16 Best Free Social Media Management Tools to Use

16 Best Free Social Media Management Tools to Use

Social media has transformed the way businesses and brands connect with customers. With over 4.8 billion social media users, real-time platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn offer immense opportunities to grow an engaged following, drive website traffic, generate leads, and boost sales.

However, juggling multiple social profiles can take a lot of work. The good news is you don’t have to do it all manually. This guide will explore the best free social media management tools to systemise, automate, analyse, and elevate your marketing without spending a dime. Let’s get started!

Core Features to Look For

When evaluating free social media tools, here are the core features you’ll want to look for:

Scheduling and Publishing

• Schedule unlimited posts and updates across multiple profiles from one dashboard.
• Library of pre-designed templates and graphics
• Analyse the best times to post for optimal engagement

Content Curation

• Discover and share new content from around the web
• Repurpose top-performing posts
• Curation tools like RSS feeds, Chrome extension, etc.

Community Management

• Monitor keywords and brand mentions with alerts
• Respond to comments and DMs faster
• Assign tasks to team members

Analytics and Reporting

• One centralised dashboard of all key analytics and metrics
• Track growth and engagement over time
• Exportable reports

Audience Insights

• Detailed follower demographics and psychographics
• Find influencers and brand ambassadors
• Guide content strategy and targeting

With an overview of must-have capabilities for maximising your social presence, let’s explore today's top 15 free social media management platforms.

Schedule and Publish Smarter: Buffer

With over 2 million users worldwide, Buffer is likely the most well-known free social media scheduler. The intuitive drag-and-drop composer makes batching content effortless.

Buffer's best features include:

• Scheduling on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
• Browser extensions for quick queuing
• Post-recycling with set frequencies
• Detailed analytics like clicks, retweets, comments

However, Buffer's free plan only permits ten scheduled posts simultaneously, with three social accounts connected. Teams can access more features and users starting at $15/month. For lean solopreneurs, Buffer delivers core scheduling in their free version.

Tap into the Power of AI: Sprout Social

Boasting over 30,000 customers globally, Sprout Social is a robust platform spanning social listening, publishing, analytics, engagement, and more.

They offer an array of free tools, including:

Sprout Social Analyser

• Instant audience insights tool
• Breakdown of followers by location, gender, languages
• Influencer identification
• Content analysis and recommendations

Sprout Social Scheduler

• Post-queuing for top networks
• Smart Availability Checker confirms the best times
• Post recycling options

Sprout Social Smart Inbox

• Manage and respond to all social messages
• Volume analysis checks spikes

Sprout Social offers a 30-day free trial of their entire software. Their free tools make them a top contender for amplifying your social presence.

Coined the “Swiss Army Knife”: Sendible

Dubbed the “Swiss Army Knife” of social media tools by Forbes, UK-based Sendible effortlessly tackles scheduling, engagement, rich analytics, and multi-user management.

Standout free features include:

Content Library

• Store unlimited draft posts
• Editorial calendar syncs with critical dates
• Photo storage and editing

RSS Feed Import

• Auto-populate content from blogs, websites
• Repurpose top assets

Competitor Benchmarking

• Track competitors’ key stats
• Measure share of voice

Unfortunately, Sendible’s free plan only permits two connected profiles. However, solopreneurs benefit from pro-level features minus the headaches of manual social marketing.

Harness the Power of Communities: Tribe

For marketing leaders aiming to build branded online communities, Tribe offers a uniquely engaging solution. Their software centralises community engagement across all digital channels.

Tribe's free tools incorporate:

Tribe Mobile App

• Foster loyal micro-communities
• Facilitate meaningful consumer interactions

Tribe Subscription Messaging

• Send scheduled or automated post updates
• Build anticipation, excitement

Tribe for Events

• Ticket sales, event logistics software
• Customisable event hashtags and pages

While Tribe’s free version has limited monthly usage, it empowers forward-thinking marketers to experiment with community building. Consider if your brand can benefit from loyal, personalised fan bases before committing financial resources.

Listen and Engage on Social: Mention

Mention lives up to its name – specialising in social listening with proactive monitoring and engagement capabilities. Within seconds, plug in any keyword, brand, product, name or hashtag to uncover data-rich insights.

Critical perks of Mention's free tools:

Customisable Alert Dashboard

• Monitor keywords across 200M+ online sources
• Email and mobile notifications

In-depth Sentiment Polarity Scores

• Granular emotion analysis and classifications
• Track positive, negative and neutral mentions

Mobile App

• On-the-go tracking and engaging
• iOS and Android compatibility

If you suppose real-time social intelligence is crucial to your brand, explore Mention further. Their free version packs an analytical punch.

Automate Social Posting: RecurPost

As another scheduling favourite, RecurPost automates social media across accounts with ease. Efficient feeds import content from RSS, Reddit, Quora and more – funnelling inspiration to queued posts.

RecurPost serves up these free features:

Bulk Upload Tool

• Simultaneously upload 100 posts
• CSV data organisation

Post Cloning

• Duplicate top assets for re-sharing
• Update dates, times, captions

Keyword Monitoring

• Track up to 10 terms per network
• Analyse search rankings' impact

For fast-growing brands producing high volumes of content, RecurPost promotes frictionless management. Don’t let this lesser-known gem stay under the radar!

Listen and Publish in One Place: Agorapulse

Agorapulse consolidates social media listening, publishing, analytics, and team workflows in its distinctive platform. Unlike free tools performing just one function, Agorapulse provides an integrated hub for monitoring brand mentions and scheduling content.

Standout features include:

• Real-time search with custom filters
• Competitor benchmarking insights
• Multi-profile and team member access
• Post-scheduling across top networks

For social media managers juggling multiple responsibilities, Agorapulse promotes efficiency and focus. The free version packs a one-two-punch blending monitoring with scheduling.

Automate Posting across Social Networks: Crowdfire

Crowdfire ramps up your social media output and optimisation, as its name suggests. Their free dashboard centralises posting to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with handy automation powerups. Useful features include:

Content Discovery

• Curate top articles, videos and posts to share
• Chrome extension captures shareable assets

Posting Queue

• Unlimited scheduled updates
• Optimal times analyser for each network

Team Workflow

• Collaborate seamlessly
• Tasks, permissions and roles

For time-strapped marketers, Crowdfire makes cross-channel posting painless. Don't sleep on testing their automation tools at zero cost!

Curate and Amplify Content: Feedly

While technically an RSS reader and not a social media tool per se, Feedly simplifies content discovery and amplification across networks. Their handy Chrome extension grabs shareable articles, videos and images as you browse. These populate into Feedly as story suggestions to review, curate and share socially.

Additional Feedly features include:

• Curation templates for faster scheduling
• Keyword and topic customisation
• Mobile optimisation with apps
• Saves share progress across devices

Feedly makes curation remarkably convenient for social media managers struggling to feed the content beast daily.

Bolster Brand Monitoring: Brand24

If online brand monitoring is a high priority, explore Poland-based Brand24. Their acclaimed free toolkit alerts you to real-time brand mentions across the web. Useful yet free features include:

Customisable Dashboards

• Monitor keywords, brands, products
• Prioritisation filters like influencer status

Granular Sentiment Analysis

• Detect emotions including joy, fear, sadness
• Quantify positive, negative and neutral

Exportable PDF Reports

• Share data insights across teams
• Track progress over time

While Brand24 limits users to 10 search queries and 100 mentions monthly in their freemium model, their core monitoring capacity remains intact. Test drive their capabilities before upgrading plans.

Schedule Social Posts with Ease: Later

With its signature visual dashboard, Later simplifies social media planning and scheduling with an intuitive interface. Drag-and-drop posts seamlessly, then analyse engagement analytics like reached users, clicks and sales.

Their free offering consists of the following:

Image Library

• Store unlimited branded images
• Batch resize for multi-channel needs

Unlimited Link Shortening

• Track clicks and engagement
• Export click metrics

Basic Scheduling

• Queue posts on Instagram, Pinterest
• 30 posts monthly

For fledgling ecommerce brands active chiefly on visual platforms, Later merits a test run. Ensure their scheduling limitations won’t curb your current social strategy before committing financially.

