to different people with the help of video call and reaching out to four people at a time. Clients are available in the different location so if they want to discuss something so that can be possible on video call as well.

Add a Soundtrack to your Instagram stories

To add more personality to the Instagram profile, you can add music sticker to your profile. Hence Instagram launched ‘music feature’ which is available in Instagram stories. You can select any music sticker from thousands of the collection as per your mood. This feature is only available in android and iOS user and, also it is accessible in only some countries. This feature is suitable for the brand which has a music business, for example, you might own a vinyl records store, teach piano lessons, or even provide costumes for musical theater. You can showcase your music among your followers and share your favorite music from other artists with your followers that will not only show off your personality but also set your business presence in the industry. You might attract more followers by doing so and attract better music advice and inspiration.

New look to Explore page

If you have updated your Instagram app, then you might have noticed that there are a few changes on the explore page. This new launch which took place this month was redesigned in such a way that you can choose your interest. The new layout will include the top channel which you can see at top of the explorer page. Most topics are about your accounts and hashtag which you see frequently. There are some general topics as well as art, sports, beauty, and fashion. 

So to enhance your brand, the company can use the hashtag strategy which will help to increase their followers. According to the survey, 200 million people visit explorer page on daily basis to get or discover new ideas and moreover find inspiration so the brand has to keep in mind that they have to use correct hashtags so that you can get more users.

Answer People’s question with new question stickers

Instagram got more attractive and interactive with the launch of question stickers. This Instagram poll sticker and emoji slider allow followers to ask or vote on the question. With the help of this question sticker, you can interact with anyone all around the world. Once you add a question sticker to your Instagram story then, your followers can submit the question and, they will tell you to want information they want from you. For business point of view, it is live Q&A with your followers and customers. Moreover, they will find out what service they are expecting and on which product or parts they are interested. They will also help you to highlight pitfalls in your website and also missing information which customers can’t find online easily.

Shoppable Instagram posts

All business associates, this feature is very helpful. The user has to tap your post or Instagram Story to shop your products. It is the easiest way to increase traffic back on your website. The user will have a seamless shopping experience and they, will not leave your post or Instagram app for shopping. Previously, to promote the product you have to rely on using the “link in bio” call-to-action or hitting 10K followers to get the “swipe up” feature in your Stories to promote your products but now this feature has been modified and you can sell your goods with a single click.

Use Instagram carousel style posts

This feature of Instagram is there for quite a long time but if you are not aware of the Instagram carousel post so start using it as it will help you to enhance your business. If you are launching your new winter coat collection or a beauty business, the ability to share multiple product photos or videos in a single post is excellent for driving interest of the customers.

Conclusion

These all-new Instagram features are very significant in a business plan and also in marketing strategy which will help you to engage with your business community and also build a strong relationship with customers. Moreover, new features like question stickers and IGTV will give more chances to connect with the customer easily.

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