According to Internet World Stats, there were approximately 3.7 billion Internet users at the end of 2016 representing about 50 percent of the 7 billion people on the planet. Research by Pew Research Center indicates that two-thirds of American adults are active on social media. From 2005 to 2015, social media users increased ten times. Clearly, these are not numbers that social media marketers can ignore.

But, creating content and posting to several social media platforms is time-consuming and, time is a scarce commodity for entrepreneurs. To help you save time and become more productive, we have provided you with a list of five time-saving social media marketing tools.

1. Buffer

Buffer’s power lies in its simplicity. It has an easy-to-use, intuitive dashboard and is one of the best, if not the best, scheduling tool. With a free Buffer account, you can set up five social profiles, that is, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+. You can schedule ten posts at once, but, to unlock the true power of Buffer, you need a pro account. Pricing for pro accounts starts at $10 a month and with this, you can schedule up to 100 posts. With a pro account, you also get access to advanced social media analytics to help you make smarter decisions.

2. Everypost

Creating content isn’t exactly an easy thing to do. There will always be those days when you are low on original ideas. Everypost is ideal for such days. In addition to its advanced scheduling features, Everypost suggests relevant posts from other sources which you can share with your audience. Everypost has several pricing tiers starting with a free basic plan and the option to upgrade to more advanced plans priced at $9.99, $29.99 and, $49.99 per month.

3. Commun.it

Commun.it is another great social media marketing tool. In addition to scheduling and post analysis, Commun.it also has a feature that identifies your key audience. See who shares your content and get suggestions on who to follow. Pricing starts at $19.99 per month.

4. Canva

Research has demonstrated that visual posts have better engagement on social media. But, unless you are a graphic designer, creating appealing visual imagery and infographics is always going to be a challenge. This is where Canva comes in handy. It is, without a doubt, one of the best social media marketing tools for visual content. Use Canva’s pre-built templates to create great looking images and infographics for any social media platform and share them to your social accounts right from within the platform. Their free option allows to accomplish a lot but if you want to collaborate, design and edit with your team, you need a pro account priced at $12.95 per user per month.

5. Woobox

Social media contests are a great way to increase engagement and drive brand loyalty. One of the fastest and easiest ways to run a social media contest is through Woobox. Woobox is a social media contest tool that allows you to offer coupons, host giveaways, create polls and quizzes, offer coupons and much more. The tool comes with ready-made campaigns that you can quickly customize. Woobox also has in-built functionality to collect email addresses. There are currently three pricing tiers starting at $30 per month.

6. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is an advanced social listening tool and is used by some of the world’s biggest brands. Ever wanted to know what people are saying about you and your products without having to go online and conduct an online search yourself? Brandwatch “listens” to the Internet for mentions of your company or brand. When the keywords you specify are mentioned online, you get an alert and online report. This is a great way to listen to social sentiment in pretty much the same way Google Trend works. Pricing is provided on a request basis.

7. Lastpass

Finally, most businesses have several social media accounts. Having to remember the passwords to several accounts isn’t easy. And, it’s a really bad idea to use the same password across several platforms because once one is hacked, all the rest are at risk. Lastpass makes password management easy. With Lastpass, you only need to remember one password and the application will manage all your other passwords for you and automatically log you into your social media sites.

Conclusion

Social media marketing is a vital component of the overall business strategy. But, you can’t afford to spend every minute composing tweets, posts, images and conducting an analysis. The social media marketing tools laid out above will help you free up time which can be better spent on other equally important aspects of your business.