Whether you are launching new social media channels, reviving old ones, or putting more time and energy into your current outlets, social media is a lot of work for any sized B2B company. Signing up for a social media account is free but the time and resources needed to successfully run it is not. However, there are a number of free resources available online that can help businesses save time and money in growing their social media presence.
See below for a list of various free social media tools broken down by category:
Tools for managing accounts and scheduling posts
Tools for managing social media accounts
One of the first steps a B2B company can take to go from a reactive social media program to a proactive program is to implement a social media management tool. These tools usually include features that allow businesses to schedule social media posts for the future which can help teams save time.
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows you to schedule and publish posts as well as track social activity across accounts. Their free plan does not require a credit card and is not a trial period but a free plan for any duration. The plan does however limit you to three social media accounts and a total of 30 scheduled messages at a time.
Buffer’s free plan includes three connected social channels and 10 scheduled posts at a time.
Later’s free plan includes one social set, which is a set of profiles that includes one Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest account, and thirty posts per social profile.
SocialOomph’s free plan only includes one social profile but it offers unlimited scheduled posts with the only caveat being three posts per hour.
Tools for creating graphics
As a business gets more effective in posting content, they often find that their bandwidth increases and they need to create more content. A tool for efficiently creating social media graphics is then a great next step to consider.
Canva easy drag and drop interface is a great way to create graphics for your social media channels. The platform is free to use and offers great starting templates to spark ideas or use as a starting point. You can also add teammates to your account for free to easily share graphic ideas with your collegaues.
If you’re looking for more than just social graphics Adobe Spark may be the right fit for you. The platform gives you starter template to work with and offers the ability to make short form videos in addition to graphics.
Crello’s free plan limits you to 5 design downloads a month but the platform comes with instant access to over 180 million stock images and videos for any photo or video needs you might have. They also offer the ability to create animated graphics in addition to videos.
Free Stock photography
Stock photography is hard to come by – especially for B2B companies. Thankfully a few new resources have treasure troves of free stock imagery to choose from.
Unplash is built by a community of talented photographers who donate their work without any attribution or payment necessary. The 2 million images can be searched for using the platform’s search engine as well as an intricite tagging system.
Pexels database of stock imagery contains hundreds of thousands of photos that are searchable and free to use. They also have a budding library of free stock videos as well.
Similar to the other options in this category, StockSnap offers free stock photos available for personal or commercial use. The database is searchable by tags and is updated weekly with new submissions from photographers.
Do you need more B2B social media help for your business? Get in touch with our team today to see if Wahl Marketing can help.