You guys are amazing. I literally found your channel because I was searching for an alternative for Expensify and now I just watched 4 of your videos and each one was amazingly valuable. I used to do social media management in a marketing company and this video hits every pain point. There is no doubt in my mind that this channel will become one of the biggest in the productivity space on TH-cam. Just from the videos i watched today you guys are already a top channel. Thank you so much and keep up the great work! Instant sub!!!!!
Darren!!!! Okay, this has got to be the nicest and most validating comment we've ever gotten (Andra said I can't say this to people, but I feel like I have to just say it in this case because of the journey you went through and all the points you touched on) 🙊🙈 This just made our day/week/month/year and we just have to say thank you for the support, we have SO much in the works, and we're so beyond stoked that we get to do this for a living. Excited to chat more on other videos and excited for you to be part of the Efficient fam! With that, I've GOT to know (even though it's the wrong video), what did you decide on with the Expensify alternative 🤔😁
Hey! Really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond!! So for more context, I used to co run a marketing company as the Creative Director (Digitality Marketing) and I had my own TH-cam channel (Makeshiftreality) that had some music videos go viral which lead me into the marketing world and building a studio. In the marketing company I built a lot of processes for managing workflows with ClickUp and other tools which is how I got into the productivity and task management niche. I transitioned out of that marketing business and I’m currently developing back end processes for managing the finances of my Families restaurant business and I’m also launching my own podcast on TH-cam based around optimizing health and habits (I’m a health coach and also work with clients one on one.) So all that being said, being organized and having systems has always been super important to me and with the advent of ai there is more opportunity now than ever to create tools that allow you to have full control of all the processes in your business. I used Claude 3 from Anthropic to code a spreadsheet in Google Sheets to create custom views for viewing all the business metrics for my families restaurant. It allows me to move faster than using QuickBooks and I can make it more custom to our own processes. I wanted to find a better way of managing cash receipts for the business and organizing those into a database so I was looking at Expensify to do that. I really want to go the Bill Spend and Expense route but it seems a little too advanced for my current needs. I think I’m going to start with Expensify for building a database for tracking physical and cash receipts and then I’ll transition to Bill Spend and Expense when there is more of a need for it. I will probably use it for my own personal business because it looks amazing. Huge thanks to you guys for bringing light to that. Does Bill Spend and Expense have a receipt capture tool on the mobile app? I’m assuming it does but I didn’t find a specific videos highlighting that.
This is an awesome history, just checked out some of the music videos on the channel, they are awesome! Completely and totally hear ya on the "move quicker than QBO using AI + sheets" as yeah, QBO is kinda the bane of my existence. You need it, but gosh, working with it is slow and rough... I will say, efficient.link/r/midday is looking SUPER promising in this area. Ideally it'll integrate with QBO in the future and it can be the interface instead of needing that spreadsheet of yours 😉 And got it, I will say though, as a long-time customer of Expensify a while back (used it for 4 years), I haven't missed it in the slightest since switching to BILL S&E. And I'd personally say BILL S&E are easier to use than Expensify, so it's interesting to see you saying that it looks intimidating. You can upload physical receipts no problem to BILL S&E (like if we get food out and use the business CC, you simply snap a picture of it from the mobile app and it connects it, or better yet, have the receipt send to your email and have it auto-forward to BILL S&E and it'll auto-match for you). So the truth of the matter is, I don't really someone starting off with Expensify then moving to BILL S&E in time, you'll be too exhausted to do that and just stick with Expensify if you go that path. I wouldn't recommend it personally. Promise you BILL isn't as intimidating as you might think. You seem smart, I've seen less technical construction businesses using BILL no problem. If you do give it a shot, definitely be sure to use this link though 🙏 efficient.link/r/bill even if you end up going with Expensify efficient.link/r/expensify - but yeah, I really really really do not recommend Expensify, they've fallen way behind in recent years.
It's so refreshing to see a non-affiliated, honest review. I work for a high volume real estate team and I really need something that allows me to post to multiple Facebook pages, our Google Business page, IG, Tiktok, TH-cam ect, while holding the format I created the media with. Maybe something that allows you to post to multiple platforms but individually edit cropping & captions. Also, something with a reliable central inbox that pulls in comments, mentions, DMs, reviews and Marketplace messages. A girl can dream...
Haha our tag line isn't "no BS software reviews" for nothing 😄 Glad you enjoyed it! In terms of what you're looking for, Buffer would be the best if you're okay to compromise on it missing some formatting features (IG, Tiktok, Meta, YT). Although don't think they have Google Business. Buffer does also have a central inbox for comments, mentions, etc (maybe not reviews and market place). It might do 80% of what you need, which might be enough to make you more efficient but then you'll need to supplement for where there are limitations! Do you think you'll give it a shot?
So refreshing to see a REAL video from an actual adult who ACTUALLY used a thing and had insight about its functionality ...instead of recording themselves reading a script. 👍
Awe, glad to have you here! And no selling out here-we have a software review and comparison website: efficient.app and our tagline is no-BS, so you can't sell out while being no-BS 😁
So glad it was helpful! It was the video I wish I had when I started this research... I felt like there wasn't anything showing a balanced view of the reality of using any of the tools! Which tool do you think you'll end up trying? Or will you post directly to the social apps?
Which social media app are you using and care most about? See the full comparison here: efficient.link/social ↳ 🥇 Buffer (All): efficient.link/r/buffer ↳ 🥇 Typefully (X & LinkedIn): efficient.link/r/typefully ↳ Metricool: efficient.link/r/metricool ↳ Hootsuite: efficient.link/r/hootsuite
Thank you for this video! Decided to go with Metricool since it has EXACTLY what I need on the free tier, and I can scale up to another brand once the money rolls in for the brand I'm using it for. Very easy-to-understand and informative video!
Haha we understand, in a way we don't blame others, creating quality content is really expensive-we're just choosing to cover the costs through revenue we've made in our prior business so it puts less pressure on these videos having to make money. We understand that's not the norm for the average creator. But yeah, sponsored content definitely brings with an * when it comes to bias.
I'm a doctor in Ecuador and I was looking for a tool to save time posting, since I make videos for Tiktok, YT and INSTA and I do everything myself, but I think I'll stick to it manually. Your videos are high quality, I would love to learn how to edit like that, haha.
Amazing to hear! Appreciate your comment and thanks for the quality praise-couldn't don't without our video editors though, definitely not doing this one manually, just the uploading part 😉 hahaha
I subscribed after the first minute - finally the TH-cam algorithm is actually showing me videos I'm interested in! what is the yellow cover thing you're using at 11:35?
Awe! This comment just made our day 🥲 thank you TH-cam algorithm! Curious to learn, are you interested for personal use? Or for a company/your team? And ah yessss, so you're seeing Clicks: efficient.link/a/clicks
@@efficientapp 😊I run a small marketing Agency in London so It's for business use. Thanks again for the info. Not sure if you've done any videos on CRM's but what do think about Bigin CRM? I've been using it for a while now and think it's the best CRM tool out there for businesses with under 50 employees...
That's awesome to hear! So curious what solution you've ultimately gone with for posting on social media and if the video related much with any of your pain-points? And regarding CRM videos, you got it! We have a full video on that here: efficient.yt/crm and even have a full "Best CRM" page on our site here: efficient.link/crm (we have a lot of opinions about a lot of software 😉), maybe shoot over a comment on the video there and we can talk more about Bigin 🙌 have had a couple others ask about Bigin in the comment section of that video 👀
Thank you for this video. Great content. I am the responsible for the tool we use in a project management association in Switzerland. We use buffer for free but I am not conviced. Actually as I prepare designed pictures on Canva, I use now Canva to schedule the posts to LinkedIn , X (I could do more but no time). The calendar of publication from Canva is good, the only down side of the Canva platform is the editor for the text is really poor at the moment. Thank you again for your high quality reviews.
Appreciate the kind words! If you're using LinkedIn and X most (e.g. those are your two main channels), then efficient.link/r/typefully would be a great and enjoyable option (it's what Andra and I use exclusively now for X & LinkedIn). That said, you can't expand past those two channels with it for now. Completely hear you on Canva lacking a good text editor. Hope you find something that works best for you based on the channels that are most important for you-glad we could be involved in some way in the journey 🙏 Hope to see you around in other videos!
Of course! So glad we could help! Did you go with any of the social media schedulers mentioned? Or are you just doing what we do and going at it manually?
This is a great video and fully answered my questions. Been looking to switch off of Hootsuite and this confirmed my thought process. You earned my sub for making great content.
