10 Social Media Marketing Apps You Overlooked for 2023 (Free & Paid) | Friday.app

10 Most Overlooked Social Media Marketing Apps in 2023

Posted by The Friday Team
Last updated: December 20, 2023

Imagine your work as a SoMe manager without social media marketing apps. You simply can't, right? 

All social media professionals benefit from utilizing practical tools on an everyday basis. Some applications are more popular than others. Often it's not because the tool is not the right fit or worse in terms of functionalities. Mainstream brands have big marketing budgets and tend to gather more traffic. 

In this article, you'll find a list of helpful lesser-known apps often overlooked by social media professionals. While looking for specific functionality, turning to niche tools can only be a plus. There's no one app to fit all the needs, so checking the ones listed below can help you drive better results and achieve your goals more quickly.

Why Do You Need Social Media Marketing Apps?

Social media platforms seem complete: they offer every possible function to complete the most popular tasks: 

  • publish content, 
  • manage engagement, and
  • analyze results. 

And that's enough in most cases. 

Until you, as a social media professional, encounter a specific challenge by using just the native social media platforms. Or the most promoted social media tools available. 

You may need to schedule your posts widely because you cater to an international audience. Just imagine running 16 Facebook profiles and 8 Instagram accounts, having to enter each post into a native scheduling tool. 

Or you may struggle while creating aesthetically pleasing Instagram Stories, which might take hours of your team's time. You'd like to take some burden off their shoulders and provide ready templates they can use. 

You may also manage a large team of social media marketers and don't want to grant direct access to your social platforms to all of them.

Once you realize your challenges, you'll know what solutions would benefit you and your team and start looking into the lesser-known social media apps.

This is when you start to realize Hey; this tool is actually better for my business! Take a look at the list below, and maybe you'll find your new favorite app among them.

So, without further ado, what are the 10 most overlooked social media apps to help your social media marketing efforts?

1. NapoleonCat

I don't know about you, but answering the incoming messages from all the social accounts was always a struggle. Especially when a client wants to cover all their bases and informs about their issue via every possible platform. 

With NapoleonCat, you have all social media in one place: interactions (comments, messages, reviews) from all major social networks and platforms in a unified inbox. What's convenient is the assign option: when the question is not for you, assign it to another person on the team who knows the answer. Collaboration is the key.

By adding users and granting them access to specific platforms and moderation options, you track who has access and covers each platform. Especially practical in bigger teams. 

via NapoleonCat

Aside from the inbox, NapoleonCat's in-depth analytics helps to discover the busy seasons and prepare for them in advance. Monitor moderation statistics: how many customers queries you received, responded to, who responded to how many comments, messages, and other conversations.

Use NapoleonCat also for amplifying organic engagement, delivering social media customer support, and managing social media in teams.

Best features:

  • Advanced social inbox for managing all social media conversations in one place.
  • Easy-to-use Auto-moderation feature that takes the burden of replying to repetitive questions off your team’s shoulders. 
  • Seamless collaboration functionalities allow your team to get the tasks easily distributed and avoid potential mishaps.

Pricing:

  • NapoleonCat offers two weeks of a free trial
  • Standard: perfect for small social media teams. The prices start at $31 a month for three social media profiles and one user.
  • Pro: perfect for big teams and high volumes of engagement. The prices start at $76 a month for three social media profiles and one user.
  • If you pay annually, you get two months for free.

2. ClickUp

ClickUp is an interesting platform for a task and team organization. Let's say you use: 

  • Gmail as company email, 
  • Google Docs to collaborate in teams, 
  • Jira to assign product and IT tasks and track sprints,
  • Slack for team communication,
  • Miro whiteboard for brainstorming sessions,
  • The finance department has its own platform, and
  • HR uses two different systems to process recruitment and internal team issues. 

Whoa... that's a lot of platforms to follow. And it is a reality for most businesses out there. Moreover, some companies try to build their management systems to improve the employee experience, and that's a costly and time-consuming solution. 

ClickUp will save you time managing your social media strategies and social media advertising with its all-in-one productivity platform. It helps social media managers bring together teams, tasks, and tools together in one place. That's their official brand promise.

via ClickUp

Work without having to track all the annoying notifications from all the platforms? Improving team communication? Sign me up!

Best features:

  • More than 1000 integrations: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Intercom, and many others to bring together marketing teams.
  • Virtual whiteboard for your team to easily map ideas for your social strategy and turn them into coordinated actions.
  • Real-time team collaboration feature to avoid potential mishaps and bring your team together.

Pricing:

  • ClickUp's daily planner features are available for free.
  • Unlimited: $5 per member per month. Includes unlimited storage, integrations, dashboards, and Gantt charts.
  • Business: $12 per member per month. Includes unlimited teams and goals, timelines, mind maps, advanced automation features, and time tracking.
  • Business Plus: $19 per member per month. Includes team sharing, custom roles, permissions, custom capacity, training, and priority support.
  • Enterprise: you need to contact sales for a custom offer. Includes white labeling, HIPAA/MSA, a dedicated success manager, and SSO.

