Social Media Marketing Tools You Need to Try This Year

Social media marketing is more than a way to connect with friends or share photos from your weekend; it is undeniably one of the most powerful and effective ways for businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs to build their brand in today’s busy digital world. But being active and effective on multiple platforms, managing a consistent flow of content, and analyzing results can feel enormous without the support of tools.  

This is why tools exist. With the right set of tools, like a social media post generator at your disposal, you can save time, optimize workflow, and focus on connecting with your audience instead of worrying about what you will post next. So, if you’re wondering which tools are actually worth trying this year, let’s walk through some of the most effective ones that can help elevate your social media marketing game.

Canva: Designing Made Simple

Creating standout visuals is arguably one of the hardest things about social media, and Canva is the answer to this dilemma! If you are looking for Instagram stories, Facebook ads, or LinkedIn banners, Canva has thousands of templates to make this easy. You do not need to be a designer to make your brand look nice because the drag-and-drop interface allows you to quickly piece together beautiful graphics in a matter of minutes. For anyone who wants to elevate their visuals without having a full-time designer, Canva is a helpful assistant.

Buffer: Consistency Without the Stress

Consistent posting is one of the golden rules in social media marketing, but managing several platforms can seem like a full-time job. Buffer offers you a solution to this problem through the ability to pre-schedule your posts in advance. 

So you can set up an entire week’s worth of content on Monday, and just let it run throughout the week. The best part is that Buffer not only allows you to schedule, but it also gives you insights about which posts are performing best so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. It’s the tool to help you be consistent without burning out.

Hootsuite: Managing Everything in One Tool

If you are using a range of accounts to manage your social media, Hootsuite is like your own control center. Hootsuite allows you to manage your posting, track conversations, and even follow hashtags and mentions—all from one dashboard. 

Instead of going into each app daily, you can make the workflow easier and have a complete view of all the accounts you are tracking. If you are in online business or an agency, Hootsuite is one of the most trustworthy tools on the market for getting the job done faster.

BuzzSumo: Discovering Content that Works for You

Often, one of the challenging aspects of social media is knowing what to post. BuzzSumo eliminates this stress by letting you see what content is popular within your industry. If you want to know what blog posts are spreading like wildfire or what topics people are talking about, BuzzSumo provides this information, along with competitor research and finding influencers. It provides a content roadmap—you will always know where to take your creative energies.

Sprout Social: Data-Driven Decision Making

Simply making posts and not evaluating results is akin to tossing darts into the night. Sprout Social provides you with the data you need to make more informed decisions. It offers in-depth analytics on everything from engagement rates to demographics of your audience to help you understand what is effective and what is not. 

There is also a combined inbox that simplifies replying to posts across various platforms. For organizations that want to provide more than just a post and actually consider the needs of their audience, Sprout Social is certainly an excellent resource.

Later: Plan Your Visual Feed

If you’re using sites like Instagram or Pinterest, how your feed looks is just as important as the content itself. Later allows you to visually plan how your feed will appear before you post anything. 

You can drag and drop posts on a calendar to see how they will mesh visually. This way, you can maintain a consistent feed appearance for your brand. Later also offers hashtag suggestions and auto-publishing, which is helpful for growing your reach.

Trello: Organizing Your Content Ideas

Not all tools in your social media marketing toolbox need to be glitzy. While Trello is used mainly for project management, it is very effective for organizing your content ideas. You can build out a strategy for the month, assign tasks, and keep everything together. Think of it as your content hub – where content ideas quickly go from drafts to items currently scheduled to be posted.

Loomly: Perfect for Small Teams

Loomly is an easy way to manage your social media when working with a small team or a startup! Loomly stands out because it not only helps you schedule posts, but it also suggests new content ideas based on trending topics. It provides organization and inspiration all in one app, meaning you can use it simply and intuitively without getting buried in a complex tool.

CapCut: Edit Videos wherever you are

Video content is taking over social media, and you can see it from creators posting on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. But not everyone has the skill set or time to spend hours in an editing application such as Adobe Premiere. 

CapCut takes away the anxiety of this huge learning curve and is very user-friendly with its templates, transitions, and effects—all from your phone. If you want to create engaging, professional-looking videos without sitting down for hours to learn an editing app, CapCut may be a compelling option!

ChatGPT: Your Collaborative Tool for Creativity

Finally, we need to touch on one of the newest yet most useful platforms in social media marketing: ChatGPT. Content development can be exhausting when your creativity is stalled and you come up with your next best caption, ad, or post idea. 

ChatGPT can help you through the brainstorming process with new ideas, produce catchy copy, and even brainstorm different tones for your brand voice. You don’t want ChatGPT to replace the creative process, but it’s a fun partnership and service to jump-start your content strategies, and you could save time developing the repetitive, copywriting tasks of social media marketing.

Final Thoughts

The field of social media marketing is consistently evolving, and it can be hard to stay on top of it without a set of tools or a support system. All of these resources exist to help you be successful and make your job easier, whether it’s creating content with Canva, using Buffer to schedule and plan, or using Sprout Table to evaluate your reports. The trick is not to use them all at once but to find what works best for your situation and current needs.

If design is your greatest struggle, then use Canva to create and design your graphics. If maintaining consistency is a challenge, then schedule everything in Buffer. If you’re at a loss for what you should post, BuzzSumo has you covered. The right tools will help you be more efficient and work smarter, thereby giving you time to build real connections with your audience on social media.

So, which of these tools are you going to try first this year?