Ayyyyyy, let's gooo! Curious what platform you primarily used it for? And what are you moving to if anything else? Always fun to learn what people are using and for what needs 👀
What an amazing video! Thank you so much! I have been tasked in managing the social media for a small and growing non profit, but I feel I lack the experience. But with such sincere and honest videos as yours, I feel that I can do it. Thank you!
Awe! We're so happy to hear this! You got this! We've seen all types of people at every business under the sun learn how to use every type of software-totally understand how intimidating it likely is at first! But once you dive in and use it more, you'll start building familiarity and it'll start clicking! Do you know which social media platforms you're going to be focusing on? And what social media management tool you're going to give a shot?
Mentioned this to a few others here, but we evaluated Later, just didn't mention it because it didn't even make it to the 2nd stage of evaluation. It felt like the same thing as others without any standout functionality. We did personally use it for a few days and didn't feel it deserved being spoken about. Our goal is not to mention every app that exists in a category, just the ones that stand out for one reason or another, and Later didn't for us.
Do you really aspire to have the marketing strategy of, and want to be more like Walgreens and Crayola though? 😅 Maybe even a red flag out of the gate 😏😁
thank you so much for sharing this research. It saves me valuable hours and it makes so much sense. Also the comments make me want to watch more of your videos. I was looking for the exact thing you were looking for and my content is bilingual so two channels per social media... wow thanks!
Awe, we're SO happy hearing this! Just made our night 🙏 and how sweet, well hey, now your comment adds to those comments! We appreciate you posting, and we hope to see you in the comments section of other videos! Bilingual content definitely adds to the complexity though for sure! We haven't yet gone down that path 🙊 one day! What'd you end up landing on at the end of this? Using any of the social media management tools we mentioned in the video?
Looooove how positive you are and unbiased. Very good overview. My struggle is resizing videos for the different platforms for client. I then have to shave each size as a different file to their Google Drive for security, per their request, so it’s a struggle sharing before you sharing 😂 If any app developers watching she giving great insight what we want 😂
Ahhh yessss, all the sizing 😅 that's a whole other beast! But hey, we're all going through it, so it's a level playing field at least-but hey, if anyone reads this and wants to develop something that checks all the boxes, go for it! 😂 That said, we do think there's probably API limitations that are resulting in some of this not working exactly how we'd like it to. It's a tough space!
I'm now interested in how to use Typefully and Notion for handling larger campaigns, workshopping ideas, and also managing and analyzing the content and content calendar, without creating extra friction.
I can definitely see how Notion and Typefully would be super helpful for that! I'd be curious though how much you could do just inside of Typefully though-what would you be using Notion for? The scheduled content calendar can be right within Typefully: efficient.link/r/typefully
So happy to hear you feel that way! We weren't even planning on making a video on this in the first place, so feeling quite glad that we ended up doing it! 🙏 Super curious what social media management tool you ended up going with if any?
This video saved me so much pain. Thank you for taking all this time and sharing your experience. Unfortunately, it looks like I’m manually posting still.
Haha so happy to hear we could help! So sorry/sad that the outcome is the most manual and painstaking process 😅 We just felt like all the videos on this subject were oversimplifying the actual pain-point and solution. Not saying they were recommending Metricool solely because they are the only ones with an affiliate link, buuuuuut 🤷♂️ Catch ya in the manually posting path, our new friend!
Hahaha we know that routine all too well. Tell me you don't somehow get sucked into the social media of choice's algorithm, consuming content, 5 minutes later realizing you were trying to post, not consume, amiright? 😏🤭
Awe, means a LOT that you left a comment especially then! So glad to hear this video helped 🙏 so what did you end up going with (if any) and for what use-case?
My name is Alexandra, and I'm watchinf Alex & Andra 😂. This is really one video I'm looking for sometime. Thank you so much, you really helps saving my research time. ❤❤❤
Hahaha okay, so you were destined to find our channel. What's more is it sounds like you had the answer inside of you the entire time, you just needed to split your name in half and then the answers would have become more clear 😏 So glad we could help and thanks for your comment! Hope to see you around more AlexAndra!
Stellar! So stoked to hear this 🙌 this was definitely a video we wish existed when we were researching the social media scheduling space for ourselves, so we're super happy to hear it's saving others time, appreciate the comment! Dying to know what you ended up going with at the end of the day??
@efficientapp this has been probably one of the most valuable videos I've seen in years, straight to the point, the good, the bad and the ugly, no non-sense or wasted time here just how we need it in an era where people are so bombarded with an infinite amount of information and who can deliver the most value in the least amount of time is becomes the winner. I love everything is very straightforward, and soo, soo glad her English is very easy to understand, I'm not sure if I can watch another video with heavy accents I need to pause and rewind 😂
Wow thus channel is just amazing, I first saw your CRM comparison video, and now I'm here, and i don't think i would ever leave here 😂, you're just great especislly the video production quality is phenomenal 👌♥️
Your comment is sooooo sweet! Thank you so much, shared your nice words with the entire team. So glad you're getting value from the software reviews. We have some pretty exciting videos coming out later this month too (currently being edited now). Curious, did you end up picking a CRM or social media app? Happy to help with any questions!
So glad to hear this! Wanted to give insight into the realistic picture of how we’re scheduling content as creators. What platforms do you post on the most/will you use any tool to schedule or keep posting manually?
Awe! This means so much to hear, for a video we weren't even planning on making, so glad we did and that it's helping people! What social media management software did you end up going with, if any? And for what platforms?
This video is so amazing and straight forward. I was having a hard time on which app to use but now I'll go for BUFFER. thanks so much. Please make a video on a guide to measuring your performance on Buffer
Ayyy, that was the goal! So glad to hear it connected-we were SO frustrated with the entire process, that we're glad we could share our experience here. Buffer sounds like a great choice! Curious how you get on with it-that said, we probably won't do another video for a while on social media management, as the outcome from the video was, well, that we aren't really using any at the end of the day for our uploads 😂 but sounds like you found what works best for your setup! Glad we could help!
Gosh, it's such a tough nut to crack-glad to hear this could help! Also, good to see you again our friend! What platforms are you trying to focus your efforts on most? 👀
@@efficientapp Instagram, twitter & starting tik tok from zero! Hoping to be fully integrated by the end of 2024! If you guys did a video on live streaming to tik tok… that’s my next step in bringing sports to the 🌎
Got it! So are you leaning on Buffer then based on the video recommendation for those channels? efficient.link/r/buffer The truth of the matter is we're not likely to do a video on that as TikTok doesn't fit for our audience at all and there's also a chance it's shut down by the end of this year. We've just found that TH-cam for long-form (especially live streaming) is a better solution than TikTok. It's also incredibly difficult to monetize on TikTok. Sounds like you have a solid plan though! Excited for you!
@@efficientapp it was a tough choice between hootsuite and buffer but yes! I definitely understand, love your content and recommendations! We keep rising! 📈📈
I learned what I was looking for and came across this yellow keyboard kinda gadget attached with your iPhone at 11:35 What is this gadget called? Just curious.
Awe, this means a lot! Thanks for the kind words 🙏 okay, I've gotta know, what did you end up going with and for what channels are most important to you? 🤔
Thanks-yeah I was thinking about branching out to other platforms and trying to be smart about it. I guess for now I’m just gonna do it manually and then go from there. OK thanks for the video. Take care. Good luck you guys.🌟⭐️⭐️🦄
Awe, so glad to hear! We've tried to share things our thoughts in an opinionated but objective way, so glad to hear it has gotten across! Curious if you went with any of the social media scheduler tools mentioned in the video, and what platforms are most important to you?
@@efficientapp Currently none and looking... used to be Hootsuite, but it is overpriced for my needs of simply pre-scheduling posts across platforms (and, on top of that, it's not 100% functional/problematic - as you confirmed.)... I don'y know, maybe will try Buffer??
Makes sense to us! A similar boat for us for sure. Buffer is a good one to try and priced reasonably. Depends on what platforms are most important to you though, what platforms do you post most often on?
@efficientapp I'm going to give Buffer a go as we mainly use Instagram, FB and twitter. First time getting involved with scheduling so i want something that's as simple as possible. :)
Can you say something about the engagement rate if you post it in the app or through some 3rd party tool? Any differences? Thank you so much for your content!
