post by Stephanie Nelson
A few years back, I wrote a post about what tools I use to stay on top of everything for my business. Even though the post was written less than a year after I’d gone out on my own, I still use all of the tools I listed there, and I’ve added a few more to my arsenal.
- Phone and iPad apps
On top of using the desktop versions of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business, and Yelp for Business, I totally rely on the app versions, too. This allows me to get away from my desk when needed and still be able to do my job. Additionally, Facebook has a separate Pages app that lets me manage my clients’ pages without going through the mobile version of the site. - Boomerang
Video is a big draw in the social media world. Boomerang allows you to make really short videos (as in 1-2 seconds) so you get that benefit but without all the hassle of editing and such. - OfficeTime
This app lets me track my time spent on projects for the clients that have me on an hourly contract. I love it because I can export each client’s report as a CSV, open it in Excel or Google Docs, and my timesheet is done. Just a little prettying up, and that invoice is ready to send. - Square
There’s A LOT of talk that goes on amongst business owners on the best way to accept credit card payments. I looked at several before I settled on Square. The piece that did it for me was that you’re only charged a fee if you run a card; others I looked at had a monthly fee as well. So while the fee per card run may be slightly higher with Square, it relieved my stress over what would I do if I had a month that I didn’t have a client pay by credit card and I still had to pay that monthly fee. - Hootsuite
I use this one slightly different than other agency owners I know. Hootsuite offers different levels of service from free to an agency rate. The free version allows you to add three social outlets; the paid versions allow you to add more, all the way up to unlimited. I set up free accounts for each of my clients for which I use Hootsuite. Yes, that means I have to sign in and out each time I use it. But it also allows me to hand over access to the Hootsuite account when needed without compromising all of my other clients’ information. Again, the stress relief outweighs the cons for me.
So those are the tools I use. What’s up your sleeve?
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