The Best Apps for Social Media Management
Believe it or not, there’s more to social media management than simply snapping a photo of your food with your phone & posting it to one (or all) of your feeds. Managers have to consider & juggle a variety of priorities like how content looks both on its own (i.e., in terms of filters, text overlays, size, etc.) & in relation to the brand said content is supporting (Is this “on-brand” for me?), in addition to other factors such as when to post & what hashtags to use. Anyone who has ever taken scores of selfies before eventually settling on one understands that Instagram feeds don’t just happen.
In addition to barrels of coffee, I use a variety of apps to help me develop & publish the content that I think meets the client’s objectives & looks good while doing so. Here are a few that you might think about using for yourself.
Adobe Spark
Creating beautiful graphics that magically blend text & images doesn’t necessarily require a professional graphic designer. With Adobe Spark, no one has to fiddle with Photoshop to produce the attractive graphic you need. With its many different tweakable design templates, Spark basically turns any person with a phone/computer/tablet into a sort of Paul Rand or Saul Bass lite. (Of course, you should probably hire an actual graphic designer if you need something like a logo. The work’s much harder than you might think.)
Pixabay
If the content you’re developing is in need of some quality images that cost no money to license, then you should consider using Pixabay. Really, it costs nothing other than the time it takes to set up an account. Wow.
Planoly
You can actually take the guesswork out of how your next post will look in relation to the rest of your feed by downloading & using Planoly, which shows you a preview of what your feed will look like if you were to post that gym mirror selfie. It doesn’t tell you, however, that posting such a picture would be tacky & cliched. You should already know that.
Swipeable
You’ve probably swiped through an Instagram slideshow that isn’t a collection of pictures your friend took on their state park hike or whatever but rather something cooler: a single panoramic image broken up into multiple yet seamless pieces. You can pull off such sorcery by getting Swipeable. Nice.
MaskArt
Cinemagraphs are the name given to images that have some sort of dynamic or moving element within them (like, say, a newspaper “photograph” in Harry Potter). They can be beautiful or just damn interesting when done correctly, & in reality, aren’t too difficult to pull off—that is, so long as you’re using an app like MaskArt
Signal
While not technically for social media, Signal is an encrypted messaging app everyone should be using in their everyday lives because tools that secure one’s privacy aren’t just for hackers. Why, it’s so secure that even Edward Snowden uses it. So go ahead and feel safe sending that *ahem* tasteful photo to bae knowing nobody else will intercept it.
Of course, these apps don’t mean much to anyone who isn’t strategizing about what they’re posting. Now that takes real expertise. Call me if you need it.
Your favorite SMM,
KM