We’re big fans of social media management tools at Green Umbrella. Not only do they make it easier for you to plan your social media posts ahead of time, they also allow you to analyse and review your posts, check and deal with your various notifications, reply to messages, see what other companies are up to, and find your best times to post – all in one place.

But with so many management tools on the market, which one do you choose?
We’ve taken a look at the pros and cons of our five favourites:

1. eClincher

What does it do?

The main features are:

• Publishing and scheduling content to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, Google My Business, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok is coming soon.
• Queues for your evergreen content, which can be recycled, or used only once.
• Inbox – see all your direct messages and notifications and deal with them from within the tool
• Monitoring and listening, including hashtags and keywords, twitter lists, competitor content
• Suggested content – based on keywords you supply
• Post analytics – see how each post is performing, which posts performed best, how many followers you have, etc.
• Website analytics – Connect Google Analytics to see how your website is performing
• Extras – Link shortening, stock images, image editor, post failure emails, post approval process (on higher plans), cloud storage of media library (on higher plans)

What does it cost?

Prices start at $59 per month for 1 user and 10 social profiles, up to $219 per month for 6 users and 40 social profiles (extra users and profiles can be added for additional cost)

Free Trial?

14 days (no credit card required)

Why we like it

• Great if you are managing multiple social media profiles – In fact, we use this tool to schedule and manage content for all of our clients.
• Everything all in one place, including website analytics
• The customer service is excellent. They will also listen to suggestions for changes from customers and implement any that they like the sound of.
• The calendar options allow you to see at a glance, what posts are going out and which platform they are going to.
• The evergreen queues are easy to set up, use and schedule and will keep on posting away in the background if you don’t have time to post on a daily basis.
• A Chrome extension allows you to schedule posts from anywhere on the web.

App version?

Yes

Who is it best for?

Agencies running multiple social media accounts.

Downsides

• The reporting can be a little clunky, especially with google analytics data.
• The user interface feels a little old-fashioned, but it does the job.
• It can be quite expensive for a small business only managing a few social profiles.
• The mobile app has limited features, but it’s good for on-the-go posting.

2. Traject Social (was Social Report)

What does it do?

The main features are:

• Publishing and scheduling content to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, Google My Business, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest.
• Queues for your evergreen content, which can be recycled
• Inbox – see all your direct messages and notifications and deal with them from within the tool
• Monitoring and listening, including hashtags and keywords, twitter lists, competitor content
• Suggested content and automatic post creation – based on keywords, RSS feeds or hashtags you supply
• Post analytics – see how each post is performing, which posts performed best, how many followers you have, etc.
• Website analytics – Connect Google Analytics to see how your website is performing
• Extras – Link shortening, stock images, image editor, post failure emails, post approval process, cloud storage of media library

What does it cost?

Prices start at $49 per month for 2 users and 15 social profiles (across 5 brands), up to $199 per month for 12 users and 80 social profiles (across 20+ brands)

Free Trial?

14 days, but a credit card is required, so you need to remember to cancel if you are not going ahead

Why we like it

• Great if you are managing multiple profiles
• Everything all in one place, including website analytics
• Automatic post creation from keywords, etc. that can be auto-scheduled, or kept for your approval.
• The evergreen queues are easy to set up, use and schedule and will keep on posting away in the background if you don’t have time to post on a daily basis.
• Easy post approval process
• Visual, easy to read reports

App version?

Yes

Who is it best for?

Agencies running multiple social media accounts

Downsides

• The calendar doesn’t show which platforms posts are going to unless you click on the individual post
• Creating a post has lots of different and useful options, but you have to go through all of these whether you want to use them or not, so creating a post takes a little longer than other schedulers
• No free version, so quite expensive if you are only managing one business but the extra features you get could make it worthwhile paying for.

3. Hootsuite

What does it do?

The main features are:

• Publishing and scheduling content to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook, Google My Business (no scheduling), YouTube, Pinterest.
• Inbox – see all your direct messages and notifications and deal with them from within the tool
• Monitoring and listening, including hashtags and keywords, twitter lists, competitor content
• Analytics – measure the performance of your social campaigns through its reporting tool
• Extras – Link shortening, post failure emails, cloud storage, auto-scheduling at best times to post, vanity URLs

What does it cost?

$25 per month for 1 user and 10 social profiles, up to $99 a month for 3 users and 20 social profiles, plus a custom plan available for larger agencies. There is also a free plan for 1 user and 3 social profiles, but it only allows you to schedule 30 posts per month.

Free Trial?

30 days, but a credit card is required, so you need to remember to cancel if you are not going ahead.

Why we like it

• Schedule content to all your social media platforms
• Can automatically find the best time to post for each platform
• Hootlet Chrome extension is handy for scheduling from anywhere on the web
• Handy analytics feature so you can track and measure performance against KPIs
• Customisable reports
• Free version (albeit limited), so could be good for sole traders or very small businesses.

