Tag Archive for: AI

Imagine you’re looking for after shave oil.

You type a few keywords into Amazon. A brand called Truly Beauty pops up. You’ve never heard of them.

So you go to YouTube to find the “best after shave oil”.

At the top of the results, someone has reviewed Truly Beauty’s product.

Okay, interesting…

Let’s stay on YouTube. Next, you type “truly beauty after shave oil” into the search.

What the? The whole page has people reviewing Truly Beauty products!

Is this brand legitimate, or are all these ads in disguise?

Time to go to Reddit to get some unfiltered opinions.

You search for “after shave oil reviews reddit” and notice that once again, Truly Beauty shows up in the results.

Sure enough, other people share your skepticism. But there’s some positive feedback too.

You decide to give them a try.

This kind of journey happens millions of times every day — across every industry, on every platform.

If you’re in SEO, there’s a clear takeaway here:

You’re not just optimizing for Google anymore.

You need to show up across the entire decision-making journey. Wherever your audience searches, scrolls, or compares.

This is exactly what Truly Beauty figured out.

They didn’t just optimize for Google. They built visibility across the entire search ecosystem. Amazon for discovery. YouTube for social proof. Reddit for authentic reviews.

And it’s working amazingly well.

In this guide, I’ll break down how to optimize your brand for how people actually search today. With concrete examples. Including Truly Beauty’s strategy.

Let’s start with what’s really happening here.

The New Reality: Search Everywhere Optimization

What Truly Beauty did isn’t luck. It’s strategy.

They understood something most brands still miss:

Search has changed.

Today’s customers don’t follow a clean, Google-only path. They bounce from TikTok to YouTube, Reddit to Amazon, back to Google, then maybe ChatGPT for one last check.

Credit where it’s due: Rand Fishkin captured this evolution perfectly in his recent post.

Search Everywhere Optimization is about helping people find, evaluate, and trust your brand across every platform where discovery happens. That includes Google — but also YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, LinkedIn, and even AI tools like ChatGPT.

Every one of those platforms can shape a decision. Miss one? You risk losing the customer to someone who showed up where you didn’t.

Your job isn’t just to rank on Google.

It’s to help people find, evaluate, and trust your brand everywhere they search.

Some call this omnichannel SEO, cross-platform optimization, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

The way I see it:

Search Everywhere Optimization.

Because the search journey now includes everything from YouTube Shorts to AI summaries.

And your job is to build visibility, credibility, and conversion power across it all.

It’s not just about being found.

It’s about being trusted. On every platform where decisions happen.

That’s what makes Search Everywhere Optimization different — it evolves SEO beyond a siloed tactic into a full-funnel growth strategy.

So, you’re not just optimizing pages anymore.

You’re shaping how people find, evaluate, and trust what you offer across every stage of the journey, on every platform they turn to for answers.

Done right, Search Everywhere Optimization helps you:

• Show up on high-engagement platforms where decisions start
• Create content that resonates in the right format and context
• Build trust through experience — design, messaging, and credibility
• Turn search moments into conversions, leads, or long-term users

That’s the shift:

From rankings to relevance. From clicks to action. From Google-only to everywhere that matters.

Two Core Areas of Search Everywhere Optimization

To make Search Everywhere Optimization work, you need to understand where your audience is discovering products.

And how much control you have over those moments.

That’s where this framework comes in.

We divide the modern search experience into two key areas:

• Managed experiences — where you control the content and presentation
• Influenced experiences — where others shape the narrative, but your brand still shows up

This distinction helps you prioritize efforts across platforms you own… and platforms where you earn visibility.

Managed Experiences

These are touchpoints you can directly control.

Your website is still your most important owned asset. But you also manage your social media profiles, product listings, app store pages, and more.

This is where things gets tactical. You’re shaping the journey with:

• Engaging content
• Clear messaging
• Cohesive visuals
• Optimized flows and CTAs

On your website, you can go even deeper — refining structure, page speed, copy, and trust signals.

The goal? Deliver a fast, credible, and conversion-ready experience every time someone finds you through search.

Earned and Influenced Experiences

Now, let’s talk about where you don’t control the narrative.

These are the moments shaped by others: customers, creators, communities, algorithms.

Earned and influenced experiences are touchpoints you don’t directly control.

But they still shape how people perceive and trust your brand.

This includes:

• Customer reviews
• Reddit threads
• YouTube mentions
• Third-party comparisons
• AI-generated responses in tools like ChatGPT

You can’t control these spaces… but you can influence them.