Virtually impossible to truly know/test this since it's more reliant on these various platforms throwing it into their algorithm and showing it to people or now. Personally, we haven't noticed a difference between the two (and yes, we thought the same thing), but at the end of the day, these platforms just want you posting, so penalizing you for doing what they want because you aren't doing it directly from the app would be silly on them to penalize for. But yeah, impossible for us to know for sure. I'd like to think it's fine though haha
@@efficientappthank you so much! What about if you put the songs on the reel while editing them and posting them through these 3rd Parties? Since music is only available in the Apps but some reels just need Music. Any experiences there if that has an impact? That’s the only thing keeping me away from using a planner tool
Oh yeah, good point. So the risk here is that some songs are authorized on one app but not another. For example, the licensing agreements that TH-cam has vs TikTok vs Instagram are all different, and you have a chance of your video getting muted or disabling monetization if so. That would be the main risk associated I would think. But if you own the rights to the music then you're probably fine to do it that way! Not totally sure for certain, but that's all I can add 👌
Hello, in the end, what programming app are you using for TH-cam and TikTok? I use Buffer for Pinterest, IG and Facebook. But I'm looking for an app for TH-cam and Tiktok
It comes down to how important is TH-cam and TikTok for you? For us, TH-cam is our #1 most important channel, so we actually do it manually, we don't use any program to help with posting. TikTok we were also posting directly as we felt it was a bit funky when we used a platform, with the text spacing and miscellaneous things. Those are the two channels we haven't cracked the code for posting to though. Genuinely just worried about giving any social posting app access to our TH-cam FWIW.
Buffer is one of the OG's in the space, they've done a good job with the metrics that we'd want to see. Do you mean aggregated metrics like combined across all channels? Or just more deep metrics about each individual platform?
Wow, this is literally the longest time I've spent listening to a girl, and I’m so glad I did! You’re a total mastermind when it comes to social media - your analysis is next-level. Seriously, where have you been all my life? 😄 If you have time, I have a quick question for you! I’ve got a Facebook page with 40k followers in the fitness niche (I was just posting things form tiktok at this page LOL), but after being inactive for a long time, my reach has tanked. If you were in my position, what would you do to revive the page and increase engagement? I’m thinking of creating a brand with themed posts to make it look more professional, but this is just an idea, and I’d really appreciate your genuine feedback.
We're glad you enjoyed the video 🙌 We don't really give give social advice/strategy here (we review software), but as they say "just focus on making good content"!
Any feedback on social champ? We just need the free version to start and while considering buffer, we found social champ which seems better on paper, but unsure of it's actual capability
We don't have any experience with Social Champ, it's just Buffer has been around way longer, and one of the core things we've mentioned in the video is that it's all about API access for the various platforms. So Buffer not only has the most experience with the various platform API's, but they also are large enough such that they might have unique API access or workarounds for various platforms. Buffer is a bootstrapped company that has grown to $20M/yr in revenue (bootstrapped companies are often more customer-driven than venture-scale companies, e.g. they aren't just focused on growing at all costs). So with all of that said, we would just feel more comfortable on paper using Buffer: efficient.link/r/buffer over Social Champ. But the choice is yours!
i would like for to see more tags and posting every 2 weeks more with all of them now I have to hire someone to do this service thanks for the update great work and notes .
Amazing this was super informative, I have been using Metricool for a year or so but after watching this I think I might give Buffer a go and compare which works better for me.
So glad it was helpful! Are you running into any specific limitations with Metricool? Or are you just curious to explore other options out there? Thanks for being here!
You saved me time for exploring it on exploring that on my own, thank you! btw, who is editing your videos, really like the nifty animations that you have :)
Ah, so stoked to hear! We actually have a couple different editors and animation people! This video and animations was actually edited by Owen from Motion Mavericks though!
Oh wow, that's a tough one... If you can't do it within the app itself, it's unlikely you can do it with one of these tools. I don't think these social media platforms want people doing bulk updates and bulk posting like that either as it makes things feel more "bot" in a sense.
Wow thank you that was super helpful ! I looked for a social media planner for my soon to open shop and this was a bit overwhelming, the informations weer clear and i think i will first try buffer since i mainly wanna use instagram and twitter ! It also seem the cheapest out of those i looked at so nice
Ah, so glad to hear! And sounds like a great strategy given that Instagram and X are your most important ones! You got it nailed down, starting first with the most important channels then deciding based on that, well done! Glad we could help 🙌
@@efficientapp I'm going to use Notion to plan my posting through different social medias and use the native program for each platform to plan the postings.
That sounds like a good plan, makes total sense! 🔥 Maybe one day you can give Motion a shot as it'll actually pull the posting tasks right onto your calendar 😉 that's actually what we do along with planning out content with Flows: efficient.yt/motion
You said you used to do it manually but my question is - with TikTok for example- you can get banned if you manage multiple customers accounts in there no?
Not familiar with TikTok policy or managing many people's social media accounts as an agency-apologies. That's probably more up to the social media scheduling software to answer than us.
Would say Buffer, they have agency plans, and we found they worked the most consistently with IG (while the other tools had given us errors which is why we ultimately ended up using Buffer). Metricool also works for agencies, it was just more unstable than Buffer when we tried to use it.
Hi, first of all, this was a great video, thank-you for bringing all this down to a 17 minutes Video! So I'm someone who is currently trying to figure all this out. My Question, what do you think of it? Wouldn't it also be possible to write all the posts in a normal calendar and then schedule the post for every app, in each scheduling site the app offers?
So glad you enjoyed it! While it's definitely possible do what you're suggesting, it's introducing a lot more work than is required. I think you'd burn out pretty quickly. Instead, I'd recommend figuring out which single platform you care about most, posting directly there, and then using something like Buffer for the rest of the platforms.
Awe, this means a lot! So glad we ended up recording this one-it felt like we couldn't keep this knowledge to ourselves haha so this feels super validating thank you! So what did you end up moving forward with?
The big plus with Metrixcool is the cost. That said, TH-cam and TikTok are not important to me, however seeing your video I really do believe I should use TH-cam more.
Totally understand! The cost bit is of course important, we'd just say the cost is negligible if any of the platforms become a meaningful part of your brand/strategy. But even with that, the more critical a tool becomes for your brand (in our case, TH-cam), the more we want to use the platform natively as we worry about giving any of these tools full access to that channel for us. So in a funny way, we leverage social media scheduling tools for our least important accounts 😁
Sprout Social is for enterprises, have a friend that works there and their clients are huge companies like Estée Lauder. Their entire homepage copy is very much speaking to these huge companies as well, they even list a phone number as that’s who their target audience is 😂 Don’t think we use any SaaS that would ever list a phone number. For us as a small business, it’s not a contender and really wouldn’t recommend it to any non-corporate team!
Makes sense. This might sound crazy but I actually was thinking of Vista Social in my head. 😂 I probably got mixed up because Sprout always ranks first on Google for this topic. I would love to know your thoughts on Vista Social.
Hah yeah, Sprout has a lot of money to invest in organic and paid spend. Regarding Vista Social, we actually aren't familiar with it and it didn't come up in our search for the best social media scheduler tool, though thinking our our would be similar to others in the video. None of these tools are "great" due to API limitations, full data delete permissions, and other reasons mentioned in the video. We're probably not going to go too far down this category as we found what works best for us, and it's really just finding one of these tools that checks the boxes for the platforms you don't care about, and then posting natively for the ones you do care about. Since we're not a social media marketing agency, we're not trying to manage dozens of accounts for other companies, so our needs may vary a bit from yours depending. Never intended to make this video, just realized that we ended up going to the depths and doing a ton of research and testing, so figured might as well help out others who were in a similar situation to us. It was pretty grueling work testing out all these tools and feeling pretty good to not do more testing for now that we landed on something pretty great, if that makes sense 😆
- Psychology (What content creates with people and why?) - Actual Content Creation (Basic filming/editing is table stakes these days) - Persistence & Patience (Keep posting & trying new things til you find your audience) Whether you are managing your own account or others accounts, all of the above will pay off 🙌 What is the first thing you'll do?
@bagchisoahum Typefully is fantastic! Alex and I now use it almost daily. So glad you found it all helpful ☺️ Be sure to use this link so their team knows we sent you! efficient.link/r/typefully
Stoked to hear! Wish we could have watched it before starting the journey as well hahaha glad our grueling journey could help others though, makes it all worthwhile!
Haha love it! So what did you end up landing on? Doing things primarily manually? We're actively just using efficient.link/r/typefully currently, manually uploading the rest 🙈
Awe, so happy to hear! Curious which social media scheduler you ended up going with in the end? (If any), and what social channels are most important to you? P.S. LOVE your mission, and love Simon Sinek! Thank you for sharing kindness with the world my friend 🙏
Awe! We're so happy to hear, this means a lot! 🥹 What social media management software did you end up going with in the end? Curious what platforms are most important to you as well? 👀
Haha course! It was super eye-opening to us that we felt we needed to share it! Curious what you ended up going with and what social media platforms are most important to you?
