Are Social Media Scheduling Apps Worth the Hype?

If you have worked in social media long enough, you would have come across the stress of creating regular unique content, engaging with audiences, scheduling content, managing replies, staying on top of analytics and repeating the process each week. However, many social media experts and some small business owners have sworn by scheduling applications and how they have positively changed their productivity and overall social media management.

But do they? Let’s explore social media scheduling apps evaluating their pros and cons.

● What is a social media scheduling app?

A scheduling application is a program that connects business accounts to a backend that allows the user to schedule their content in advance, get insights into analytics, manage their messages and in some cases offers social listening so the brand can see posts about the company across the internet. The apps connect to all social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter etc. They give the user the ability to post in advance while keeping track of their digital content all in one place.

● What is the benefit of social media scheduling applications?

The real benefit of these apps is that they effectively distribute your content across platforms and bring all the relevant data across these platforms into one dashboard. It greatly helps a business understand and gauge how their overall digital strategy is playing out. It is especially beneficial to businesses who advertise across digital platforms and want one space where they can schedule, monitor and adjust all their content.

They also offer more in-depth analytics, help streamline the content creation to posting process, aid with internal communication within a team and manage the comments and messages coming into the inbox.

● What are the cons of social media scheduling applications?

The main con is often the cost of these applications. All of them run on a subscription fee basis so you have to budget for a monthly or yearly fee for the service. Additional services are also often added to the base fee. It is also quite a competitive market so there are a lot of applications to consider and it can be difficult to find the one that best suits your specific needs.

● Are all Scheduling Applications the same?

All scheduling applications are different and cater to different needs. Some applications like Later, allow you to post across multiple platforms but specialize in certain platforms like Instagram. Their keywords and hashtag feature aid with content research. It is also one of the more affordable applications so it's preferable for small businesses.

Other applications like Hootsuite are more complex and are suited to large organizations and agencies that manage large amounts of content across platforms including Google and Youtube. However, it is one of the more expensive applications due to its in-depth services. Connective Pros have invested in the use of Hootsuite for its Social Media clients, and thus far the experience has been valuable to our professional team and the clients that we serve.

Social Pilot has an in-depth analysis of the best social media scheduling applications for 2022, with the pros and cons of each that can help you find out which is best suited for your business.

● How do I know if I should incorporate a scheduling app into my digital strategy?

While scheduling applications can be a great tool for businesses that need to improve their posting and analytics, it is not necessarily the best fit for all businesses. Facebook has worked to combat some of the issues businesses face when posting on their platform and have implemented factors such as their “Planner” tab in the Meta Business Suite, which helps business page’s schedule both their posts and stories across Facebook and Instagram on their backend.

However, scheduling applications are beneficial in particular to businesses that promote across platforms and need more insights into both their audiences and overall digital strategy. In some cases, it also helps small business owners and influencers stay on top of their content schedule but as usual, within the social media space, you have to evaluate the benefits in comparison to your overall goals

Follow Connective Pros on Facebook & Instagram to keep on top of marketing trends and conversations in the Caribbean! Do you have any thoughts on this topic? Be a guest contributor or respond to our article- Send us an email at info@connectivepros.com