Social Media Tools
If you're managing more than one social media platform, you'd probably like something that helps you manage your profiles and schedule posts, right? Of course! These are just some of our favorite free or low-cost tools we've used:
Note: Wesleyan University does not have accounts with any of these tools that can be made available to you.
Buffer
Our go-to free scheduling tool, Buffer is free for one user and 1 account per social network (Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter) and you can schedule up to 10 posts per account. They also have a great web clipper tool that enables you to quickly share or schedule posts from web pages, a simplified image creator, and an app to schedule posts while you're on the move. If you need something a bit more robust, the Buffer Awesome Plan is just $10/mo and you can have one additional team member, up to 10 connected social media accounts (with Pinterest included too!), and schedule up to 100 posts per account.
Canva
If you're looking for something to help you easily create shareable social media visuals, give Canva a try! If you're overwhelmed by the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, Canva is a free, user-friendly alternative. Canva's free account includes a simple drag-and-drop editor, two folders to organize designs into, ability to add up to 10 team members, 1GB storage for visual assets (photos), and access to over 8,000 image templates.
Hootsuite
Similar to Buffer, Hootsuite's free account enables one user to schedule social media posts for up to 3 social profiles. In addition, you can see basic analytics about the follower growth of your profiles and which posts are performing best. You can also integrate with two RSS feeds to pull in blog posts for even easier sharing.
Simply Measured
Simply Measured is a paid social analytics platform, but offers a suite of free reports as well, such as: Instagram User Analysis, Facebook Fan Page Analysis, Facebook Insights Analysis, Facebook Competitive Analysis, Facebook Content Analysis. These are great if you aren't looking for ongoing reporting, but just want an occasional idea of how your Instagram and Facebook accounts are perfoming.
SocialRank
Want to know more about your followers? SocialRank gives you access to additional intel about the people who follow you on Instagram and Twitter. You can see where they are posting from, how many followers they have, what their average post engagement is, see which hashtags and emoji they use often, and sort followers into lists.
squarelovin
When is the best time to post on Instagram for my community? Which posts perform the best? squarelovin's free Instagram Insights reporting tool demystifies these questions!