Free Must Have Apps for Social Media Marketers

As a digital marketing agency, we know how it can be difficult to stay creative with social media, especially when marketing for various clients with different aesthetics.  It can be challenging to juggle the marketing role of being part photographer, videographer, designer, editor, copywriter, etc.  In this blog post, we share our BEST FREE apps to help you market on social media while staying unique.   In addition, we have broken each of the apps into different categories…

 

Graphic Design

• Canva App: Canva is a graphic design platform where users can create social media graphics, posters, highlight icons, infographics, animated designs, and more. This app has free templates that are easy to personalize with colors, images, fonts, illustrations, etc.  Canva is free to a limited amount of options whereas Canva Pro is $12.95 a month which adds more features.  In our opinion, Canva Pro is worth every penny!

Feed Layout

• Preview App: This is an Instagram app that allows you to rearrange the order of images before posting on the account. This app is great for visually planning what your Instagram feed will look like before ever posting.  This app is free, but has an option for a subscription if you want to manage multiple accounts on the app.

Photo Editing

• VSCO App: VSCO is an app that allows users to edit photos with presets or filters. The free version of the app gives you a set of 10 filters. If you want more filters, you can subscribe for $19.99 a year which includes over 130 filters.

• Lightroom Mobile: This is an Adobe favorite of ours and one of the best ways to make your Instagram pics look seriously professional. It is free to all mobile devices without an Adobe subscription and easier to use compared to Photoshop.

Publishing & Tracking

• Hootsuite App: This app is a social media management app that allows users to schedule posts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and more. This app is great for implementing and planning out social media campaigns. In addition, Hootsuite makes it easy to manage multiple accounts.  Purchasing the premium account allows users to see social analytics, security, engagement, and more advanced features.  We highly recommend purchasing Hootsuite Pro which is $29 a month and allows you to manage up to 10 accounts.

• Buffer: Buffer is a great alternative to Hootsuite.  It has less features, but is easier to set up and get started posting right away.  Buffer allows you to schedule posts for Pintrest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Instagram Stories.  Similar to Hootsuite, it allows you to engage with your audience and analyze social analytics. Buffer’s “Awesome Plan” is $10 per month and allows up to 10 accounts and 100 queued posts at a time.

• Creator Studio: Creator Studio is a central place to manage your Instagram and Facebook accounts. It tracks all engagement metrics including responding to comments and messages through your inbox.  Essentially, it has all the tools needed to effectively monitor, track, and measure content for Facebook and Instagram.

 

Learn more about what SoCal Digital Marketing can do for you on social media, SEO, website design, and digital advertising by contacting us here or calling (949) 309-8845.