It didn't quite pass the initial evaluation when looking at the "best" social media scheduling apps we wanted to actually try to implement in our business.
I've used it in the past, I think their marketing is better than the actual tool itself. I found it quite kludgy to use. Buffer is way better, in fact, I would even say Metricool is better than Planoly. Hope this helps!
Yeah, I think it's a good option! If Meta platforms are the ones you care about most, then that's the way to go! Meta will always favor you using their own features vs. a third party app.
One thing about these social media tools i hate is that there are a few features that only work with the respective native social media app. For instance, i am not able to repost post on story or accessing the trending music.
Yep, exactly. There will always be major major major trade-offs simply due to API limitations. It's not really a winnable category for that reason-all social media management tools will be able to be is a supplementary posting option for these sites.
@@efficientapp Yes, which makes me even think why do they charge so much. This truly feels like a scam when you can't maximize the potential of the social media apps. I agree that scheduling makes the work easy, but at what cost when you can't have basic features in hand.
It's definitely a tough one. I do feel like some of the platforms are doing their best, even with the API limitations. Like efficient.link/r/typefully feels like they are trying be the best platform for posting on X/LinkedIn first and foremost, so I appreciate the focus, versus them just going broad. So maybe that's more the solution in my eyes, pick the platform that focuses on the 1 or 2 platforms that are most important to you, because they will try their best to be ontop of all API functionality and potentially even workarounds.
I tried buffer and I hated their UI SO I switched to Typefully and been using it for over a year now and it's just been the because of their beautiful UI
That’s fair! Typefully is definitely best for X/LinkedIn so if that’s what you’re focusing most on, it makes total sense! If you have a ton of short-form video that you’re trying to post across channels like Instagram and TikTok and want to do it all in one fell swoop, Buffer is your best bet. Wish Typefully and Buffer had a baby though haha maybe one day Typefully will expand further, but also kinda like their focus on X and LinkedIn versus getting too sidetracked.
You can't do proper scheduling on X, and the most frustrating part is how many write-ups I've lost writing directly in X. They don't auto-save and it's buggy often. Typefully also has a bunch of other power features that X doesn't have natively like comment reply when X amount of engagement has happened on the post, etc. There's a myriad of reasons to consider, their site covers more details: efficient.link/r/typefully
We considered Later but nothing about it stood out and it wasn't something we ultimately decided to truly consider after our initial tests. This video consists only of the finalists we considered, so Later didn't make it to the video for a reason, if that makes sense?
@@efficientapp yes makes perfect sense! one more question as I am getting into pulling the trigger on one of these websites, have you found one that does not downsize video or one that does it the least compared to the other ones? I started looking into it and it seems like most if not all of these services downsize video heavily to the point where it would be worth it to just post it myself and make a post calendar on excel haha. Also thanks so much for your in depth response 😃
Hmm, we actually didn't experience that with Buffer (which we had been using), but in general other platforms have been decent as well. Funny enough TikTok scheduled at the time downscaled it. But we were uploading 4K shorts on most of these platforms and it worked (I even think 4K gets naturally downscaled to 1080p natively on platforms like X and such anyway).
Awe, this means a lot! And thanks for the call-out 😆👋 what did you end moving forward with if anything? And what platforms are most important to you? Super curious!
Yeah, wouldn’t use any platform for TH-cam, so if it’s just Instagram left, you are better off posting to Instagram directly. I think I just saw they now allow you to schedule the posts natively within the app. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest solution!
We weren't impressed-it was one that we evaluated alongside the ones mentioned in the video, but didn't stand out enough to actually even make its way to the video, if that makes sense?
oh gosh, stay away from Zoho! There's a reason why we don't even cover them on our site or in any of our software reviews. Zoho is trying to be everything - social media, a CRM, project management, HR solution... Zoho offers a horrible user experience!
We tried it for a bit and it felt somewhat kludgy, so we didn't stick with it. Don't 100% remember what the reason for getting rid of it was at the time (this video was shot 6 months ago), but we definitely tried it and decided to not even include it in the video. Just didn't work well for us.
You guys are amazing. I literally found your channel because I was searching for an alternative for Expensify and now I just watched 4 of your videos and each one was amazingly valuable. I used to do social media management in a marketing company and this video hits every pain point. There is no doubt in my mind that this channel will become one of the biggest in the productivity space on TH-cam. Just from the videos i watched today you guys are already a top channel. Thank you so much and keep up the great work! Instant sub!!!!!
Darren!!!! Okay, this has got to be the nicest and most validating comment we've ever gotten (Andra said I can't say this to people, but I feel like I have to just say it in this case because of the journey you went through and all the points you touched on) 🙊🙈
This just made our day/week/month/year and we just have to say thank you for the support, we have SO much in the works, and we're so beyond stoked that we get to do this for a living.
Excited to chat more on other videos and excited for you to be part of the Efficient fam! With that, I've GOT to know (even though it's the wrong video), what did you decide on with the Expensify alternative 🤔😁
Hey! Really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond!!
So for more context, I used to co run a marketing company as the Creative Director (Digitality Marketing) and I had my own TH-cam channel (Makeshiftreality) that had some music videos go viral which lead me into the marketing world and building a studio. In the marketing company I built a lot of processes for managing workflows with ClickUp and other tools which is how I got into the productivity and task management niche.
I transitioned out of that marketing business and I’m currently developing back end processes for managing the finances of my Families restaurant business and I’m also launching my own podcast on TH-cam based around optimizing health and habits (I’m a health coach and also work with clients one on one.)
So all that being said, being organized and having systems has always been super important to me and with the advent of ai there is more opportunity now than ever to create tools that allow you to have full control of all the processes in your business.
I used Claude 3 from Anthropic to code a spreadsheet in Google Sheets to create custom views for viewing all the business metrics for my families restaurant. It allows me to move faster than using QuickBooks and I can make it more custom to our own processes.
I wanted to find a better way of managing cash receipts for the business and organizing those into a database so I was looking at Expensify to do that.
I really want to go the Bill Spend and Expense route but it seems a little too advanced for my current needs. I think I’m going to start with Expensify for building a database for tracking physical and cash receipts and then I’ll transition to Bill Spend and Expense when there is more of a need for it. I will probably use it for my own personal business because it looks amazing. Huge thanks to you guys for bringing light to that.
Does Bill Spend and Expense have a receipt capture tool on the mobile app? I’m assuming it does but I didn’t find a specific videos highlighting that.
This is an awesome history, just checked out some of the music videos on the channel, they are awesome!
Completely and totally hear ya on the "move quicker than QBO using AI + sheets" as yeah, QBO is kinda the bane of my existence. You need it, but gosh, working with it is slow and rough... I will say, efficient.link/r/midday is looking SUPER promising in this area. Ideally it'll integrate with QBO in the future and it can be the interface instead of needing that spreadsheet of yours 😉
And got it, I will say though, as a long-time customer of Expensify a while back (used it for 4 years), I haven't missed it in the slightest since switching to BILL S&E. And I'd personally say BILL S&E are easier to use than Expensify, so it's interesting to see you saying that it looks intimidating.
You can upload physical receipts no problem to BILL S&E (like if we get food out and use the business CC, you simply snap a picture of it from the mobile app and it connects it, or better yet, have the receipt send to your email and have it auto-forward to BILL S&E and it'll auto-match for you).
So the truth of the matter is, I don't really someone starting off with Expensify then moving to BILL S&E in time, you'll be too exhausted to do that and just stick with Expensify if you go that path. I wouldn't recommend it personally. Promise you BILL isn't as intimidating as you might think. You seem smart, I've seen less technical construction businesses using BILL no problem.
If you do give it a shot, definitely be sure to use this link though 🙏 efficient.link/r/bill even if you end up going with Expensify efficient.link/r/expensify - but yeah, I really really really do not recommend Expensify, they've fallen way behind in recent years.
Agreed 🎉 subscribed
Aweee, that means a lot 🥲🙏 welcome to the efficient family!
It's so refreshing to see a non-affiliated, honest review. I work for a high volume real estate team and I really need something that allows me to post to multiple Facebook pages, our Google Business page, IG, Tiktok, TH-cam ect, while holding the format I created the media with. Maybe something that allows you to post to multiple platforms but individually edit cropping & captions. Also, something with a reliable central inbox that pulls in comments, mentions, DMs, reviews and Marketplace messages. A girl can dream...
Haha our tag line isn't "no BS software reviews" for nothing 😄 Glad you enjoyed it!
