Social Media Publishing Tips & Strategy | Sprout Social Sprout Social offers a suite of <a href="/features/" class="fw-bold">social media solutions</a> that supports organizations and agencies in extending their reach, amplifying their brands and creating real connections with their audiences. Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:44:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://media.sproutsocial.com/uploads/2020/06/cropped-Sprout-Leaf-32x32.png Social Media Publishing Tips & Strategy | Sprout Social 32 32 24 must-know Pinterest stats for marketers in 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/pinterest-statistics/#respond Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:42:09 +0000 http://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=67042 Pinterest is a visual social media platform great for many different industries and types of brands. However, to decide on whether Pinterest is right Read more...

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Pinterest is a visual social media platform great for many different industries and types of brands. However, to decide on whether Pinterest is right for your brand, it’s a good idea to take a look at some Pinterest stats.

Having a basic understanding of social media statistics gives you an idea of the type of people who use the social media platform, if they fit into your audience and what people expect from brands on each platform.

Throughout this article, we’re covering Pinterest statistics like demographics, behavior, business stats and more.

Table of contents

Pinterest stats every marketer should know

1. Pinterest is the 15th most-used social media platform

When it comes to users, Pinterest is the 15th most popular social media platform worldwide as of January 2024. The first four are, of course, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram. (WhatsApp and Instagram are tied for third place.)

While Pinterest may not be as giant as some of the other social media platforms, that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. In fact, we have one compelling reason to have a presence on Pinterest as our next stat.

2. 1 in 3 Pinterest shoppers have an income of over $100k

Pinterest is a platform that’s perfectly poised for social commerce. Because one-third of the platform’s users have an annual income of over $100,000, they’re ready to buy when they browse the platform for products. This makes luxury brands want to flock to the platform, making it the number one platform for shopping luxury.

3. Pinterest generated $981 million in revenue in Q4 of 2023

Q4 of 2023 was Pinterest’s all time best performing quarter for revenue–producing $981 million dollars in that quarter alone. The platform also generated over $3 billion in revenue throughout the whole of 2023.

All this to say, Pinterest is a profitable platform, which means it’s stable. It’s a good idea to invest in a Pinterest marketing strategy so you can take advantage of this platform.

4. Pinterest’s annual trend predictions have an 80% success rate

Every year, Pinterest publishes a new “Pinterest Predicts” report, sharing upcoming trends they’re predicting based on their user searches and behavior. Because the platform’s data is so reliable, this report has had an 80% success rate for four years in a row. This makes Pinterest incredibly useful for identifying whether the platform is relevant to your target audience’s interests.

Pinterest’s 2024 trend predictions include things like:

  • Eclectic grandpa aesthetic
  • Jellyfish decor
  • Kitschy kitchens
  • Cafécore aesthetic
  • Oversized beauty and accessories
  • Blue being used in beauty
  • Bow stacking
  • Badminton
  • 70s-inspired weddings

Check out the full 2024 predictions list to see if your brand can take advantage of any upcoming trends.

Pinterest user statistics

5. Pinterest has 498 million monthly active users

Pinterest has half a billion monthly active users. This is a small fraction of Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users, but Pinterest is steadily growing year after year (we have a stat for that, too).

6. Pinterest sees a 7.5% year-over-year growth

Pinterest has a healthy growth rate of 7.5% each year. It’s the third fastest-growing platform right now, behind Snapchat and LinkedIn. Facebook is still growing, but at a rate of 1.6% each year, and YouTube and Instagram are both losing users.

7. 84.6 million users are located in the U.S.

If you run a U.S.-based business, Pinterest might be a great option for you. The U.S. audience is by far Pinterest’s largest, with 84.6 million of its 498 million users located in the U.S. (17%).

The next four most popular countries for Pinterest are as follows:

  • Brazil: 28.05 million users
  • Mexico: 19.45 million users
  • Germany: 15.88 million users
  • France: 10.65 million users

Pinterest usage statistics

8. 78% of users say Pinterest makes them feel positive

The vast majority (nearly 8 in 10) of Pinterest users get a positive feeling from using the platform. Plus, another study showed that browsing Pinterest for a healthy dose of inspiration can help prevent burnout and stress.

There are so many benefits of Pinterest, but the fact that its users are happy and at peace has to be a major one.

9. 85% of weekly users have made a purchase from Pinterest pins

Pinterest users are shopping on the platform—a whopping 85% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on a pin they saw from a brand. Creating boards that feature your products can help you get them in front of even more users, increasing the chances someone makes a purchase.

10. 85% of Pinners use the platform to start a new project

85% of users say they hit up the platform each time they’re going to start a new project. This might be for DIY inspiration, products to use or instructions on how to do something. But Pinterest is the place they go. Use this knowledge to your advantage when creating and sharing Pins.

Pinterest audience and demographics statistics

11. 76.2% of users are women

More than 3 in 4 users are women, with 17.2% of users men and 6.6% of users unspecified or identify with another gender. If women are a big part of your target demographics, Pinterest is the perfect platform to find them.

12. Pinterest’s biggest audience segment is women aged 25-34

The largest portion of Pinterest’s audience is Millennial women aged 25-34, with that segment accounting for 28.5% of its global audience. The second largest segment was women aged 18-24, taking up over 18% of the user base.

13. Pinterest has 25.1 million Gen Z users

According to projections done in 2020, the platform should have around 25.1 million Gen Z users this year, accounting for around 5% of its entire user base. This is up from 16.4 million in 2020 and 23 million in 2023, showing that Gen Z consumers are continuing to join the platform.

Pinterest advertising and marketing statistics

14. Pinterest delivers a 2x better ROAS than other platforms

Pinterest ads have been shown to deliver a 2x higher ROAS (return on ad spend) for retail brands than other digital platforms. Get more bang for your buck by promoting Pins on Pinterest.

15. Users save more than 1.5 billion Pins per week

Pinterest’s users are pinning more than 1.5 billion Pins each week to more than 10 billion Pinterest boards. These users are planning home decor, recipes, product inspiration and more.

16. Brands see 2.3x more efficient cost per conversion

Get a better ad performance than you do on other social media platforms. Pinterest ads generate a 2.3x more efficient cost per conversion than other social media sites.

Pinterest traffic and engagement stats

17. Pinterest averages over 1 billion monthly visits

Pinterest received over 1 billion monthly website visits in December 2023, making it one of the more popular websites in the world. This means its users are visiting the site an average of 2 or more times per month.

18. 38% of Pinterest’s web traffic comes from the U.S.

The U.S. is Pinterest’s most popular country, so it makes sense that over one-third of its traffic is coming from the United States. The next four countries that visit Pinterest.com most often in order are Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and Colombia.

19. 96% of searches are unbranded

Nearly all searches on Pinterest are unbranded. This means people are searching for things like “brown sofa” or “floral wall art” rather than specific brands. This presents a great opportunity for your brand to be discovered. Pinners aren’t loyal to a single brand and instead are hoping to find new brands and products they can buy from.

20. Pinterest saw a 50% year-over-year increase of buyable items being saved to boards

Pinterest is making a conscious effort to make its platform even more shoppable. The platform’s efforts haven’t been in vain as it now sees a 50% year-over-year increase in shoppable Pins being saved to boards. With more than half of Pinterest’s users seeing the platform as a place to shop, these buyable items make it even easier.

Pinterest stats for business

21. Pinterest is the 5th most popular social commerce platform

The top five most popular social media platforms where online shoppers are most likely to make a purchase are:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Messaging apps
  • Pinterest

This means your brand should be taking advantage of social selling capabilities on Pinterest so you can increase the number of conversions you receive directly from the platform.

22. 80% of weekly users have discovered a new product or brand on Pinterest

Pinterest is the perfect platform for businesses to get discovered. 4 in 5 users have found a new product or brand on Pinterest, likely resulting in a purchase or a follow. Promote your products on Pinterest to increase the chances that you reach a new audience member or potential customer.

23. Shoppers on Pinterest spend twice as much as shoppers on other platforms

Pinterest users spend 2x as much when shopping on Pinterest than they do when shopping on other social media platforms. This makes Pinterest an ideal platform for products with a higher price point, like furniture and designer clothing or accessories.

Don’t be shy about putting your products out there when it comes to Pinterest. Demographic data shows that Pinterest users have a higher income and are spending more on their shopping sprees.

24. Brands using a Pinterest Catalog get 5x more impressions on their products

If you needed one more reason to convince yourself to take advantage of Pinterest’s social selling tools, let this be it. Brands that set up their Pinterest Catalogs receive five times more impressions on their product pins than brands that don’t.

Use these Pinterest stats to inform your strategy

If these stats tell you anything, let it be that it’s time to get your social selling strategy set up. Learn how to sell on Pinterest so you can start generating even more sales and conversions through your chosen social media platforms.

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Top 18 social media management tools for businesses in 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-management-tools/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-management-tools/#respond Tue, 27 Feb 2024 13:43:45 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=117409/ Social media marketing is more than just posting content and hoping for engagements. It’s maintaining an active presence and building a strong brand community. Read more...

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Social media marketing is more than just posting content and hoping for engagements. It’s maintaining an active presence and building a strong brand community. And it’s monitoring conversations to identify and mitigate risks to your brand reputation. That’s why you need powerful social media management tools to help you do all of this more efficiently.

With the right tools, social media management becomes more manageable. You can use these tools to do everything in one place–from scheduling posts to analyzing your performance. It becomes easier to stay on top of tasks with features to collaborate with team members and set alerts.

This post rounds up some of the top social media management platforms in the market to help you decide on the best option for your team. Let’s take a look.

Table of contents:

What is a social media management tool?

A social media management tool is a software solution that lets you manage all aspects of your social media in one place. That means you can perform multiple social media tasks without having to switch to a different platform. This includes tasks related to creating, scheduling, publishing, monitoring, analyzing, engaging and collaborating.

Most social media management tools let you manage more than one social media profile across several networks. As such, they play a vital role in executing your social media marketing strategy.

Best social media management tools to use

The best social media management tool for you depends on what you need. Factors like the size of your operation and the platforms you use will influence this decision.

Agencies may need a tool that lets them manage multiple social media profiles for their clients. Meanwhile, small teams may look for something with robust collaboration features. Others may only need a tool to help them manage a specific social media platform. On the other hand, some may want to focus on automating their publishing.

Based on these unique needs, we’ve handpicked some of the best social media management tools to consider.

  1. Sprout Social
  2. Zoho Social
  3. HubSpot
  4. Sendible
  5. Pallyy
  6. SocialPilot
  7. Buffer
  8. Keyhole
  9. Sprinklr
  10. eClincher
  11. Tailwind
  12. X Pro (formerly Tweetdeck)
  13. Preview
  14. PromoRepublic
  15. Hootsuite
  16. Coschedule
  17. MeetEdgar
  18. Later

Best social media management tools overall

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social publishing dashboard calendar view showing sample campaigns

Can’t blame us for giving ourselves the top spot, right? Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management tool to manage all aspects of your social media strategy.

Sprout offers integrations with all the major social networks. This includes Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube. So you can work across your entire presence in a single dashboard.

Plus, you can also manage reviews from sources like Google My Business, Trustpilot and Facebook. It even lets you create shoppable posts integrated with Facebook Shops and Shopify catalogs.

Sprout’s Employee Advocacy tool gives it an added advantage over other social media management platforms. This lets you create a curated feed of content for your employees to share across their social networks. So you can take your employee advocacy efforts up a notch and amplify your brand reach.

Features:

  • Social media publishing, scheduling, monitoring, analytics, reporting and more in one easy-to-use dashboard
  • ViralPost feature to publish your content when your followers are most likely to engage
  • Smart Inbox that compiles all your incoming messages from different social media platforms
  • Hashtag tracking to identify the most popular and relevant hashtags to boost visibility
  • Custom URL tracking to get a more in-depth insight into how your posts are performing in terms of referral traffic and conversions

2. Zoho Social

zoho social homepage with text that reads "features built for every social need"

Zoho Social is a tool that boasts features “built for every social media feed.” The platform allows you to start discussions, share reports, create team roles and encourage feedback. This makes it easy to get everyone on board with your updates, strategies and performance insights.

In addition to scheduling, the platform has its own optimized timing features similar to Sprout. You can customize your content for each network and schedule them to go out at the right time.

The platform’s Inbox keeps track of all your conversations in one place. So you don’t have to switch between multiple platforms to manage your customer interactions.

