19 Social Media Scheduling Tools to Manage Content Calendars
Navigating the landscape of social media scheduling tools can be overwhelming, but this article simplifies the selection process by offering expert insights into the most efficient features and integrations. Discover how leading industry tools such as Hootsuite, Trello, and Airtable can revolutionize content planning and execution. With valuable tips from those who have mastered the art of social media management, this guide is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to streamline their digital marketing strategy.
- Later’s Visual Grid Planner
- Hootsuite’s Scheduling Feature
- Trello’s Hero Banner Integration
- ContentCal’s Custom Approval Workflows
- Hootsuite’s Auto-Scheduling Tool
- Agorapulse’s Social Inbox
- Airtable’s Real-Time Analytics Linking
- Buffer’s Queue Function
- Agorapulse’s Reusable Post Feature
- Sendible’s Queue Feature
- Planable’s Feedback System
- Sprout Social’s Optimal Posting Times
- Loomly’s Post-Mockup Feature
- Asana’s Customizable Content Calendar
- HubSpot’s Centralized Calendar View
- Planoly’s Auto-Posting Option
- SocialPilot’s Bulk Scheduling
- Airtable’s Automation Integration
- Notion’s Categorization Flexibility
Later’s Visual Grid Planner
Running a social media agency, I’ve found Later to be absolutely invaluable for managing multiple client accounts and their visual content calendars. The visual Instagram grid planner helps me spot any aesthetic issues before posting, and I love how I can drag and drop content around to perfect the flow. Just last week, this feature helped me quickly reorganize a client’s entire month of content when they had a last-minute product launch to accommodate.
Macy Troyer
Owner, Goaldy
Hootsuite’s Scheduling Feature
I rely heavily on Hootsuite for managing our social media scheduling and content calendar. Its scheduling feature is a major time-saver, allowing us to plan and automate posts across multiple platforms. An instance where Hootsuite stood out was during a global virtual event. We scheduled posts to promote the event weeks in advance, targeting specific time zones effectively. This feature helped our team avoid the stress of last-minute posting and ensured consistent visibility across different markets.
The intuitive analytics dashboard further aided us in refining our strategies by offering actionable insights into engagement trends. For example, we quickly pivoted our content strategy by emphasizing video content, which consistently showed higher engagement in the insights. Exploring these data-driven insights enabled us to boost our interaction rates significantly. Using such tools, businesses can maintain an organized, strategic approach to social media management. Don’t hesitate to leverage analytics from these tools to continuously adapt and improve your social media strategies.
Filippo Tonello
Head of Marketing, WeUni
Trello’s Hero Banner Integration
I’ve tried countless tools for managing social media scheduling and content calendars. Still, one resource that’s consistently saved us time and elevated our strategy is Trello—used in a way most people overlook. While Trello is known for task management, I’ve turned it into a dynamic social media powerhouse by integrating hero banners into the workflow.
You see, each Trello card in our content calendar isn’t just a placeholder for posts—it’s a visual snapshot. We use the “cover” feature to add hero banner mockups directly to each card, giving the team an immediate sense of the post’s aesthetic. This simple tweak has been a game-changer. Instead of flipping between design tools and scheduling platforms, everything from concept to execution lives in one streamlined view.
The hero banners help us visualize the overall theme for the month, ensuring brand consistency across all channels. For instance, during a campaign for a client’s product launch, seeing these banners side-by-side allowed us to identify gaps in messaging or mismatched tones instantly.
This approach saves time and supercharges creativity. Turning the content calendar into a living storyboard has made social scheduling less about logistics and more about storytelling. That’s the real hero moment.
Nicholas Robb
Design Agency for Startups, Design Hero
ContentCal’s Custom Approval Workflows
I’ve found ContentCal invaluable for managing our Minecraft Menu social channels, especially its content hub where our whole team can pitch ideas and collaborate on gaming-related posts. The color-coding system helps me quickly distinguish between UGC, promotional content, and community events, making it super easy to maintain a balanced content mix. What really saves me time is the ability to create custom approval workflows, so our community moderators can review UGC content before it goes live.
Jas Bola
Product Marketing, Minecraft Menu
Hootsuite’s Auto-Scheduling Tool
A tool we rely heavily on for managing social media scheduling and content planning is Hootsuite. It allows us to manage multiple accounts and schedules in one platform, which is a huge time-saver. One feature we find particularly helpful is the auto-scheduling tool. It analyzes engagement data to pick the best time for posts to go live, ensuring maximum reach without having to manually select the posting times for each post. This reduces the mental load and ensures that posts are going out when our audience is most active, leading to better engagement.
Hootsuite’s content calendar also provides a clear visual overview of all upcoming posts. This feature makes it easy to track campaigns, ensure consistent messaging, and avoid overlapping content. It keeps everything organized in one place, so we don’t have to worry about last-minute scrambling. This feature saves a significant amount of time when planning and executing large campaigns across multiple platforms.
James Hacking
Founder & Chief Playmaker, Socially Powerful
Agorapulse’s Social Inbox
Agorapulse has been a game-changer for managing social media scheduling and engagement. The “Social Inbox” feature is a total time-saver—it gathers all comments and messages from different platforms into one place. Instead of flipping between Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, I can see everything in one unified view, making it way easier to stay on top of things. This helps me respond to followers quickly and efficiently without missing anything important.
Plus, I don’t have to worry about remembering which platform had which comment. It really streamlines everything, making the whole engagement process so much faster. Honestly, it’s a lifesaver when managing multiple accounts.
Airtable’s Real-Time Analytics Linking
Airtable allows me to create a content calendar that includes scheduling, copy drafts, and performance tracking, all in one place. The best feature is the ability to link posts to real-time analytics dashboards, which allows me to spot trends without switching tools. This simplifies reviewing what’s working and adjusting strategies mid-month.
Shane McEvoy
MD, Flycast Media
Buffer’s Queue Function
I use Buffer to manage my social media scheduling and content calendar. One feature I love is the “Queue” function, which allows me to pre-schedule posts for the entire week or even longer. Once I add a post to the queue, it automatically posts at the times I’ve set. This saves me time because I can batch-create content and not worry about posting it manually every day. It keeps everything organized and ensures a consistent flow of content without having to be on social media all the time.
Adnan Jiwani
Assistant Manager Digital Marketing, Ivacy VPN
Agorapulse’s Reusable Post Feature
I use Agorapulse for social media scheduling and managing client content. One feature I rely on is the ability to reuse older posts with quick edits. It saves tons of time while keeping content fresh. I also love the detailed reports on visibility and engagement—it’s easy to share with clients.
Plus, I can send updated schedules via email instantly, which keeps everyone on the same page. It’s simple, efficient, and keeps things moving smoothly.
Lisa Sicard
Small Business Owner, Inspire To Thrive
Sendible’s Queue Feature
We trust Sendible because it’s like an all-in-one social hub. Its customizable dashboard makes handling multiple accounts a breeze. Auto-reporting templates simplify sharing results with clients every month. Plus, the Canva integration ensures we design and post directly from one tool.
Sendible’s queue feature is an absolute gem for recurring content needs. You just create post templates, and it auto-publishes on your schedule. It keeps the feed active, even when we’re busy focusing on other campaigns. It’s like having an extra pair of hands for repetitive posting tasks.
Marc Bishop
Director, Wytlabs
Planable’s Feedback System
Planable simplifies the planning and scheduling of content across multiple platforms. It significantly reduces my workload and makes everything go approximately six times faster. The calendar offers various view options, allowing me to view it in grid, list, feed, or calendar formats. My team can easily organize content using labels and filters. It also has a custom approval system that ensures that posts transition smoothly through the review process.
One major feature of Planable that saves me time is its feedback system. There’s no need to send additional emails to coordinate with peers and stakeholders since everything is centralized. Changes can be made directly through comments, notes, and even emojis, making collaboration effortless.
Jessica Shee
Tech Editor & Marketing Manager, M3datarecovery.com
Sprout Social’s Optimal Posting Times
My go-to resource for managing social media scheduling and content calendar is Sprout Social. This comprehensive tool has been a game-changer for our marketing strategies at Pretty Moment, particularly due to its integrated content calendar feature. With its visual nature and seamless integration with numerous social platforms, it allows us to plan and schedule posts across different channels cohesively.
One notable time-saving feature is its automated optimal posting times. Based on in-depth analytics that the tool provides, it recommends the best times to post, thus maximizing engagement and reach. Combining this data-driven approach with creativity, we managed to significantly increase our customer engagement within a few months of implementation. A simple change, like rearranging our posting schedules based on the tool’s recommendation, indeed, contributed to effective marketing results.
Eva Miller
VP of Marketing, Pretty Moment
Loomly’s Post-Mockup Feature
We rely on Loomly to manage our social media scheduling and content calendar. One feature that saves us the most time is the post-mockup and approval process.
Here’s how it helps: When we draft a post, Loomly generates a preview that shows exactly how it will look on different platforms. This makes it easy to catch errors or inconsistencies before publishing. Once a draft is ready, the team can leave feedback or approve it with just one click. This has eliminated those endless back-and-forth emails we used to deal with.
Another time-saver is the platform’s ability to suggest post ideas and trending hashtags. On busy days when inspiration is running low, these prompts provide a solid starting point and save us hours of brainstorming.
For a team managing multiple accounts, these tools have been a real productivity booster.
Vikrant Bhalodia
Head of Marketing & People Ops, WeblineIndia
Asana’s Customizable Content Calendar
Our marketing team loves using Asana (a workflow management program) to manage our content calendar. Compared to a traditional spreadsheet or typed document, a program like Asana is much more customizable and dynamic for hosting your content calendar. In other words, it’s much easier to templatize projects, assign tasks to team members, organize assets, tag content campaigns, and more in one place. This helps you stay on task and find information quickly, saving you valuable hours in your day.
My tip is to host your social media calendar in a project management tool like Asana or Wrike as well. Add custom fields to fill out, including the social post’s title, description, status (i.e., Not Started, In Progress, In Review, Complete, etc.), assignee, due date, and publish date. If you want to take your template a step further, tag posts by content type (i.e., blog, video, link, photography, etc.), primary and secondary channels (i.e., LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.), and content campaign name.
This approach has helped our team communicate expectations, meet deadlines, and locate assets quickly and easily. Once social posts are approved, we schedule them with HubSpot’s social media scheduling tool, which we also love because it’s intuitive to use and allows us to tie social posts to specific content campaigns.
Meaghan Maybee
Marketing Communications Specialist, pc/nametag
HubSpot’s Centralized Calendar View
We rely on HubSpot to manage our social media scheduling and content calendar. One feature that saves us the most time is the centralized calendar view. It lets us map out posts across multiple platforms, ensuring our messaging stays consistent while accounting for platform-specific nuances. Being able to visualize everything in one place streamlines planning, especially for campaigns with several moving parts.
Another huge time saver is the ability to schedule posts in advance and monitor their performance directly within the tool. For example, we can pre-schedule a week’s worth of LinkedIn posts, review engagement metrics after they go live, and quickly adjust our strategy for the following week. This reduces the need for constant manual oversight and allows us to focus on content creation and audience interaction.
Kinga Fodor
Head of Marketing, PatentRenewal.com
Planoly’s Auto-Posting Option
Planoly is the social media scheduling tool of choice for us. Its auto-posting option is one that has saved a ton of time. Planoly handles publishing our material across many platforms after we schedule it, saving us the trouble of manual uploads and guaranteeing that posts go live at the precise moment we have scheduled.
The ability to visually organize our Instagram grid ahead of time is another feature that I adore. For a brand that lives on style and design, this helps in maintaining a consistent aesthetic. We can make sure every piece of content blends in perfectly with our broader strategy by previewing how pieces will appear together. Our social media administration has become more effective thanks to Planoly, which also frees us up to concentrate on audience engagement and message improvement.
Ben Schreiber
CMO, Latico Leather
SocialPilot’s Bulk Scheduling
One tool I rely on for managing my social media scheduling and content calendar is SocialPilot. The content calendar feature is a huge time-saver, it allows me to easily visualize and organize posts across all my platforms in one place. I also love how I can schedule posts in bulk, which makes planning ahead much more efficient. The analytics dashboard is another standout, giving me a clear view of performance metrics and helping me adjust strategies quickly. It’s a solid tool that really streamlines the process for me. We also white-labeled the tool in our branding and a custom domain so our social media clients can view all their posts and reports.
Tom Jauncey
Head Nerd, Nautilus Marketing
Airtable’s Automation Integration
I’m a big fan of no-code development platforms and automation tools for social media scheduling. For several projects, I’ve used Airtable for storing content, then simple Make.com and Zapier automations to automatically publish the content to the client’s CMS and LinkedIn page. Many automation tools come with pre-made templates for social media scheduling, which cuts down on setup time. These tools are usually cheaper than typical social media management software and allow for greater flexibility regarding the process of scheduling and posting content.
Nicholas Gibson
B2B Marketing Specialist, NJ Gibson Marketing
Notion’s Categorization Flexibility
One tool that I use religiously to manage social media is Notion. It allows me to categorize specific posts by whatever metric I want. If I want to organize my planned posts by content type (i.e., video or photo post), Notion makes that process really easy. The Table in Notion is what I’m mainly using to organize post ideas and I use Notion’s calendar to plan post frequency and social channel.
Ian Anderson
CEO, Sol Studios
Submit Your Answer
Would you like to submit an alternate answer to the question, “What is one tool or resource you use to manage your social media scheduling and content calendar? Share a specific feature that saves you time.”