After years of working in Social Media Marketing, we’ve tested plenty of tools to help us to be more productive and organized. So that you don’t have to, we’ve compiled a list of the best tools and apps that we use on a regular basis.

Facebook

• Facebook Pages Manager
  • The Facebook Pages Manager app allows you to manage your Facebook business pages within a separate app, rather than managing them through your personal Facebook app
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• Messenger
  • This is the newest way to communicate directly through Facebook. To be able to send or receive messages from anyone on Facebook mobile, you’ll need to have this app on your phone. Bonus: Its setup is similar to text messaging.

Twitter

• Bit.ly
  •  Bit.ly is a website and mobile app that shortens links as well as tracks analytics information of the amount of clicks on each link.

• Canva
  •  Along with being a great photo editor and graphic design tool, Canva also can resize images to the exact dimension of any social media post. Canva for Work (a paid version) also offers a “Magic Resize” option that will resize your images to the different dimensions you may need.

• Giphy
  • This website works as the ultimate database for GIFs! If you want to share a GIF on Twitter or other social networks, you can look them up on Giphy by emotion or keyword and select which one best represents your content.

Instagram

• Repost
  • This is an easy way to repost photos from other Instagram accounts while still giving them credit. The Repost app will directly upload the photo to your Instagram account and then allow you to copy and paste the original caption and photos that you are reposting. We use this quite often to repost photos from fans of our clients’  businesses!

• Layout
  • This app automatically works with your Instagram app to make cool layouts with your photos. Once downloaded, you’ll see the icon at the bottom right of your Instagram app and it will allow you to make layouts with the photos straight from your camera roll.

• Boomerang
  • This is a similar app to Layout for Instagram, but it lets you make mini videos that are uploaded straight to your Instagram account. The videos only last a couple seconds but are a fun way to show your business’ brand without using just a single photo.
  • Stop Motion
    • We use the Stop Motion app to make stop motion animation videos. It’s really easy to use and you can edit the mini video within the app, which is a really nice feature. The app allows you to take still photos and then the compile them together to make a short video.

Organization/Productivity

• Evernote
  • This is an awesome free app that works as a digital notebook to keep work notes that can be shared between team members. It converts from your desktop to your phone through the mobile app and is organized into notebooks. Each notebook is then organized into notes. (The Pro version allows for sharing with team members.)

• Hootsuite/Sproutsocial
  • Hootsuite and Sprout Social are the two scheduling tools that we use. We’ve found that these are the easiest dashboards to keep social media posts organized in one place. These dashboards also show the posts scheduled in calendar form, which is a great way to see upcoming content.

• Google Drive
  •  Do we even have to explain the epicness of Google Drive!? We use this tool for our content calendars, sharing documents and much more. It’s such an easy and effective way of sharing information among different team members as well as with clients and other partners.

• Google Calendar
  • Google Calendar is a great way to manage your online calendar by allowing you to quickly add events and invite others to those events. Google Calendar also syncs with your mobile phone so that when new events are added, you can also access them while on the go. We use Google Calendar to keep our schedule organized as well as invite clients to meetings.
  • Buffer
    • We use buffer as a scheduling tool for Pinterest because you can set distinct times you want different pieces of content posted and it will ensure that your content will be posted within that time frame.
    • Any.do
      • This tool is a digital checklist that transfers from your desktop to your phone and back that keeps track of any lists that you need to make. Whether it’s your grocery list or your to-do list before lunchtime, it’s a really cool tool that allows you to make lists. As you check off your list items, they turn from blue to gray and are moved to the bottom of the list. This app is great for those who need lots of lists to cross off!

Have any other tools or apps that you use for social media or business productivity and organization? Let us know by replying to this email or tweeting us at @socialapemktg.

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