Complete analysis of the free versions of 7 popular social media management tools with full feature breakdowns and comparison charts. The 7 tools that are fully examined and compared are Hootsuite, Viralheat, Nimble, Tweetdeck, Tailwind App, Buffer App, and Iconosquare.

1. 1Abdulhadi Hafez
7 Social Media
ManagementTools
FREE
Full analysis by:
@abudhafez
June 2014

2. 2Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Media
Common Terms &
Definitions
Social Content Optimizer
Optimizer with scientific content publishing
trends, insights, and tips.
Social Publishing Dashboard
Used to schedule and post content on
multiple platforms simultaneously.
Social Data Reporting
Robust metrics and smart insights o
n the brand’s social activities
Social Competitor Benchmarking
Track the performance of your brand in
comparison to yours and other industry leaders.
Social Monitoring
Monitor multiple social networks
with intelligent and real-time feeds
and streams.
Social Targeting
The ability to target your posts and searches to
the right audience based on demographics.
Social Engagement Dashboard
Track real-time interactions with a smart social
inbox & priority task list to manage conversations.
Social Community Manager
A fan/follower management tool to identify
influencers, quantify contacts and qualify leads
and potential customers.

3. 3Abdulhadi Hafez
Main
Benefit
Comprehensive
dashboard with
management,
publishing,
monitoring, and
engagement
tools.
One of the
most used
publishing and
engagement
tools which also
allows for basic
monitoring and
reporting.
Best free social
CRM with smart
inbox tool that
works like email
in aggregating
conversations &
opportunities.
Twitter’s own
dashboard to
manage
publishing,
tracking and
engagement
with seamless
customization.
Best analytics
and engagement
tool for
Instagram with
robust stats and
contest creation
and mgmt tool.
The leading
Pinterest
analytics, and
monitoring tool
One of the
leading
publishing
platforms to
schedule posts
and receive
recommended
content.
Main
Limitation
No analytics
reporting
except via paid
version.
Allows only 3
basic analytics
reports with
free version.
*No monitoring
dashboard .
*No analytics
reporting except
by upgrading.
Exclusive for
Twitter.
*Exclusive for
Instagram.
*No publishing
feature.
*Exclusive for
Pinterest.
*No publishing
feature.
*No monitoring
or engagement
dashboard .
*No analytics
except via paid.
# of
Accounts
5 5 3 1 1 1 5
Supported
Platforms
Desktop
App?
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Mobile
App?
YES YES YES YES NO NO YES
Benefits/LimitsofFreeVersionforEachTool
Updated:
June 2, 2014By:AbdulhadiHafez

4. 4Abdulhadi Hafez
PUBLISH
Compose /
Schedule
Compose and
schedule posts
with templates.
Compose and
schedule multi-
media rich posts.
Compose and
schedule basic
text posts.
Compose and
schedule multi-
media tweets.
X X
Compose and
schedule multi-
media posts.
MONITOR
Real-time
feed/tracker
Real-time feed
and tracker and
with filters based
on keywords,
social channels
and sentiment.
Real-time stream
of feeds for all
networks.
Real-time feeds
with email alerts
of interactions,
messages and
mentions.
Real-time feed
for Twitter
stream.
A real-time feed
and tracker but
without email
notifications.
Provides a
dashboard with
most recent pins
and followers.
X
ENGAGE
Mentions /
Messages
A stream of
engagements -
filter by platform.
Full engagement
dashboard for all
networks.
A smart social
inbox with recent
engagements.
Real-time feed of
engagements.
Best Instagram
tool to manage
engagements
Engage most
recent followers
& commenters.
X
CONTENT
Optimize/
Discover
Identify sentiment
trends by brand
or keywords.
Provides a list of
trends on
Twitter. X
Create custom
feeds for each
trending
hashtag.
Provides list of
most successful &
popular content.
Provides a robust
pin inspector.
Provides
suggested
content to post
by topic.
DATA
Analytics /
Reports
X
Via paid version only.
Only 3 reports
via free version. X X
Via Twitter Analytics.
Best Instagram
analytics tool with
robust data.
Analyze latest
250 pins only. X
Via paid version only.
COMPETE
Compare/
Benchmark
X
Via paid version only.
Compare your
Facebook page
vs. competitors’.
X X X X
Via paid version only.
X
TARGET
Demographics /
Location
Target Facebook
posts to a specific
location.
*Publish targeted
Facebook posts.
*Search local
trends on Twitter.
Search by hashtag
but no local
targeting.
Most robust and
targeted search
tool powered by
Twitter.
Provides
geographic map
of your followers.
X X
COMMUNITY
Followers /
Influencers
X X
Manage 3000
contacts with lead
generation tools.
X
Full community
management
suite.
Engage newest
followers. X
ScopeofFreeVersionforEachToolBy:AbdulhadiHafez
Updated:
June 2, 2014

5. 5Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Publishing
Social Targeting
Social Engagement
Social Monitoring
Desktop Link https://app.viralheat.c
om/signup/free
Mobile App Link https://itunes.apple.co
m/us/app/viralheat/id
639511532?mt=8

6. 6Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Publishing
Social Analytics
Social Engagement
Social Monitoring
Desktop Link https://hootsuite.com/pl
ans/free
Mobile App Link https://hootsuite.com/p
roducts/mobile-apps

7. 7Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Publishing
Social Community
Social Engagement
Social Monitoring
Desktop Link http://www.nimble.c
om/pricing/details/
Mobile App Link https://itunes.apple.c
om/us/app/nimble/id
651636273?mt=8

8. 8Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Publishing
Social Community
Social Engagement
Social Monitoring
Desktop Link https://tweetdeck.twitter.com
/
Mobile App Link https://itunes.apple.com/us/a
pp/tweetdeck-by-
twitter/id485812721?mt=12

9. 9Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Community
Social Monitoring
Desktop Link http://iconosquare.com/
Mobile App Link No Mobile App
Social Engagement
Social Analytics
Social Content Optimizer

10. 10Abdulhadi Hafez
Social Community
Social Monitoring
Desktop Link http://www.tailwindapp.com/
pricing
Mobile App Link No Mobile App
Social Engagement
Social Analytics

11. 11Abdulhadi Hafez
Desktop Link https://bufferapp.com/
Mobile App Link https://bufferapp.com/extras
Social Publishing
Social Content Optimizer

12. 12Abdulhadi Hafez
Link The
FREE
GOT
@abudhafez
Click
Thank you.
Question?
Comment?A
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ahafez
OR
June2014