No need to break the bank on your social media strategy, especially if yours is a new or small business — many free social media tools for entrepreneurs are available online to help you build a winning engagement strategy. Faced with creating content, posting regularly, engaging with respondents, and evaluating analytics, all across a dozen or so different platforms, optimizing your social media feeds can feel impossible without a specialized team. Thankfully, these tools help you tackle it all by yourself.
Some of the programs below let you schedule cross-platform posts weeks in advance, while others gather online interactions in an easy-to-use interface. There are also tools to evaluate your analytics and photo editors to help you create custom content. All are free with no trial period, though you can pay for more features if you find one you like. If not, you can master social media without cutting into your budget by using the following tools:
Create, Edit and Enhance
Canva — Make your own graphics from scratch with Canva. Whether you need an Instagram Story or Facebook Cover Photos, this tool provides templates for just about every form of posting. It even offers tools for formatting documents and other marketing materials.
VSCO — Made famous by online millennials, this phone app is an easy way to touch up photos before you post. Add filters, enhance quality and make photos look professional in no time.
Visme — Used by brands like IBM and Unilever, Visme lets you create graphics, presentations, and print documents all in one easy tool. They even have educational resources for creators, including webinars, tutorials, eBooks, and pamphlets.
Pexels — Need to find stock photos to use for free? Pexels has over 3 million royalty-free pictures you can choose from — search via keyword or check their discover tab to find whatever images you need.
Schedule, Post and Analyze
ContentCal — With its handy calendar view feature, ContentCal is a one-stop shop for your weekly and monthly posting schedules. Create and manage workflows, plan and publish posts, respond to engagement and review your analytics all in one simple program. Their free Hobbyist plan lets you schedule up to four social platforms at a time, all in one calendar, with up to ten posts every month.
Buffer — An alternative to ContentCal, this all-in-one toolkit helps you plan and schedule posts across three different social channels. Queue up to ten posts at a time with this easily scrollable interface.
Later — This scheduling software is perfect for Instagram, a platform notorious for rejecting typical scheduling software. Use Later for scheduling your photos and videos, up to thirty posts at a time — it also works with Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Tweetdeck — This tool only works for Twitter, but it is easy to use and absolutely free. Use Tweetdeck to schedule tweets, browse your feed, manage replies and view your messages all in one interface.
Invest in What Works Best for You
All of the software listed above is free to use, but several programs have the option to pay for more robust features if you happen to find the perfect fit. With the right combination of tools and software, any savvy entrepreneur can build a healthy social media strategy for no extra cost.
For more great entrepreneurship tips, read our earlier articles on growing your team and building a perfect business plan.
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