Features:

  • An instant integration with the Zoho CRM and the ability to monitor customer interactions
  • Social listening dashboards to track brand reviews, social mentions and branded keywords
  • Ability to collaborate with teammates within the platform via chat, audio and video calls

3. HubSpot

hubspot social media management software page with a preview of the tool

HubSpot is a leading customer platform with powerful social media management features. Its centralized social inbox lets you keep track of all your social interactions in one place. You can further gain contextual information on these conversations with a CRM integration. That way, you have the insights to enhance and personalize the customer experience.

The platform helps you organize your efforts by tagging marketing assets and content. So you can associate your posts with specific campaigns and measure their effectiveness.

Additionally, it comes with all the essential features you need in a social media management software solution. This includes tools for publishing and scheduling as well as keyword monitoring and social media reporting.

Features:

  • Keyword monitoring streams to identify important interactions and prioritize the right conversations
  • AI-powered social media post generator to simplify publishing
  • Best time to post suggestions to optimize scheduling

Social media management tools for agencies

4. Sendible

sendible homepage with a preview of the text compose window and text that reads "manage your social media at scale"

Sendible has done a great job of niching down for agencies and large brands. It offers client dashboards and automated client reporting features for agency users. Collaboration tools and user management capabilities make the platform ideal for multiple users.

Additionally, it offers a number of helpful integrations to make social media management as easy as possible for users.

Features:

  • An all-in-one dashboard that makes it easy to see your overall social media performance at a glance
  • Collaboration tools that allow your team to create content and then send it to the client or team leader for approval
  • Presentation-ready reports to showcase social media ROI to clients
  • A mobile app that lets you monitor and manage your social media accounts on-the-go

5. Pallyy

pallyy homepage with text that reads "social media management platform for growing brands and agencies"

Pallyy is a unique social media management tool specifically targeted at agencies. This software helps agencies plan and schedule clients’ social media posts all in one place. The platform features a Kanban-style workflow and a visual planner where you can plan your grids. Additionally, you can easily access media files from the media and folders library.

Features:

  • Integration with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Pinterest and TikTok
  • Visual planners make it easy to prepare content across platforms and grids, especially when aesthetics is a priority
  • Folders to better organize your media files
  • Shareable content calendars where clients can leave comments and approve posts

Social media management tools for small teams

6. SocialPilot

socialpilot homepage with a woman wearing a pink hoodie making an "ok" sign with one hand and another hand pointing at text that reads "everything you need to hit your social media marketing goals"

SocialPilot is a straightforward social media management solution for those just starting out. It provides all the essential publishing and scheduling features that you need in a social media tool. The platform simplifies content creation with an AI Assistant. This helps you generate engaging captions based on the latest trends and audience preferences.

SocialPilot offers in-depth analytics reports to guide better strategies. The content performance and audience insights help you understand what people are engaging with. You can analyze growth patterns to continue creating great content.

Features:

  • Integration with several major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube
  • Ability to customize and optimize posts for multiple social networks in a single composer
  • Bulk scheduling for up to 500 posts to help you save time

7. Buffer

Buffer homepage with a preview of the dashboard and text that reads "grow your audience on social and beyond"

Buffer is another social media management tool that’s ideal for small businesses and startups. It offers a completely free plan for your first three social media channels. This makes it the perfect option for setting up your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

The platform simplifies content creation with an AI Assistant that generates new ideas. It even lets you store ideas so you can build on them later. A direct integration with Canva, DropBox and OneDrive makes it much easier to import content to edit and share on social.

Features:

  • Social media publishing tools that allow you to easily schedule out all the social media content you’ve created for each channel
  • A social media engagement dashboard that lets you respond to all mentions or messages online in one place
  • Analytics and reporting to give you a bird’s eye view of how your social media efforts are performing
  • Landing page builder to create a customized experience

8. Keyhole

keyhole homepage with a sample analysis of Starbucks Coffee social profiles and text that reads "unlock social media insights without the manual grind"

Keyhole is unique from most of the tools on this list in that it’s an influencer tracking and marketing software as well. It performs in-depth analytics to help you vet and compare influencers. The profile analytics help you zero in on influencers who manage to drive authentic engagements.

After your campaign goes live, the tool measures the performance of each influencer and their impact on your campaign goals.

Features:

  • Automated social media reports that are shareable and presentation-ready within seconds
  • Several reporting features, including brand reporting, campaign reporting, hashtag reporting and influencer reporting

9. Sprinklr

Sprinklr Social homepage with text that reads "undisputed leader in social media management"

Sprinklr is a customer experience management platform with features to manage your socials. It supports your essential social publishing needs with an editorial calendar and a digital asset manager. The engagement dashboard lets you view comments, mentions and messages in one place.

A unique Sprinklr feature is the user-generated content (UGC) management capabilities. You can use it to organize content from fans and repost them to amplify brand reach.

Features:

  • Sprinklr AI to speed up content generation
  • Custom approval workflows to streamline team collaboration
  • Customer service and consumer intelligence integrations for a unified customer experience management

10. eClincher

eClincher homepage with an aerial view of a team working together on a desk with laptops and tablets and text that reads "best social media and online presence management platform"

eClincher markets itself as a social media management platform that highlights a commitment to 24/7 customer support. Like most tools on this list, eClincher features a cross-network social publishing tool. It comes with a visual calendar, a dedicated messaging inbox and a publishing queue. Plus, it features brand monitoring across social, news, blogs and more, complete with sentiment analysis.

Features:

  • Provides 24/7 customer support for its users so they can “strategize, optimize and measure ROI”
  • Team collaboration with drafts, comments, notifications, tagging and assigning messages

Social media management tools for dedicated platforms

11. Tailwind

Tailwind homepage with two separate headlines that read "the tool that feels like a marketing team" and "tailwind gives you post ideas!"

Tailwind started out as a tool to address a hole in the market for Pinterest scheduling. So it initially focused on automating Pinterest marketing for brands. It has since expanded to cover Instagram and Facebook. But the platform continues to stand out when it comes to managing Pinterest.

The visual calendar helps you plan and organize all your social media posts in one place. You can apply filters to view only your Pins to see how your Page would look. The platform then auto-publishes these Pins to catch your audience when they’re most responsive.

Features:

  • Post ideas to make sure you always have Pinterest content in the pipeline
  • Automatic personalized designs to create on-brand posts every time
  • Hashtag finder to discover popular and hyper-relevant hashtags to boost your engagement

12. X Pro (formerly Tweetdeck)

The X Premium signup popup window with text that reads "Get X Pro with Premium" and a list of features

X Pro (formerly Tweetdeck) is an X-owned management tool to monitor conversations on the platform. It gives you real-time visibility to monitor multiple timelines on a single screen. So you can easily jump in on the right conversations and engage with your audience.

Since its rebranding to X Pro, the tool is now a part of X Premium subscription. As such, you can access plenty of premium features not available to regular users. This includes the ability to share longer content and download videos among many others.

Features:

  • Ability to create longer posts to share in-depth information and messages
  • A dedicated Highlights tab to showcase your best posts on your profile
  • Reply boost so your responses show up more prominently

13. Preview

Preview homepage with a preview of the calendar and text that reads "the world's most used Instagram planner"

Preview is a mobile app that lets you visually plan out your Instagram feed. The tool is perfect for creating a feed that’s based on a specific Instagram feed aesthetic. You can upload as many photos and videos into the app so you can preview your feed before you publish.

Features:

  • Upload photos, videos and carousels to the Preview app to get an idea of what it would look like live on Instagram
  • Schedule your content right within the Preview app so it’ll publish when you’re ready
  • Plan out Reels and Stories as well as your regular Instagram feed so you know how everything will fit together

14. PromoRepublic

PromoRepublic homepage showing a sample social post overlayed with three popup windows highlighting the tool's features and text that reads "one central hub to manage your social media marketing, at scale"

PromoRepublic is a unique tool on this list as it markets itself as a local marketing platform. Having a localized social media management tool makes it easier to target local audiences. You can create hyper-localized ads targeting audiences on Facebook and Instagram.

Through its local SEO tool, businesses will be able to grow foot traffic and web traffic. You can even manage customer reviews and feedback right within the dashboard.

Features:

  • Best for small businesses, franchises and businesses who want to grow awareness in local audiences
  • Dynamic fields to automatically localize content across thousands of local pages
  • Content labeling to see what social content resonates in specific locations

Social media management tools for publishing

15. Hootsuite

Hootsuite homepage showing a woman smiling as she looks at her phone and the picture is overlayed with several bubbles highlighting the tool's features, and the text reads "save time and get REAL results on social media. Hootsuite makes it easy."

Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool with powerful publishing features. It comes with a visual calendar to plan out your content and easily fill gaps. If you ever run out of things to post, you can use the tool to generate an endless stream of content ideas. The tool even provides suggestions on the best time to post so you can schedule your posts for the highest engagement.

Check out our list of Hootsuite alternatives if you’re looking to take your social media management in a different direction.

Features:

  • Publish and schedule social media posts on a variety of platforms
  • Manage incoming messages and mentions and respond to them in a single inbox
  • Monitor online conversations around your brand and industry to stay on top of trending topics

16. CoSchedule

CoSchedule social calendar homepage showing a preview of the calendar and text that reads "the #1 social calendar to simplify social media management"

CoSchedule began as a content marketing company and has since brought social media management and calendars into its fold. It helps you organize your social media publishing efforts with a social calendar to visualize your entire content plan. The Best Time Scheduler ensures that your posts go out when people are most likely to engage.

Features:

  • Social Message Optimizer to craft powerful messages for your social posts
  • AI Social Assistant to generate ideas and social messages instantly
  • Predefined social sharing templates so you don’t have to create a publishing plan from scratch
  • ReQueue automatically creates recurring social posts from your best content

17. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar homepage showing a woman smiling and laying cross-armed on top of a preview of the calendar and text that reads "the fast, easy and affordable social media scheduling tool"

MeetEdgar is a social media management tool that helps teams automatically curate their social media feeds. This is perfect for solopreneurs or businesses with small teams. Startups, where team members wear a lot of hats, will benefit from the features available with MeetEdgar.

Features:

  • Repurpose content and give it new life by automatically republishing it at a later date
  • Scheduling tools that let you set the optimal times for MeetEdgar to schedule your content
  • Real-time content insights to see what performs best so you can optimize your strategy

18. Later

Later homepage with a preview of the visual calendar and text that reads "social media management made easy"

Later is a social media management tool that assists with publishing and content creation. You can organize your social content strategy with a visual planner and a media library. The Best Time to Post recommendations make sure that you’re reaching your audience at the right time on TikTok and Instagram.

Features:

  • User-generated content discovery using tags and mentions
  • Instagram Hashtag Suggestions tool to generate fresh and relevant hashtags
  • Caption Writer tool to automatically craft powerful social media captions

How to select the best social media management tool for your business

When investing in a new tool for your business, you want something that adds value to your marketing tech stack. So it’s important to carefully weigh your options to ensure that you’re making the right choice. Here are some factors to help you narrow down the ideal social media management software for you.

Integration

The first thing to consider is whether it has a social media integration for the platforms you use. It should integrate with all the major networks so you can manage them all in one place.

Scheduling

Publishing is one of the most vital aspects of social media management, so you need a tool to simplify the process. Look for one that comes with features for scheduling social media posts and best time to post suggestions. Bulk scheduling capabilities are a plus if you have to schedule hundreds of posts each month.

Collaboration

Whether you work with a small team or with clients, you need a tool that supports seamless collaboration. Look for one that has a shared publishing calendar along with multi-user support and message approval workflows.

Social listening

A core aspect of social media management is being able to track and engage with relevant conversions. So you need a tool with social listening capabilities to monitor specific keywords and tags in addition to brand mentions.

AI capabilities

While not a necessity, AI marketing capabilities give you an added advantage. You can find social media tools that offer AI-powered features, especially when it comes to content creation. Being able to generate ideas and captions in an instant will help you speed up the process of creating new social posts.

Reporting

The easier it is to highlight your performance and KPIs, the better. Whether you’re reporting to clients or presenting data to stakeholders, in-depth social media reporting is a must-have.

Additionally, reporting can help highlight what’s working and what’s not in terms of your social presence. So make sure the tool can monitor the social metrics that matter most to your business.

