Social Media Marketing Planners | Metricool or Meta Business Suite: Which is the Better Option?

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It can be hard to keep up with all of your different social media accounts and remember to post regularly. Not only do you have to worry about posting content, but you also have to make sure that it's high quality, engaging and posted at the right time for maximum engagement.

Using a social media marketing planner can make it easy for you to schedule and publish your posts ahead of time, but which is the best one to use?

In this article, we will take a look at two market leaders in social media scheduling, Metricool and Facebook's own Meta Business Suite.

When it comes to social media scheduling software, there are a lot of different options to choose from, but these are two of the most popular choices and the best part is they are both free!

If you need some inspiration when it comes to creating new content then this article is for you! You can also read all about creating a brand awareness campaign using a scheduling tool in this article.

So, should you choose Metricool or Meta for your business? Let's find out.

Quick Links:

• What is a social media marketing planner and what does it do

• What's the best time to post on different platforms?

• Meta Business Suite

• Metricool

• Which is the better option for you?

What is a social media marketing planner and what does it do

A social media marketing planner is a software program that helps businesses schedule and publish their social media posts. They can be a really helpful tool for businesses who want to make sure they are posting regularly, but don't have the time to do it themselves every day.

There are a lot of different social media marketing planners out there, but two of the most popular ones are Meta Business Suite and Metricool.

Meta Business Suite is a social media scheduling tool that was created by Facebook. It's a free tool that you can use to schedule and publish your posts on Facebook and Instagram.

Metricool is another market-leading social media marketing planner that is also free to use. It's a bit more versatile than Meta Business Suite and can be used to schedule posts on a variety of different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to name a few.

How can a social media marketing planner help your business ?

If you're looking for a way to stay on top of your social media accounts, scheduling your posts in advance is definitely the answer.

A planner can help you by:

• Making it easy for you to schedule and publish your posts ahead of time

• Helping you to plan a strategy with your posts

• Telling you when the best time to post is

• Provides you with analytics so you can see how your posts are performing

How far ahead can you schedule posts?

Scheduling your social media posts ahead of time is definitely the answer if you are looking for a way to stay on top of your accounts. But how far ahead should you schedule them?

Ideally, you should be scheduling your posts at least a week in advance and if you are super organised then you could schedule the next 30 days of posts, although, you need to be careful here because you don't want to post outdated information. It's also difficult to work out what your followers are going to engage with more than 30 days ahead, so be cautious when scheduling posts too far into the future.

If you're short on time, you can schedule them a few days ahead, but the most important thing is to ensure that you consistently post high-quality content that is engaging and relevant to your audience.

If you need a bit of inspiration about designing stunning social media posts, you can take a look at this article about Canva.

What's the best time to post on different platforms?

Most people think it's 6 pm. Do you?

It seems to be the general consensus that if we post at 6 pm when everyone is home from work and scrolling through social media, it is the best time to get noticed.

But is that really the best time?

Who knows? It might be! Any good social media scheduling software will be able to take a look at your followers and tell you what is the best time for maximum exposure.

Here's an example for you:

We recently took over social media management for an e-commerce store that sells luxury products for dogs and dog owners. They were previously managing their own social media, and they were doing a good job of it. The posts were of good quality and the content was relevant to their audience, but they had little to no engagement on some days.

What was the issue? They were posting every day at 6 pm because they thought that was the best time. It wasn't working for them.

We took a look at the visitor data for their store. Their followers were most active from 10 am to 2 pm. On top of that, their sales data also showed us that their peak hours for customers making purchases were the same hours, between 10 am and 2 pm.

What do you think we did about it? Yes, you guessed it right! We carried on creating the same quality of content and scheduled it during their peak hours of activity and sales. As a result, engagement increased, followers increased and sales increased.

Do you think a small change like this could make a difference to your business? There's only one way to find out. Analyse the data, and start to make changes.

The great Albert Einstein himself said,

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

If you keep scheduling posts at the same time in the same style and you are not getting good engagement, then something has got to change!

Both Metricool and Meta Business suite have this feature, so let's look at each one and work out which is better.

Meta Business Suite Planner

Meta Business Suite is a great option for businesses when it comes to social media scheduling software. It allows you to:

• Schedule posts

• Publish posts

• Manage team members

• Analyse analytics

From the main dashboard you can access great features like the planner, previously published content and insights.

It is a great way to ensure that all of your posts are published on time.

The planner allows you to plan your posts in advance, which is great for businesses who want to schedule their posts a week or even a month ahead.

While you are creating your post in the business suite you can use their hashtag tool to find real-time data and insights into hashtags.

Meta Business Suite Scheduling Planner

The planner is quite simple to use and gives you the option to schedule a post for Facebook or Instagram, or you can simply schedule the same post to publish to both platforms at different times.

The planner is set out like a calendar view and you can choose to display the week or the month on the screen while you work.

You can also find helpful little pop-ups like these on certain days that tell you when your followers are the most active, although the most it gives you is a suggestion of the most active time. Other planners have a far more thorough approach to breaking down the best times to post. We will discover that when we start to look at the features of Metricool.

Creating your posts is very easy. The window opens in the planner and gives you options to schedule a regular post, story or schedule a live broadcast. You can even schedule Facebook and Instagram Ads through the platform.

Once you're in the creative area, you will find all of the functions to create a post that you would normally find on Facebook itself. It's pretty straightforward and intuitive to use.

But! There is a MAJOR downside to using Meta Business Suite.

You can only use it to manage your Facebook and Instagram. If you have Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok or any other social media accounts that you need to schedule for, then it's not going to get the complete job done for you.

OK, so let's take a look at Metricool and see what they can do differently.

Metricool

Metricool is one of the best social media scheduling software that businesses can use.

Just like Meta Business Suite, Metricool allows you to:

• Schedule posts

• Publish posts

• Manage team members

• Analyse analytics

However, what sets Metricool apart is that it not only allows you to manage your Facebook and Instagram accounts but also your Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, Youtube, blog, LinkedIn and Google Business accounts- making it a true social media management software.

But that's not all. Metricool also has a hashtag planner, which means you can track what's being said about your niche online and maximise your posts to get the most exposure and engagement.

Metricool Content Scheduling Planner

Metricool's planner is slightly different to Meta Business Suite's in that it gives you the option to see a more thorough breakdown of the best times to post.

As you can see from the screenshot, not only does it give you active times and peak times but also quiet hours. This is really useful information to have as a business so that you can optimise your posting times.

The other thing that Metricool offers, which I really like, is the ability to track your social media.

You can see how well each of your posts is performing, what time they got the most engagement and even track specific hashtag campaigns.

Metricool offers its software for free to manage one social media account per platform. If you need to connect more than that you can upgrade to a Pro account for as little as £15 per month. They offer a free trial on all pro plans so that you can test out the software before committing to a plan.

Which is the better option for you?

When it comes to social media scheduling, Metricool is the clear winner. Not only does the software allow you to manage your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube and LinkedIn accounts, but it also offers a hashtag planner which gives you real-time data and insights into hashtags.

This is incredibly valuable information for businesses as it allows you to maximise your posts and get the most exposure for your brand.

In addition, Metricool's content scheduling planner is far more thorough than Meta Business Suite's, giving you detailed information about the best times to post.

If you are only going to be managing your Facebook and Instagram accounts then using the native Meta scheduling planner might be the best for you. However, when it comes to social media scheduling software, Metricool is the better option for businesses that use many different social media platforms.

Do you use Metricool or Meta Business Suite? let us know in the comments what is working for you!

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