9 free social media management software and tools Talkwalker

Sign up for Talkwalker Free Social Search to monitor your campaign hashtags

To make life easier for marketers, there are specialized tools for everything, ranging from scheduling and monitoring, to image editing and URL tracking. However, the variety of options can be overwhelming and making a choice is difficult. I have created a list of the 9 best free social media marketing software and tools that are intuitive and easy to use. Each tool has a different functionality and helps in solving a unique problem.

The best free social media management software and tools:

• Talkwalker Free Social Search
• Hootsuite
• Talkwalker Alerts
• Canva
• Piktochart
• Pixlr
• Google Campaign URL Builder
• Promo
• Pixabay

#1 Talkwalker Free Social Search

Yes, we made it to the top of our list! But there are good reasons for that. Talkwalker Free Social Search is an online monitoring tool that helps marketers track their campaigns and hashtags for free.

This tool will allow you to make granular searches. You can filter results based on location, media type, languages, sentiment, and more. This means that if you are running a campaign in a certain geography, you will be able to see and monitor your campaign in that specific location. You can see what people are talking about you, the top themes, hashtags, influencer mentions, and more.

With Free Social Search, you can look at individual results (posts) and filter these results based on engagement rate/reach/publication date. This tool also allows users to compare their campaign performance with their competitors (up to 5 competitors).

#2 Hootsuite

When it comes to social media scheduling, nothing beats Hootsuite. It has multiple applications and covers all major social media channels. With Hootsuite, you can view all your content in a single calendar and publish posts at different times.

The free version allows you to connect your account with three social platforms. To add more accounts, you can upgrade to a Pro or Business version at any time. There is also an option to add the RSS feed of your blog along with auto-sharing of your latest blog posts.

#3 Talkwalker Alerts

Talkwalker Alerts is a better alternative to Google Alerts. It helps users monitor brand mentions across the web (news platforms, blogs, forums, websites) and Twitter. Unlike Google Alerts, Talkwalker Alerts allows users to customize and narrow their search queries using Boolean operators. This means that you can filter your results and receive the most important conversations in your inbox.

Best practice: You can set up alerts for your brand name, brand-related keywords, competitors, and industry terms. Depending on your needs, you can choose to receive updates ‘once a day’ or ‘as it happens’ for your brand name. For competitors and industry terms, you can set up alerts once a day/week for the best results. This will give you a bird's-eye view of relevant online conversations. You can use this information to customize your marketing strategy and modify your campaigns.

#4 Canva

Canva is my favorite tool for quick and easy graphic design. With thousands of templates, a simple drag and drop functionality and over one million photographs, anyone can create professional, quality graphic design.

This tool provides custom templates for all major categories – social media (Facebook, Instagram), posters, newsletters, presentations, invitations, and more. While some premium templates require you to pay, there are plenty of free options. Users can upload and create their own custom designs as well.

From webinar invitations to informative posts, Canva can be used for a variety of social media updates. Moreover, it is user-friendly. Even someone with no design experience can create beautiful graphics with this tool.

#5 Piktochart

Infographics are amazing visual tools to engage with audiences on social media. Research suggests that if someone hears information, they are likely to remember 10% of it after three days. If the same information is displayed in a visualization, people will retain 65% of the information. Therefore, infographics are the best way to share complex information with users.

Creating infographics from scratch can be a time-consuming activity. But Piktochart makes this super easy! There are several predefined templates to choose from. You can add or remove blocks depending on the information you wish to present. With the free account, users can create up to five visuals.

#6 Pixlr

Nothing beats Adobe Photoshop when it comes to image editing. But sometimes you just need quick image fixes. Pixlr is a great tool for this. From removing backgrounds to adding overlays and icons, everything is possible in a few clicks. You can change colors and saturation, sharpen or blur images, and add multiple layers. The possibilities are endless.

#7 Google Campaign URL Builder

If you run multiple campaigns on social media and work with several influencers at the same time, it is advisable that you track them separately. This will help you measure the success of each campaign.

Consider setting up UTM tracking links with Google Campaign URL Builder. Share custom URLs with your influencers and partners and keep track of the amount of traffic generated by each promotion/campaign.

#8 Promo

The attention span of humans has been decreasing rapidly. According to a study by Microsoft, people lose concentration after eight seconds. This is shorter than the attention span of a goldfish (nine seconds). Videos are a fantastic tool to hook your audience’s attention and drive conversions.

Promo helps users create videos in an easy and fast way. It has a library of over 12 million video clips and templates. Every video can be edited and enhanced with music, custom text, and logos. The interface is so simple that even without any prior video making experience, one can create high-quality videos.

Here is an example of a video created with Promo:

#9 Pixabay

With millions of tweets and posts each day, it is difficult to get noticed on social media. Adding a relevant image to your post increases the likelihood of it being liked and shared. As a busy social media manager, you might not have the time to create images for each of your posts. This is where you can use stock images.

Pixabay has a repository of over 1.7 million stock images, videos, and vectors. All images on Pixabay are under their license and you can use these images without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist.

Now that you are armed with all the free social media management software and tools, you are ready to up your social game. Create a robust social media marketing strategy and experiment with these tools to increase engagement with your followers.