Cost

Whether or not you can get by with totally free social media management software really depends on your business’s size and scope. For solo businesses and up-and-coming agencies, free or freemium tools might serve as a stepping stone toward paid ones.

But oftentimes, “you get what you pay for” rings true. That’s why it’s important to assess which features matter most to your business and what your non-negotiables are.

Take care to consider the overall cost of social media marketing when deciding on your budget for a social media tool.

Adaptability

Another major consideration is how well the tool can adapt to changes in your social media planning. Does it have a built-in editor in case you decide to create more visual content? Can you get hashtag ideas in case you want to start adding more hashtags? Make sure it has all the features you might possibly need so it can quickly adapt to your latest social media plan.

Scalability

One crucial factor is the ability to scale along with your needs. Almost in line with the previous factor, scalability helps you ensure that the tool can support your business growth. At the bare minimum, it should offer the option to add more users and social profiles.

Manage social media like a pro

The right tool helps you manage your social media like a pro. It streamlines publishing and allows you to manage all your social media interactions in one place. More importantly, it enables you to collaborate seamlessly with your team and clients.

After going through our list, take some time to weigh your options before you make the final move. And remember, you can get a first-hand look at Sprout’s automation, collaboration and reporting features with a free 30-day trial.

The post Top 18 social media management tools for businesses in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Schedule TikTok posts from mobile and desktop https://sproutsocial.com/insights/tiktok-schedule/ Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:03:14 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=161422/ Love it or hate it, TikTok has undeniably taken the world by storm. With its popularity growing exponentially with audiences of all ages and Read more...

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Love it or hate it, TikTok has undeniably taken the world by storm.

With its popularity growing exponentially with audiences of all ages and demographics, it’s crucial that businesses and brands maximize their reach on the short-form video app. One way to make that happen is by having a consistent TikTok posting schedule.

TikTok offers a free scheduling feature, but it’s limited to desktop use only. That’s where Sprout Social steps in, offering a solution for scheduling TikTok posts on both desktop and mobile.

Below we explain everything you need to know about scheduling TikTok posts—whether it’s with TikTok’s video scheduler feature on desktop or with Sprout Social. We’ll also review how Sprout’s mobile scheduler will make scheduling and publishing even more convenient.

Table of contents:

How to schedule TikTok posts with TikTok’s Video Scheduler (desktop only)

Much to the joy of social media managers, TikTok launched their Video Scheduler back in spring of 2021 for Creator and Business accounts. This feature makes it possible to schedule content from 15 minutes to a maximum of 10 days in advance.

Here’s how you can schedule TikTok content natively:

Step 1: Log into TikTok on a web browser

The scheduler is only available on desktop, so have your computer handy. Login and click the +Upload button in the top right corner.

Pro tip: Be sure to do your research on TikTok marketing best practices before you start exploring the scheduler. Understanding the fundamentals of developing a marketing strategy for the app will set you up for TikTok scheduling success.

Step 2: Upload and prep your post

In the upload video window, you can do everything you normally do before publishing. Add captions, TikTok hashtags, mentions, choose a cover image, run a copyright check and pick your settings.

Step 3: Schedule TikTok posts

Once a video is scheduled, you can’t make edits. So take time to do a thorough typo and settings check before hitting schedule. When you’re ready, click the toggle next to Schedule Video so it turns green. Two boxes will appear where you can set your publishing date and time. The time zone defaults to your computer’s, so double-check your settings.

Step 4: Do a quick double check

Mistakes happen. Cut out Murphy’s law and make sure your content is scheduled at the right time. Find scheduled posts in the Drafts section of your Profile.

&TikTok's video scheduler tool where you can schedule your TikTok content

Once you click Schedule, sit back and relax—your TikTok posting schedule has officially been created.

You’ll get a push notification when your post goes live, as long as you’ve enabled notifications.

How to schedule TikTok posts using Sprout Social (on mobile)

Only having desktop publishing natively isn’t great for those who prefer using mobile devices or need to schedule posts while on the go. But with Sprout Social, you can schedule TikTok videos directly from your mobile device.

This flexibility means you can plan and maintain content for your TikTok schedule from anywhere, ensuring you never miss opportunities to engage with your audience. The ability to create and schedule TikTok videos from the same device is also an easy way to streamline your marketing workflow.

Below we break down the steps on how to set up a TikTok Schedule on a mobile device using Sprout.

Step 1: Log into Sprout on your web browser and start composing your post

Begin by logging into Sprout Social in your favorite web browser on your desktop.

Tap the blue notepad and pencil icon in the top right to compose your post. You can also select Publishing on the left side bar and click on the day you want to post.

The Sprout Social calendar's monthly view where you can easily schedule and see posts across all of your platforms

Pro tip: Schedule your posts within the weekly or monthly calendar to get a birds-eye view of scheduled posts across your platforms and accounts. Seeing the calendar from this perspective will prevent inconsistent scheduling or accidentally publishing overlapping posts.

Step 2: Choose the TikTok account you want to schedule a post on

You might be juggling several TikTok accounts if you work in social media marketing. Sprout makes it easy to oversee multiple accounts from a single location.

When you navigate to the New Post window, you’ll find a dropdown menu in the compose box. From here, simply click on the account you wish to post on.

The dropdown menu in Sprout Social's post composer where you can select one or more social handles and profiles to post one

Step 3: Designate specific team members to be your Mobile Publishers in the Sprout Social mobile app

Mobile Publishers are assigned to post content to Instagram and TikTok using Sprout’s mobile app. Sprout’s mobile publishing features create a workflow of scheduling your posts in the mobile app. Then, the assigned Mobile Publisher(s) will publish the content to your Instagram or TikTok account based on the time/day you specify.

Remember, your team will need to pick who’s going to publish on mobile before you schedule a post.

There are a few actions to take if you want to appear in the Mobile Publisher list in the compose window:

  • Download the Sprout Social app on a mobile device
  • Enable push notifications for the app
  • Enable the publishing reminders option in the notification preferences screen of the app

Once you have a mobile user set up and ready to go, you can create your post by uploading a video to Sprout via desktop. Then, you can add the final touches to your post such as:

  • Writing an engaging description or caption–it’s optional to include mentions and hashtags
  • Choosing whether to open engagement with followers by allowing comments, duets or stitches
  • Designating the Mobile Publisher for your post
  • Selecting a day and time for scheduling the post
The new post window in Sprout where a TikTok post is being scheduled and there are privacy options that you can toggle on and off.

Once you’ve done all the above, you can click send or schedule.

Step 4: Open Sprout on your mobile device to finalize your post

The next step is in the hands of the designated Mobile Publisher for your scheduled post. But that’s not quite the end of it. The Mobile Publisher will finish the mobile publishing process.

First, you’ll tap on the publishing notification from Sprout that will appear at the scheduled time.

The publishing notification from Sprout that will appear at the scheduled time for your TikTok post.

Then, you’ll be able to review the post content one last time. If no changes need to be made, tap Continue to TikTok to move forward with publishing.

Sprout's app where you can review the post content one last time. If no changes need to be made, tap Continue to TikTok to move forward with publishing.

You’ll then see a list of publishing reminders to review. If all looks good, simply tap Ok, I’m ready to post.

Sprout's reminders on iOS and Android devices reminding users to open the TikTok app to make sure they are connected to the right profile and creating their post.

For iOS users, your uploaded video will download to your device and your caption will be saved to your clipboard. After that, the TikTok app will open.

Step 5: Use TikTok to publish your scheduled post

You’re almost there. The mobile publishing process will be completed within the TikTok app.

If you use an Android device, your video will automatically load when TikTok opens.

The Mobile. publishing Sprout app, where If you use an Android device, your video will automatically load when TikTok opens.

If you’re an iOS user, you will have to select the video from the camera roll. You’ll also have the option to polish up the video by adding any effects and options before tapping Next. After that, you will paste the prepared caption from your clipboard.

The Sprout app where you have the option to polish up the video by adding any effects and options before tapping Next.

At this point, take a final review for any typos or errors. Are you happy with how your post appears? If so, tap Post to publish your video. You’re all done.

Step 6: Review your scheduled content on the go

Social media marketing moves fast, so it’s easy to schedule posts at the wrong time of day or on a completely different platform than you intended.

By having the Sprout app on your mobile device, you can check and confirm that your scheduled posts and recently published posts are perfect while on the go.

From misspelled words to overlapping postings, Sprout enables you to catch the little things before–or quickly after–they are live.

Sprout also makes it possible to add edits on the fly. This is especially helpful since TikTok’s Video Scheduler doesn’t allow changes to the video, captions or scheduled time once a post has been scheduled for publishing. So be sure to take advantage of that feature to create more time and space in your schedule for more important tasks in your workday.

Curious to see how scheduling TikTok posts on mobile will level up your social media marketing strategy? Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Sprout’s TikTok management tools to try it yourself.

How to schedule TikTok posts using Sprout Social (on desktop)

TikTok’s scheduler is great for a quick set-it-and-forget-it post. But chances are, TikTok is one of many channels you’re managing.

Using a dedicated social media publishing tool like Sprout Social empowers you to see and schedule all of your posts in one unified place.

TikTok was one of our most-requested features. And we’ve made it easy to schedule posts, with no limit to how soon or how far in the future you can post your content.

Follow these easy step-by-step instructions to create your TikTok schedule using Sprout’s desktop option.

An X (formerly Twitter) post from fashion influencer Yvonne Pearson saying "TikTok is on SproutSocial" and Sprout's response, which says, "We cant wait to hear how you like it, Yvonne."

Step 1: Log into Sprout on your web browser and create your post

Start by logging into Sprout Social in your favorite web browser on your desktop.

To create a post, tap the blue notepad and pencil icon in the top right. Or, click Publishing on the left and click on the day you want to post.

Pro tip: According to The Sprout Social Index™, the majority of content consumers think posting 1-2 times a day is the sweet spot for brands.

To avoid over-posting or double-posting, schedule in the weekly or monthly calendar view. This gives you a high-level look at your upcoming posts across platforms to avoid over-scheduling in a given day or time period.

Sprout Social calendar's monthly view where you can easily schedule and see posts across all of your platforms

Step 2: Select the right TikTok account

Agencies, social media managers and creators alike may be balancing multiple TikTok accounts.

With Sprout, you can manage multiple handles in one place.

Once you’re in the New Post window, select the dropdown in the compose box and choose the account you want to publish on.

If you want to repurpose your short-form video on platforms beyond TikTok, select your Twitter handles, Facebook Pages and more in that same dropdown.

The dropdown menu in Sprout Social's post composer where you can select one or more social handles and profiles to post one

Step 3: Upload your video content and prep your post

Time for the fun part. Upload the video you want to use. Then, in the compose window, polish and prep your post by:

  • Creating an engaging caption
  • Including any mentions and hashtags you want to use—these become interactive once your video is published
  • Choosing how your audience can engage with your video—will you allow comments? Duets? Stitches?

In this step, you can also use Sprout’s unique features to keep your social campaigns and team processes organized.

For example, set a Message Approval Workflow to streamline team collaboration and communication.

Is your post part of a larger content campaign? Select a campaign to keep everything organized.

And internally tagging your content makes it easy to categorize posts based on business objectives, post themes and more.

Combined, these features help keep your TikTok marketing campaigns and cross-platform marketing campaigns visible—for you and your team.

Several dropdown menus in the new post window of Sprout where you can select an Approval Workflow and tags and a campaign for your content

Step 4: Choose the best time to post

Scheduling TikTok posts through Sprout enables you to publish at your preferred time. Identifying the best time to post matters, but it can also feel like a mystery.

The best posting times on TikTok for you to engage with users can vary depending on your target audience. However, below is a visualization which shows the best engagement times based on data averages collected worldwide.

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok globally in 2023

Step 5: Schedule TikTok posts, or save them for later

Once you and your team are feeling good about your post, you have a few options as far as how to schedule:

  • Save it, or schedule it, as a draft: Still have pending reviews? Want to keep it as a backup post or calendar placeholder? Saving your content as a draft is a great way to give yourself more editing time.
  • Auto-schedule with the queue: Ready to post but don’t have a time in mind? The Sprout Queue is a feature that enables you to choose the best time to publish based on audience activity within a time window you set.
  • Submit for approval: It always helps to have a second editing eye on your posts. When you set an Approval Workflow, the “schedule” button will change to a “submit” button, and you can submit your post to the approver for their review.
  • Publish immediately: Ready to post right now? Select this option to send your post out into the world right away.