In terms of what you're looking for, Buffer would be the best if you're okay to compromise on it missing some formatting features (IG, Tiktok, Meta, YT). Although don't think they have Google Business.
Buffer does also have a central inbox for comments, mentions, etc (maybe not reviews and market place). It might do 80% of what you need, which might be enough to make you more efficient but then you'll need to supplement for where there are limitations! Do you think you'll give it a shot?
oh just saw Buffer actually does have Google Business!
So refreshing to see a REAL video from an actual adult who ACTUALLY used a thing and had insight about its functionality ...instead of recording themselves reading a script. 👍
Haha yep, this whole journey brought with it a LOTTTT to say 😂 I could probably write a whole novel at this point 🙊
I think I just found a channel who isn't looking to sell out / hasn't sold out yet. Keep up the good work! So refreshing.
Awe, glad to have you here! And no selling out here-we have a software review and comparison website: efficient.app and our tagline is no-BS, so you can't sell out while being no-BS 😁
Most informative and non biased videos I've seen...and I've watched every video on social media planners on TH-cam. Thank you!
So glad it was helpful! It was the video I wish I had when I started this research... I felt like there wasn't anything showing a balanced view of the reality of using any of the tools! Which tool do you think you'll end up trying? Or will you post directly to the social apps?
I echo this, thank you!
Awe, our pleasure!
@efficientapp yes, thanks for showing us everything! Saved me a lot of time trying out trials just to find I couldn't do a YT short thumbnail.
Yessss, you got it! We had the same experience, so glad we could give the shortcut!
Which social media app are you using and care most about?
See the full comparison here: efficient.link/social
↳ 🥇 Buffer (All): efficient.link/r/buffer
↳ 🥇 Typefully (X & LinkedIn): efficient.link/r/typefully
↳ Metricool: efficient.link/r/metricool
↳ Hootsuite: efficient.link/r/hootsuite
Thank you for this video! Decided to go with Metricool since it has EXACTLY what I need on the free tier, and I can scale up to another brand once the money rolls in for the brand I'm using it for. Very easy-to-understand and informative video!
Glad to hear the video helped! What social media platforms are most important for you in (or rather the brand you're using it for)?
Wow. Incredible video and so helpful !!
Awee, so glad to hear! Did you go with any of the social media management schedulers mentioned?
Unsponsored videos are just another thing! actually useful and honest. unlike 99% of content 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Haha we understand, in a way we don't blame others, creating quality content is really expensive-we're just choosing to cover the costs through revenue we've made in our prior business so it puts less pressure on these videos having to make money. We understand that's not the norm for the average creator.
But yeah, sponsored content definitely brings with an * when it comes to bias.
I'm a doctor in Ecuador and I was looking for a tool to save time posting, since I make videos for Tiktok, YT and INSTA and I do everything myself, but I think I'll stick to it manually. Your videos are high quality, I would love to learn how to edit like that, haha.
Amazing to hear! Appreciate your comment and thanks for the quality praise-couldn't don't without our video editors though, definitely not doing this one manually, just the uploading part 😉 hahaha
I subscribed after the first minute - finally the TH-cam algorithm is actually showing me videos I'm interested in! what is the yellow cover thing you're using at 11:35?
Awe! This comment just made our day 🥲 thank you TH-cam algorithm!
Curious to learn, are you interested for personal use? Or for a company/your team?
And ah yessss, so you're seeing Clicks: efficient.link/a/clicks
@@efficientapp 😊I run a small marketing Agency in London so It's for business use. Thanks again for the info. Not sure if you've done any videos on CRM's but what do think about Bigin CRM? I've been using it for a while now and think it's the best CRM tool out there for businesses with under 50 employees...
That's awesome to hear! So curious what solution you've ultimately gone with for posting on social media and if the video related much with any of your pain-points?
And regarding CRM videos, you got it! We have a full video on that here: efficient.yt/crm and even have a full "Best CRM" page on our site here: efficient.link/crm (we have a lot of opinions about a lot of software 😉), maybe shoot over a comment on the video there and we can talk more about Bigin 🙌 have had a couple others ask about Bigin in the comment section of that video 👀
Nicely done, thank you for making this!
Awe, of course! What social media management tool did you end up moving forward with? (If any)?
Thank you for this video. Great content.
I am the responsible for the tool we use in a project management association in Switzerland. We use buffer for free but I am not conviced. Actually as I prepare designed pictures on Canva, I use now Canva to schedule the posts to LinkedIn , X (I could do more but no time). The calendar of publication from Canva is good, the only down side of the Canva platform is the editor for the text is really poor at the moment.
Thank you again for your high quality reviews.
Appreciate the kind words! If you're using LinkedIn and X most (e.g. those are your two main channels), then efficient.link/r/typefully would be a great and enjoyable option (it's what Andra and I use exclusively now for X & LinkedIn). That said, you can't expand past those two channels with it for now.
Completely hear you on Canva lacking a good text editor. Hope you find something that works best for you based on the channels that are most important for you-glad we could be involved in some way in the journey 🙏
Hope to see you around in other videos!
thanks for your comprehensive evaluation of all these tools!
Of course! So glad we could help! Did you go with any of the social media schedulers mentioned? Or are you just doing what we do and going at it manually?
Hi, thank you so much for all the info! I have been looking for a tool to use as a Freelancer and this was super helpful.
Awe, so happy to hear! What social media scheduler did you end up landing on in the end out of curiosity?
This is a great video and fully answered my questions. Been looking to switch off of Hootsuite and this confirmed my thought process. You earned my sub for making great content.
Ayyyyyy, let's gooo! Curious what platform you primarily used it for? And what are you moving to if anything else? Always fun to learn what people are using and for what needs 👀
What an amazing video! Thank you so much!
I have been tasked in managing the social media for a small and growing non profit, but I feel I lack the experience.
But with such sincere and honest videos as yours, I feel that I can do it. Thank you!
Awe! We're so happy to hear this! You got this! We've seen all types of people at every business under the sun learn how to use every type of software-totally understand how intimidating it likely is at first! But once you dive in and use it more, you'll start building familiarity and it'll start clicking!
Do you know which social media platforms you're going to be focusing on? And what social media management tool you're going to give a shot?
What about the platform Later?
Mentioned this to a few others here, but we evaluated Later, just didn't mention it because it didn't even make it to the 2nd stage of evaluation. It felt like the same thing as others without any standout functionality. We did personally use it for a few days and didn't feel it deserved being spoken about.
Our goal is not to mention every app that exists in a category, just the ones that stand out for one reason or another, and Later didn't for us.
@ wow ok, thanks for responding 🔥
Yep! You got it, FWIW, we were quite optimistic about it (before we signed up 😅), so we totally understand the appeal!
@@efficientapp Yeah chatgpt told me other big companies used Later lol like GoPro, Walgreens, and Crayola, they almost had me sold
Do you really aspire to have the marketing strategy of, and want to be more like Walgreens and Crayola though? 😅 Maybe even a red flag out of the gate 😏😁
thank you so much for sharing this research. It saves me valuable hours and it makes so much sense. Also the comments make me want to watch more of your videos. I was looking for the exact thing you were looking for and my content is bilingual so two channels per social media... wow thanks!
Awe, we're SO happy hearing this! Just made our night 🙏 and how sweet, well hey, now your comment adds to those comments! We appreciate you posting, and we hope to see you in the comments section of other videos!
Bilingual content definitely adds to the complexity though for sure! We haven't yet gone down that path 🙊 one day!
What'd you end up landing on at the end of this? Using any of the social media management tools we mentioned in the video?
Looooove how positive you are and unbiased. Very good overview. My struggle is resizing videos for the different platforms for client. I then have to shave each size as a different file to their Google Drive for security, per their request, so it’s a struggle sharing before you sharing 😂
If any app developers watching she giving great insight what we want 😂
Ahhh yessss, all the sizing 😅 that's a whole other beast! But hey, we're all going through it, so it's a level playing field at least-but hey, if anyone reads this and wants to develop something that checks all the boxes, go for it! 😂 That said, we do think there's probably API limitations that are resulting in some of this not working exactly how we'd like it to. It's a tough space!
I'm now interested in how to use Typefully and Notion for handling larger campaigns, workshopping ideas, and also managing and analyzing the content and content calendar, without creating extra friction.
I can definitely see how Notion and Typefully would be super helpful for that! I'd be curious though how much you could do just inside of Typefully though-what would you be using Notion for? The scheduled content calendar can be right within Typefully: efficient.link/r/typefully
I love this!
Awe, thanks! So glad to hear 🙌 so what did you end up going with for the channels you're posting to?
Appreciate the information! I'm gonna go ahead and move forward with Buffer and the strat with TikTok I will do with other platforms! Keep creating!
Sounds like a good plan my friend! And will do 🙏 super curious, what platforms are most important for you specifically?
Thanks for the awesome and honest video! Perfect content, great delivery, and just the right length. Appreciate it!👌
So happy to hear you feel that way! We weren't even planning on making a video on this in the first place, so feeling quite glad that we ended up doing it! 🙏
Super curious what social media management tool you ended up going with if any?
This video saved me so much pain. Thank you for taking all this time and sharing your experience. Unfortunately, it looks like I’m manually posting still.
Haha so happy to hear we could help! So sorry/sad that the outcome is the most manual and painstaking process 😅
We just felt like all the videos on this subject were oversimplifying the actual pain-point and solution. Not saying they were recommending Metricool solely because they are the only ones with an affiliate link, buuuuuut 🤷♂️
Catch ya in the manually posting path, our new friend!
@@efficientapp I just get up early and make the posting part of my morning coffee routine. There are no shortcuts…yet! Thank you again.
Hahaha we know that routine all too well. Tell me you don't somehow get sucked into the social media of choice's algorithm, consuming content, 5 minutes later realizing you were trying to post, not consume, amiright? 😏🤭
Thanks for this PROPER research
Of course! Why just keep all of this good information we learned to ourselves? 🙈
I hardly comment but thank you sooo much for breaking this down. I love how you went into details and gave an honest review❤ I loveee it!
Awe, means a LOT that you left a comment especially then! So glad to hear this video helped 🙏 so what did you end up going with (if any) and for what use-case?
@@efficientapp I went with Buffer! It might be limited with it's free plan but it's certainly what I need.
Sounds like a good move! Glad we could help in the decision! 🚀
My name is Alexandra, and I'm watchinf Alex & Andra 😂.
This is really one video I'm looking for sometime. Thank you so much, you really helps saving my research time. ❤❤❤
Hahaha okay, so you were destined to find our channel. What's more is it sounds like you had the answer inside of you the entire time, you just needed to split your name in half and then the answers would have become more clear 😏
So glad we could help and thanks for your comment! Hope to see you around more AlexAndra!
very well edited!
Awe thanks so much! Did you end up going with any of the social media scheduling tools mentioned? Or just checking out the video for fun?
I HIGHLY APPRECIATE this. Thank you for taking the time, you saved me a lot of time and I guess headaches with this tools I was just going to venture
Stellar! So stoked to hear this 🙌 this was definitely a video we wish existed when we were researching the social media scheduling space for ourselves, so we're super happy to hear it's saving others time, appreciate the comment!
Dying to know what you ended up going with at the end of the day??
@efficientapp this has been probably one of the most valuable videos I've seen in years, straight to the point, the good, the bad and the ugly, no non-sense or wasted time here just how we need it in an era where people are so bombarded with an infinite amount of information and who can deliver the most value in the least amount of time is becomes the winner. I love everything is very straightforward, and soo, soo glad her English is very easy to understand, I'm not sure if I can watch another video with heavy accents I need to pause and rewind 😂
This means a lot 🥹 hope to see you in the comment section of other videos we release! Could use more good energy here!
Woah! Great review and breakdown. I'm supper impressed. Thanks!
Awe thanks, that means a lot! Wait, super curious, what did you end up going with as your solution?
Thank you guys for being genuine and actually helping us. This will help my business workflow time to hire VAs thanks
Aweee, of course! We're so glad we could help! Which social media management software did you end up going with in the end?
Thank you for the honest review of these social management tools.
Of course! Curious what you ended up going with and for what needs do you have?
Wow thus channel is just amazing, I first saw your CRM comparison video, and now I'm here, and i don't think i would ever leave here 😂, you're just great especislly the video production quality is phenomenal 👌♥️
Your comment is sooooo sweet! Thank you so much, shared your nice words with the entire team. So glad you're getting value from the software reviews. We have some pretty exciting videos coming out later this month too (currently being edited now). Curious, did you end up picking a CRM or social media app? Happy to help with any questions!
Fantastic deep dive. 12:55 really enjoyed the high level plan
So glad to hear this! Wanted to give insight into the realistic picture of how we’re scheduling content as creators. What platforms do you post on the most/will you use any tool to schedule or keep posting manually?
This was very valuable, and REAL. Thanks!
Awe! This means so much to hear, for a video we weren't even planning on making, so glad we did and that it's helping people! What social media management software did you end up going with, if any? And for what platforms?
This video is so amazing and straight forward. I was having a hard time on which app to use but now I'll go for BUFFER. thanks so much. Please make a video on a guide to measuring your performance on Buffer
Ayyy, that was the goal! So glad to hear it connected-we were SO frustrated with the entire process, that we're glad we could share our experience here. Buffer sounds like a great choice! Curious how you get on with it-that said, we probably won't do another video for a while on social media management, as the outcome from the video was, well, that we aren't really using any at the end of the day for our uploads 😂 but sounds like you found what works best for your setup! Glad we could help!
Thank you for this! I need some serious help on the social media front 😂
Thank you for your awesome work Alex & Andra!
Gosh, it's such a tough nut to crack-glad to hear this could help! Also, good to see you again our friend!
What platforms are you trying to focus your efforts on most? 👀
@@efficientapp Instagram, twitter & starting tik tok from zero!
Hoping to be fully integrated by the end of 2024!
If you guys did a video on live streaming to tik tok… that’s my next step in bringing sports to the 🌎
Got it! So are you leaning on Buffer then based on the video recommendation for those channels? efficient.link/r/buffer
The truth of the matter is we're not likely to do a video on that as TikTok doesn't fit for our audience at all and there's also a chance it's shut down by the end of this year. We've just found that TH-cam for long-form (especially live streaming) is a better solution than TikTok. It's also incredibly difficult to monetize on TikTok.
Sounds like you have a solid plan though! Excited for you!
@@efficientapp it was a tough choice between hootsuite and buffer but yes!
I definitely understand, love your content and recommendations! We keep rising! 📈📈
So helpful! Thanks for this detailed review.
Glad you enjoyed it Ro! ✨
Was literally about to run the process lol.. thank you, you saved me
Haha yesss, this is EXACTLY what we want to hear! So what did you end up landing on and what social media channels are you focusing efforts on?
I learned what I was looking for and came across this yellow keyboard kinda gadget attached with your iPhone at 11:35 What is this gadget called? Just curious.
Haha that's great to hear! What did you end up learning and moving forward with? Regarding the yellow gadget, it's Clicks: efficient.link/a/clicks
Great detailed video that is fun, easy to follow, and super informative. Great job. Much appreciated.
Awe, this means a lot! Thanks for the kind words 🙏 okay, I've gotta know, what did you end up going with and for what channels are most important to you? 🤔
What kind of cell phone cover do you have with a keyboard? Love that!
Awe, thanks! It's efficient.link/a/clicks
It only works on iPhones at the moment right now though!
Thanks-yeah I was thinking about branching out to other platforms and trying to be smart about it. I guess for now I’m just gonna do it manually and then go from there. OK thanks for the video. Take care. Good luck you guys.🌟⭐️⭐️🦄
Sounds like a good plan! That's our plan as well 🙈 so we're in it together! Glad we could offer some support, and thanks so much! You as well Claudia!
Thank you, Andra. Your information is objective and helpful.
Awe, so glad to hear! We've tried to share things our thoughts in an opinionated but objective way, so glad to hear it has gotten across! Curious if you went with any of the social media scheduler tools mentioned in the video, and what platforms are most important to you?
This is helpful, thanks. xx 🌻
Glad to hear! Which social media management tool did you end up going with, if any?
@@efficientapp Currently none and looking... used to be Hootsuite, but it is overpriced for my needs of simply pre-scheduling posts across platforms (and, on top of that, it's not 100% functional/problematic - as you confirmed.)... I don'y know, maybe will try Buffer??
Makes sense to us! A similar boat for us for sure. Buffer is a good one to try and priced reasonably. Depends on what platforms are most important to you though, what platforms do you post most often on?
Super helpful video! Thanks guys. :)
Awe, of course! Soooo curious, what social media scheduling tool did you end up going with? Or did you even go with one at all? Haha 🙈
@efficientapp I'm going to give Buffer a go as we mainly use Instagram, FB and twitter. First time getting involved with scheduling so i want something that's as simple as possible. :)
Sounds like a great plan! Curious to see how it goes for you-if you're looking for simplicity especially, I think you made a great choice!
Great and helpful detailed analysis, thank you!
Awe, so glad to hear! What did you end up moving forward with in the end?
@@efficientapp thank you for asking! I used to have Buffer a few years ago, and I almost signed up again but decided to hold on a while longer.
Dying to know, now 3 months later! Still holding on? 😁
Can you say something about the engagement rate if you post it in the app or through some 3rd party tool? Any differences? Thank you so much for your content!
Virtually impossible to truly know/test this since it's more reliant on these various platforms throwing it into their algorithm and showing it to people or now. Personally, we haven't noticed a difference between the two (and yes, we thought the same thing), but at the end of the day, these platforms just want you posting, so penalizing you for doing what they want because you aren't doing it directly from the app would be silly on them to penalize for. But yeah, impossible for us to know for sure. I'd like to think it's fine though haha
@@efficientappthank you so much! What about if you put the songs on the reel while editing them and posting them through these 3rd Parties? Since music is only available in the Apps but some reels just need Music. Any experiences there if that has an impact? That’s the only thing keeping me away from using a planner tool
Oh yeah, good point. So the risk here is that some songs are authorized on one app but not another. For example, the licensing agreements that TH-cam has vs TikTok vs Instagram are all different, and you have a chance of your video getting muted or disabling monetization if so. That would be the main risk associated I would think. But if you own the rights to the music then you're probably fine to do it that way! Not totally sure for certain, but that's all I can add 👌
Hello, in the end, what programming app are you using for TH-cam and TikTok?
I use Buffer for Pinterest, IG and Facebook.
But I'm looking for an app for TH-cam and Tiktok
It comes down to how important is TH-cam and TikTok for you? For us, TH-cam is our #1 most important channel, so we actually do it manually, we don't use any program to help with posting.
TikTok we were also posting directly as we felt it was a bit funky when we used a platform, with the text spacing and miscellaneous things. Those are the two channels we haven't cracked the code for posting to though. Genuinely just worried about giving any social posting app access to our TH-cam FWIW.
Thanks for the honest review. answered alot of questions i had
Awesome to hear! Which social media scheduler did you end up going with, if any? Or are you like us? 😁
I’ve heard metricool have great comprehensive metrics. What about buffer?
Buffer is one of the OG's in the space, they've done a good job with the metrics that we'd want to see. Do you mean aggregated metrics like combined across all channels? Or just more deep metrics about each individual platform?
Wow, this is literally the longest time I've spent listening to a girl, and I’m so glad I did! You’re a total mastermind when it comes to social media - your analysis is next-level. Seriously, where have you been all my life? 😄
If you have time, I have a quick question for you!
I’ve got a Facebook page with 40k followers in the fitness niche (I was just posting things form tiktok at this page LOL), but after being inactive for a long time, my reach has tanked. If you were in my position, what would you do to revive the page and increase engagement?
I’m thinking of creating a brand with themed posts to make it look more professional, but this is just an idea, and I’d really appreciate your genuine feedback.
We're glad you enjoyed the video 🙌 We don't really give give social advice/strategy here (we review software), but as they say "just focus on making good content"!
Any feedback on social champ? We just need the free version to start and while considering buffer, we found social champ which seems better on paper, but unsure of it's actual capability
We don't have any experience with Social Champ, it's just Buffer has been around way longer, and one of the core things we've mentioned in the video is that it's all about API access for the various platforms. So Buffer not only has the most experience with the various platform API's, but they also are large enough such that they might have unique API access or workarounds for various platforms.
Buffer is a bootstrapped company that has grown to $20M/yr in revenue (bootstrapped companies are often more customer-driven than venture-scale companies, e.g. they aren't just focused on growing at all costs). So with all of that said, we would just feel more comfortable on paper using Buffer: efficient.link/r/buffer over Social Champ. But the choice is yours!
i would like for to see more tags and posting every 2 weeks more with all of them now I have to hire someone to do this service thanks for the update great work and notes .
🙌 🙌 🙌
Amazing this was super informative, I have been using Metricool for a year or so but after watching this I think I might give Buffer a go and compare which works better for me.
So glad it was helpful! Are you running into any specific limitations with Metricool? Or are you just curious to explore other options out there? Thanks for being here!
Deep , educative and unbiased review, thank you
Awe, we're so glad to hear! Curious what you ended up going with in the end for scheduling posts on social?
You saved me time for exploring it on exploring that on my own, thank you! btw, who is editing your videos, really like the nifty animations that you have :)
Ah, so stoked to hear! We actually have a couple different editors and animation people!
This video and animations was actually edited by Owen from Motion Mavericks though!
Thanks for the amazing information
Awe, so glad to hear! What social media management software did you end up going with (if any)?
I just do not want to edit individual posts, is there a platform that enables you to bulk apply filters for posting?
Oh wow, that's a tough one... If you can't do it within the app itself, it's unlikely you can do it with one of these tools. I don't think these social media platforms want people doing bulk updates and bulk posting like that either as it makes things feel more "bot" in a sense.
Wow thank you that was super helpful ! I looked for a social media planner for my soon to open shop and this was a bit overwhelming, the informations weer clear and i think i will first try buffer since i mainly wanna use instagram and twitter ! It also seem the cheapest out of those i looked at so nice
Ah, so glad to hear! And sounds like a great strategy given that Instagram and X are your most important ones! You got it nailed down, starting first with the most important channels then deciding based on that, well done! Glad we could help 🙌
Thanks so much for the information! Help me to stop searching around and loose time.
Awesome to hear we have helped! Wondering what you ended up landing on for your own strategy?
@@efficientapp I'm going to use Notion to plan my posting through different social medias and use the native program for each platform to plan the postings.
That sounds like a good plan, makes total sense! 🔥 Maybe one day you can give Motion a shot as it'll actually pull the posting tasks right onto your calendar 😉 that's actually what we do along with planning out content with Flows: efficient.yt/motion
Thanks for the research.
Of course! Thanks for your comment and support 🙏 what did you end up going with, if any?
11:38 what is that Keyboard? 😮😮😮😮
efficient.link/a/clicks
You said you used to do it manually but my question is - with TikTok for example- you can get banned if you manage multiple customers accounts in there no?
Not familiar with TikTok policy or managing many people's social media accounts as an agency-apologies. That's probably more up to the social media scheduling software to answer than us.
I am needing to manage 8-10 SM accounts (IG and Facebook mainly) at once. Which management platform would you recommend ?
Would say Buffer, they have agency plans, and we found they worked the most consistently with IG (while the other tools had given us errors which is why we ultimately ended up using Buffer). Metricool also works for agencies, it was just more unstable than Buffer when we tried to use it.
Thank you !!! :D
Of course! Curious what social media scheduling software you ended up going with? (If any!)
What are you thinking about socialbee and sociamonials?
These didn’t make the cut when doing our initial evaluation and research, are you using them? 👀
Great Video! Thank you
So glad to hear! Super curious what you ended up going with as your solution?
Appreciate it guys
Awe, course! What'd you end up going with? 👀
Hi, first of all, this was a great video, thank-you for bringing all this down to a 17 minutes Video! So I'm someone who is currently trying to figure all this out. My Question, what do you think of it? Wouldn't it also be possible to write all the posts in a normal calendar and then schedule the post for every app, in each scheduling site the app offers?
So glad you enjoyed it! While it's definitely possible do what you're suggesting, it's introducing a lot more work than is required. I think you'd burn out pretty quickly. Instead, I'd recommend figuring out which single platform you care about most, posting directly there, and then using something like Buffer for the rest of the platforms.
Great Video ❤
Thanks so much! Curious which social media posting tool you ended up going with (if any)?
This is great content and really great to the point summary without the nonsense
Awe, this means a lot! So glad we ended up recording this one-it felt like we couldn't keep this knowledge to ourselves haha so this feels super validating thank you! So what did you end up moving forward with?
The big plus with Metrixcool is the cost. That said, TH-cam and TikTok are not important to me, however seeing your video I really do believe I should use TH-cam more.
Totally understand! The cost bit is of course important, we'd just say the cost is negligible if any of the platforms become a meaningful part of your brand/strategy. But even with that, the more critical a tool becomes for your brand (in our case, TH-cam), the more we want to use the platform natively as we worry about giving any of these tools full access to that channel for us.
So in a funny way, we leverage social media scheduling tools for our least important accounts 😁
Did you take a look at Sprout Social at all?
Sprout Social is for enterprises, have a friend that works there and their clients are huge companies like Estée Lauder. Their entire homepage copy is very much speaking to these huge companies as well, they even list a phone number as that’s who their target audience is 😂 Don’t think we use any SaaS that would ever list a phone number.
