I’ll cut to the chase. There IS a solution out there that’s entirely free that will allow you to post to social media and manage streams within it. Will it post to all platforms? No, but it will post to these big ones:
- YouTube
The software is called Odoo. It’s an Open Source ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software, but it uses “Apps” to scale it to do pretty much anything you need. This is not an affiliate link - I share this because I love you.
What’s the Catch?
If you only utilize one app (in this case, Social Marketing), it’s free forever - no catch. However, if you start adding other apps or enabling other features, you’ll be put on a “trial” for those features that you can’t roll back. The trick is to not to add more apps or features - and that’s pretty simple to avoid.
What Features Does Odoo Social Marketing have?
It has feature that you’ll see in most marketing softwares, such as:
- Unlimited social media accounts
- Feeds for any account and many purposes, such as osage posts and page mentions.
- Post scheduling as far into the future as you can possibly imagine.
- Content importing if you prefer to do your planning on a spreadsheet first
- The ability to comment directly on posts and interact with your followers
- Campaign management
What if I Want to Install Other Features?
You absolutely can, just make sure you’re aware of the pricing. That said, you can install ALL of the apps and only pay $25/month if you keep it to one admin user. That’s about the same price as one of the big social media management platforms all by themselves.
Because Odoo is an ERP software, you can truly do anything on it. They do a great job of explaining it so I won’t reinvent the wheel! Here’s a link to all of the Odoo apps.
Back to the Social Marketing part!
How do I Use the Odoo Social Marketing app?
First, you’ll need to create a database
- Go to this link: Try Odoo for Free
- Find and select “Social Marketing” and NOTHING ELSE (I mean it!)
- On the right, click “CONTINUE”
- Fill out the form. Keep in mind that your phone number isn’t optional. They will call you and email you. When they do, just let them know you’re only planning on using one app but will contact them if you change your mind in the future.
- Verify your email using the instructions on the screen
- Launch your database!
Once you’re set up, you’ll log in to the Odoo dashboard and click the “Social Marketing” app. Then start adding your accounts!
- Click Configuration > Social Media
- Click "LINK ACCOUNT" just under the platform you’ll be adding first.
- Follow the steps to add your account and repeat it for every other account you wish to add.
Odoo offers free courses on how to use the app. You’ll find them here: https://www.odoo.com/slides/marketing-27
So, that’s it. An entirely free social marketing platform. I use it, sometimes it disconnects but easily fixed with a click. Overall it works great. Let me know if you have questions!