Step 6: Double check your scheduled content

It’s all too easy to think you scheduled a post for noon, only to realize it was published at midnight.

While TikTok’s Video Scheduler does not allow you to edit scheduled posts before they go live, Sprout does. Take some time to do a quick typo and time check.

Scheduling in advance gives you plenty of editing room while also leaving more time in your schedule to dedicate to enhancing your strategy.

Tips for creating your TikTok schedule

You’re almost ready to start scheduling. As you fill your content calendar, it’s important to think about how your TikTok schedule fits into your larger social strategy. With 39% of marketers predicting the app will be one of the platforms they use the most, refining your team and content strategy as you post is key if you want to keep up.

Here are a few tips and best practices to keep in mind:

Maintain a shared, unified content calendar

Managing multiple platforms and posts can result in a lot of moving parts and silos.

Maintain a content calendar to see your scheduled posts across all of your social platforms in one, centralized place. This keeps you organized, helps you track whether you’re over—or under—posting and creates an easy-to-share resource for your team.

Create a calendar of your own, or use Sprout’s social media calendar as an all-in-one content calendar and scheduler.

Sprout Social's weekly publishing calendar view displaying multiple social posts scheduled across multiple profiles and platforms

Track your best posting times

The TikTok algorithm is quite different compared to most social media platforms, so you really need to have a TikTok-specific posting strategy if you want your content to be seen on the app.

According to TikTok, recency is a factor in determining which videos show up in the coveted For You Page—one of the best places to get discovered and grow on the platform.

While it’s important to post both frequently and consistently in addition to keeping your TikTok video ideas fresh, the key is to be online when your audience is most active.

We already mentioned that Sprout has data to help identify when you should schedule posts for maximum engagement opportunities.

You can take it a step further and track your posting times. Do any of your peak times surprise you? What posting times and days can you experiment with?

You can also do this on TikTok. To identify when your TikTok audience is most active in the app:

  1. Tap the three-line icon at the top right of your Profile view
  2. Tap Business Suite
  3. Tap Analytics
  4. Tap Followers at the top of the screen
  5. Scroll down to Follower activity to identify what days of the week and times your audience is most active

Your best posting times might be at odd, outside-of-working-hours time blocks—all the more reason to schedule your content ahead of time.

Set a smooth approval process for you and your team

Whether you’re a solo social media manager or part of a team, having another pair of eyes is always helpful.

Defining a structured review process for your TikTok content—and all of your content—helps maintain quality control while limiting the amount of cooks in the kitchen.

Sprout makes this easy by providing you with built-in, customizable Message Approval Workflows. Create and select different workflows for specific posts or platforms to easily streamline your approval and collaboration process.

Sprout's approval workflow in which someone has approved a content draft with an internal comment

Measure the success of your profile and posts

Measuring and tracking your TikTok marketing strategy, posts and posting times is crucial if you want to turn creative content into meaningful business insights—on TikTok, and beyond.

Regularly look at TikTok analytics to see what you’re doing right, and where you need improvement. Don’t be afraid to experiment and test until you find out what works for you.

With Sprout, analyze how your TikTok profile and content is performing—on its own, and compared to your other social profiles. Use the Cross-Network Reports like Profile and Post Performance to turn the metrics that matter most into insights that can fuel your strategy and create a deeper connection with your audience.

To truly make informed decisions and optimize your strategy, you need to analyze your TikTok performance over time—not just over days or weeks. If you are a creator beginning to see a lot of success with TikTok you may be in a position to earn money from your account.

While TikTok only offers 60 days of data, Sprout doesn’t limit your TikTok data after you’ve connected your platform. Meaning you can analyze your profile’s growth and success quarter over quarter, year over year.

Engage with your audience often

Once your posts are live, remember to regularly engage with your audience in TikTok comments.

After all, it’s called “social” media for a reason. Engaging with your audience strengthens your connection with them, and shows you’re listening.

Engaging with your audience is crucial across platforms. Streamline this process by using a tool like Sprout’s Smart Inbox to keep up with comments across TikTok, Twitter and more—all in one place.

Lighten the load and schedule your TikTok posts now

Scheduling your TikTok content ahead of time ensures your content and publishing is “always on,” while also allowing you to disconnect and sign off.

You’re well-equipped to create your TikTok schedule—now all you need is to get started, and to breathe easy.

If you’re ready to streamline your TikTok scheduling process, and your social strategy as a whole, then you’re ready for Sprout Social.

Try Sprout free for 30 days to see how it can power better insights for your social strategy and business.

 

The post Schedule TikTok posts from mobile and desktop appeared first on Sprout Social.

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12 Facebook publishing tools for your brand in 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-publishing-tools/ Thu, 01 Feb 2024 19:43:08 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=181290 As part of your Facebook marketing strategy, a consistent publishing schedule is essential. Without the help of social media scheduling tools, that means you Read more...

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As part of your Facebook marketing strategy, a consistent publishing schedule is essential. Without the help of social media scheduling tools, that means you have to remember to go online each day (sometimes even multiple times a day) to manually publish your content.

Nowadays, there are much more efficient ways to publish and schedule social media content. If you take advantage of a Facebook publishing tool, you will be empowered to have a tool semi-automate your social media management tasks. With capabilities like batch uploading your posts for the month, creating a weekly or monthly schedule, and built-in tools that make content publication easy, your time will be freed up for tasks that your business needs you to focus on instead.

Throughout this article, we’re going to address three key benefits of using a Facebook publishing tool and introduce you to 12 useful options for your business.

Why you should use a Facebook publishing tool

How can a Facebook publishing tool help you? And why is spending time to discern the right one for your business worth it?

We’ve got three reasons why.

Efficiently schedule your posts ahead of time

Scheduling your Facebook content ahead of time is a much more efficient way to publish your content. Instead of logging in every day to manually publish your content at sporadic times, we recommend batching content tasks together in advance to make your content publishing process most efficient.

Batching is a time management tactic that groups similar tasks together as a way to work on them more quickly and decrease potential distractions. When it comes to your Facebook content, we recommend batching content tasks together like so:

  • Content ideation – Plan a set time for content idea of the posts you plan to create and eventually publish. This step you’ll want to do the furthest in advance so you can set yourself up for the next two stages of the content process.
  • Content creation – After the content ideation is complete, we recommend knocking out the creation of the content you plan to schedule and publish all at once or through a few content creation sessions.
  • Content scheduling – Lastly, once the content is produced, we recommend scheduling those posts in one sitting using a Facebook publishing tool.

If your Facebook content process has more steps than the ones above, you can add those in. But it’s best to focus on each task at once, first creating an entire week’s worth of content, then scheduling that week’s worth of content.

And using a Facebook publishing tool makes scheduling out your content even easier. Some of the tools in our list allow you to set your planned weekly schedule first so that you don’t have to select a date and time manually. Other tools allow you to choose automated optimal times based on your audience.

Streamline your reporting

Most Facebook publishing tools give you access to your posts’ analytics, which provides you with key data for metrics like reach, engagement rate, and more. Use the analytics feature provided through third party Facebook publishing tools to draw insights for your social media reporting. Discover your top-performing posts so you can create more like them. And identify posts that don’t resonate as much with your audience so you can remove them from your strategy.

Facilitates team collaboration

If you work with a team to create and schedule your Facebook content, publishing tools can make the process even easier. Find a tool that facilitates social media collaboration, allowing junior social media managers to create content to then send to senior managers for approval and publication.

Or, have your social media team input the content and captions for each post to then send to the graphic design or video team to add in the assets once they’ve been created.

Looking to improve efficiency, reporting and collaboration amongst your team? Check out the top 12 Facebook publishing tools below to find the perfect option for your business.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social sits at the top spot of our list for a reason. Yes, we’re going to toot our own horn. Sprout Social is a comprehensive and easy-to-use Facebook publishing tool—but it’s also so much more than that.

A screenshot of Facebook publishing tool Sprout Social

With Sprout Social, you can get access to Facebook features like:

  • Publishing
  • Reporting and analytics
  • Monitoring
  • Customer service
  • Competitor analysis

But you can also get access to those features and more for every other social media platform you plan to use in your strategy. Take advantage of our publication features while also getting an all-in-one tool that fits all of your social media management needs.

Plus, make Facebook publication as easy and seamless as possible. Input your caption, upload your media, then let Sprout’s AI tool find optimal publication times based on when your audience is most likely to be online.

screenshot of Sprout Social's Facebook publishing tool

Our Facebook publication-specific features include:

  • Optimal posting times
  • Team collaboration tools
  • Visual social media calendar
  • Content suggestions for inspiration
  • URL tracking

Pricing: Starting at $199/month. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

2. Social Champ

Social Champ is another social media management tool that works on a number of networks—Facebook, of course, included. With Social Champ, you can add multiple social media accounts to your dashboard and manage your presence on all of them from one place.

A screenshot of the homepage of the Facebook publishing tool Social Champ's website

Facebook scheduling features include:

  • The ability to save and manage hashtags
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Automation
  • A social media inbox
  • The ability to add the first comment to your Facebook post

Pricing: Free forever account option. Paid plans start at $26/month.

3. SocialBee

SocialBee is another Facebook publishing tool with a number of features to offer. Its visually appealing content calendar can help keep your social media team organized each time you schedule another batch of content.

A screenshot of the homepage of the Facebook publishing tool Social Bee's website

SocialBee’s Facebook management features include:

  • Integrations with design and content creation apps
  • Content calendar with scheduling capabilities
  • AI assistant for help creating content
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Social inbox

Pricing: Starting at $24/month.

4. Keyhole

Keyhole is a Facebook publishing and analytics tool focused on helping agencies manage all of their client accounts in one seamless dashboard. Keyhole also has an arsenal of social media management tools, making sure its agency users can easily manage all aspects of their clients’ social media.

A screenshot of the homepage of the Facebook publishing tool Keyhole's website

The Facebook publication tools available in Keyhole’s suite include:

  • Optimal posting times
  • A calendar view for organization
  • Full-scale social media analytics
  • The ability to collaborate with teammates or clients

Pricing: Starting at $79/month.

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is another great option for keeping all of your digital content scheduled out and organized. Famous for its calendar view, CoSchedule focuses on helping marketing teams make sure they’re never missing a day of content.

A screenshot of the homepage of the Facebook publishing tool Coschedule's website

Facebook publishing features available with CoSchedule include:

  • An easy-to-use drag-and-drop social calendar
  • The functionality to track social media messages
  • AI social assistant to help writing captions
  • Social message optimizer to help improve your engagement

Pricing: Free account option. Paid plans start at $19/month.

6. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management tool that supports more social networks than just Facebook, making this a great option for brands with a complex online presence. More than that, Agorapulse boasts additional features that help users offer great social media customer service.

A screenshot of the homepage of the Facebook publishing tool Agorapulse's website

Agorapulse’s Facebook publishing features include:

  • Team collaboration
  • Visually appealing social content calendar
  • Multi-platform publishing
  • UTM tracking
  • Asset management

Pricing: Starting at $49/month.

7. Post Planner

Post Planner is a simple and easy-to-use social media publishing tool. With a name like Post Planner, you can safely assume that the ability to plan out your social media content sits at the core of this tool’s functionality.

A screenshot of the homepage of the Facebook publishing tool Post Planner's website

Post Planner’s Facebook publishing features include:

  • The ability to create multiple posts at once
  • The ability to optimize your posts for each platform’s requirements
  • Post previewing
  • Saved captions
  • Evergreen content recycling

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $7/month.

8. eClincher

eClincher is a social media management platform that also has features that assist with local SEO, business listing management and tools for businesses with franchises or multiple locations. That means this is a great option for franchise businesses needing help with more than just social media.

A screenshot of Facebook publishing tool eClincher

eClincher’s Facebook publishing features include:

  • Digital asset library
  • Content curation tools
  • Hashtag management
  • Multi-platform publishing
  • Team collaboration

Pricing: Starting at $65/month.

9. Loomly

Loomly is a social media management platform that also offers team collaboration features, helping its users to collaborate effectively as they implement their social media strategies. Access a number of useful features with a visually appealing interface.

A screenshot of Facebook publishing tool Loomly

Some of the Facebook publishing features that Loomly offers include:

  • Visually appealing content calendar
  • Team notifications and collaboration tools
  • A feed of post ideas to get inspiration
  • Asset management
  • Automated and manual publishing options

Pricing: Starting at $32/month.

10. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a social media management and analytics tool that can be a great option for organizing, publishing and scheduling your Facebook content. Access collaborative tools, AI features, publishing capabilities and more.

A screenshot of Facebook publishing tool Social Pilot

To help you publish your Facebook content, SocialPilot has features like:

  • An AI assistant to help with your content creation
  • A content library to store your assets
  • Smart scheduling that accounts for different audience time zones
  • Bulk scheduling to make publication even easier

Pricing: Starting at $25.50/month.

11. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a tool that started years ago as one of the only Instagram analytics tools and has come a long way based on demand to offer a suite of social media management tools for nearly every social media platform.

A screenshot of Facebook publishing tool Iconosquare

The Facebook publishing features that Iconosquare offers include:

  • Image cropping tools
  • Post approval
  • Media library
  • Cross-platform publishing

Pricing: Starting at $49/month.

12. Emplifi

Emplifi is the last option on our list, but still a solid choice for a social media management and publication tool. Emplifi can help you publish and schedule your content, as well as manage your online community, keep an eye on your brand’s reputation and even work with influencers.

A screenshot of Facebook publishing tool Emplifi

With Emplifi, get access to Facebook publishing features like:

  • AI caption composer
  • AI-powered posting time recommendations
  • Post approval workflows
  • Digital asset library
  • Presets, templates and drafts for easy content creation

Pricing: Book a demo to get a customized quote based on your needs.

Find the right Facebook publishing tool for your needs

Ramp up your Facebook marketing strategy by planning ahead and staying organized. One of the best ways to do that is by putting together the perfect arsenal of tools for your needs.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one Facebook publishing tool, give Sprout Social a try. Sign up for a 30-day free trial to test drive our software and see if we have what you need.

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Your downloadable social media calendar template for 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/templates/downloadable-social-media-calendar-template/ Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:49:21 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?post_type=templates&p=181167 At the heart of a successful social strategy is a content calendar that promotes collaboration, order and consistency. A solid social media calendar gives Read more...

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At the heart of a successful social strategy is a content calendar that promotes collaboration, order and consistency. A solid social media calendar gives teams a go-to reference for understanding the numerous posts you’ll share across different networks each month. It’s not just a tool for your team; it’s a valuable resource for the whole company.

This downloadable social media calendar template is designed to help you:

  • Create visibility into your social strategy for collaborators and stakeholders
  • Consolidate notes and action items for planned content in a centralized location
  • Ensure all content is aligned to a specific KPI
  • Organize content by customizable categories (like product launches, blog posts or event promotions)

Give yourself the gift of a more organized approach to content creation. Use this downloadable social media calendar template to get one step ahead on your monthly content calendar.

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20 Best Instagram tools to level up your presence https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-tools/ Tue, 09 Jan 2024 14:39:11 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=156226/ Creating an Instagram marketing strategy is an involved process. There are multiple types of content to consider (posts, Reels and Stories), different formats to Read more...

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Creating an Instagram marketing strategy is an involved process. There are multiple types of content to consider (posts, Reels and Stories), different formats to create (photo, graphic and video) and different times to publish your content.

To make sure you’re consistently delivering high-quality content without overextending your team, turn to Instagram tools. There are a number of online tools available to help make processes easier than ever.

Throughout this article, we’re going to introduce you to the 20 best Instagram tools on the market and how they can help your team improve your overall Instagram presence.

Why do you need an Instagram business tool?

There are so many things you can do inside the Instagram app—post content, leave comments, track hashtags, check insights. But there are so many more things you can do if you’re a business on Instagram by using an Instagram tool.

Imagine performing tasks such as:

  • Scheduling a batch of content ahead of time
  • Compiling a report of your Instagram performance (and other platforms if need be)
  • Managing all comments and messages in a single social inbox
  • Automating processes like direct messages, comments, following accounts and more
  • Collaborating with your teammates
  • Creating a landing page specific to your Instagram audience
  • Editing content to level up your Instagram presence

Social media tools help you maximize efficiency, create better content and boost your ROI from your marketing efforts. Read on to decide which tools will work best for your business’ needs.

All-in-one Instagram management tools

An all-in-one Instagram management tools can help you with pretty much all things Instagram for business. Scheduling, monitoring, analyzing, collaborating and so much more. Learn more about how all-in-one Instagram tools can be game-changers for your business.

1. Sprout Social

We gave ourselves the top spot for a reason!

Sprout Social represents the best all-in-one Instagram tool for brands that are serious about Instagram growth.

Strategic scheduling. In-depth analytics. Cross-publishing and collaboration.

And that only scratches the surface. When it comes to publishing, Sprout Social is a powerhouse with baked-in features like ViralPost which allows you to schedule content at times when your audience is most likely to be engaged.

Looking to add a first comment for posts as well? Look no further. An Instagram link in bio landing page? We got it.

Coupled with a comprehensive content calendar, you can manage all of your social campaigns in a single platform (including ones beyond Instagram).

Screenshot of Sprout Social's publishing calendar and compose box for Instagram.

Collaboration options mean multiple colleagues and stakeholders can work within the app at the same time. Want to set up approvals or go back-and-forth with your creatives? Go for it!

Built-in hashtag and Instagram analytics and the ability to identify top-performing content are a game-changer for winning more followers and engaging the ones you have. Our platform lets you know exactly what’s working, what isn’t and where to go next with your content strategy.

Screenshot of a Sprout Social dashboard showing top Instagram posts and audience growth.

You can also access cutting-edge AI tools that handle all automation tasks your team doesn’t need to worry about, so they can focus on the more important things.

You can do all of the above for your other social channels via Sprout’s Smart Inbox.

Screenshot of the Sprout Social Smart Inbox.

Pricing: Sprout offers a 30-day free trial. Visit our pricing page to explore all plans.

Instagram tools for publishing and scheduling

Instagram publishing tools are a must-have for brands, businesses and influencers alike.

This is especially true if you’re pushing out content on a regular basis.

The ability to schedule and queue up content is a game-changer if you’ve been stuck publishing in real-time or on the fly.

And although Instagram scheduling can be done natively, the process is a bit roundabout.

Instead, consider the value of having a central hub to plan your content calendar and execute your Instagram campaigns in one place. The tools below can help you do exactly that.

2. Loomly

Loomly’s brand success platform emphasizes approvals and workflows to streamline social publishing among teams. For Instagram specifically, Loomly is notable for its in-depth post previews, built-in first comment publishing and the ability to schedule Stories and Reels.

Simple, straightforward and affordable, the app is a no-frills tool for smaller teams and agencies looking to collaborate on Instagram content.

Screenshot of three different views of Loomly's interface.

Pricing: Base plan starts at $32/mo for two users.

3. Sendible

Sendible is another social publishing tool with features tailor-made for agencies looking to schedule and promote social posts for clients.

The platform’s drag-and-drop functionality allows users to quickly move posts to different dates and platforms, while features like team chat and approvals make client content management a breeze. Another notable feature of the app is the ability to edit Instagram photos directly with the platform thanks to Sendible’s Canva integration.

Screenshot of the Instagram tool Sendible's interface.

Pricing: Creator plan starts at $29/mo.

Instagram tools for analytics

Making sense of your Instagram data is crucial to growing your presence.

You need to understand what’s moving the needle in terms of followers, comments, “Likes” and clicks. Beyond that, consider how third-party Instagram analytics tools can:

  • Highlight your top-performing content (and the common threads between your best posts)
  • Break down your account’s optimal posting time, publishing frequency and caption length
  • Show your account’s growth rate in terms of followers and engagement, plus other Instagram insights

4. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is one of the oldest Instagram analytics tools in the book, existing well before Instagram even offered its own built-in analytics. This tool has changed and evolved just as much as the platform itself has, making sure it always has new tools and features to offer its users.

These days, Iconosquare is still considered one of the go-to Instagram analytics tools out there, giving businesses access to details like follower growth, lost followers, impressions, reach, engagement and more.

Screenshot of Iconosquare's interface.

Easily create exportable dashboards and reports so you can share your data across your team and organization. Plus, take advantage of other features like publishing, monitoring and customer service.

Pricing: Single plans start at $49/month for one user. Team plans start at $79/month for up to 10 users.

5. Keyhole

Keyhole is an Instagram analytics tool that works well for any business, but especially agencies—over 100k agencies use and love Keyhole’s analytics. This is because it’s easy to monitor analytics for multiple platforms and businesses from one easy-to-use dashboard.

Easily analyze your own performance—plus keep an eye on competitors, monitor online conversations surrounding your industry and brand, and stay on top of the latest social media trends with Keyhole.

Screenshot of Keyhole's interface, using Starbucks Coffee as an example for profile growth and engagement numbers.

Pricing: Individual plans start at $79/month for one user. Team plans start at $149/month for three users.

6. HypeAuditor

Perfect for influencer marketing audits and assessing an account’s growth rate, HypeAuditor tracks historical data and engagement data for Instagram accounts. This tool is particularly useful for double-checking engagement rates and spotting fake influencers or sudden spikes of new followers.

Screenshot of HypeAuditor's interface.

Pricing: HypeAuditor asks that interested businesses book a demo to learn more and get a quote.

7. Phlanx

Phlanx is another great Instagram analytics tool for businesses working with influencers. Discover engagement rates and get audit reports for influencers you’re interested in working with to make sure the content they create can adequately reach their audience. Phlanx has an engagement rate calculator that looks at each influencer’s follower count and average like count to calculate an accurate engagement rate.

Screenshot of Phlanx's interface for auditing Instagram influencers and engagement calculator.

Pricing: Basic plans start at $39/month when billed annually; otherwise basic plans start at $49/month.

8. Pixlee

Primarily for ecommerce brands looking to track their UGC, Pixlee makes it easy to assess the literal ROI from your Instagram presence. Custom analytics track revenue, conversion rates, and everything in-between when it comes to customer behavior and cash flow.

Overlay of two screenshot of Pixlee's interface: one showing an Instagram post example to the left and Pixlee's metrics on the right.

Pricing: Contact company for pricing.

9. Emplifi

Emplifi, previously SocialBakers, offers a seriously comprehensive suite of Instagram analytics, allowing you to dig into specific metrics with granular reporting or benchmark your performance versus your competitors. The platform’s Stories analytics are notable, breaking down past performance to inform your future content strategy.

Screenshot of Emplifi's interface.

Pricing: Contact company for pricing.

Instagram editing tools for Stories and Reels

Creativity counts on Instagram.

Not only do your Instagram Reels and Stories need to grab your audience’s attention but also be totally unique to your brand.

If you’re only using the tools Instagram offers natively, you run the risk of publishing run-of-the-mill content despite your best efforts. This is a particular problem if you’re going hard on Stories or Reels.

From flashy filters to eye-popping effects and beyond, the following Instagram editing tools can foster creativity and make your content feel more “must-see.”

10. CapCut

CapCut offers surprisingly powerful Instagram video editing for both Apple and Android, as well as a desktop editor, totally for free. Speed controls and quick editing cuts coupled with a massive library of sounds and filters represent an awesome all-in-one tool for brands looking to step up their video marketing.

Screenshot of CapCut's interface, with a preview example overlaying the actual video editing tool interface.

Pricing: Free!

11. Stencil

If you’ve exhausted your photo editing options and filters on Canva or just want to try out a new graphic editor, give Stencil a go. Its easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionality allows you to mock up quotes, blog posts previews or just about any other text-based post in a matter of seconds. Built-in templates for Stories are a plus for brands and influencers.

Screenshot of Stencil's interface showing an example of a graphic with a featured photo library on the lefthand side.

Pricing: Free plan available; full-featured Unlimited plan is $12/mo.

12. Vixer

Exclusive to Apple, Vixer is a simple tool that can help you create more stylish Instagram Reels. The app’s filters, slideshows, voiceovers, and custom text are definitely an upgrade from default Reels editing. The platform also makes it a cinch to cross-post and share your Reels to TikTok (hint: don’t do the opposite).

Four side-by-side screenshots of Instagram tool Vixer's interface and results.

Pricing: Free; in-app purchases required for full features.

13. Mojo

Animated tutorials and how-tos are all the rage on social media, particularly for businesses and brands.

