6 Social Media Automation Tools For Sailing Your Way Through 2023

Is your social media marketing becoming one endless to-do list? The demands of being online can be the undoing of brands. If you’re struggling, it’s safe to say that you aren’t alone. 

In a recent report, 54% of marketing professionals reported that finding time and resources was their most significant challenge when it came to social media. Maintaining an array of accounts was tough enough before, but now consumers aren’t satisfied with just a post now and again. They expect interaction, community, and consistency.   

There are so many revolutionary assets out there waiting to make your life easier. So, let’s take an in-depth look at which of our favorite social media automation tools you should implement. 

Key takeaways

• Automation saves time and takes menial tasks away from employees—an issue that 54% of marketers experience. 
• Of surveyed professionals, 15% named securing budgets as their toughest social media marketing obstacle. That’s why it’s important to research your available funds, allocate resources, and compare the pricing of different tools. 
• An astonishing 41.5% of social media users unfollow brands that post too much. Use your automation tool for consistent but genuine content management. 
• Consumers who perceive a brand as human are 1.6 times more likely to purchase from them. Don’t automate to the point of robotic messaging and posting, make sure your brand’s personality still shines through. 

What is social media automation?

First of all, we’ll quickly cover the basics. Social media automation is the process of reducing the manual labor that it takes to manage social media accounts. 

Third-party platforms offer a range of abilities to save you time and take the strain away from your team members. Here are just a few of the ways they can offer a helping hand:

1. Bulk scheduling for saving time
2. Customer support for responsive and quick service
3. Curating content for increasing credibility
4. Social listening for access to useful data
5. Analytics reports and insights for easier decision-making

Remember Cinderella? Her team of little critters helped her do the boring tasks, like making the bed, so she could focus on the more important, princessy things. That’s the idea here. Sadly, you won’t have mice and birds at your disposal, but you’ll have software instead. 

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Why should you automate your social media?

You absolutely should be investing in automation tools. They might just be the best thing you’ve ever done for your business. Here are some of the main reasons why you should automate your social media platforms: 

• Save yourself and your team time 
• Resources can be allocated more effectively
• Speedier service so your customers can be helped in real-time
• More consistent content creation, promotion, and distribution
• Employees feel more valued because they can focus on important tasks

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Our top 6 social media automation tools 

Which practices you choose to automate will depend on your company’s needs. We recommend conducting a social media audit to uncover potential improvements. 

Then, you can take action and streamline whichever process isn’t working out with an automation tool to match.

As every asset offers something different to the rest, it’s important to be clued up about your requirements so you can optimize them. So, here are our top contenders for your automation software, how to use each one, and most importantly, what they do best. 

1. Quuu and content curation

We love curating. First, you can build relationships with the creators, which helps to form valuable links and contacts. It’s also a lot less time-consuming than coming up with something brand new every time you need to publish. 

You can even borrow refreshing ideas to keep your platforms diverse. Curating is great for business in many ways, and here’s our list of benefits that proves it. 

However, dedicating the time to finding the best videos, articles, and infographics out there is a big commitment. You have to find a piece of content, choose it, share it, and get the owner to see it. We wouldn’t suggest this process if it was going to make your life harder. So, can it be automated?

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Absolutely. Here at Quuu, we do all of the work for you. (It rhymes, so it must be true.) Not only do we automate the process of finding content, but we ensure that it’s within your realm of interest, relevant to your niche, quality-checked, and intriguing to your audience. 

Here are a few of the top features you can expect from our social media automation tool:

• Choose curated content from over 500 topics, which can then be shared on your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. No matter how niche your business might be, we guarantee you’ll find something shareable. 
• The posts you choose can be uploaded to your preferred scheduling platform, either manually or automatically, to save you even more time. 
• The use of modern machine learning, dedicated research, and AI genius ensures that the content is high quality and worth sharing. 
• You can add call-to-actions to everything you share, which will lead back to your own content. This will boost conversions and level-up your engagement. Here’s our guide if you’d like to learn more about the game-changing feature.

The cost of success can be a drain on a company, particularly for start-ups and small businesses. Of surveyed professionals, 15% named securing budgets as their toughest social media marketing obstacle. 

At Quuu, we tackle this by offering a free plan. Upgrade to a Pro plan for $5.00 per month, Business for $15.83, or a customized Agency profile after that. 

2. BuzzSumo and content ideation

Good social media content requires planning to maintain an organic and exciting presence. Would you follow an account that only posted variations of the same meme or infographic? We doubt it. Variety is crucial so if you haven’t got the inspiration, your content will fall flat. 

It’s no surprise that one of the most common struggles of social media management is knowing what to post. There is pressure to publish content consistently, but also to a high standard. The process would be so much easier if ideas could be conjured up for you. 

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Oh wait, they can. Enter: BuzzSumo. You’ll find that the ideas offered by the content marketing tool aren’t just randomized, they are based on data-driven research. 