Use ClickUp for free. No credit card required.

3. Plann

The Plann app is simply gold for all the creative buffs. Its primary focus is visual social media marketing apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. 

Every creator's dream is to have a visual grid planner, integrated space for the files, and the option to edit graphics in one place. With Plann, it is possible. 

via Loren Jackson

The app has integrations with Canva, CloudSpot, Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay. 

It's one of the first apps I've seen to help organize and schedule TikToks and Reels. How cool is that? 

If you have a content calendar prepared in advance in Google Drive, it's possible to automate the scheduling and add your pre-made calendars in the app. Very nice.

Best features:

  • Unified brand calendar that allows you to map out your social media, email, and blog content.
  • A professional image editor that allows you to add filters, crop, or overlay images.
  • Instagram captions generator for busy content creators.

Pricing:

  • Plann offers a 7-day free trial.
  • Power user: perfect for solopreneurs. $14 a month.
  • Build: for teams of two. $28 a month.
  • Grow: for teams of up to four people. $75 a month.
  • You can get a 20% discount if you pay annually.

4. Amplifr

Amplifr is an exciting tool with AI-powered post scheduling. Aside from the usual channels, the app has the option to post messages to Telegram channels and Viber public chats. 

What's cool is that you don't need a phone for that, and Amplifr lets you do it from the same place you would schedule regular posts for the Gram or Facebook.

By analyzing audience metrics, this app can suggest the best post publishing time and rank the best posts, so you know what content gains traction. 

via Daniel Sokolovskiy

Do you also need to measure conversions in Google Analytics? You can, with Amplirf.

Best features:

  • A clever algorithm creating an ideal content schedule for you.
  • Clear data dashboards that allow you to track key social media metrics for the last 30 days.
  • Dedicated discussion threads for all the posts you plan in Amplifr.

Pricing:

  • Amplifr offers a 7-day free trial.
  • S: perfect for solopreuners. You can post up to 5 pages for $30 a month.
  • M: perfect for small teams. You can add up to 3 users and 15 social media profiles for $100 a month.
  • L: perfect for big teams. You can add up to 5 users and 25 social media profiles for $200 a month.
  • XL: perfect for big enterprises and agencies. You can add up to 10 users and 100 social media profiles for $500 a month.

5. Quuu

Content curation can be effortless if you have a process and the proper tool. Quuu happens to be one of the tools that are not well-known but powerful. 

via G2

By signing up to Quuu, you gain your personal AI assistant Robin. You mark the interests and niches that are most relevant to your business. Robin analyzes the content in blogs, videos, podcasts, and discussions all over the web to give you suitable suggestions to post about.

Then, you can automate the content posting and use Quuu to post automatically or not. Up to you. Time-freeing features are always a plus in my book. 

Last but not least, Quuu offers a free plan to test out the tool and ensure you get the best of the web in all categories that interest you most.

Best features:

  • AI content curation system to provide you with the most relevant, high-quality content recommendations.
  • A custom CTA for all the content that you share. You can use it instead of a plain link.
  • A click tracking dashboard for all content that you share. 

Pricing: 

  • Quuu offers a free plan for up to 500 CTA link clicks.
  • Pro Plan: for up to 5000 CTA link clicks for $14.50 a month.
  • Business Plan: for up to 50.000 CTA link clicks for $39.50 a month.

6. Envato

Envato is a brilliant source for visuals, videos, graphic assets, and branding templates for social media posts and videos. If you need to design for social media, Envato is the place to go. 

For someone who enjoys creative subscriptions, Envato Elements gives the option to download any amount of essential assets. 

via Envato

Envato Market (Themeforest) is the best solution if you're into project-based business. Need a ready-made template for social media or website? There you go. Millions to choose from. 

Envato Placeit is more chilled, I'd say, for someone who is not a master video or graphic maker but has some skill. Assets and ready-made templates to DIY anything you need. Easy, peasy, and affordable. 

Best features:

  • A complete base of creative resources under one roof: Story templates, royalty-free music, photos, and more. 
  • Free educational resources from experts for creatives. 
  • Free stock photography, art, and videos.

Pricing:

  • Envato Elements: you save as you add members. Prices start at €9.45 a month. 
  • Envato Market: when you purchase an item from Envato Market, you actually purchase a license. The Standard license covers the majority of items. 
  • Envato Placeit: unlimited subscription from $7.47 a month.

7. Haiilo

Haiilo is a tool for HR professionals and Employer Branding marketers who face the challenge of engaging employees internally and externally. 

Building an employee advocacy program can have its pitfalls: people will say it's hard to follow company messages, not easy to share on social media, or a lack of copywriting skills stops them. 

Haiilo solves all of the above. 

