Social media platforms have emerged as the most important marketing strategy for businesses across the world. With constantly changing market trends, multiple social media platforms and limited resources, it is imperative to manage social media accounts effectively to experience success in your business. This calls for using various beneficial tools to achieve this. However, so many tools coupled with myriad features sometimes make it confusing to adapt to the resources. In addition, most of these tools cost ample money, which otherwise can be saved if effective business specific tools are used. Here are 8 must have tools to manage your social media accounts effectively.

Buffer is a must have social media scheduling tool that is used to manage content publishing across myriad social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. The tools provide access to specific profiles and can be used by teams and individuals alike. The tool finds the best schedule or time to publish posts, which may help in getting maximum views and most likes such as on Facebook. One can queue their posts according to the day and time one wants to publish the posts with preset posting times, interpret social analytics, view posts on a calendar and even curate content from RSS feeds.

Edgar is a tool for SM library for content that can be used as a scheduler too. One feeds text, images, links, GIFs and more to the tool and then the tool automatically generates a queue for publishing these. Edgar never runs out of posts. Instead, it recycles previous posts that are stored under specifically-named categories for easy recalling and editing.

HootSuite is a tool that simplifies content management and publishing for individuals and teams across all SM platforms. Apart from supporting all social media platforms, it also supports YouTube and Instagram. It has a dashboard through which one can organize and respond to customer queries and other interactions. One can create paid ads through this tool as it offers sentiment insights and analytics that determine how people are reacting to your posts.

Sprout Social is a similar tool to Hootsuite and Buffer. The only difference between Sprout Social and the other two tools is the Smart Inbox Feature that Sprout Social comes with. It enables on to view messages from all social media accounts into a single stream, thus making it easy for individuals and teams to respond to customer interactions. In addition, its Social CRM feature helps in responding and resolving customer service issues along with providing a complete conversation history. It is an apt tool for companies dealing with a large number of customer interactions.

IFTTT that stands for ‘If this, then that’ refers to a logical programming statement. The tool offers myriad ways to social media marketers to automate tasks, which can make for effective and less time-consuming tasks. A free tool that can help one to share Instagram photos, build a Twitter list following a special hashtag and share new WordPress blog posts automatically in Facebook page.

Mentuonis a very useful tool that helps one keep track of the brand across all the social media platforms. A daily report across all websites can be generated when the tool is fed with relevant keywords and names. It is an effective tool when you are concerned about proactively managing your brand.

Canvais a perfect graphic design tool that has pre-set dimensions and layouts, thus making it easy to work for social media managers. The tool has a built-in design assistance and comes in a free basic version. The same can be upgraded with a minimal amount that offers additional features.

Iconosquare is one of the effective tools till date, that makes Instagram analytics easy to understand. The tool costs very less and offers actionable community, content, and customer engagement report.

These 8 tools are a must have, whether you are a beginner or an expert in social media marketing.