Ready to manage your social networks effectively, share better content, save time and not spend a dime? Then this article is for you!
Below is a list of our favorite 5 apps that will make your social network marketing easier. The best part is they are all free!
1. Flipboard
At first glance this app might seem like another way to receive and organize your news, but it is so much more than that! Using Flipboard you can not only log into you Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram to view updates but it is a gold mine of great articles and content.
Once signed in to your networks you can view posts, but it is not extremely effective. However, the real benefit is that you can share content you find with extreme ease to specific social networks. Find a good article your LinkedIn followers or maybe a funny meme for Facebook? Simply choose the social network and post it!
If you take one thing away from this post, it should be Flipboard.
2. Buffer
Buffer allows you to share posts, photos, videos and links to multiple Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and App.net accounts. Our favorite feature is it’s ability to let you set a specific times for a posts (what they call “buffering”). So when you find a great article late at night or on the weekend you can set an appropriate time and place for the post.
This app also provides some useful analytics about your posts, tons of add-ons and other free apps to explore. This is the basic free version which is great, but they do offer premium features for a small fee per month.
Be warned that while Buffer is an amazing tool it has a slight learning curve, if that sounds too daunting, read on to see other options.
3. Hootsuite
Buffer can be a little confusing in some aspects, a great alternative to that is Hootsuite. This lets you sign into your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Foursquare accounts. and manage all your posts and feeds in a single place.
This is definitely one of the most popular clients because of it’s simplicity. We highly recommend downloading this if you have never used a social network manager before.
Sadly one of the best features in not in the app yet, Hootsuite’s website dashboard allows you to sign into your Google+ which is difficult to find on other social network management services. So if you want to add your Google+ account you will need to use a browser. While the basic service is free, like Buffer, you can pay for premium services.
4. StumbleUpon
While Flipboard is a great place to find articles from top sources, StumbleUpon bases your news feed on interests and based on the articles you like and dislike. Over time the news articles in your feed are more tailored to what you are interested in. We have found a ton of great content that would not be found in any other news apps and you will too.
Like Flipboard you can share articles you find directly to your social networks. You can only sign into your Twitter and Facebook in the app but that should not scare you away! You are guaranteed to find unique and original content every time.
If you have a blog or create other content, StumbleUpon also provides you a way to add your pages for people to, well, “Stumble Upon.” This is an incredibly useful way to get your content in front of potential readers.
5. TweetDeck
This is an app created by the team at Twitter themselves. So if you like the feel and flow of Twitter, you might want to try TweetDeck. This was one of the original social network management tools and it has now grown to allow Facebook, LinkedIn and a couple smaller networks. While this is very similar to Buffer and Hootsuite, if those do not work for you give this one a try.
This is a great app if you do not need a lot of features but want a way to manage all of your social networks in a single place.
Don’t Wait! It’s Free!
We hope you will take something from this and use these free apps to your advantage. If you have any other favorites, please feel free to share them with us in the comments!
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We appreciate your kind words. Thank you for your interest in our blog, we are glad to have helped!