Listen, Analyse and Publish: Hootsuite

Arguably the most widely used social media tool, Hootsuite boasts 35 million users globally across paid and free plans. Hootsuite allows businesses to streamline social listening, consumer engagement, employee workflows and rich analytics in one neat platform.

Even Hootsuite’s free version packs a punch with:

Custom Analytics Dashboards

• Curate widgets for desired metrics
• Exportable reports

Basic Social Listening

• Monitor unlimited keywords and phrases
• Simple sentiment polarity tracking

Scheduling Features

• Queue updates on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & LinkedIn
• Only two social profiles and 30 scheduled posts

As an industry leader, Hootsuite deserves consideration. Test their free version before upgrading to unlock more social accounts, users, content queues and features.

Collaborate Seamlessly: Loomly

Loomly harmonises team workflows for social media managers through intuitive dashboards. Features include collaborative calendars, lively discussions, asset libraries and multi-profile publishing options.

Loomly’s free plan includes:

Media Storage

• Repository for images, videos, creatives
• Searchable folders and files

Task Manager

• Assign duties to team members
• Set permissions and roles

Basic Scheduling & RSS Feeds

• Share links from blogs, sites
• Post queue with some limits

For agencies and enterprises with multiple stakeholders coordinating social initiatives, Loomly appears extremely promising. Test drive their free version before potentially upgrading.

Attract More Eyeballs: Pixelr

Pixelr creates quick social posts and banners with visually engaging templates tailored to top networks.

Their key free offerings include:

Custom Image Templates

• Instagram story templates
• Facebook cover banners
• YouTube offline thumbnail creator

Resize Tool

• Batch edit image sizes for different platforms
• Maintain image quality

Limited Downloads

• Watermarked versions to test
• Five downloads monthly

While Pixelr limits full-resolution downloads unless you upgrade to premium, their template variety and resizing functionalities remain free. Try their graphic design templates before dismissing them if you need help visually.

Streamline Support Conversations: Clara

Specifically catering to service-based businesses, Clara facilitates seamless customer support conversations across social media and messaging channels. Think scheduling meets customer relationship management.

Free capabilities centre around:

Visual Dashboard

• Message volume analysis
• Average response times

Basic Team Workflows

• Collaborate in solving customer queries
• Assignment and views

Limited 3rd Party Integrations

• WhatsApp, email, chat

Could Clara be your social CRM solution? Test drive them in your niche before upgrading plans. Their free version grants a taste of streamlining support via social conversations.

Grow Authentic Connections: EveryoneSocial

Designed for employees acquiring social media skills, EveryoneSocial boosts branded content reach through employee advocacy. Workers share company updates within existing personal networks, amplifying authentic word-of-mouth marketing.

Core free features include:

Content Suggestions

• Curated articles and assets to share
• Aligns with interests and connections

User Dashboard

• Track content shares, clicks and engagement

Limited Users & Networks

• Up to 3 advocates on Twitter, LinkedIn

If you believe employee social sharing could benefit your brand, explore EveryoneSocial’s free version. Measure program success before committing to budgets and resources.

Which Free Tool Reign Supreme?

While social media software abounds today, is one free platform the winner? Not necessarily. The “best” pick depends largely on your brand’s unique needs and gaps.

For example, solopreneurs and small businesses may lean towards user-friendly scheduling from Buffer or Later. Enterprise teams can experiment with smoother collaboration via Loomly or Clara. Listeners and analysts may prefer Mention or Agorapulse for social insights.

Rather than chasing an elusive “perfect” tool, audit your existing social media pain points first. Then, trial the free platforms targeting related areas of opportunity. Focus your search criteria around must-have capabilities from section one as guiding rails.

This process will reveal the highest potential free software to test drive. While most limit certain features unless upgrading to paid tiers, their core free functionalities remain intact. Maximise these thoroughly before dismissing tools as inadequate. The most budget-friendly option may already await in your toolbox.

Free Social Media Management Tools: FAQs

Still, evaluating the myriad free social media tools available in 2024? Here are answers to 5 common questions for more straightforward navigation: