17 Facebook Publishing Tools to Help You Grow on Meta

While TikTok continues to grow in influence, and Meta is tinkering with making Instagram more “TikTok-like,” Facebook continues to be the number one platform used by an audience of older generations that simply cannot be ignored by any brand targeting a broad range of customers on a global level.

In the past, 3rd party Facebook publishing tools were the choice for most marketers as Facebook’s native tools left a lot to be desired in terms of scheduling posts. However, with Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, the emergence of new content formats like Reels, and the further integration between Meta’s 3 social networks (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Facebook has been working on further developing its own publishing tools, which are now advanced enough and easy to use that you might want to go native after all.

Here is an update on all of the Facebook publishing tools available to the marketer today for you to decide which one is best for your unique business needs.

Facebook Publishing Tools from Facebook

As Facebook has matured, they have developed some of its own publishing tools. This is unsurprising when you consider that Meta now has three social networks, more content format options, and a unified advertising platform. In addition, Facebook has grown from the ground up, so it’s logical that it would improve its suite of tools over time.

1. Meta Business Suite

Meta Business Suite is a set of tools that makes social media managers’ life easier. It has a scheduler that works across all Meta products and an inbox that tracks all messages and comments. This suite also keeps track of your analytics, lets you create and post ads in a few clicks, and has a desktop app that lets you do it all in one place. You can even get a to-do list that helps you stay on track.

2. Meta Creator Studio

Influencers and other social media creatives will love Meta Creator Studio. The purpose of Meta creator studio is to streamline the development of new content for Facebook and Instagram. In addition, you can upload media to your library in bulk, which saves a lot of time. However, this is more than just an editing and posting tool. You can also track content analytics and set up monetization right in your dashboard.

3rd Party Facebook Publishing Tools

Before Meta developed their new Facebook tools, marketers and creatives alike had to use third-party publishing tools. Many of these tools are part of larger social media marketing suites, while others focus on scheduling across many different platforms.

There’s a wide variety of options to choose from, whether you need just to post, track your success, or use Meta products as part of a wider social media strategy. In many cases, the advantage of using these third-party apps is that you have everything in one place across platforms.

3. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a general-purpose social media dashboard. For Facebook users, it has features that include comprehensive posting capabilities, such as publishing, analytics, and even monetization. In addition, you can compose your content within the app. However, Sprout goes further in that you can manage multiple Facebook pages in the same window. You can also include approval workflows for new content, which is especially useful if you’re running an agency or your management wants to approve everything.

Once you’ve posted your content, you can also use this suite to interact with your audience. Comments, Facebook chat, and other features can easily be managed within your dashboard. The big advantage of this is that you don’t have to switch from one app to another as you manage your overall social media presence.

Further Reading: 15 Definitive Facebook Marketing Tips for 2022

4. SocialPilot

 SocialPilot is a social media dashboard that mostly works for agencies and large corporations. One reason for this is its white label and multi-account reporting features. For Facebook pages and Facebook messenger, SocialPilot has the basics and beyond. Compose and schedule posts, keep up with comments and chats, and get analytics information. In addition, you can set up monetization without leaving the app. Keep in mind that the social media scheduler is set up to post on multiple platforms at once. This way, you can save a lot of time.

5. Buffer

Buffer is a small business-focused company. One of its unique Facebook publishing tools is a functionality specifically for managing Facebook groups. As I’ve mentioned before, groups are a great way to build a brand community. They’re also an excellent way to have a sponsored community for the local population, which is especially great for small businesses.

Additionally, you can create a post using Canva without ever leaving Buffer. Besides this, you will get the standard analytics insights, and a safe space to put your ideas without having to remember them. If you’re the type of person who thinks about an idea when you’re busy doing something else, this buffer feature can come in handy.

6. Dlvr.it

This is one of the better Facebook publishing tools for bloggers. One reason for this is that Dlvr.it will scan your RSS feeds for interesting material, then post it to your Facebook pages and Facebook groups. You can also set it up to automatically post links to your latest blog post. In other words, Dlvr.it is a social media scheduling tool. It also works with several other networks, like LinkedIn.

With this particular tool, you’ll probably want to use the Facebook proprietary tools as well. This is especially true if you want to do monetization because Dlvr.it doesn’t have those capabilities. You’ll also want another tool for composing or original content on Facebook posts and for communicating with your audience.

Further Reading: 5 Ways To Use Facebook Groups For Business Marketing

7. Postfity

Postfity is a social media post scheduler that works on several platforms. In terms of Facebook publishing tools, this one’s relatively basic. However, you can load a whopping 10,000 posts into Postfity so you can post them later. Just keep in mind that you can only use this with Pages and Groups, not personal profiles.

An interesting note: Postfity is one of the few publishing tools that let you post on a Russian social media network known as VKontakt (VK). It’s also popular around Eastern Europe and former Soviet countries, so if your company has a presence in these nations, you should check this tool out.

8. Hootsuite

Besides Meta’s tools, Hootsuite is one of the few Facebook publishing tools that doesn’t cost anything. That’s because Hootsuite offers a free version. While it’s definitely limited use, if you’re just starting out this is a good way to learn about the various tools available. Plus, you can try that limited version before you decide to buy a more extensive, paid plan. By the way, these are a bargain.

But, what’s included in Hootsuite publishing tools? Simply, you get to plan, compose, and social media content right from the app. This is true for every social network that works with Hootsuite. Once you’ve posted your content, Hootsuite helps you keep track of your analytics and your engagement.

9. Loomly

Loomly is one of the more innovative Facebook publishing tools in that you get built-in content curation. At the same time, however, you won’t end up in things your audience will like. Instead, you get a very collaborative system whereby all potential posts are submitted for approval by the appropriate member of your team.

However, Loomly is a lot more than just a curation and scheduling tool. Rather, you again get features similar to Meta Publishing Tools and Meta Creator Studio. That’s because you get a significant amount of analytics information from Loomly’s analytic engine. You’ll also get different analytics periods, which lets you see how well your content is performing over time.

Most of all, you can work with several different social networks on Loomly, unlike Meta’s proprietary systems. This gives you a significant amount of flexibility, and that’s especially important if you have a lot of collaboration.

Further Reading: The Top 18 Facebook Statistics Businesses Need to Understand in 2022

10. CoSchedule

Here’s another one of the free third-party Facebook publishing tools. Like Hootsuite, CoSchedule gives you a limited feature version for small businesses and people who want to try it before they buy. But, what does CoSchedule do, anyway? It lets you collaborate with your team and schedule your brand’s social media posts so that they’ll appear on your profiles later.

But that isn’t all CoSchedule does. The most powerful of these tools is the ability to coordinate all of your social media across different platforms. It also serves as a basic project management tool, in that you can put posts together, get approvals, and schedule them for publication. This way, you and your team can operate on the doctrine of no surprises.

For the free version, you only get to social media profiles. However, page plans not only give you unlimited profiles but also offer a greater degree of automation. For the most expensive plan, this can even include advertising tools like audience targeting.

11. Post Planner

If you and your team can benefit from lots of automation and content curation, you should check out Post Planner. This is one of the Facebook publishing tools that let you schedule posts in bulk, rather than just one at a time. This can save you and your team a lot of work. In addition, you get to borrow content from Facebook and other platforms and then post them elsewhere. For example, if it was a really great quotation from someone on Instagram, you can curate that content and post it on Facebook.

However, posting isn’t the only thing that Post Planner will help you with. They have robust audience engagement tools that help you both track and improve your overall social media engagement. The app also has advanced analytics which can help you plan ahead for future campaigns. Best of all, you don’t have to post everything that you enter into this app. That’s because there are idea boards and even a section for drafts. This lets you develop both posts and campaigns over time.

12. Mentionlytics

This one’s a bit different from the other Facebook publishing tools in that it’s more about social media and web reputation monitoring than it is about actual posting. But, here’s the thing — what people say about you has a big impact on what you should be publishing on social media.

For example, if an employee is causing a scandal, then you may need to do some reputation management through strategic posting. Another example is relatively common during the holidays. Or because a product doesn’t live up to their expectations. In these situations, they often complain on social media. By keeping track of this negative activity, you can address people’s concerns before it becomes a major problem.

Social listening-related posting isn’t always a response to negative publicity, however. For example, you might find that you are launching a new product and people don’t know enough about it. In this situation, he may realize that you need to run awareness campaigns. Then, you will see over time how effective each of those campaigns becomes. Either way, you get to adjust before the next campaign and sometimes right in the middle of it.

