077. 7 Social Media Management Tools for Dominating Instagram

I am living for Instagram stories! It’s like the best thing ever to me, granted I don’t have an active Snapchat, Instagram stories is all I know. Let’s face it Instagram is killing the game. With the addition of stories, Instagram’s live feature and now Instagram groups, Instagram is where it is at right now for freelancers and entrepreneurs.

Right now I am focusing most of my attention on growing my following and engagement on Instagram, which can be a formidable task creating content, posting, replying to messages and comments, even engaging with influences or potential clients. Yeah. It can get a bit overwhelming. But a good entHERpreneur always keeps an arsenal of good tools to help her keep her sanity.

To be more efficient and grow your social media presence check out some of my favorite Instagram management tools for schedule social content, gaining new followers and engaging with your tribe!

For Scheduling Content

C-o-n-s-i-s-t-e-n-c-y. Consistency is the key to growing your following and gaining new clients. You should develop a regular posting schedule to keep your tribe engaged, but sometimes doing this can be daunting, especially when you are traveling or busy with other priorities. To alleviate the stress, plan ahead. With apps like Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social you can manage and schedule content across multiple social media platforms. Then, there is also Later and ScheduGram that are apps specifically for Instagram.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite has been a major player in social media management. With an array of features from auto-scheduling to detailed analytics, Hootsuite will satisfy marketing teams with all types of needs. The great thing about Hootsuite is it integrates with most social media networks, produces amazingly detailed analytics, and adapts to large teams. However, the sheer amount of features available can be overwhelming and the analytics reports can be pricey if you’re working with a bootstrap budget.

Buffer

Buffer is a lot similar to Hootsuite in its ability to schedule content across multiple platforms and amongst numerous team members. Buffer leans away from social media management and more towards social media publishing, with a focus on scheduling and monitoring individual posts allowing you to easily schedule and monitor specific content across several platforms. The downside to Buffer is it only tracks posts published on its platform.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is just like Hootsuite and Buffer in regards to concentrating on content publishing, analytics, and social community engagement. I have not used Sprout Social personally but a lot of entrepreneurs and businesses rave about its sleek user interface, in-depth analytics tool and team collaboration features.

Later (formerly Latergramme)

My personal favorite schedule tool right now is Later, which can be used to schedule posts from a browser or using the mobile iOS app. With this tool, you can upload multiple images at one time, schedule and organize your Instagram posts, however, Later does not post them for you. Later sends a reminder at the scheduled time, which you can open and post via Instagram. Later also serves as an Instagram editorial calendar for your scheduled content. If you publish a lot of Instagram content, Later might be the best tool for you. Its website describes itself as “a simpler way to plan your visual content marketing, ” and it’s hard to beat its visual drag and drop features. The only drawback to Later is it is only limited to Instagram content, if you need to manage multiple platforms in one place Hootsuite, Buffer or Sprout Social are a better option and bang for your buck.

ScheduGram

Then there is ScheduGram, which like Later is limited to Instagram content. ScheduGram features web uploading of images or video, scheduling for later, and supports multiple accounts and multiple users. And unlike other solutions, you don't have to have your phone on you at the time something is scheduled, or muck around posting it yourself. ScheduGram does it all for you.

For Engaging with Your Followers

Holr

I absolutely love Holr, if I could attribute my Instagram conversions to a single source I would blame it on Holr. Holr is a service that allows you to automate your social media direct messaging to your followers on Instagram and Twitter. You can send a greeting, a coupon or a link to your website to every new follower right after they start following you, which is a great way to start engaging with them and drive traffic to your products or website. Did I mention you can also send personalized messages using merge tags?!

Instagress

Now this next tool is frowned upon by many entrepreneurs and freelancers, but with the right targeting, keywords and strategies you can gain tons of new followers daily. Instagress is an Instagram bot that allows you to automate your activity and get more followers and interaction on Instagram. With Instagress you can set targeting criteria to like, comment and follow/unfollow Instagram users. I have a technical background and I find Instagress very easy to use, but some figure it a bit confusing and overwhelming. The key to using Instagress is to configure your automation specification to mimic your natural social behavior on Instagram and you will be amazed at the results

A personal note, I used to use Buffer for scheduling post for Facebook and Instagram, however, now I schedule my Facebook content directly via Facebook and use Later for Instagram content. To determine which application is best for you and your unique situation assess your social media marketing goals, which feature you value most in a management tool and your budget. I hope you find these Instagram tools useful.

What tools are you using for Instagram? Drop your favorite tools in the comments below!