Owning a small business is hard work. You have to wear all the hats, admin, HR, finance and off course marketing. So here are my top 10 favourite apps that I use to make life easier when dealing with social media marketing.
Scheduler Options
First of all make sure you have a scheduler! This is the easiest way of staying on top of what you need to pin or post on social media.
Planonly
is great for Instagram. It is simple to use and free (with a few limitations). I love the fact that there is a visual section that you can plane the layout of your images. This way you can see what it would look like and stay on brand. Simple to use and even allows for Instagram Stories to be planned.
Buffer
if you are starting out and looking for a free scheduling and basic tracking of your post go for buffer. You can set timings and days for your post and it has a great feature that allows you to customise your post for Facebook and Instagram.
Hootsuite
has a lot more analytical features but comes with a price. If you want to keep track of all your analytics then go with Hootsuite. It will all depend on your needs and budget.
Design Options
Now for the pretty stuff. Having great graphics is so important. With a world full of content that images that stand out are the images that win. So, you don’t have to be a graphic designer to make cool images.
Canva
is a great program with templates for every possible social media account you will ever use. Check out the amazing video by Emilia from MNFL-design on “How to design great graphics for social media”
P.S. a little note the app has less features and fonts so be careful when transferring between the PC version and your mobile app.
Word Swag
I create a LARGE amount of quotes. They are awesome and inspiring and look great when you brand them to fit your social media accounts. You can use their images or your own. Fabulous and fun.
InShot & Instories
two simple and fun apps that allows you to create quick and easy videos. Now that video is so popular, use simple images or photographs in either of these two apps and you have a stylish and good looking video. Inshot is great for video editing and comes with various size options perfect for all social media platforms.
Storage Options
I work from my phone a lot…I am always on the move so I need to have my computer at my fingertips. This means having images and documents easily accessible. Enter the big guns!
Google Drive
I store all my blog posts and documents on Google Drive. This way it’s always backed up and never gets lost…for as long as we have Google anyway. You can also backup your mobile phone to Google, handy when you leave it in the taxi.
Dropbox
this is an easy way to share files with clients – especially those large images or files. Easy and simple to use…need I say more?
Instagram Options
I use the last two apps for Instagram and they make hashtag searches and reposting on the spot so much easier.
Flick
is an easy and great way to find new or trending hashtags. Enter the subject, search and check the best hashtags on the net. Copy and paste them to your post and off you go.
Repost
for the times that I want to share a post on Instagram from another account Repost is my go to. Do yourself a favour and get the paid version, it won’t break the bank and get to remove the little icon on the image. Looks great and you get to share!
I hope these apps will make your social media life a little less hectic. Let me know in the comments below if you start using one of these or if you have one that I did not mention that you love.
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