August 21, 2018
Social media is an ever-evolving entity and every year brings a fresh batch of tools and apps to enhance the experience. Although many people are familiar with the major platforms, not a lot of folks understand the magnitude of apps out there to assist with social media engagement.
According to recent estimates, there are now 2.34 billion people on social media and that number is expected to grow to 2.95 billion by the year 2020. That means, not only is the medium here to stay, things may be getting a tad more complicated.
Luckily, an app is born every minute to help simplify social media. The following are just a few examples of what’s out there and what works well:
A recent study found that when people hear information, they’re likely to retain only 10% by three days letter. When you pair that with an image, that recall number jumps to 65%. Additionally, 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business, with blogging in second (27%).
There are countless studies that demonstrate the power of visuals in digital marketing. Therefore, it’s important to have a tool or two that helps you develop some killer visual content for your social media campaigns.
Canva is an intuitive design app that allows you to create graphics and edit photos for social media. It’s the type of program that is designed for anyone to use. There is no need for any graphic arts skills as the app offers hundreds of templates you can play with.
The cloud-based design tool also allows for easy sharing, issuing a link for every design you create. The best part about this tool is that you can use the basic version for free and for as long as you want. There’s never any pressure to sign up.
Social media begs for a business to always be “on” but if you are a small operation, you may not have the manpower. That’s where social media management and scheduling tools come in mighty handy. Check these out:
If you’re managing multiple Facebook business pages, chances are, you are super busy. That means you probably need to use your phone to make a lot of things happen. The Facebook Pages Manager App allows a user to juggle up to 50 separate Facebook business pages all from the convenience of a tablet or mobile device. So technically, you can keep your audience updated while lounging at the beach!
Another amazing tool for social media management is Hootsuite. As the app progresses, they continue to add other suites that include analytics and customer relationship management, but the basic tool is good enough. Hootsuite allows you to essentially “set it and forget it” with your social media content.
Rather than be present to post every day—morning, noon, and night, Hootsuite enables you to load up the system and schedule your posts to hit your social media channels when you choose. The app will automatically feed the data into each channel you assign it. That way there you are always producing a continuous flow of content to your audience. Your brand will never suffer dead space.
When it comes to content curation and creation, sometimes you need a little inspiration! There are plenty of apps out there that do everything from generating polls to posts, and hashtags galore. Here are two that may tickle your fancy:
If you are posting on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, Captiona is a great tool to help you generate compelling captions. It’s not always easy coming up with fresh stuff, especially when the most popular competitor brands post to Instagram at least 5 times a week.
The Captiona app is simple to use. You just enter any keyword that describes your image and the app helps you generate related captions with descriptive and engaging phrases. It’s a great way to get something posted quickly, but still witty enough to grab attention.
Word Swag takes it a step further than Captiona by offering pictures and posting capabilities, along with quirky text. You can choose from a set of backgrounds the app offers or upload your own pic.
Word Swag also has a large range of fonts, colors, and effects, so you can literally play with the app for hours. Once your design is finished, save it to your phone and share it to all of your social media channels.
Perhaps the most crucial of all social media apps to employ is that of editing. You could jump through all the hoops and have incredible content, but one grammatical error or poorly spliced video can ruin it all.
Thankfully, there’s an app for that! The following are the key editing apps for social media marketing. They’re broken down by types of content, but it’s important to consider one from each category for a well-rounded social media strategy.
You always want to edit your own content but sometimes it helps to have a “second set of eyes.” That’s where the Grammarly Keyboard app comes in. Once you install it, the app will automatically scan all the text you type for grammar and spelling errors. Sound too good to be true?
The latest version even scans for things like sentiment and tone. Artificial intelligence has come a long way and although you should never rely wholly on an app to ensure perfection, it’s nice to have a helpful grammar robot on your side.
In addition to assisting you with scheduling social media content, Hootsuite offers an app that allows you to edit your photos before posting. You can do everything from cropping to enhancing and sizing, all before sharing them to social media. The iOS app also allows users to add a logo or filter for more defined branding.
Spending on social media video ads grew over 129% in 2017, with no signs of slowing down. These are the apps you definitely want to consider for the highest level of engagement:
What’s cool about Apple Clips is that it’s not just an editing tool, but you can create video content as well. Users can design and share short videos complete with text, graphics, and special effects.
One feature you may not see anywhere else is what Clips calls “Live Titles.” This allows users to create animated captions by talking as you record. 85% of videos on Facebook are played without sound. Live Titles will supersede that blockade and grab people’s attention like nothing else.
Since Instagram began its feature “Stories” last year, it has gained exponential momentum. CutStory is a tool intended for that platform. It makes video editing simple and allows for easy clipping. Instagram Stories are a maximum of 15 seconds, so this tool comes in very handy if you tend to shoot longer videos.
CutStory is the type of app that allows you to film something without continually having to stop and start the camera. It enables people to easily repurpose long-form video content into small, digestible chunks that will fit nicely on the Instagram Stories platform.
To effectively market online, you have to know where your audience lies. There are billions of people on social media; spread out across hundreds of platforms. Social listening and monitoring allow you to put your ear to the digital rails to locate where people are discussing your brand.
If your company is new, you can also use it for market research on keywords related to your industry. The following is a great tool for getting started on social monitoring and segmenting your marketing efforts:
Keyhole is a social media monitoring tool that is available for both mobile and desktop. Users can enter any concept they want to research, including brand names, keywords, URLs, hashtags, etc… They can then track the performance of those terms across all social channels.
The data Keyhole provides allows marketers to make more informed decisions about where they choose to place their social media campaigns and efforts. It also helps brands stay more engaged with consumers and get real-time alerts if any issues arise.
The reason why social media apps are being created at record speed is because they are responding to the development of the platforms themselves. Social media websites are like a tide that ebbs and flows. There will always be the Big Kahunas, but there are also the tidepools that pop up and could house your greatest leads. You’re gonna’ need a net!
It’s important to consider your needs and then go from there. Download one app at a time and thoroughly understand the functions before overloading yourself with tons of tools. Once you find the right set of apps, it will become a strategic rhythm that can only lead to continued success.
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