Further Reading: 17 Engaging Facebook Post Ideas for When You Have Nothing to Say

13. Agorapulse

If you followed my blog for any length of time, you’ll realize that I am a big fan of Agorapulse. This goes far beyond its ease of use for agencies and people like myself who work with multiple clients. In particular, it’s one of the better Facebook publishing tools I’ve run into.

But why? One of the great things about Agorapulse is that you can post on multiple platforms at once. When you’re planning a big campaign, this can be a major advantage. For example, let’s say you are about to release a new product. Chances are that you tons the clipart or other graphics and intend to use the same ones across different advertising channels. In this case, Agorapulse’s content library is very handy.

Another great thing about Agorapulse is that you have robust collaboration tools. If you have a very large team, or there are a lot of high hierarchical concerns where you need to get everything approved, having quality collaboration is essential. And, of course, when it’s time to post to Facebook, Agorapulse will take care of it for you.

14. Fanpage Karma

Fanpage Karma is unique among Facebook publishing tools in that it is specifically designed for social media communities. Therefore, this would be a good choice if you do a lot with Facebook groups. With Fanpage Karma, you can create traditional Facebook posts. However, you can also post to your various groups. As you posted these groups to your Facebook page, the application will gather your analytics information. It will also help to facilitate you’re seeing new comments and other social media engagement so that you can reward it.

In an environment like Facebook, which is very discussion intensive, the ability to keep track of a conversation can be especially valuable. With that said, the conversation through Fanpage Karma does not exclusively, refresh social media posts’ public comments. Instead, you can also reply to direct messages on certain platforms. You can have a team of social media staff who will keep track of the discussion around your company and its brands. 

15. Iconosquare

Iconosquare markets itself as primarily an analytics application. However, analytics has important implications for publishing on Facebook. Besides, the fact it has powerful scheduling tools makes it a member of the class either way. Besides this, as a marketer I love analytics.

The first aspect of Iconosquare’s usefulness among Facebook publishing tools is the fact that you can plan campaigns within the app. Specifically, these campaigns will normally be planned partially around the analytics data, in addition to branding and other goals. For this reason, it’s important that you know what works well so that you can duplicate success and, in addition, what is likely to fall flat you can avoid it.

There is no question that actual post-development is not Iconosquare’s strong suit. In fact, those aspects of the app are limited at best. However, one of the powerful tools is the ability to tag and mention other users. Not all posting tools allow you to do this, and it makes your delayed posting all the more valuable. Schedule posts in such a way that people will actually think you’re in the office when you aren’t.

16. eClincher

eClincher is another analytics-heavy social media publisher and engagement tool. They have a standard publication calendar, which lets you reschedule your posts like you would with most other Facebook publishing tools. They also have integrations, including Canva, that let you create posts that look great and have a good chance of getting engagement.

Another thing they have is content curation and an automatic posting tool. Especially for small business owners, the ability to keep your profile full of material with minimal effort can be very important, especially since small business people spend a lot of time on administration.

Wants to multiply the value of your other content? With eClincher, you can take one piece of content, adapt it, and posted into other social networks without even leaving the app. For something like a blog post, it’s even automatic. Of course, you also get analytics information that can help you fine-tune your approach over time and make the most of your subscription.

Further Reading: Facebook for Small Business: 15 Tips for Success for Any Business

17. Sendible

Unlike many other Facebook publishing tools, Sendible was designed for agencies. For this reason, their analytics capabilities are especially strong. However, the key to Sendible’s success is its automation feature. What they let you do is set up a different profile for each of your clients. These profiles include branding details, as well as the degree to which you can add emojis. Then, Sendible does a lot of content creation and curation while letting you spend a fraction of your baseline time managing social media.

Naturally, Sendible also gives you the analytics tools to show your clients how well they’ve done. You can also use that data to find your social media strategy for each client. The app works for Facebook, but also for several other mainstream social media networks.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of high-quality Facebook publishing tools on the market. Each of these has a different niche, and may or may not be compatible with other social networks. In addition, they have a wide range of functionalities to suit your needs. Check out a few of these today and see how much more effective your Facebook campaigns will become.

Hero Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash