5 hours ago
This post originally appeared on the Buffer blog.
You get a ton done when you’re at your computer, speeding away on the day’s social media strategy.
Might there be a way to wring some productivity when you’re away from your desk?
Mobile apps and tools can make it so a marketer’s entire day is filled with opportunities to connect, engage, and share. You can get more done while commuting, lounging, waiting, and any time when you’re not tethered to a desktop or laptop.
Which apps are best for social media marketers?
I gave a huge number of them a test run and came up with 44 amazingly useful apps that can help you accomplish social media marketing tasks with a tap, swipe, or touch.
I’d love to hear which ones are your favorites, and if I missed any that you love to use.
Dashboards and clients for social media management
1. Buffer
You can schedule updates to multiple accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, as well as follow-up with statistics on how each post performed. The newest version of the iOS app allows for sharing and scheduling from inside other popular apps like Safari.
Find an awesome link in your browser? Share it to Buffer without ever leaving the app.
Other options:
2. Tweetbot
Download: iOS
One of the most popular Twitter clients out there, Tweetbot lets you organize and interact with your Twitter stream in whichever way is most productive for you. Separate the stream into lists or channels, and tweet, respond and reply directly from within the app.
Other options:
3. Facebook Pages Manager
You can enjoy complete page management controls via this Facebook app, making life super easy for admins who need to make changes on the fly, while you’re on the go.
4. Flow for Instagram
Download: iPad
Have you ever tried to view Instagram from an iPad? It can be a bit tough. The official app isn’t universal, so everything that’s made for iPhone gets stretched to fit iPad.
Flow for Instagram solves some of these quibbles with an iPad-specific display of your Instagram feed. You can browse, like, comment, and follow, all from right within the app.
5. Dropbox
Access important files from anywhere, and share with your team members whether you’re at your desk or out and about. The app is great for previewing shared files like images, perhaps in advance of an upcoming social media campaign.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.38.21 AM 220x392 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhere6. Evernote
For note-taking and remembering, it’s tough to beat Evernote. In addition to being an all-encompassing to-do list and swipe file, the mobile app lets you snap a picture of something you wish to remember, and Evernote can pull out text and context from inside the image.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.40.06 AM 520x323 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhere7. Asana
Asana is one of the most popular project management services, and their mobile app brings tasks, to-dos, and organization to your phone or tablet, too. Their mobile versions—iPad especially—are useful, intuitive, and beautiful.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.41.15 AM 220x392 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhereOther options:
8. Trello
At Buffer, we rely on Trello for a huge number of organizational jobs. It helps us track bugs in our Buffer product, and it’s how we arrange our content calendar each week.
Being able to edit, rearrange, and add from a mobile device is a huge benefit when you’re suddenly onto a new idea.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.45.38 AM 220x351 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhere9. HipChat
Distributed teams can get a ton of use out of HipChat for team communication (traditional offices, too). And if you happen to be away from your desk, you can still stay in touch with the conversation, even receiving notifications when someone mentions you directly.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.47.49 AM 520x326 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhereOther options:
10. Nimble
Download: iOS
Nimble is a super-powerful contacts manager that integrates seamlessly with the social profiles of each of your contacts. Stay connected to your network, and grow your following on your social accounts by syncing your contacts with Nimble.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.50.20 AM 220x321 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhere11. Mention
One of our favorite social listening tools, Mention helps you find and follow up with brand mentions all over the Web—blogposts, social media updates, and anywhere else your keywords come up.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 9.53.20 AM 220x392 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhereOther options:
12. IFTTT
There are hundreds of IFTTT recipes you can try to supercharger your social media sharing. The IFTTT app makes it easy to connect services, including the biggest social media sites and your most-used services.
Amazing image creation tools for on-the-go graphics
13. Over
Add stunning text to beautiful images. The result: a super shareable piece of visual content that will engage your audience.
Other options:
14. Photo Editor by Aviary
To quickly create awesome images—either from the shots you take from your phone or from existing images you’ve uploaded to your camera roll—you can use Aviary’s rich suite of editing tools.
Screen Shot 2014 10 24 at 10.04.01 AM 220x354 44 best mobile apps and tools for marketers: How to manage social media from anywhereOther options:
15. Canva
Download: iPad
One of our go-to resources for creating images for social media, Canva’s new app brings all the features from the web right onto your iPad. Tap on templates, and drag elements into place to create a cool image to share—and share directly when you’re done thanks to Canva’s integrated social sharing.
Content apps for finding and sharing the latest news and links
16. Feedly
Feedly is our go-to app for subscribing to RSS feeds and discovering new content to share on social media. It integrates with all the same great apps as the web version (like Pocket and Buffer), and the forward-thinking gestures on iOS are something to behold—e.g., double-tap to close stories, swipe down to go to the next page.
17. Flipboard
Flipboard takes content from an RSS feed, Twitter list, or category and displays it in a beautiful, flippable magazine format. It’s a great resource for discovering new content and for staying on top of a category or topic.
18. Daily
Download: iOS
A fun app we built here at Buffer, Daily provides a hand-picked stack of articles that you can share or skip with a simple swipe. It’s like Tinder for content, and it connects straight to your Buffer queue for easy scheduling.
19. TED
Needing some inspiration from one of the world’s best presentations? Pull up a TED talk on your phone or tablet. The TED app contains all the best presentations from their archives, and after watching, you can easily share the ones you most enjoy.
20. Prismatic
Download: iOS
The Prismatic app learns from your content tastes and ends up finding and delivering content that is catered to you. It gets smarter the more you use it.
Next: Some nice-to-haves