Social media platforms are great for connecting with customers, but they can be a hassle to maintain. Scheduling tools like ViralTag, Buffer, Zoho, and Later allow you to schedule and organize your content before it gets posted to social media. Businesses use these tools to be strategic about the aesthetics and content of their feed, allowing them to plan ahead and post hands-free. Analytics are a bonus feature, too. But what about tools for posting video content to social media?

Back in the early days of social media schedulers, not all platforms were integrated and not every software allowed you to post videos (only photos). Much has changed since the 2010s, however. Customers can now choose from a variety of apps for scheduling and posting video content to social media.

This article will compare four tools for posting video content to social media. These tools allow you to pre-load video content, optimize them for maximum reach, and then publish them automatically. Many of them come with a monthly charge whereas others are free. Some allow you to research hashtags in the app. Others allow you to collaborate with other team members to arrange and strategize about content before it goes live. 

A major differentiator is whether a software allows you to publish automatically or uses a push-to-phone tool, whereby someone has to physically tap “post” in order to publish each time. Your pricing will depend on the quantity of content, the number of users, and additional features. Need another reason to add video to your strategy? Research shows that videos perform far better than photos in terms of conversion. 

Here’s an overview of popular tools for posting video content to social media. 

ViralTag

ViralTag is an app that integrates with most major social media platforms, including Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It allows users to collaborate within the app, viewing and rearranging content as a team. In the posting mechanism, users can view suggested hashtags to maximize the reach of their posts. ViralTag also connects to cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox. 

Users can plan for a week or month of content ahead of time, and view analytics to understand how well their post is performing. Most importantly, ViralTag allows users to pre-schedule video content. There is a file size limit (50 MB) but users will love that they can upload directly from Drive or Dropbox rather than having to post first to YouTube or Vimeo. The creators of ViralTag understand the native requirements for video posting on each platform and provide in-app guidelines so that users can make the most of their content.

Buffer, Hootsuite

Time for the showdown: Buffer vs. Hootsuite. There are clear differences between pricing models, user interface, and analytics in these two social media scheduling tools. But we’re going to evaluate them solely on their ability to post video content to social media. They’re pretty similar, so it might come down to personal preference.

Buffer has a great “share to all” feature, where with a single click, users can upload a single video to multiple linked social media platforms. Buffer allows users a choice of thumbnails, too. Just like with ViralTag, Buffer allows your video uploads to post natively. On Facebook, this means that your video will play automatically. When you post YouTube links on Facebook, users have to click to play your video. 

Hootsuite offers similar features, including platform-aware posting so that your videos always fit the intended platform’s sizing. Hootsuite also offers tools to help you plan out your content calendar. These include visual schedulers and team collaboration dashboards with a kanban style functionality.

Keep in mind that there is some software that allows users to post directly to Instagram, but this contradicts Instagram’s policies and it could result in you losing your account. Buffer and Hootsuite play it safe, and neither company allows instant publishing to Instagram.

Zoho Social & Sprout Social

Many companies like Zoho Social because it integrates with other Zoho apps like Zoho CRM or even HubSpot. Zoho is limited in its mobile posting capacities and doesn’t allow videos in its bulk scheduling feature. It is quite new to the game and only recently announced the video posting feature. But for companies that value integration, Zoho Social could be the right choice for ease of management.

Sprout Social has been around since 2010 and offers similar features. One interesting feature is the ability to categorize videos. This can make it easier for your team to repost by topic, or analyze the performance of video content by category.

Later

This company is very popular right now, and for good reason. It offers automatic publishing (except for Instagram) and has mobile and desktop applications. Video scheduling is only available on paid plans, but users report that it’s worth the money. It’s easy to drag and drop videos into Later’s scheduler, and users can crop and trim content inside the app. Plus, Later offers a bunch of other useful social media management features like linkin.bio and access groups for bigger companies.

Overall, studies show that there is a strong return on video content for social media publishing. Videos perform far better than photos in most cases, no matter the platform or content. As a result, it’s worth creating a strong video strategy for your company, including content creation and scheduling capabilities.

Ready to explore a video strategy for your company? Reach out to the Dream It Reel team and we’ll get you started.