Mojo’s mini Instagram studio makes it easy to whip up animated Stories with customer text effects, stylish cutaways and moving backgrounds. The app’s premium version allows you to save your brand creatives for repeat Stories and provides users with fresh templates each month.

Four side-by-side screenshots of Instagram tool Mojo's interface.

Pricing: Free; in-app purchases required for full features.

Instagram tools for hashtags, listening and trendspotting

It’s no secret that Instagram moves quickly when it comes to trends.

With dedicated hashtag and social listening tools, you can master the art of trendspotting and keep a pulse on what your followers want to see from you. Consider how the tools below can help you:

  • Find fresh Instagram hashtags to extend your brand’s reach and introduce yourself to new audiences
  • Craft more impactful Instagram captions that people will actually engage with
  • Uncover trends and conversations related to your brand, industry and top competitors

14. Inflact

Inflact’s free hashtag generator uses advanced AI targeting to create a list of potential hashtags based on existing tags and related terms.

The tool also allows you to generate hashtags based on uploaded photos. Although the list provided can be pretty exhaustive, it’s a great place to start brainstorming potential tags to insert into your first comment on Instagram.

Screenshot of Inflact's interface of frequent, average and rare hashtags with search volume numbers next to each.

Pricing: Hashtag generator is free on-site; full listening and on Android and Apple devices; and hashtag features start at $54/mo (limited offer).

15. SISTRIX Hashtag Generator

This free hashtag generator allows you to input 25 queries a day for fresh hashtag ideas.

What sets SISTRIX’s tool apart is the ability to cross-reference relevant hastags to find the most appropriate for your audience. Doing so can help you refine your hashtag strategy if you’re staring at a long list of seemingly unrelated tags.

Screenshot of Instagram tool SISTRIX's main webpage.

Pricing: Hashtag generator is free on-site for up to 25 queries per day.

16. Reputation

Not totally unlike Sprout’s own suite of Instagram listening tools, Reputation analyzes your mentions and customer sentiment to help you understand the crucial conversations happening about your business. For example, the app can highlight keyword terms associated with your brand and benchmark your engagement versus competitors.

Screenshot of Reputation's interface for publishing and listening.

Pricing: Contact company for demo.

17. Awario

Awario is an Instagram analytics tool that’s laser-focused on monitoring brand mentions and hashtags. The platform’s advanced listening features make it ideal for competitive analysis and big brands that need to respond to queries, call-outs and @mentions fast.

Screenshot of Awario's interface: on the left-hand side, the topics are around Tesla, Audi and BMW. The main dashboard is showing a feed of social posts around Tesla.

Pricing: $29/mo Starter plan; $89/mo Pro and $249/mo Enterprise plans available as well.

If you’re a business, your Instagram bio is seriously valuable real estate.

Maybe you’re trying to build your email list. Perhaps you’re an influencer or ecommerce brand pointing people to products and promotions.

Either way, Instagram by default only gives you five links to funnel your followers.

The good news is that’s a new wave of Instagram tools that allow you to:

18. Linktree

Big among influencers and brands alike, Linktree transforms your bio into a unique landing page that links out to relevant promotions.

The platform boasts templates specific to goals such as social selling, content marketing and audience growth. Want to promote a newsletter or send traffic to your storefront? Linktree can help point people where you want them to go.

And although the customization of your landing page might not be the flashiest, the popularity of Linktree speaks for itself.

Three side-by-side screenshots of Instagram profile tool Linktree's interface.

Pricing: Forever-free plan available; Pro version with full features $9/mo. Custom enterprise plans are also available.

19. hoo.be

hoo.be is a link-in-bio tool meant for creators looking to consolidate links to their various projects. The app scores serious style points for its interface and layout, not to mention customizable branding. Trendy and exclusive, it’s the perfect Instagram tool for influencers and vloggers alike.

Three side-by-side screenshots of Instagram bio tool hoo.be's interface examples.

Pricing: Free to use.

20. Lnk.bio

Lnk.bio creates a unique and customizable space for your various promotional links. Features such as unlimited links and over 90 icons to choose from, this app is a worthy Linktree alternative for anyone who wants their bio link to go beyond the ordinary.

Two side-by-side overlay Instagram bio tool lnk.bio's interface example: The image on the left shows the lnk.bio in a user's profile and the image on the right shows the lnk.bio interface in use.

Pricing: Free limited plan and paid plans start at $1/mo; $10 and $25 one-time plans are also available.

Which Instagram management tools are you using?

We get it: there are a lot of options when looking for the right Instagram tool. That said, upgrading beyond Instagram’s native features should be a top priority for brands eager to grow.

And again, there’s a reason why we rank Sprout Social among the best Instagram tools for brands that need powerful publishing, in-depth analytics and team collaboration features. If you haven’t already, we invite you to experience a trial of Sprout Social today to see firsthand how you can improve your Instagram presence ASAP.

Or, continue your Instagram education and check out our guide on managing your Instagram followers.

The post 20 Best Instagram tools to level up your presence appeared first on Sprout Social.

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How to use Twitter advanced search to get more leads for your brand https://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-advanced-search/ https://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-advanced-search/#respond Mon, 24 Jul 2023 13:50:15 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=120762/ Twitter (rebranded as “X”) is a treasure trove of information for brands to understand their audience. However, the platform can get noisy with Twitter Read more...

The post How to use Twitter advanced search to get more leads for your brand appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Twitter (rebranded as “X”) is a treasure trove of information for brands to understand their audience. However, the platform can get noisy with Twitter users sending out thousands of new Tweets every second. This can make it challenging to find the posts and interactions that are relevant to your Twitter marketing strategy. That’s what makes Twitter advanced search such a vital tool for brands and marketers looking to extract valuable insights.

In this post, we’ve put together a quick guide breaking down how to make the most of Twitter’s advanced search features. This will help you better narrow down the most relevant interactions for your brand.

Read on to find out what Twitter advanced search is and how to use it strategically for your brand.

Table of contents

What is Twitter advanced search?

Twitter advanced search is a tool that lets you tailor your search results based on a number of filters. This makes it easier to find Tweets that are highly specific and relevant to your needs. So you can gain valuable insights to maximize the benefits of Twitter for your brand.

This Twitter search feature lets you search for Tweets containing specific words, hashtags and phrases. You can even exclude keywords or search Tweets from specific accounts. The feature further lets you filter results by number of engagements, date ranges and other filters.

popup window for twitter advanced search showing different search fields

How to access Twitter advanced search

Twitter advanced search on desktop

There are two ways to access the Twitter advanced search tool via desktop.

  • The first option is to directly access it from https://twitter.com/search-advanced.
  • The second option is to first conduct a search using the regular Twitter search feature. Then click on the three-dot button next to the search bar and select “Advanced search.”
twitter dropdown menu with arrow pointing to advanced search button

Twitter advanced search on mobile

Mobile users can access the advanced search tool through their mobile browser. Just like on desktop, there are two ways to access Twitter advanced search on mobile.

  • The first option is to open your mobile browser and directly go to https://mobile.twitter.com/search-advanced.
  • The second option is to first conduct a regular Twitter search from your mobile browser. Then click on the three-dot button next to the search bar and select “Advanced search.”

How to use Twitter advanced search

The advanced search tool offers plenty of ways to refine your search results. This helps you discover specific Tweets and conversations to make the most of Twitter for your business. Here’s a quick look at how to search on Twitter using the advanced search tool.

Searching for specific words, phrases and hashtags

  • All of these words – Provide two or more words and search for Tweets containing all those terms in no specific order.
  • This exact phrase – Search for Tweets matching the exact phrase. You can use this to look for Tweets containing names, quotes and precise terminologies.
  • Any of these words – Provide two or more words and search for Tweets containing any of those terms. For example, a search for “coffee beans” may show Tweets containing only “coffee” or only “beans.”
  • None of these words – Exclude Tweets containing certain words. This is great for filtering irrelevant Tweets from your search results.
  • These hashtags – Look for Tweets containing specific hashtags.
  • Language – Filter your search results to find only those Tweets written in a specific language.
popup window to conduct advanced search by words

Searching for users or accounts

  • From these accounts – Search for Tweets coming from specific accounts. If you use this alongside the word search, you could even look for Tweets containing certain words sent from those accounts. So, for example, you could search for Tweets by @twitter containing the phrase “customer support.”
  • To these accounts – Search for Tweets sent to specific accounts. This would include Tweets sent in reply to those accounts.
  • Mentioning these accounts – Look for Tweets mentioning certain accounts.
popup window to conduct advanced search by accounts

Combining these search options will help you easily find conversations between different accounts. For example, you’d be able to look for Tweets from Wendy’s to Chipotle or vice versa.

Searching for Tweets by date

Advanced search gives you the option to look for Tweets sent out within a specific date range. You can narrow your search by year, month and date.

Searching based on engagement

One useful feature is the ability to filter search results by engagement. You can look for Tweets containing at least X number of replies, X number of likes and X number of Retweets.

popup window showing different fields to conduct twitter advanced search based on engagement

Using search filters

Advanced search further lets you narrow your results based on several filters. You can choose to exclude or include replies. Or you can choose to only show replies and exclude original Tweets.

Similarly, you can choose to include Tweets with links or only show Tweets with links.

different filters for twitter advanced search

Twitter advanced search commands and operators

Besides the advanced search tool, Twitter offers a few additional resources to refine your search. Make the most of its standard search operators to perform advanced searches on the platform.

These search operators work similarly to Twitter’s advanced search. The main difference is you can enter them directly into the normal search function.

For example, let’s say you’re planning a Disney vacation and have a family member with dietary restrictions. Maybe you want to see the Twitterverse’s experiences with Disney’s dining options. So you search “Disney” and “allergy” (in quotations, separately) to score some real-time information and feedback.

There are a number of Twitter search operators and queries out there. And brands can use them for everything from customer service to competitive research. Whether you use these operators in the standard search field or the advanced search UI comes down to your preferences. If you’d like a handy reminder of your options for Twitter search operators, check out the cheat sheet below.

list of Twitter's standard search operators

Image Source: Twitter

7 impactful ways to use Twitter advanced search

According to the latest Twitter stats, 15% of users turn to the platform for customer service. Meanwhile, 32% of brands are using it to deliver customer service. So there’s a huge opportunity for brands to use Twitter advanced search for ramping up their customer service efforts.

But that’s not all. Check out these seven impactful ways to use advanced search on Twitter.

1. Zero in on customer questions and concerns

Twitter is the go-to channel for customer support. And using the right search queries can help you prioritize your fans’ issues.

Perform advanced searches including your @account and terms such as “help,” “support” and “service.” This can help clue you in on anyone having a problem. Additionally, you can tack on a question mark (“?”) to that query to spot anyone who has a question for you.

twitter advanced search results showing users asking questions to Apple

2. Find ideas for content

Twitter is a hub for trending conversations. People go to the platform to talk about trending topics and discuss important events. These conversations can show you what your audience is talking about and what they’re interested in. Based on these interests, you can then understand what types of content will resonate with them.

As such, Twitter serves as a valuable source of inspiration for content–whether it’s your next blog post or live broadcast.

Use Twitter advanced search to see what people are saying about a specific topic. Then use those conversations to get a sense of what they’re interested in. For example, you might find that people are talking about sustainable coffee. You could then put together a blog post discussing the topic to educate your audience.

Twitter advanced search result showing Tweets containing the word "coffee"

3. Find relevant industry influencers

Want to know who are the biggest players in your industry? Or whose content is totally killin’ it?

Searching by engagement parameters can help you do just that.

This would involve filtering search results to narrow down Tweets with higher engagements. In general, influential users get more likes and Retweets compared to regular users. Performing this type of advanced search can help you zero in on users who are leading the conversation around certain topics.

twitter advanced search result for Tweet about coffee blend with high levels of engagement

4. Spot positive customer comments

Brands are rightfully concerned about their reputation with fans and followers. And the advanced search functionality is a great way to conduct Twitter listening and monitor brand reputation.

You can conduct a surface-level sentiment analysis by searching for positive keywords along with your brand name. Think “best,” “happy,” “excellent” and so on. You can even tack on emoticons such as “:)”.

These can reveal Tweets in which customers share positive experiences with your brand. So they give you the perfect opportunity to respond and engage and nurture your relationship with them.

twitter advanced search result for positive comment about the Chewy service

5. Never miss another mention

Spoiler alert: not everyone talking about you online is taking the time to tag you.