Sharing content is a matter of a few clicks, all company social media channels are connected in one place, and brand marketer provides a few useful captions for anyone who worries about having no writing skills. 

via Haiilo

Happy employees are the best brand advocates and help spread the word about the company and its products. Use this power right and get better engagement, more reach, and positive brand sentiment

Best features:

  • Integrations with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Xing, and WeChat.
  • Mobile application for the convenience of sharing content.
  • AI-powered analytics that allows you to find your most influential employees.

Pricing:

  • Custom pricing for all users.
  • Haiilo’s pricing depends on the modules you’ll use and the individual preferences of your company.

8. Brain.fm

Brain.fm app is built to enhance the focus. It may not be a social media marketing app, per se. But it will help to focus on the work instead of the annoying distractions that usually come with the radio or musical playlists. And the world of social media is distracting enough, so you need something to stop the infinite scrolling or lengthy discussions in comments.

via Brain.fm

Anyone who has their favorites turned on while working will relate to it: one minute, you are focused on tasks and managing workflows, and the next, you're researching the most popular songs from your high school years. Work sits there, not done.

But not with Brain.fm.

Music from the app is suggested and based on science. Try it out and feel the difference in productivity. 

Best features:

  • Scientifically tested music resources that prove to steer your brain into your desired mental state.

Pricing:

  • $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year for unlimited access to Brain.fm.

9. Missinglettr

Drip campaigns are well-known in the email marketing world. But not many companies have heard about drip social media campaigns. 

Missingletter app can help you to integrate and automate specific messages on social media that are sent as social media drip campaigns. Based on the days between brand and customer interaction, you can create automatic workflows with particular content to be shared with your audience.

via Missinglettr

The content can be anything from all your online places, as Missingletter integrates the platforms to make the drips easy to create and follow.

An excellent addition is a feature that helps to analyze the content you create and pulls the best quotes out of it. Thus, the most engaging parts of the content get shared and spread across your social media channels.

Best features:

  • Automated drip campaign creation compatible with any publishing platform that you use. 
  • Simultaneous content sharing across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
  • AI mechanism extracting the most valuable quotes and pictures from your content. 

Pricing:

  • Free plan: available for one social media profile and up to 50 scheduled posts.
  • Solo: perfect for solopreneurs and small teams. Available for 3 social media profiles and up to 500 scheduled posts for $19 a month.
  • Pro: perfect for big teams. Available for 9 social profiles and up to 3,000 scheduled posts for $59 a month.
  • Pay yearly and get 2 months for free.

10. Audiense

Many marketers struggle with identifying their best audience. It's common to share content with the wrong segments and then wonder why it was not engaging for them. Audiense stands out as a social media marketing app that narrows down specific customer segments, no matter how narrow the target audience can be. 

via G2

With machine learning, Audiense shapes up and shows connections between people in your target groups. Knowing the similarities and differences helps you form messages that resonate with different segments. 

Moreover, within the audiences, you can identify the real influencers and engage with them or partner up for the best business results. Influencer marketing is a vital part of marketing strategy, and Audiense makes it easier and more effective.

Best features:

  • Audience segmentation for personalized marketing approach.
  • Rich insights: you can understand your audiences’ psychographics, cultural backgrounds, and interests.
  • Intelligence platform for finding the right influencers for your brand.

Pricing:

  • Free plan covering access to basic community management features and 3 reports a month.
  • Twitter Marketing: available for up to 3 segments and 20 profiles for £39 a month.
  • Audience Intelligence: includes unlimited segments and profiles. Available for £1199 z month.

Who Benefits From Using a Social Media Plan?

Nonprofit Organizations: Nonprofits can use a social media plan to spread their message and attract new donors or volunteers. It can help them engage with their current supporters, build an online presence, and raise awareness about their cause.

Political Campaigns: Political campaigns can use a social media plan to outline goals and strategies, track results, and measure their success. It can help them create messages that resonate with voters and engage their existing supporters.

To “SoMe-Rize”

Social media marketing apps are here to stay. The abundance of data coming from social channels can be overwhelming. The time needed to understand and correctly use each platform is getting higher as SoMe platforms release new features that you need to follow and know. 

With the right tools, you can identify the best platforms to work with, curate content that resonates with your audience, and save time on switching between many platforms that your business uses. 

When looking for the right fit and tool for scaling your business, take a more expansive approach: look for specifics that make the difference for you, not everyone else. 

Identify your challenge and choose the social media management tool based on your specific need. Chances are, the lesser-known apps already have all the essential features, but the specific one will make you instantly click with the new tool.

What's your struggle as a social media professional? Share your thoughts in the comments and recommend your lifesaver app. 

About the author: 

Kasia Slonawska is a passionate content marketer and growth hacker at NapoleonCat, a social media management tool. With three years of experience in the social media niche and an educational background in writing, she’s eager to share tips that help businesses grow on – and through – social media.

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