You can rest assured knowing that anything they suggest will drive sales, traffic, and engagement. Below is a taster of what you can expect to find:

• Choose from a multitude of generated ideas, templates, and examples that will fill out your content calendar. This guidance will make sure your posts are diverse, optimized for your audience, and interesting. 
• You’ll find briefs at the click of a button, so there’s no need to bang your head on your desk, waiting for inspiration. They’re just there whenever you need them, so you can focus on more pressing matters. 
• BuzzSumo offers a new perspective and fresh eyes on your business. This will avoid overdone and boring social media posts taking over your channel. Your consumers will thank you for it.
• Use your access to insights and resources and make the most of emerging or viral trends. BuzzSumo will show you what works and what doesn’t in any topic, location, or domain of your choosing. 

Afraid you won’t find the right subscription for your team and needs? Fret not. BuzzSumo has an unbelievable range of choices, including a Basic plan for $119.00 per month, a Content Creation package for $249.00, a PR & Comms varient also costing $249.00, the popular Suite option for $399.00, and an Enterprise option for $999.000.

3. Quuu Promote and content promotion

Your beautifully-crafted, witty, and insightful article is finished and uploaded. You let out a sigh of relief. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not over yet. Putting your heart and soul into content is only worthwhile if someone sees it. 

With temperamental algorithms, increasingly demanding users, and an abundance of competition, social media isn’t an easy place to promote. 

Your content needs to be in front of people who are likely to convert and engage. With all of this in mind, why not leave the heavy lifting to the professionals?

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Quuu Promote is a content promotion and distribution tool, designed with ease and authenticity in mind. What makes our tool so special? That article you spent so long working on is guaranteed to be shared by real people.

This really will make all the difference to your social media presence. Let’s look at some of the other benefits you’ll be able to enjoy:

• Quuu Promote operates with over 500 topics, so you can feel confident that the traffic is from people who are interested in what you are offering. A relevant audience will lead to more shares, follows, likes, and other forms of engagement. 
• Search engines want genuine social shares. When you use our tool, you’ll get thousands of generated backlinks, which means you’ll rank higher on the SERPS (search engine results pages) over time. Learn more with our backlink guide here. 
• You wouldn’t want your content sent to every email and social media account in existence. It will be annoying, no matter how good it might be. Our tool doesn’t use bots and puts your content in front of people who want to receive it. 
• You can view the stats of your promoted content to see how it is performing, where it’s being shared, and who by. These are useful insights for your future campaigns. 

Using a third party sometimes requires you to sign up for more than you need. Our plans tell you exactly how many promotions they offer, so you can commit to what suits you. 

This ranges from a $50.00 per month Individual plan with access to 10 promotions, a Company plan for 20 promotions priced at $83.33, and a $416.67 Agency plan for 100 promotions. 

4. SocialPilot and social media reporting

You can’t keep putting out tweets and forgetting about them. For successful social media marketing, you need to be constantly learning and evolving. To do that, there needs to be measures put in place to highlight what is working well, and what isn’t. 

Social media analytics can be a chore. Endless tasks include gathering data across all of your social networks over a period of time, analyzing what everything actually means, and creating a report. Yawn. Surely, it would be a dream to automate such a boring job?

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But you’re not dreaming, because SocialPilot is real. With a user-friendly interface, all the data you could possibly need is in one convenient place. It doesn’t end there though, because through this tool you can see patterns, deepen your understanding of social media, and use specialist knowledge to inform your decisions. Here’s a look at how:

• You don’t have to sit squinting at your screen, waiting for something to make sense. All of the data will be in an easy-to-read format, such as a chart or graph. 
• Having the information in front of you is one thing, but won’t you still have to write up a report? Nope. With SocialPilot, you will have access to ready-to-share and customizable reports. All you have to do is download the PDF. 
• Valuable insights are available, such as who interacts with your content the most, and what type of post performs the best. These can be adapted into plans, strategies, and metrics. 
• There are separate analytics tools for different social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This means that the insights will be tailored to the nuances of each, making the information much more effective. 

Worried you might sign up for the wrong plan and won’t be able to change it? With SocialPilot you can adjust your subscription at any time and cancel it whenever you’d like. A Professional plan is currently a monthly payment of $25.50, a Small Team plan is $42.50 and the most popular, the Agency, is $85.00. 

5. Buffer and social media publishing

How often should you post on social media? That’s the question that keeps managers and marketers up all night. Is there a sweet spot? It’s hard to say when so many articles offer contradictory advice. Seriously, look it up, you’ll get hundreds of different answers. 

Truth is, as long as you research your target audience’s habits, remain consistent, and offer quality, there’s nothing to worry about. 

With too many things on your mind, this is easier said than done. Who has the time to plan engaging content, publish across any number of different platforms, and come up with hashtags and captions? You might not, but the social media scheduling tool Buffer does. 