Save a Twitter advanced query that includes your brand name, common misspellings and your website. This will give you a good start to monitoring social mentions more diligently. So you can send timely responses and prevent further disappointment.

Sleeping on such an interaction could be bad news for your business, especially if it’s a customer complaint on the line.

You’ll find the option to “save search” by clicking on the three-dot button next to the search window.

twitter dropdown menu with arrow pointing to the "save search" button

6. Monitor your competitors

Want to see what people are saying about the competition? Or how your competitors are responding to their customers?

Run an advanced search to look for Tweets mentioning your biggest competitors. Then analyze those Tweets to understand why people love (or hate) your competitors.

twitter advanced search results for positive brand mentions about a fast food chain

This could give you insights to strengthen your Twitter communications strategy. You can even use the insights to inform your larger marketing and promotion efforts.

Sprout Social’s Twitter analytics tools make it even easier to do a competitor analysis. You can do a side-by-side Twitter profile comparison to see how you stack up to your top competitors.

7. Identify your most popular Tweets

Curious to see which of your Tweets are resonating with your audience? Use Twitter’s advanced search to look for your Tweets with a certain number of likes and Retweets.

For example, you could search for Tweets with at least 50 likes and 20 Retweets.

twitter advanced search results for Sprout Social's Tweets with high levels of engagement

How to use Sprout Social to enhance your Twitter searches

Twitter lets you run complex searches for @mentions, hashtags, keyword groups and exclusions. But there are more operators out there to narrow down the search even more.

This means that you need to have a strategy for not only figuring out relevant searches for your brand but also organizing them.

Sprout’s Twitter integration helps you streamline your searches and monitor relevant keywords in one place. Use it to set up keyword searches and identify relevant conversations for your brand. You can then keep track of all these conversations through a single Smart Inbox. From the same social inbox, you can engage with mentions and replies instead of having to switch platforms.

Using Twitter advanced search for advanced results

The Twitter advanced search feature allows you to uncover valuable conversations and insights for your brand. Make the most of the tips and ideas shared above to maximize the outcome of your Twitter strategy.

If you ever feel overwhelmed trying to make the platform work for you, don’t forget there are plenty of Twitter tools to make your job easier. Use them to your advantage and get more out of Twitter for your brand.

Use of Twitter nomenclature across Sprout refers to newly rebranded X platform and related terminology

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Best times to post on LinkedIn in 2023 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-linkedin/ Mon, 08 May 2023 22:25:55 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=172827/ As the premier professional-focused social platform, LinkedIn is where to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. And with over 63 million Read more...

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As the premier professional-focused social platform, LinkedIn is where to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. And with over 63 million company profiles on LinkedIn, it’s important to know when the best time to post is for you to engage with your followers – whether they’re clients, customers, employees or prospects, or all of the above.

With more than 900 million members across 200 countries, businesses have a large audience and employee advocates to extend their reach. With the right LinkedIn marketing strategy, combined with these optimal posting times, you could see improved engagement.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on LinkedIn a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn globally in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn Company Pages:
    • Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn Company Pages: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn Company Pages: Weekends

Unsurprising for this professional-focused social platform, LinkedIn engagement times are consistent with general business hours. High engagement hours are more concentrated midday and don’t extend too far out past the workday hours. You’re less likely to get eyes on your LinkedIn content on the weekend when engagement drops significantly.

Because LinkedIn content is centered around professional thought leadership and career growth, it makes sense that a majority of audiences engage with this content throughout their working day. By midday, there’s buzz on the platform, and the best times to post on LinkedIn are Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and noon.

Yes, LinkedIn is a business and employment-focused platform, but it’s more than a job board and networking platform. LinkedIn provides a platform for professional storytelling and advocacy, from both employees and employers alike. Contributors of all levels can share their subject-matter expertise, create conversations that challenge “business as usual,” and uplift professional voices around the world.

Businesses on LinkedIn are finding new ways to generate leads, find co-marketing partners, highlight company culture and attract talent. Because of these additional business opportunities LinkedIn provides, it makes sense that posting and engagement match with the business hours.

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on LinkedIn are, and we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself.

Use this industry-level data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your own optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for consumer goods in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods:
    • Mondays at 11 a.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods: Mondays and Tuesdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Consumer Goods: Saturdays and Sundays

The consumer goods industry covers a large portfolio of products, ranging from packaged food and beverages to clothing and accessories and everything in between. While the US was facing inflation at nearly 8.5%, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years prior. After two years into the pandemic, consumers were ready to spend similar to their pre-pandemic habits and more in 2022.

For consumer goods businesses on LinkedIn, only very few days see any engagement. Based on our data, the best times to post on LinkedIn for consumer goods are Mondays at 11 a.m., and Mondays and Tuesdays as the best days to post. Be cautious if you’re a consumer goods business, but also be sure to test your own best times to post.

Consumer goods social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for healthcare in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare:
    • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m.
    • Wednesdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays through Fridays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitals & Healthcare: Sundays

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers have been put to work on social media the last few years, due to the pandemic. However, social media for healthcare is more than navigating healthcare crises. It’s about educating the public, helping patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promoting their programs for aspiring physicians and establishing themselves as pillars in the community.

Healthcare and hospitals on LinkedIn see consistent engagement nearly every single day starting at 7 a.m. seven days a week. However, the best times to post on LinkedIn for hospitals and healthcare are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m., as well as Wednesdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Consistent engagement can be seen Tuesdays through Fridays from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Hospitality

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for hospitality in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Hospitality:
    • Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon and at 1 p.m.
    • Fridays at 4 p.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitality: Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Hospitality: Sundays

As consumers crave some semblance of pre-pandemic life, ‘ businesses can also sense it. Hospitality businesses see higher engagement consistently throughout the day and into early evening hours during weekdays on LinkedIn.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for the hospitality industry are Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. and Fridays at 4 p.m. However, businesses see consistent engagement throughout the day from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Hospitality social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Media

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for media in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Media:
    • Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
    • Thursdays at 9 a.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Media: Weekdays, especially Wednesdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Media: Sundays

The media and entertainment industry sees consistent engagement on LinkedIn. Media businesses should expect engagement from early weekday mornings through the afternoons. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have a relevant impact on media impressions on all networks, including LinkedIn. As a business and employment-focused social media platform, it makes sense that professionals come to engage in emerging news.

News travels quickly, and the best times to post on LinkedIn for the media and entertainment industry are Wednesdays at 11 a.m. and Thursdays at 9 a.m. However, posting between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. sees just as high engagement. Avoid posting on LinkedIn over the weekends, since there is limited engagement in this industry.

Media social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for nonprofit in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit:
    • Wednesdays at noon
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Nonprofit: Saturday and Sundays

Our data for the best times to post on LinkedIn for nonprofits shows consistent engagement throughout the week during general business hours. The best times to post on LinkedIn for nonprofit organizations are Wednesdays at noon, but between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Fridays showing promising engagement as well.

However, even with the consistent audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, it’s important for nonprofits (and all businesses) to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on LinkedIn.

Nonprofit social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Restaurants

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for restaurants in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants:
    • Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants: Tuesdays through Fridays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Restaurants: Saturdays and Sundays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some restaurant and bar locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Many restaurant businesses used LinkedIn to promote job fairs, individual employment positions, as well as news articles highlighting their accolades.

Restaurants and bars on LinkedIn see decent engagement midday during the week between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. However, the peak engagement and best times to post on LinkedIn for restaurants and bars are Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for schools and education in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education:
    • Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
    • Fridays at 6 a.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Schools & Education: Saturday and Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools didn’t see much engagement on LinkedIn compared to other social networks, despite there being 131,000 schools listed. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

Opportunities for engagement are sporadic during weekdays, and virtually nonexistent over the weekends. The best times to post on LinkedIn for education and schools are Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and Fridays at 6 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays see more engagement throughout the days, whereas Mondays and Fridays are relatively light.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on LinkedIn for travel and tourism in 2023
  • Best times to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism:
    • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m.
    • Thursdays at 10 a.m.
  • Best days to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on LinkedIn for Travel & Tourism: Weekends

Travel and tourism industries appear to have maximized their engagement on LinkedIn. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses saw an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on LinkedIn for travel and tourism businesses are Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until noon then again at 1 p.m., as well as on Fridays at 10 a.m. However, these businesses see solid engagement almost every weekday from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Travel and tourism social media resources

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier. If you use a LinkedIn analytics tool, it should contain a host of relevant data.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your own analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Screenshot of Sprout's Analytics for Cross-Channel Post Performance Report, showing performance of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your individual account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

Screenshot of Sprout's Publishing Calendar in list view, with the compose flyout box and the mouse curser over the ViralPost Optimal Send Times feature.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your own audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis yourself and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

The post Best times to post on LinkedIn in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Best times to post on TikTok in 2024 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-tiktok/ Mon, 08 May 2023 22:25:00 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=172822/ As one of the fastest-growing entertainment platforms, TikTok showed it’s a powerhouse in the digital space. And with more and more businesses joining the Read more...

The post Best times to post on TikTok in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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As one of the fastest-growing entertainment platforms, TikTok showed it’s a powerhouse in the digital space. And with more and more businesses joining the platform, it’s important to know when is the best time to post on TikTok. With over 1 billion active users worldwide, we know that it’s one of the more popular platforms to date.

It’s important to understand how posting on TikTok at the right times can be a huge benefit to your TikTok marketing strategy. Users on average spend 23.5 hours per month on the platform, meaning there is an opportunity to engage with a consistent audience. Keep an eye out for emerging trends or subcultures on the platform and test your own content.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on TikTok with a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

Best Times to Post on TikTok

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok globally in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok:
    • Tuesdays from 2 to 6 p.m.
    • Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
    • Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok: Sundays

As the youngest digital platform on this list, TikTok has grown significantly and made waves in half as many years as the others on this list. With the app now amassing over 1 billion active global users who spend nearly 20 hours on the app every month, TikTok has competitive staying power.

The best times to post on TikTok are Tuesdays from 2 to 6 p.m., Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m. Afternoons are when the highest engagements are on the platform; users are looking to fill their afternoon entertainment boost. However, generally, mid-morning through the afternoon (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) on Tuesdays through Thursdays see higher engagement on the app.

With future market trends changing quickly, it’s important to understand how trends start, evolve and influence. Once you understand how these forces, moments or signals work, you can better create a TikTok trend strategy to implement rather than participating reactively.

Best Times to Post on TikTok by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on TikTok are, and we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself if you’re looking to get more views and engagement.

Use this industry level-data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your own optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Consumer Goods

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for consumer goods in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Consumer Goods:
    • Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
    • Wednesdays at 3 p.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Consumer Goods: Tuesdays and Wednesdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Consumer Goods: Saturdays and Sundays

The consumer goods industry covers a large portfolio of products, ranging from packaged food and beverages to clothing and accessories and everything in between. While the US was facing inflation at nearly 8.5%, US consumers spent 18% more in March 2022 than they did two years prior. After two years into the pandemic, consumers were ready to spend similar to their pre-pandemic habits and more in 2022.

For consumer goods businesses on TikTok, only very few days see any engagement. Optimal engagement for consumer goods on TikTok is Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 3 p.m.

Very few hours throughout the days see any engagement either. Be cautious if you’re a consumer goods business, but also be sure to test your own best times to post.

Consumer goods social media resources

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Hospitality

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for hospitality in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Hospitality:
    • Thursdays at 2 p.m.
    • Fridays at 9 a.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Hospitality: Thursdays and Fridays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Hospitality: Wednesdays

As consumers crave some semblance of pre-pandemic life, businesses can also sense it. While hospitality businesses see higher engagement on other social platforms, there is limited concentrated engagement and optimal posting times on TikTok.

The best times to post on TikTok for the hospitality industry are Thursdays at 2 p.m. and Fridays at 9 a.m. There are moderately light engagements Thursdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., which would still be ideal times to post. Essentially late evening hours when people were looking to engage with hospitality brands.

Hospitality social media resources

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Media

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for media in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Media:
    • Mondays at 8 a.m.
    • Tuesdays from 5 to 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
    • Wednesdays from 6 to 8 a.m.
    • Thursdays at 6 a.m. and from 8 to 11 a.m.
    • Fridays at 9 a.m.
    • Sundays from 6 to 8 a.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Media: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Media: Saturdays

Engagement in the media and entertainment industry peaks on TikTok. Media businesses can expect consistently high engagement nearly every day between 6 and 11 a.m. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have a relevant impact on media impressions on all platforms, including TikTok.

