Time Saving Social Media Management Apps
Have you ever sat on your phone, guilt-ridden as you realize how little you’ve been posting and interacting on Instagram but uninspired and with nothing to post? Have you ever received the “Your fans haven’t heard from you in awhile” notification on Facebook and facepalmed, realizing you’ve forgotten to update yet another form of social media? Do you struggle with what to say and how to say it?
You need a social media strategy.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in building a social media presence? Have you ever wondered how the successful social media marketers can always be so inspired and so beautiful at so many times during the week?
You need an app for that.
Over the years of learning social media, I have learned (the hard way!) that my social media success requires strategy alongside specific goals and that I can best avoid social media burn-out by consistently utilizing planning apps.
Having these social media apps firmly in my toolkit have allowed me to implement my social media strategy with efficiency and success.
- What it is: RecurPost allows you to create a repository of cornerstone content that will publish on Facebook and Twitter on a schedule you define.
- Who should use it: anyone with a breadth of content that is both timeless and timely.
- Why I like it: RecurPost allows me to maintain a steady stream of updates and information on Facebook without manually posting or manually scheduling.
- Where to find it: RecurPost.com
- How to work it: My initial setup wasn’t as seamlessly easy as I would have hoped for, but because of the learning curve it’s a solid five-out-of-ten on a scale of intuitive-ity. I find RecurPost very intuitive once you know what you’re doing, but not very intuitive to start. After you’ve connected your social platforms, you’ll create a library of content and then a coordinating schedule. Recurpost will pull a piece from the assigned Library at the set interval on the Calendar. You will have multiple libraries and you will have multiple schedule entries.
- What it is: a visual scheduler for Instagram — plan your photos, content, and hashtags on the computer and then receive a push notification on your phone when it’s time to copy from the app and publish.
- Who should use it: anyone using Instagram for more than spontaneous selfies. If you have a business that relies on social media for marketing, create an Instagram plan from your social media strategy and then use a scheduling app like Later.
- Why I like it: I sit down for a couple of hours each month to write my Instagram posts (on a bigger keyboard than my phone, hallelujah!), schedule the photos, and build the hashtags. When it’s time to post on Instagram, I paste the content I already wrote into Instagram and maually publish. It’s revolutionized my ability to be consistently present on Instagram without needing daily inspiration.
- Where to find it: Later.com
- How to work it: Upload photos to your account, drag to the date and time you want to see it published, write your caption, add some hashtags, done. Load the app to your phone and wait to be notified!
Instagram scheduling apps abound! See also https://unum.la/ and http://planoly.com if Later isn’t quite right for you.
- What it is: I have primarily used Hootsuite for curating and scheduling Twitter content, but the platform allows for so much more — analytics, team management, training.
- Who should use it: If you’re on social media and if you want to create content in batches for publication later, Hootsuite is for you. The free version is remarkable, and the paid versions just add more excellence into the mix.
- Why I like it: I have created “streams” on my Dashboard to be able to quickly and easily follow hashtags and help in my Twitter content curation.
- Where to find it: hootsuite.com
- How to work it: It’s one of the more intuitive apps out there, in my opinion. After connecting a social media platform, download the app or the browser extension for quick composition of posts during Internet browsing.
- What it is: Despite its bulky name, IFTTT is a tool that I have used for an uncountable number of uses. IFTTT lets your apps talk to one another. Need to schedule Facebook content via Google Calendar? It lets you. Want to push a certain hashtag into a specific Facebook album? It lets you. Want to save new photos you’re tagged in on Facebook into Google Photos? It lets you.
- Who should use it: If you’re tired of your apps not communicating, this platform will thrill your soul. If you’re focusing on one social media platform and want to post that content natively onto another platform, this allows it. Basically, for streamlined living, this is it.
- Why I like it: Many IFTTT are already created for me, but I also love that I can create my own recipe and personalize the platform even more.
- Where to find it: ifttt.com
- How to work it: It’s a remarkable intuitive platform, just requires a little logical thinking to formulaically communicate to the computer what you want it to do.
- What it is: A planner and content curator for Pinterest (with new features for Instagram scheduling now available, too.)
- Who should use it: If you want to drive traffic from Pinterest to your site, a Pinterest content scheduler like this one will allow you to create content in batches and schedule to post at peak traffic times.
- Why I like it: It’s an app that is easy to use and a powerful tool. The free trial is perfect for testing not only the platform but also your social media strategy.
- Where to find it: tailwindapp.com
- How to work it: Not only did I find tailwind intuitive, but their email training is exceptionally thorough!
I have also tested Boardbooster.com for Pinterest scheduling. Each has its benefits, but Tailwind is my personal preference.
- What it is: A photo editing phone app, VSCO allows for editing photos for social media with a bit more flourish than your native camera app.
- Who should use it: If you’re taking photos for social media on your phone, you should be using VSCOCam to process.
- Why I like it: I love the control VSCOCam gives me over my phone photos. As a photographer, most of my editing is done via Lightroom but when I want to share photos taken on my phone, they always go through VSCO.
- Where to find it: vsco.co, Google Play, the App Store
- How to work it: Open a photo. Edit photo. Upload to social media.
- What it is: Quuu is a curated-content service, serving the best articles from around the web to your social media platforms.
- Who should use it: Anyone trying to build a platform by sharing helpful tools and tips, which includes curated content.
- Why I like it: I spend a lot of time searching for sharable content. After a few days of seeing what Quuu served up for me…I can see they’re finding the same if not better content than I can in a fraction of the time. It’s creepy-cool.
- Where to find it: https://app.quuu.co/
- How to work it: Connect the social media platforms you want to push curated content to, choose your categories, and select your posting frequency. The free account allows up to two posts per day. Once everything’s connected you’re done, Quuu does the rest.
Hashtagger
- What it is: A phone app that provides hashtag suggestions based on any search hashtag, and (for the geeks among us) showcases relevance in percentages.
- Who should use it: Twitter or Instagram users who want to include powerful hashtags.
- Why I like it: If I search the “big idea” hashtag (#wedding), the app gives me related hashtags that will help me expand my reach.
- Where to find it: Hashtagger on Google Play and Apple Store
- How to work it: enter a hashtag, watch it work.
As with anything in life, social media success is both what you know, who you know, and how you use the tools. Which social media management app is your favourite?
If your social media game changes because of one of these apps, I’d love to know!