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For ultimate convenience, everything can be found on a user-friendly dashboard. There won’t be any confusion over what still needs to be done or who is responsible for which task. We recommend the social media management tool for its functionality, but why else?

• When managing your brand’s social profiles, it’s important to know what you’re posting and how it contributes to your overall marketing strategy and goals. With Buffer you can schedule posts, which keeps your content creation on track. 
• You can tailor the same post for each of the different platforms. This helps whatever you publish to perform as best as it can on each of your social accounts. 
• Scrolling through your feed and see something your audience might like? You can queue with Buffer, so you’re able to share content later. This way, curated posts don’t interrupt workflow or irritate consumers. An astonishing 41.5% of social media users unfollow brands that post too much. 
• Buffer helps you be prepared. When you schedule content, it can be put into a social media calendar months in advance. This means you can plan for important dates and launches, avoid typos or other mistakes, and save time in the long run. 

Committing to tools is a daunting part of automation. How do you know what will work well for your team and social media strategy? You won’t have doubts about Buffer, because they offer a 14-day free trial for each subscription. Beyond that, expect pricing from $6.00 a month for an Essentials plan, $12.00 for a Team, and $120.00 for an Agency upgrade. 

6. Sendible and audience engagement

Making sure every individual sees your social media content and engages with it from that very moment isn’t easy to achieve. You have to predict the journey that your user will take, and it won’t be the same path as the next person. 

Unfortunately, customers are only becoming more complex. We can’t expect our brains to keep up in the same way machine learning and artificial intelligence can. 

After all, we aren’t built to juggle the same ridiculous amount of social media tasks as software. Is there a way to take this technology and connect with customers on a whole new level?

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Yes, there is. As a self-proclaimed “best friend” to marketers, the marketing automation tool Sendible will make sure you never miss a beat. The platform offers an abundance of automation features, but we think it’s what they can do for your engagement that makes them stand out. 

• With a social inbox, you can view and respond to any comments across your social media channels from a single platform. Users want a relationship with brands and, with this tool, you won’t miss notifications like direct messages or brand mentions. You’ll make your consumers feel cared for to help keep them loyal. 
• Want to receive the latest updates, Google Alerts, and articles so that when you post content it stays trendy and up-to-date? Sendible can do all that from their simple and convenient dashboard. 
• It’s important to understand which keywords, hashtags, and accounts are leading the way in your industry. This tool lets you do just that so you can be the first to engage and impress your audience as a conversation leader. 
• Sourcing images and GIFS couldn’t be easier with the media integrations offered, so you can find the best content quickly, without devoting all of your time to it. 

Wondering how to budget for these tools in the long term? Sendible offers both monthly and yearly subscriptions. An annual plan will save you 15%, so your hard-earned dosh will be well-spent. Pricing begins monthly at $29.00 for a Creator plan, then Traction, the more popular choice, at $89.00, followed by the $199.00 Scale option. 

4 tips that will take your social media automation to another level

Automated social media can be a scary thing to bring into your business. We’d understand if you were worried about these tools damaging your business’s authenticity. 

Sure, that might be the case if your relationship with customers is limited to robotic direct messages and comments. So, the best practice is to consider automation a partnership, not a take-over. 

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To achieve this, find the right balance between automation and creation. While this isn’t always an easy task, doing it right can be the key to a successful online presence. 

Here are some final tips to help you optimize these brilliant, life-changing tools:

1. Don’t limit yourself to one tool. Regardless of your company size and budget, there will be plenty out there to meet your specific needs. Leverage the best social media automation tools in order to have the most streamlined workflow possible. 
2. Add a human touch. Use these tools in moderation, have a sense of humor, and sprinkle in your brand’s personality wherever you can. This is especially important to remember because consumers who perceive a brand as human are 1.6 times more likely to purchase from them. Here’s some more advice on which branding mistakes you could be making, and how to avoid them. 
3. Use your gained time wisely. Don’t just put your feet up because the chores are done. Now that you have time, use it for experimentation and innovation. Otherwise, your marketing efforts will go to waste. Build relationships with influencers you’d like to work with and focus on creating better quality content. 
4. Research customization abilities. The last thing you want from your automation is to sound like every other brand. Especially your competitors. Make sure the tools you decide to invest in allow you to put your brand voice out there. 

Conclusion

Social media automation tools are crucial for a smooth-running and goal-reaching business. Truth is, you shouldn’t do everything on your own, even with the most fabulous team working behind you. 

Your employees don’t need to spend all of their time on your social media networks. Instead, automate tasks so they can focus on making your brand grow and flourish. That’ll give them more time to be creative and boss social media campaigns and trends, like getting everyone in the office to learn the latest TikTok dance. 

It might take a few free trials before you find the tools that work best for your company. Take our advice, do some of your own research, and take the pressure off toclaim back your valuable time. 

Is there a platform that didn’t make our list, but you can’t live without? Let us know how you give your business a helping hand. We’d love to hear your thoughts.