News travels quickly, and the best times to post on TikTok for the media and entertainment industry are Mondays at 8 a.m., Tuesdays from 5 to 9 a.m., Wednesdays from 6 to 8 a.m., Thursdays from 8 to 11 a.m., Fridays at 9 a.m., and Sundays from 6 to 8 a.m.

Media social media resources

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Nonprofit

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for nonprofits in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Nonprofit:
    • Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Nonprofit: Tuesdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Nonprofit: Saturdays and Sundays

Our data for the best times to post on TikTok for nonprofits shows concentrated engagement in midweek afternoons that can extend into the early evening hours.

The best times to post on TikTok for nonprofit organizations are Tuesdays from 3 to 5 p.m., however, there’s almost as much engagement three hours prior and after. Wednesdays see some near-peak engagement between 1 and 6 p.m.

However, even with the audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, all businesses need to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on TikTok.

Nonprofit social media resources

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Restaurants

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for restaurants in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Restaurants:
    • Mondays at noon and 3 p.m.
    • Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
    • Thursdays at 4 p.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Restaurants: Mondays and Tuesdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Restaurants: Saturdays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Offering unique promotions or showcasing your menu in an attention-grabbing way on TikTok will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Restaurants and bars on LinkedIn see decent engagement at midday during the week. However, the peak engagement and best times to post on TikTok for restaurants and bars are Mondays at noon and 3 p.m., Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. and Thursdays at 4 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Schools & Education

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for schools and education in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Schools & Education:
    • Wednesdays at 7 a.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Schools & Education: Wednesdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Schools & Education: Mondays and Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools see some, but not much, engagement on TikTok according to our data. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

Schools and education don’t see many concentrated opportunities on TikTok; however, this shouldn’t prevent them from using the entertainment platform, since there’s an opportunity to engage with the next wave of students: Gen Z. The best times to post on TikTok for education and schools are generally Wednesdays at 7 a.m.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

Best Times to Post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on TikTok for travel and tourism in 2023
  • Best times to post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism:
    • Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
  • Best days to post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism: Wednesdays and Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on TikTok for Travel & Tourism: Sundays

Travel and tourism industries see some decent engagement on TikTok. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses see an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on TikTok for travel and tourism businesses are Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. And these peak hours see moderate engagement in the hours before and after those optimal times.

Travel and tourism social media resources

How to find your own best times to post on TikTok

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Screenshot of Sprout's Analytics for Cross-Channel Post Performance Report, showing performance of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

Screenshot of Sprout's Publishing Calendar in list view, with the compose flyout box and the mouse curser over the ViralPost Optimal Send Times feature.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing repeated the analysis, and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

The post Best times to post on TikTok in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

]]>
Best times to post on Twitter in 2023 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-twitter/ Mon, 08 May 2023 22:22:05 +0000 https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=159409/ If there’s one platform where it seems like the best time to post seems like 24/7 it’s Twitter (rebranded as “X”). However, we know Read more...

The post Best times to post on Twitter in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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If there’s one platform where it seems like the best time to post seems like 24/7 it’s Twitter (rebranded as “X”). However, we know from our initial analysis that there are more preferred engagement times for Twitter users. With 436 million monthly active users worldwide and 55% of Twitter users using the platform daily, conversations are not slowing down.

Businesses see the value of Twitter in terms of staying close to emerging topics, trends and sentiments from global audiences. And now, more than ever, marketers understand the importance of staying close to the conversations and brand sentiment. And as a platform for conversations and customer care, it’s important to understand how to use Twitter for business in a meaningful way.

Learn how to identify your best times to post globally on Twitter a free trial of Sprout Social and test our ViralPost® feature with your profiles.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded globally, meaning you should be able to publish with the times provided in any timezone and see positive engagement results. Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times. We recommend testing with your own accounts to find the most optimal send times.

Best Times to Post on Twitter

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter globally in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter:
    • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
    • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    • Fridays 9 a.m. to noon
  • Best days to post on Twitter: Tuesdays through Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter: Sundays

Twitter has consistently been the platform for up-to-the-minute conversations and breaking news. And 2022 didn’t stop with breaking news and trends on or about Twitter. Brands looking to participate in trending topics need to be timely but conscious of their brand values in the process.

Twitter peak times for engagement grew significantly compared to last year, with hours consistently at late-morning to midday during weekdays. The best times to post on Twitter are Tuesdays through Fridays beginning at 9 a.m. and taper off around noon.

This could reflect an interest in developing news and updates as the day unfolds, as well as a desire for entertainment. Keep in mind many brands use Twitter as part of their customer service strategy, as an alternative to traditional customer support options. Brands should continue to build trust between their customers and proactively improve customer experience through social listening.

Best Times to Post on Twitter by Industry

There’s no definitive answer to what the best times to post on Twitter are, and we can only offer insight with the data we have. Industry is just one factor that plays into the success of your social posts. Consider as well as your target audience, business goals and the content itself.

Use this industry-level data to help inform your publishing calendar, and test your optimal send times with social experiments.

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for healthcare in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare:
    • Mondays at 2 p.m.
    • Tuesdays at 8 a.m.
    • Thursdays from 8 to 11 a.m.
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare: Tuesdays and Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Hospitals & Healthcare: Weekends

Hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers have been put to work on social media the last few years, due to the pandemic. However, social media for healthcare is more than navigating healthcare crises. It’s about educating the public, helping patients feel more comfortable with healthcare visits and doctors’ appointments, promoting their programs for aspiring physicians and establishing themselves as pillars in the community.

The best times to post on Twitter for healthcare and hospitals stay consistent compared to last year. Nearly every single day sees moderate engagement starting at 7 a.m. seven days a week. However, the best times to post on Twitter for hospitals and healthcare are Mondays at 2 p.m., Tuesdays at 8 a.m., and Thursdays from 8 to 11 a.m. Higher than average posting times are Tuesday and Thursday midmornings into early afternoons.

Hospital and healthcare social media resources

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Hospitality

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for hospitality in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Hospitality:
    • Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
    • Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
    • Fridays at 8 p.m.
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Hospitality: Fridays and Saturdays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Hospitality: Sundays and Mondays

The hospitality industry has seen more engagement and posting days on Twitter. Consumers are craving some semblance of pre-pandemic life and businesses sense it. Hospitality businesses see higher engagement consistently in the evening hours, starting at 6 p.m. almost every day of the week, whereas last year, it was only for three days of the week.

The best times to post on Twitter for the hospitality industry are Tuesdays at 10 p.m., Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Fridays at 8 p.m. Essentially late evening hours when people are looking to engage with hospitality brands. Moderate engagement last a few hours before or after those optimal posting times, and is relatively light during average business hours.

Hospitality social media resources

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Media

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for media in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Media:
    • Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
    • Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
    • Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to midnight
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Media: Tuesdays and Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Media: Saturdays

The media and entertainment industry also sees consistent engagement on Twitter. Media businesses could expect engagement from early weekday mornings through the afternoons. Major global events, political upheavals and business news have had a relevant impact on media impressions on all networks, especially Twitter.

News travels quickly, and the best times to post on Twitter for the media and entertainment industry are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Media social media resources

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Nonprofit

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for nonprofits in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Nonprofit:
    • Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    • Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and at 8 p.m.
    • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
    • Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Nonprofit: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Nonprofit: Saturdays

Our data for the best times to post on Twitter for nonprofits shows consistent Twitter engagement throughout the week during general business hours and extending into the evening.

The best times to post on Twitter for nonprofit organizations are Mondays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon.

However, even with the consistent audience engagement seen in the heatmap above, all businesses need to test their own best times to post. Whether it’s through social testing or using Sprout’s Optimal Send Times feature, find what times work best for your organization on Twitter.

Nonprofit social media resources

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Restaurants

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for restaurants in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Restaurants:
    • Thursdays at 11 p.m.
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Restaurants: Tuesdays and Fridays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Restaurants: Sundays

In 2022, everyone was ready to get back to their pre-pandemic routines, and restaurants were ready with open doors. While online orders and delivery services may have become new offerings for some locations, the desire to draw patrons has not. Target audience and platform goals factor into ways businesses connect with their customers. Offering unique promotions and updates on Twitter will keep your restaurant in mind for potential customers.

Twitter engagement for restaurants and bars shows decent engagement midday during the week between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., generally. However, the peak engagement and best time to post on Twitter for restaurants and bars is Thursdays at 11 p.m.

Restaurant social media resources

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Schools & Education

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for schools and education in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Schools & Education:
    • Mondays at 10 a.m.
    • Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to noon
    • Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon
    • Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Schools & Education: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Schools & Education: Sundays

Universities, higher education institutions and schools see a significant increase in engagements on Twitter compared to last year. Keep in mind that some schools manage multiple social profiles (per college, athletics, etc.) to meet these needs and effectively target distinct audiences at the right time.

High opportunities for engagement start midmorning and go through later evening hours. The best times to post on Twitter for education and schools are Mondays at 10 a.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon, and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon.

From highlighting student life to sharing school updates, a social media strategy for education needs to fulfill multiple functions. Are you looking to engage with students past, present and future? Are you looking to keep a pulse on sentiment and brand health?

Schools and education social media resources

Best Times to Post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism

Based on Sprout Social data, a heatmap showing the best times to post on Twitter for travel and tourism in 2023
  • Best times to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism:
    • Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    • Thursdays at 10 a.m.
    • Sundays at noon
  • Best days to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays
  • Worst days to post on Twitter for Travel & Tourism: Saturdays

Travel and tourism industries nearly tripled their engagement on Twitter compared to last year. As many travel restrictions continued to be lifted and the semblance of “normal” crept back into many peoples’ lives, travel and tourism businesses see an opportunity to capitalize on the suppressed desires to travel.

The best times to post on Twitter for travel and tourism businesses are Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursdays at 10 a.m., and Sundays at noon. And these peak hours see moderate engagement in the hours before and after those optimal times.

Travel and tourism social media resources

How to find your own best times to post on social media

Social marketers can plan content more effectively when they’re armed with data. And as platforms evolve, how brands and consumers use social will evolve with them, or vice versa. Staying aware of new content formats and trends might help you reach your audience in unexpected ways, or even find new segments and personas you weren’t focusing on before.

While you may be ready to jump in and post at these provided peak engagement times as part of your strategy, consider pairing this data with your own social media data analysis. You may discover that your specific target audience is active near the peak times we’ve outlined or hours earlier.

A social media management tool like Sprout Social can help you drill into your analytics and develop tailored findings for your brand accounts across all networks, holistically and individually. Gain competitive insights by comparing your performance to your competitors, to find new opportunities for engagement.

With features like post tagging and cross-network reporting, you can separate different factors like post author or types of content, and drill down into how your posting time influenced your social success.

Screenshot of Sprout's Analytics for Cross-Channel Post Performance Report, showing performance of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts.

Sprout’s patented ViralPost® technology uses the same data we’ve used to look at all our customer accounts to determine the best time to post tailored for your account. ViralPost® algorithmically determines the results for our Optimal Send Times feature, a publishing option available in all plans. Our proprietary machine learning feature isn’t new, but we’re constantly learning and improving our product to help brands surface insights faster. Our goal is to help people who use our product work more effectively.

Screenshot of Sprout's Publishing Calendar in list view, with the compose flyout box and the mouse curser over the ViralPost Optimal Send Times feature.

With Optimal Send Times, the specific times offered are based on when your audience engages the most using your publishing history. ViralPost® also continually updates and refines to save you time from doing the repeated analysis and allowing you more time to craft great content.

Want to see it in action? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social or request a personalized demo and try it for yourself.

Start a free Sprout Social trial

If you’re looking for more of our findings from this year’s study of our customer data, see what we learned about the best times to post across eight industries on these networks:

How Sprout gathered the data

We understand that these reports can raise questions about just where the data is coming from. That’s why we want to be clear about the data we pulled and how we got here.

Sprout Social’s Data Science team gathers this information by analyzing nearly 2 billion engagements across 400,000 social profiles across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.

Find your best time to post with Sprout

Now’s the time to test your content calendar. Are you posting when your followers are most active? Start your free trial of Sprout Social and discover the best times to post on social media today.

Use of Twitter nomenclature across Sprout refers to newly rebranded X platform and related terminology

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