Search Everywhere Optimization is about increasing your visibility, credibility, and perceived value in places you don’t own.

That might mean:

• Engaging in relevant conversations
• Encouraging customer reviews
• Partnering with trusted voices
• Publishing helpful content that others cite

Truly Beauty does this well. Their TikTok is a managed asset. The brand controls the content, caption, and messaging.

This isn’t about control. It’s more about visibility, relevance, and credibility in places people already go to decide.

Luckily, you can help shape perception through helpful content, real engagement, and clear value.

You can pay influencers to review and interact with your product, publish high-quality guest posts. So, you don’t have full control over them, but you can light the fire.

For example, Truly Beauty has a strong presence across owned and earned/influenced platforms.

This includes the brand’s official TikTok account, an owned experience.

The brand controls the content, caption, and messaging.

But when someone searches for Truly on TikTok and sees unsponsored reviews? That’s an influenced experience.

Both matter. Because both shape how people perceive your brand.

Search Everywhere Optimization ensures you show up in both worlds (managed and influenced) so you’re part of the journey no matter where it happens.

How Search Everywhere Optimization Builds on Traditional SEO

Traditional SEO has mostly focused on one thing — ranking on search engines like Google.

That still matters.

But it’s no longer enough.

Search Everywhere Optimization expands your SEO strategy beyond Google to include every platform where people search, compare, and decide.

So instead of optimizing just for rankings…

You’re optimizing the entire discovery journey.

This shift doesn’t replace SEO. It levels it up.

Here’s how they work together:

Think of it this way:

• Traditional SEO gets you found on Google
• Search Everywhere Optimization gets you chosen — everywhere

When you combine both, you create a strategy that moves with your audience.

Across platforms. Across formats. Across every step of their journey.

Step 1: Define Your Search Personas

Creating search personas lets you outline what your ideal audience wants and needs, and what drives their decisions.

This helps you design content and experiences based on real search behavior, rather than assumptions.

Start with Real People

Before you can build your personas, you need real-world insights.

Go straight to the source by asking existing customers questions like:

• How they found you
• What made them trust you
• What they needed before taking action

Tools like Typeform let you create and distribute surveys.

Start with their ready-to-use consumer behavior templates to make the process fast and easy.

Loop in Sales and Support

No one knows buyer questions better than your frontline team.

Ask them:

• What keywords or phrases do people use when they reach out?
• Which platforms drive user discovery?
• What’s unclear or confusing before people convert?

This input gives you practical insights you can’t get from keyword tools alone.

Layer in Data

Tools like Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit let you analyze your target market’s demographics.

Here’s how it works:

Enter your domain and up to four competitors’ domains.

Click “Analyze.”

View the “Audience” report to get a breakdown of unique visitors to each domain by age and sex.

Then, scroll to the “Geo Distribution” report to see an overview of visits and unique visitors by country.

Next, click “Audience Overlap” to learn about your audience’s online habits.

Including their most-visited domains. This gives you insights into their preferences, pain points, and needs.

Once you’ve gathered your data, organize everything into a clean visual persona.

Free tools like Semrush’s persona builder make this easy.

Or just use a doc or spreadsheet — whatever helps you capture the key insights clearly.

By the end, you should know:

• What your audience is trying to solve when they search
• What blocks or gaps slow them down
• What type of content or format resonates most

These insights give you a clear picture of who your searchers are and what matters to them.

Step 2: Map the Full Search Journey

Map how each search persona moves from discovery to decision across platforms, questions, and content types.

We want to start by breaking the journey into three simple stages.

Quick note:

I’m showing these stages as a linear progression for simplicity. Real search journeys usually aren’t straightforward.

Users frequently jump between platforms and stages, circling back and moving forward unpredictably. This framework simply helps organize our understanding of the core phases searchers experience.

• Discover: This is when someone first realizes a need or problem and starts looking for ideas, inspiration, or possible solutions
• Compare: At this stage, they evaluate their options, which involves comparing features, reading reviews, or checking alternatives to decide what fits best
• Act: This is when they’re ready to take action. Including making a purchase, signing up, booking a service, or taking the next step.

Expand this journey into more stages and variations as needed.

Like awareness, consideration, evaluation, or post-purchase.

For simplicity, we’ll stick with three core stages.

Then, for each stage, identify:

• What they search for
• Where they go to find answers
• What content format they expect

Let’s say we’re mapping the search journey of a shopper discovering Truly Beauty.

A user might first come across this brand when searching for “best after shave oil” on TikTok.

From there, they Google “after shave oil” and see Truly in the top results.

Next, they visit the brand’s site to view product details, images, and pricing.

After that, they head to YouTube.

They search “truly after shave oil review” to find reviews from real people.

Finally, they visit Amazon, search for the product, and check reviews again before placing their order.

This is a simplified version of your audience’s actual journey.

In reality, searchers might visit more platforms during the discovery and compare stages — spanning days or even weeks.

This is why it helps to map the complete journey.

Like this:

Have more than one persona or product category? Create a separate map for each.

Many platforms offer free customer journey map templates, such as Canva and Miro.

Step 3: Identify Gaps and Prioritize Touchpoints

Here’s where you’ll identify what your brand is missing across the search journey and what to fix first.

Using your journey map from Step 2, go through each stage and ask:

• Are we visible everywhere our audience searches?
• Does our content actually help them move forward?

Let me walk you through an example.

I conducted a quick manual audit for Truly Beauty across multiple platforms.

On TikTok and Instagram, they consistently appear for branded searches like “Truly Beauty.”

And product-specific searches like “vanilla baby body oil.”

Next, I examined user-generated forums to see if people discuss the brand organically.

On Reddit, I found some positive threads where users recommend Truly products.

And some negative threads, too.

Overall, Truly Beauty could have a stronger presence in earned and influenced spaces.

I then analyzed Truly’s product pages.

Their website features several conversion elements:

• Social proof (ratings and reviews)
• Clear pricing and purchase options
• Subscription incentives
• Trust badges

Their Amazon listings maintain this strategy while adapting to the marketplace’s format.

This way, they create a consistent purchase experience regardless of where customers shop.

You’ll want to adjust this process based on your specific industry, audience, and platforms.

The key is documenting all touchpoints where your audience searches.

Once you’ve audited all platforms, organize your findings in a simple spreadsheet.

Include a “Status” column to label your presence on each platform:

• Optimized
• Weak
• Missing

Here’s an example to show how you might organize your audit insights.

Feel free to structure it however works best for you.

Now, it’s time to decide which platforms need attention first:

In Truly Beauty’s case, they could strengthen their presence in earned spaces.

Responding to positive and negative feedback builds trust with potential customers.

This might mean recommending products where appropriate.

And addressing any user concerns and complaints.

Prioritize your own gaps based on:

• Where users likely drop off or switch to competitors
• High-intent moments like evaluation or decision stages
• Platforms your audience already trusts and uses to make decisions

This focused approach ensures you tackle the most impactful improvements first.

Step 4: Build a Content Plan Aligned with Search Intent

A key part of any strategy is planning content for each search stage and platform.

Use your audit insights from Step 3 to build a content plan that satisfies user needs.

Improve Your Existing Content

Before creating new content, maximize what you already have.

Check Google Analytics or Google Search Console (GSC) for pages that are underperforming.

For example, in GSC, look for:

• Posts with high impressions but low CTR
• Pages that rank for relevant keywords, but not as high as they should

Consider this Truly Beauty blog post as an example.

It already targets commercial keywords, like “best moisturizer for mature skin.”

But it ranks on page 4, 5, and beyond.

This means it’s nearly invisible in search.

So, how do you fix that?

Check what they include that you don’t, like additional examples, FAQs, or expert commentary.

Then, improve the content by:

• Updating it with fresh info, product comparisons, or reviews
• Adding structure that matches search intent (like “best of” lists, buyer’s guides, etc.)
• Enhancing formatting for scannability — with subheadings, bullets, and visuals
• Filling gaps with missing subtopics or angles competitors cover

For instance, Truly Beauty could improve this post by adding:

• A side-by-side comparison with other moisturizers
• Tips from skincare experts
• More visuals (like product images, charts, or before/after shots)

These updates would help align the content with what searchers expect. And give it a better shot at ranking.

Create New Content

Creating new content for every platform should be an ongoing part of your strategy.

For each platform, ask:

• Is the user trying to learn, compare, or act?
• What format do they expect — video, reviews, short posts, or product pages?
• What would build trust or answer their next question?

Semrush’s Topic Research Tool helps you find new content ideas.

Open the tool and enter a topic. Like “best body scrub for glowing skin.”

Then, select your target location and click “Get content ideas.”

Click on a relevant subtopic.

And go through the “Questions” column to see what users are actively searching for.

For example, Truly Beauty could turn common questions into helpful content that drives conversions.

Like “What are some good homemade body scrubs?” and “How do you make a homemade scrub?”

Analyzing competitor content can also help you come up with great topic ideas.

Look at top-performing content across platforms where your audience searches.

Pay special attention to:

• Content themes
• Hooks
• Formats
• Captions
• Hashtags

For instance, Truly Beauty’s audience might search “best body scrubs for glowing skin” on TikTok.

The brand could explore top-performing videos around that phrase.

And analyze what makes them successful.

Then, they could use what they find to create videos that mirror those formats — while tailoring them to their product and audience.

(And you can, too.)

Repurpose Content

Don’t let great content live in one place.

The most efficient strategy turns one strong piece into many platform-specific assets.

Start with your highest-performing content.

Then, adapt it to match how your audience consumes information on different platforms.

For example, Truly Beauty could transform their “12 Best Foods for Your Skin” blog post into the following:

• Email newsletter
• Pinterest infographic
• Facebook and Instagram carousels
• TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts
• Twitter/X or Bluesky thread

One idea → multiple formats → broader discovery.

This way, you can easily scale content across the entire search experience for every platform.

Step 5: Optimize Owned Touchpoints

When someone lands on your site, they expect it to:

• Load fast
• Feel trustworthy
• Make it easy to take the next step

In fact, search engines like Google look at user experience signals when ranking pages.

That’s why this step focuses on performance, structure, and clarity, so your site works for users and ranks highly.

Improve Site Performance

Slow-loading pages lead to higher bounce rates, missed conversions, and lower rankings.

Use PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site.

And view your Core Web Vitals scores, which are Google user experience metrics.

These metrics measure user responsiveness, visual stability, and the speed at which your main content loads.

For example, Truly Beauty’s website failed the Core Web Vitals assessment on both mobile and desktop.

The good news?

PageSpeed Insights also shows exactly what’s slowing your site down and how you can fix the issues.

So, Truly Beauty can improve site performance by taking steps like reducing JavaScript execution time and minimizing main-thread work.

For a deeper look at your site’s speed and usability, use Semrush’s Site Audit tool.

Enter your domain and configure the tool to set up your first crawl.

Once your report is ready, you’ll see a “Site Performance” score in the “Overview” tab.

For instance, Truly Beauty has a site performance score of 95%.

Click “View details” for more information.

Here, you’ll see the average load speed of your site.

Truly Beauty has an average page load speed of 0.31 seconds, which is outstanding.

You’ll also learn if Site Audit detected any issues with your site, categorized by priority:

• Errors: Highest priority
• Warnings: Medium priority
• Notices: Lowest priority

Click “Learn more” for details on how to fix each issue.

Once you’ve addressed the issues, re-run the audit.

You’ll likely see improved site speed and performance (if you’ve correctly fixed the issues).

These technical improvements will strengthen your search experience optimization efforts.

And improve the experience for your users.

Add Trust Elements

Trust elements give users the confidence to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, booking a demo, or signing up.

Add them anywhere users evaluate options or make decisions.

Including product pages, landing pages, checkout screens, pricing pages, and even comparison blog posts.

Trust elements include:

• Star ratings or review counts
• Customer testimonials
• Author bios with credentials
• Security badges or payment icons
• User-generated content, like photos or quotes

For example, Truly Beauty shows a variety of trust elements on its product pages.

Like ratings, reviews, and customer-submitted photos.

This creates a compelling social proof ecosystem that reduces purchase anxiety and enhances your brand perception.

Clean Up Structure and Layout

Messy layouts confuse users and slow them down.

In contrast, a clean and consistent structure makes your page easier to read, navigate, and act on.

Take a look at how formatting impacts readability on mobile:

Which one do you think is more readable?

Shorter paragraphs and clear spacing make content easier to scan and understand.

Here’s how to improve your site’s structure and layout:

• Break up long paragraphs into shorter chunks
• Use clear, descriptive headings to guide the flow
• Keep visual design consistent: fonts, spacing, and colors
• Make key elements like CTAs, pricing, or product features easy to spot

For example, this Truly Beauty blog post does some things well.

Including scannable headings, bullet lists, and plenty of white space.

But they could increase the font size to make the content easier to read and skim.

Step 6: Strengthen Your Presence Across Discovery Channels

Some of the most important search moments happen off your website.

In this step, you’ll focus on optimizing how you appear on social media sites, niche forums, and more.

Optimize Your Profiles

Your profile should instantly tell visitors who you are and why they matter to you.

So, review your bio, visuals, and links on every priority platform.

Each one should reflect your brand clearly and feel native to how people use that platform.

Truly Beauty’s Instagram bio is short and clear. But there’s room for improvement.

It doesn’t highlight what sets the brand apart, including a strong hook or call to action.

They also don’t have pinned posts.

And their Highlight covers aren’t clear or consistent with their brand visuals.

Conversely, makeup brand Too Faced does a great job here.

Their Instagram bio is short but expressive:

Their Instagram Highlights are organized by category — from new product drops to event looks.

They even include multiple links and a “Shop” button to drive action directly from the page.

On TikTok, Too Faced takes a different but equally strategic approach.

The brand uses playlists to categorize videos by product type.

And the pinned posts showcase high-performing videos with bold thumbnails and direct product demos.

Which is perfect for TikTok’s users, who prefer short, visual content before buying.

Engage with Followers

Getting questions or comments on your social media posts?

This is a great opportunity to engage with your audience and offer helpful information.

Truly Beauty engages with users in the comments.

And responds to feedback, answers questions, and shows appreciation for its customers.

This kind of interaction builds trust and shows followers there’s a real team behind the brand.

Collaborate with Trusted Voices

Want a fast way to build credibility?

Partner with the creators your audience already trusts.

Find the voices influencing those spaces — and team up.

Truly Beauty works with influencers to promote products.

But when it comes to creator partnerships, makeup brand Morphe takes this strategy to another level.

They regularly collaborate with beauty creators to launch products, demo looks, and drive buzz.

Like this influencer collab that got them over 2.4K likes and 60+ comments:

Step 7: Monitor, Measure, and Optimize

You can’t optimize what you don’t track.

To improve your performance over time, you need visibility into how people discover and engage with your content, products, or services.

And what happens next.

Start by identifying which metrics you want to prioritize.

Here are some examples:

• Google: Rankings, click-through rate (CTR), impressions
• YouTube: Watch time, average view duration
• TikTok: Engagement rate, profile clicks
• Amazon: Conversion rate, product search visibility
• Instagram: Post engagement rate, profile visits, bio link clicks
• Reddit: Upvotes, comment volume, brand mentions
• Your website: Goal conversion rate, bounce rate, scroll depth, time on page

Then, choose the right tools to track these metrics.

Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console provide essential data to track your SEO performance and user experience improvements.

For instance, on GA4, you can navigate to “Reports” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic Acquisition” to view your site’s traffic sources.

YouTube Studio, TikTok Insights, and Instagram Insights provide platform-specific data.

Like views, watch time, and subscribers.

Use what you learn to improve weak content and fix UX issues.

You may also want to add specialized tools for social media and website performance.

Like heat mapping, session recording, and conversion analysis.

Ready to Improve Every Search Touchpoint?

The search journey in 2025 isn’t linear anymore. And your strategy shouldn’t be either.

The brands that win won’t be the ones with the most blog posts.

They’ll be the ones who show up with the right content, in the right format, on the right platform — at the moment it matters.

To make that happen, you need a strategy built for how people actually search.

Use our free checklist to turn what you’ve learned into a clear, actionable strategy.

The post Search Everywhere Optimization Guide (+ Free Checklist) appeared first on Backlinko.

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There are many tools that let you schedule content across different social media platforms.

But:

Not all of them are built to match your unique workflow.

Some focus on collaboration, others on planning.

That’s why I’ve handpicked the best tools and highlighted the features that go beyond basic scheduling.

Here’s an overview of the best social media management tools included in this article:

1. Buffer

Best for content creators and small teams that need help generating content ideas and staying consistent with posting

Pricing: Starts at $6 per month per channel; limited free forever plan available (for up to three channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel per month)

Buffer is a simple social media management tool designed to help you plan, create, and schedule content across platforms.

It has a simple layout, a Kanban-style board, AI tools to help you write posts faster, and many other features that let teams work together easily.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Buffer:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Threads
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• X/Twitter
• Pinterest
• Google Business Profile
• Bluesky
• Mastodon

Here’s what I love about Buffer:

Manage Your Content Workflow with a Built-in Kanban Board

Buffer gives you a simple, visual way to manage your entire content workflow. You don’t need a separate project management tool.

You can plan, track, and organize your social posts using a built-in Kanban-style layout. This makes it easy to track how your content moves from idea to publication.

You can drag and drop posts through each stage, tag them by type or campaign, and convert any idea into a live post when you’re ready to publish.

Each idea card acts like a mini workspace. You can add notes, upload images, assign tags, or even use AI to shape your post.

And when you’re ready to turn an idea into a real post, just click “Create Post”:

From there, you can choose which social media platforms to post on, edit your text, and schedule it. All without leaving the ideas board:

This is a seamless workflow from idea to publishing. You don’t even need to switch tabs within the tool.

Create a Custom Link in Bio Page

Buffer’s Start Page lets you build a mini landing page to use in your social media bio.

On this page, you can add buttons to your blog, shop, podcast, or freebies — whatever you want people to check out. It’s like a custom homepage for your content.

There are templates to get you started:

But you can also customize it with your brand colors, fonts, and layout:

When you publish your page, you can track views and clicks to see what your audience is interested in:

Whether you’re a creator, freelancer, or a small business, Start Page helps you lead your followers to the content you want them to see.

Stay Consistent with a Weekly Posting Goal

Buffer helps you build a sustainable content routine. It lets you choose a posting goal, like once, three times, or five times per week:

Once you select your frequency, Buffer will automatically recommend the best time slots and add them to your queue:

The tool recommends time slots based on when your audience is active.

With this feature, you don’t have to guess when or how often to post.

Just pick a consistency level that fits your bandwidth and goals.

This is helpful if you’re overwhelmed or inconsistent. With your target already set, Buffer takes care of when to post so you can focus on what to post.

Pros & Cons

2. Planable

Best for marketing teams that need a centralized hub to collaborate on all types of content

Pricing: Starts at $39 per month; free plan available (limited to 50 posts)

Planable is a tool built for social media teams to plan, collaborate on, and schedule content together — all in one place.

It’s designed to streamline approvals, keep your calendar organized, and make team (and client) communication seamless.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Planable:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Google Business Profile
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Threads

And here’s what I love about Planable:

Collaborate with Your Team in Real-Time

Planable makes it easy to work with others and communicate through every step of content development.

For example, your team can leave comments directly on each social media post. This removes the need to send the post back and forth:

You can even invite your team members and clients and give each one a unique set of permissions. These include view, edit, publish, approve, or analyze.

You can also make multiple approval workflows and set collaboration levels.

Let’s say you’re part of an in-house marketing team working with an external copywriter. You could create a custom workflow like this:

• Stage 1: Content team creates the post and adds a caption
• Stage 2: Design team steps in to finalize visuals
• Stage 3: The client gives final approval before the post goes live

Once the client approves the content, you can:

• Automatically schedule the post to publish at the assigned time (or keep manual control if you prefer)
• Lock the content to prevent last-minute edits or accidental changes

What’s cool is that internal team comments won’t be visible to clients.

You can also hide certain posts from clients to prevent them from seeing unfinished drafts:

And if anything ever goes off track, you can see the version history. It lets you see exactly who did what and roll back to a previous version if you need to.

Manage All Your Marketing Content in One Place

Planable helps you schedule, preview, and collaborate on posts for all major platforms in one place.

You can plan your content in a calendar view to visualize what’s going live, where it’s going, and when:

But what sets Planable apart is its ability to go beyond just social. You can also write and organize blog posts, newsletters, and other content with the same team setup.

So if your team is posting on Instagram and TikTok, writing email newsletters, and posting on the blog, you can check and edit everything in one place.

Planable keeps it all in sync, so your team stays aligned and consistent — no matter how many channels you’re managing.

Organize Your Content into Campaigns

In Planable, you can group your social media posts into dedicated campaigns.

This makes it easy to plan, manage, and execute content around specific themes, product launches, or events:

Each campaign can act as a central hub for your content. You can add posts to different social media, work with others, and see how your posts are doing, all in one place.

For example, if you’re launching a new product, you can create a “Product Launch” campaign. Inside that campaign, you can:

• Keep internal notes (like your campaign objective, key results, and what content the campaign should include)
• Organize all launch-related posts and visuals for future posts
• View when each post is scheduled to go live with the calendar view
• Check consolidated analytics across multiple platforms

This kind of campaign structure helps your team stay focused and aligned. It also ensures every piece of content supports a bigger goal, like driving signups for an event or promoting a product launch.

Pros & Cons

3. SocialBee

Best for businesses that want a built-in AI assistant to help plan strategy and generate content

Pricing: Starts at $29 per month; 14-day free trial

SocialBee is a social media management tool that helps you manage all your content in one place. One unique thing this tool offers is a built-in AI assistant that takes tasks off your hands (more on this later).

Here are the platforms you can manage with SocialBee:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• X/Twitter
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Google Business Profile
• Bluesky
• Threads

SocialBee also offers universal posting. This means you can collaborate with your team on content for a blog or newsletter for example. However, as is the case with Planable, there is currently no integration to post these directly on other platforms.

Here’s some more detail about a few of SocialBee’s best features:

Build a Content Strategy with AI Copilot

SocialBee’s AI Copilot is like having a creative assistant built into your social media tool.

It helps you build a personalized content strategy, come up with content ideas, and draft social media captions.

So, how does it work?

Let’s say you run social media for Tattly, a creative brand selling artist-designed temporary tattoos.

Copilot will ask you a set of questions about your brand, goals, and audience:

Based on your input, the AI Copilot recommends the best platforms to focus on and suggests a weekly posting frequency:

Copilot also suggests content categories that match your business and tone:

It then generates the posting plan based on your content categories:

And finally, it generates the posts. You can use the captions as-is or use AI suggestions as inspiration:

Create Evergreen Content Categories

SocialBee lets you recycle posts on autopilot by marking a content category as evergreen:

This means any post you add to that category will automatically be re-added to your posting queue once it goes live. You don’t need to reschedule it manually.

But why would you want to post the same content over and over?

It’s a great way to keep your content calendar full without constantly creating new content. You can use it to reshare timeless posts like tips, customer testimonials, or motivational quotes:

For example, reposting a helpful blog tip every four to six weeks keeps it fresh in your audience’s feed without feeling repetitive. Especially if you’re recycling through a variety of other content in between.

Plus, new followers may miss these posts the first time around, but still get value from them.

This keeps your content calendar active, saves you time, and ensures your best posts continue delivering value long after they’re first published.

Turn Links Into Posts

SocialBee lets you import a bunch of links and instantly generate social media posts for them:

Just paste in your links, assign them to a content category, and SocialBee will generate a basic post using the page title and link:

From there, you can edit the draft to boost engagement and tailor it to your audience. Like by adding a hook or takeaway.

This is especially helpful if you run a blog or regularly share curated content. It gives you a head start on posting, so you’re not starting from scratch every time.

Get Help from a Dedicated Social Media Concierge

If you’d rather outsource some of your social media tasks to a pro, SocialBee offers concierge services.

ConciergeBee connects you with a service provider who takes care of tasks like making content or talking to your followers.

You can choose from several service packages (starting at $129/month) based on your needs.

For example, options include:

• Weekly content creation (graphics, captions, and videos)
• Community management (inbox and comment replies)
• LinkedIn lead generation
• Blog content writing
• Ads management

Compared to hiring freelancers on your own, SocialBee’s concierge service saves you time and guesswork.

You get vetted specialists, ongoing 1:1 communication, and fixed pricing. And you don’t have to go through the process of scouting talent and managing contracts.

Pros & Cons

4. Canva

Best for content creators and small businesses that want to design and schedule content from one place

Pricing: Starts at $15 per month; 30-day free trial available

With its built-in Content Planner tool, Canva lets you design, write, and schedule posts across multiple platforms in one place.

If you’re already using it to create visual content, it might be enough to handle your entire content workflow. Especially if you heavily rely on graphics in your social media posts.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Canva:

• Instagram Business Page
• Facebook Page
• X/Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Tumblr

While more limited than some of the other tools on this list, there are still a lot of reasons to love it as a social media management tool.

Here are my favorite features:

Schedule Posts Right From the Design Dashboard

Canva makes it easy to go from designing a social media post to scheduling it for publishing. You can do it without even leaving the design screen.

Let’s say you run a small cafe and you’re launching a new seasonal breakfast menu. You design an Instagram post in Canva with a mouth-watering photo of your meals.

Once you’re happy with the design, you click “Share” > “Schedule” right from the top menu:

This built-in scheduling tool helps you post regularly on social media without making more work for yourself.

Instead of switching between tools, you can design, schedule, and publish all from one place.

This saves time and keeps your content calendar on track.

Fill Your Calendar with Holiday-Ready Templates

Canva’s Content Planner shows holidays, awareness days, and seasonal events from around the world:

You can click on any event, choose a ready-made template, make it match your brand, and schedule the post right away:

This is a simple and effortless way to fill your content calendar and engage your audience.

Pros & Cons

5. Hootsuite

Best for teams that need social selling tools and CRM integration

Pricing: Starts at $149 per month; 30-day free trial available

Hootsuite supports everything from collaborative content planning to lead generation and social selling.

It has tools that help your team save time and work efficiently. Like CRM integrations, a smart inbox, and auto-replies for Instagram.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Hootsuite:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• WhatApp Business
• Threads

Here are my favorite Hootsuite features:

Automate Instagram DMs with Comment Keywords

Hootsuite lets you send automated Instagram DMs to your audience:

You can use this feature to deliver lead magnets, coupon codes, or event registrations.

For example, if you’re a fitness coach offering a free meal plan, you could post a Reel with the caption:

“Drop the word MEAL below and I’ll DM you my 7-day meal plan.”

When someone comments “meal,” Hootsuite instantly sends them your custom message with the link.

Here’s how it works:

You choose a keyword and write a message you want to send when someone comments that word on your post.

This method keeps your audience engaged without the hassle of replying to everyone yourself. And because the response is instant, your followers get what you promised right away. No matter when they comment.

Cool, right?

Turn Social Conversations Into Sales

Hootsuite helps you move leads from social interactions to closed deals without leaving the dashboard.

You can reply to comments and DMs, save the conversation in your CRM, and follow up to turn that lead into a customer:

But how’s that possible?

Hootsuite integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and SugarCRM to streamline this process.

This means your social media manager and sales rep can collaborate in real time. If a follower responds to a campaign or clicks on a product post, you can turn that engagement into a lead profile.

If your business relies on social selling, this feature is a game-changer.

Pros & Cons

6. Sprout Social

Best for large teams or agencies that need unified analytics, collaboration tools, and social listening in one platform

Pricing: Starts at $249 per month; 30-day free trial available

Sprout Social is a premium social media management platform. It combines publishing, engagement, analytics, and social listening all in one place.

Here are the platforms you can manage with Sprout Social:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Pinterest
• Threads
• YouTube
• Google Business Profile

Now let’s talk about what I love most about Sprout Social:

Respond to Every Message in One Place

Sprout’s Smart Inbox pulls direct messages (DMs), comments, and mentions across all your connected platforms.

You don’t need to bounce between tabs or apps. Instead, your entire team can view and respond to each message or comment from one space:

Your team can even tag messages, assign them to teammates, and leave internal notes to add context:

Sprout Social also tracks your inbox activity. This lets you check how your team handles audience engagement across different platforms.

For example, you can see metrics like:

• Number of received vs. actioned messages and action rate
• Response rate and average time to action
• Performance trends across time or by platform

This helps you reply faster, keep your support organized, and make sure you don’t miss any messages. Even when you’re constantly receiving messages at scale.

Track and Visualize Performance Across the Channels

Sprout Social gives you two powerful ways to analyze your results:

• Cross-network reporting: To track performance across all your social media channels
• Profile-specific reporting: To dive deeper into individual accounts (like your Instagram or LinkedIn)

This dual setup helps you see the big picture while still being able to zoom in on the details.

View High-Level Metrics in One Dashboard

Its profile performance report shows key stats. Such as views, clicks, engagement, and interaction rate across all your social platforms:

You can also track how your audience has grown over time with the Audience Growth graph:

This makes it easy to see whether your efforts are growing your followers.

That way, you can identify which platforms are bringing the most momentum. And which ones might need a strategy tweak.

Analyze Content with Post Performance Reports

Sprout Social also gives you post performance insights across all your connected accounts. Or you can focus on a specific platform.

You can view and compare individual post metrics. Like total engagement, reactions, and comments:

This helps you quickly spot top-performing posts and patterns behind them. This lets you replicate what’s working — without constantly jumping between dashboards.

Listen to What Your Audience Is Saying Online

Sprout Social helps you understand what people say about your brand, industry, or competitors across social media and the web.

You can track specific keywords, hashtags, or brand mentions in real time.

For example, if you manage social media for a coffee shop, you might track the keyword “espresso.”

The conversation breakdown shows the words and phrases people use when they talk about espresso. Such as “recipes,” “easy,” and “home.”

These terms are ranked from highest to lowest engagement:

You can use these words to get content ideas or write relatable captions to match what your audience is saying.

It’s a quick way to spot trends and stay relevant.

Pros & Cons

Ready to Choose Your Social Media Management Tool?

The right social media management tool depends on your content needs and workflow:

• Go with Sprout Social if you’re a large team or agency that needs everything in one place, including analytics, collaboration, customer care, and social listening
• Pick Hootsuite if your team is focused on lead generation and social selling, and you want powerful CRM integrations and sales automations
• Choose Planable if you need advanced collaboration features and want to manage all kinds of content in one place
• Go with Buffer if you’re solo or on a small team and want to stay consistent with posting using a simple, organized workflow
• Try SocialBee if you want extra help either from AI or a real human handling your strategy and content
• Stick with Canva if you’re already using it for design and want a streamlined way to schedule your posts without switching tools

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