Scheduling Tools: A Comparison
Here at Interactive Schools, we understand that when working in school marketing, you often find yourself snowed-under and it can become difficult to prioritise your tasks. If you find yourself in this predicament, why not consider using social media scheduling tools?
What is social scheduling and why use it?
Scheduling allows you to create and customise social posts in advance, whilst choosing the time and the platform the post will be shared to. This means you’re less likely to fall behind on social media posting when other aspects of your job become all-consuming.
We promote the use of social media scheduling tools to marketing offices, so they can curate their #ContentStrategy across the variety of platforms available to them throughout the year. However, we do not recommend social scheduling for teachers using sub-accounts, as this can distract teachers from capturing and sharing those inimitable moments that happen every day!
Which social scheduling platform should I use?
There are many different scheduling tools available, but to save you time deciphering which one to use, here’s a breakdown of five of the most popular scheduling tools:
SproutSocial
Buffer
Hootsuite
Sendible
Social Champ
Most of the tools we have tested include a single plan for one user, and a team plan for multiple user-access. But regardless of the number of colleagues with access, you may find the single-user, free plans have a lot to offer! More advanced plans may have too much to offer, detracting from the ease and timeliness of storytelling, or may simply cost an arm and a leg!
Read on for Interactive Schools’ recommendations of which social media scheduling tool to use.
Sprout Social is a familiar social media scheduling tool to many marketers, but this doesn’t mean it’s the best. Sprout doesn’t provide a plan for multiple users; instead additional users must be added later at a cost. To make good use of this tool, marketers will have to spend a fair amount of money to access functionalities available in their more advanced plans.
Not only are the initial prices of Sprout Social plans relatively high but the costly addition of other users and functionalities plus a high percentage of post failures on Instagram, means that we have decided to cap Social Sprout at this two-star rating
For many marketers, Hootsuite is familiar and comfortable, but it may not be the most efficient or cost-effective way to schedule your social media output:
We commend the option to add more social accounts (even on the lowest plan). Another handy feature of HootSuite is the differentiation of roles in the Team Plan - this allows for an approval system that many marketers find appealing when working with new team members or interns. However, due to the hefty price of even the single plan we have only rated Hootsuite two stars.
The relatively low cost of Sendible’s Creator Plan makes it a suitable option for smaller or single-person marketing offices, who may be able to schedule all of their content across six accounts or platforms. Schools who may be part of a wider consortium or partnership of schools may benefit from the easy customisation Traction or White Label plans. Due to the relatively high cost of Sendible plans in comparison to other scheduling tools, we award Sendible three stars.
Buffer is a firm favourite for schools not wishing to break the bank, as the base plan allows you to schedule on up to three channels for free. Additional users and channels come at a modest cost, but even the most advanced plan is comparatively reasonably priced!
For its Free plan alone, we’re awarding Buffer four stars, as it really does hit the ‘minimal’ nail on the head. If you are a smaller marketing office, you may consider scheduling content to Facebook and Instagram using Meta Business Suite, leaving you free to schedule on LinkedIn, X and another social platform of your choice using Buffer.
While the lack of integration with X on the Free Plan is less than ideal, plans upward from Champion are more than suitable for schools with a medium to large Marketing Team. The easy affordability of Champion and the ability to add users for only $6 a month results in this being our top recommended multi-user plan.
Need more information?
At Interactive Schools, we declare Buffer a clear winner for the free Single Plan, and recommend it to smaller marketing teams who are looking to streamline their social media posting, and avoid breaking the bank. For schools with a larger budget and a bigger team, we recommend Social Champ’s paid Team Plan for its relatively low cost and the valuable features that cost unlocks.
For a more detailed breakdown of what these scheduling platforms offer, please download our comparison matrix:
To discuss your school’s specific needs for scheduling please reach out to social@interactiveschools.com.