App version?

Yes

Who is it best for?

Anyone – The free version is good if you just want to schedule a few posts, but it’s also good for agencies running multiple social media accounts.

Downsides

• Expensive if you want lots of users and social profiles
• No option to set up recycling evergreen content queues
• User interface isn’t very intuitive
• Reporting is a little limiting
• You can’t schedule to Google My Business – you can only post immediately

4. Meet Edgar

What does it do?

The main features are:

• Scheduling evergreen content to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube
• Post analytics – see how each post is performing, which posts performed best, how many followers you have, etc.
• Extras – Link shortening, cloud storage of media library, weekly emails on how your posts are doing, A/B post testing.
• Browser extension, so you can post from anywhere on the web.

What does it cost?

Edgar Lite is $19 dollars a month for each user and 3 social accounts, up to $49 per month for each user and 25 social accounts.

Free Trial?

7 days, but a credit card is required, so you need to remember to cancel if you are not going ahead.

Why should you use it?

• Great for creating, categorising and scheduling your evergreen content, meaning if you forget to post one day, you know you’re covered.
• Edgar can automatically find quote-worthy text from articles or blogs – all you have to do is review it, and then click the button to share it.
• Can use RSS feeds to create content for you automatically
• Browser extension to add content to your queues from anywhere on the web
• You can choose whether posts recycle or just post once
• A/B post testing feature is useful.

App version?

Only for Instagram posting

Who is it best for?

• Small businesses – those who have no time to manage their social accounts on a daily basis and would like a “set it and forget it” option to ensure content is going out.
• Also good for creating evergreen content for small agencies who are managing clients on a daily basis.

Downsides

• Edgar is mainly an evergreen content scheduler, so you would still need to use a daily scheduling tool, or post directly on each platform each day.
• If you only use Edgar and don’t post daily, your social media content could soon look like it’s just automated content.
• It’s quite clunky to use and isn’t particularly intuitive.
• Doesn’t work with every platform

5. Buffer

What does it do?

The main features are:

• Publishing and scheduling content to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Instagram Stories (on higher plans), Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
• Inbox – see all your direct messages and notifications and deal with them from within the tool
• Monitoring and listening, including hashtags and keywords, twitter lists, competitor content
• Suggested content – based on keywords you supply
• Post analytics – see how each post is performing, which posts performed best, how many followers you have, etc.
• Extras – Link shortening, post approval process

What does it cost?

Prices start at $15 dollars a month for 1 user, 8 social profiles and 100 scheduled posts per month, up to $99 per month for 6 users, 25 social profiles and 2000 scheduled posts.
There is a free version, but you only get 1 user, 3 social profiles and 10 scheduled posts.

Free Trial?

14 days (no credit card)

Why should you use it?

• It’s easy to use, especially for those with less technical knowledge, and it’s relatively cheap for a single business.
• The browser extension is easy for posting from wherever you are on the web
• It’s quite cheap (or even free) for a small business with only a few profiles to manage and not many posts

App version?

Yes

Who is it best for?

Small businesses. It provides a cost-effective option to schedule your content ahead of time.

Downsides

• No option to set up evergreen queues or recyclable content.
• Analytics and reporting are weaker than some of the other options (Although you can pay for Buffer Analyse for better reporting).
• Limit on how many posts can be scheduled
• It can get pricy if you are managing a lot of social media accounts.

At a glance

	eClincher	Traject Social	Hootsuite	Meet Edgar	Buffer
Cost per month	From: $59	From: $49	From: Free	From: $19	From: Free
Evergreen queues	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Daily scheduling	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Reporting	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
App version	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Instagram only)	Yes
Free version	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Free Trial	14 days	14 days	30 days	7 days	14 days
Browser extension	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto post creation	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Inbox management	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Best for	Agencies	Agencies	Anyone	Small businesses	Small businesses

Summary

These are just a few of the social media management tools out there, and as you can see, they all have their pros and cons. We suggest sitting down and thinking about who is going to be posting your content (one person or many), how often you want to post, how much you want to spend, and if you would like the peace of mind of knowing that content will be going out on your social profiles even when you are not there. When you have the answers to those questions, there may be an obvious choice on which management tool would work best for you. Or, you can sign up for the free trials and give them a go yourself – just don’t forget to cancel at the end of your trial so you don’t suddenly end up with a huge bill!

For us, eClincher provides the best mix of everything we need to run the social media profiles for all of our clients, the customer service is second to none, and it’s the easiest most intuitive tool to use. However, our 30 day trial of Social Report (now Traject Social) showed it to be a very close second.

We’ve tried all of these tools, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on social, or jump on live chat and we will see if we can help.