For us as a small business, it’s not a contender and really wouldn’t recommend it to any non-corporate team!
Makes sense. This might sound crazy but I actually was thinking of Vista Social in my head. 😂 I probably got mixed up because Sprout always ranks first on Google for this topic. I would love to know your thoughts on Vista Social.
Hah yeah, Sprout has a lot of money to invest in organic and paid spend.
Regarding Vista Social, we actually aren't familiar with it and it didn't come up in our search for the best social media scheduler tool, though thinking our our would be similar to others in the video.
None of these tools are "great" due to API limitations, full data delete permissions, and other reasons mentioned in the video.
We're probably not going to go too far down this category as we found what works best for us, and it's really just finding one of these tools that checks the boxes for the platforms you don't care about, and then posting natively for the ones you do care about.
Since we're not a social media marketing agency, we're not trying to manage dozens of accounts for other companies, so our needs may vary a bit from yours depending.
Never intended to make this video, just realized that we ended up going to the depths and doing a ton of research and testing, so figured might as well help out others who were in a similar situation to us. It was pretty grueling work testing out all these tools and feeling pretty good to not do more testing for now that we landed on something pretty great, if that makes sense 😆
Yea, that makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and keep making great videos!
I want to switch to Social Media Management, what are the things I need to know and work on?
- Psychology (What content creates with people and why?)
- Actual Content Creation (Basic filming/editing is table stakes these days)
- Persistence & Patience (Keep posting & trying new things til you find your audience)
Whether you are managing your own account or others accounts, all of the above will pay off 🙌 What is the first thing you'll do?
Very helpful. Thank you !
Our pleasure! 🙏 Will you try any of the tools?
@@efficientapp Probably typefully ! To be honest love your perspective.
@bagchisoahum Typefully is fantastic! Alex and I now use it almost daily. So glad you found it all helpful ☺️ Be sure to use this link so their team knows we sent you! efficient.link/r/typefully
Thsnk you for sharing this.. really saved a lot of time
Stoked to hear! Wish we could have watched it before starting the journey as well hahaha glad our grueling journey could help others though, makes it all worthwhile!
This is fantastic! Has anyone used Adobe Express?
Thanks! 🙏 And what for? Just got the creative cloud suite for like Premier and Photoshop and everything for editing?
Great video Thank you alot!
This means a lot! What did you end up moving forward with and for what use-case? Always fun learning what others have decided!
Thanks you saved me a lot of time (my criteria was the same as yours)
Haha love it! So what did you end up landing on? Doing things primarily manually? We're actively just using efficient.link/r/typefully currently, manually uploading the rest 🙈
Do you have a review of Skedsocial as a management tool?
We do not, it didn't pass our initial sniff test for wanting to evaluate it further for our own use!
Very useful!
Awe, so happy to hear! Curious which social media scheduler you ended up going with in the end? (If any), and what social channels are most important to you?
P.S. LOVE your mission, and love Simon Sinek! Thank you for sharing kindness with the world my friend 🙏
This was BY FAR the best review and I'm so grateful for you taking the time and being so honest ❤
Awe! We're so happy to hear, this means a lot! 🥹
What social media management software did you end up going with in the end? Curious what platforms are most important to you as well? 👀
Thank you for this very real message
Haha course! It was super eye-opening to us that we felt we needed to share it! Curious what you ended up going with and what social media platforms are most important to you?
Maybe I missed it, but did you evaluate Loomly?
It didn't quite pass the initial evaluation when looking at the "best" social media scheduling apps we wanted to actually try to implement in our business.
I have some doubts on this management tools. are there anyway to talk it with you before selecting a tool😀
Can talk through the comments! Which social media is the most important for you?
Wow, I actually had to start the video over because I was so distracted by how beautiful your eyes are with the mascara..... no cap
Hahaha I also had an at-home lash lift, so it was an ultimate combo 💁♀️🤭
What are your thoughts about Planoly?
I've used it in the past, I think their marketing is better than the actual tool itself. I found it quite kludgy to use. Buffer is way better, in fact, I would even say Metricool is better than Planoly. Hope this helps!
What do you think of Meta Business Suite to schedule for FB and Insta?
Yeah, I think it's a good option! If Meta platforms are the ones you care about most, then that's the way to go! Meta will always favor you using their own features vs. a third party app.
One thing about these social media tools i hate is that there are a few features that only work with the respective native social media app. For instance, i am not able to repost post on story or accessing the trending music.
Yep, exactly. There will always be major major major trade-offs simply due to API limitations. It's not really a winnable category for that reason-all social media management tools will be able to be is a supplementary posting option for these sites.
@@efficientapp Yes, which makes me even think why do they charge so much. This truly feels like a scam when you can't maximize the potential of the social media apps. I agree that scheduling makes the work easy, but at what cost when you can't have basic features in hand.
It's definitely a tough one. I do feel like some of the platforms are doing their best, even with the API limitations. Like efficient.link/r/typefully feels like they are trying be the best platform for posting on X/LinkedIn first and foremost, so I appreciate the focus, versus them just going broad. So maybe that's more the solution in my eyes, pick the platform that focuses on the 1 or 2 platforms that are most important to you, because they will try their best to be ontop of all API functionality and potentially even workarounds.
I tried buffer and I hated their UI SO I switched to Typefully and been using it for over a year now and it's just been the because of their beautiful UI
That’s fair! Typefully is definitely best for X/LinkedIn so if that’s what you’re focusing most on, it makes total sense!
If you have a ton of short-form video that you’re trying to post across channels like Instagram and TikTok and want to do it all in one fell swoop, Buffer is your best bet.
Wish Typefully and Buffer had a baby though haha maybe one day Typefully will expand further, but also kinda like their focus on X and LinkedIn versus getting too sidetracked.
@@efficientapp If I’m only posting on Twitter, why should I use Typefully instead of posting directly through Twitter?
You can't do proper scheduling on X, and the most frustrating part is how many write-ups I've lost writing directly in X. They don't auto-save and it's buggy often. Typefully also has a bunch of other power features that X doesn't have natively like comment reply when X amount of engagement has happened on the post, etc.
There's a myriad of reasons to consider, their site covers more details: efficient.link/r/typefully
what do you guys think about Later?
We considered Later but nothing about it stood out and it wasn't something we ultimately decided to truly consider after our initial tests. This video consists only of the finalists we considered, so Later didn't make it to the video for a reason, if that makes sense?
@@efficientapp yes makes perfect sense! one more question as I am getting into pulling the trigger on one of these websites, have you found one that does not downsize video or one that does it the least compared to the other ones? I started looking into it and it seems like most if not all of these services downsize video heavily to the point where it would be worth it to just post it myself and make a post calendar on excel haha. Also thanks so much for your in depth response 😃
Hmm, we actually didn't experience that with Buffer (which we had been using), but in general other platforms have been decent as well. Funny enough TikTok scheduled at the time downscaled it. But we were uploading 4K shorts on most of these platforms and it worked (I even think 4K gets naturally downscaled to 1080p natively on platforms like X and such anyway).
Wow this review is such a gem!! Thanks so much Andra! (and Alex)
Awe, this means a lot! And thanks for the call-out 😆👋 what did you end moving forward with if anything? And what platforms are most important to you? Super curious!
Gives me a headache trying to figure out which one to use...
Us too 😅 what social media platforms are most critical for you? Top 2?
@@efficientapp Instagram and TH-cam are my two main ones.
Yeah, wouldn’t use any platform for TH-cam, so if it’s just Instagram left, you are better off posting to Instagram directly. I think I just saw they now allow you to schedule the posts natively within the app. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest solution!
what about LATER?
We weren't impressed-it was one that we evaluated alongside the ones mentioned in the video, but didn't stand out enough to actually even make its way to the video, if that makes sense?
Subscribed
Awe, thanks! Won't let you down! Have some videos coming that we're super excited about. Welcome to the efficient family!
What about Zoho Socials?
oh gosh, stay away from Zoho! There's a reason why we don't even cover them on our site or in any of our software reviews. Zoho is trying to be everything - social media, a CRM, project management, HR solution... Zoho offers a horrible user experience!
How about Later?
We tried it for a bit and it felt somewhat kludgy, so we didn't stick with it. Don't 100% remember what the reason for getting rid of it was at the time (this video was shot 6 months ago), but we definitely tried it and decided to not even include it in the video. Just didn't work well for us.
Good content
Awe, thanks! Did you end up going with any of the social media management tools mentioned in the video?