23 Cool Tools for Social Media Marketers

Looking for some new apps and tools to add to your social media marketing toolbox?
Wondering which graphics, analytics, and productivity tools can help streamline your workflow?
In this article, you’ll discover 23 tools and apps shared in the Social Media Marketing podcast’s Discovery of the Week.
23 Cool Tools for Social Media Marketers by Mike Stelzner on Social Media Examiner.

#1: Taco

The Taco app lets you combine tasks and tickets from different places, such as Trello, Evernote, and email, into one master to-do list. It’s a major timesaver.

Organize your to-do lists from multiple places with the Taco app.

Sign up for free at TacoApp.com and connect it to all of your other services. Taco will connect to more than 35 services such as Asana, Basecamp, Evernote, Highrise, Slack, Wunderlist, Gmail, and even an RSS feed.
Taco is a free desktop app and has a Chrome extension. Plus, you can use it on mobile if you bookmark it on your mobile browser.

#2: Grammarly

Grammarly is a great way to spell-check your social media posts. Even when you post something on social that you think is perfect, people sometimes comment with corrections. You either misspelled something or used the wrong spelling of a word. Grammarly fixes that.

Grammarly is like spell-check for social media and other online 

posts.

 

Grammarly is software, as well as a browser extension. Download the native app for free on your Mac or Windows computer. Then drag and drop documents and it will do a spelling and grammar check. There are also browser extensions for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, which do a live check of whatever you type on the web.
The program analyzes your writing for improper word usage, too. It highlights any errors, just like standard spell-check. Once you see a problem, you can fix it.
Grammarly’s free program has a lot of functionality, but there are paid upgrade options available, which do even more intense checks and suggestions.

#3: Typeform

To create cool forms on the web, try Typeform. You can create a questionnaire on Google forms or SurveyMonkey, and Typeform similar, but it’s much more visually appealing.

Typeform helps you create cool, user-friendly forms on the web.

Go to Typeform.com and get started for free. Typeforms can include information, payments, and registration. It’s optimized for mobile. You can even create a form on a mobile device and see how it looks as you create it.
It’s fun to take their surveys because it’s easy, looks cool, and has an awesome user interface.
Typeform is web-based and works across any platform. The basic plan includes unlimited forms and responses. Upgrade to the pro and the pro plus versions for a monthly charge, which give you a custom thank-you screen and priority support. Plus, you can remove the Typeform branding.

#4: Twitter Analytics From AgoraPulse

While Twitter Analytics gives you information about your tweets and the audience for your Twitter account, Twitter Analytics from AgoraPulse is a free tool that allows you to compare your Twitter account to others.
For example, say you want to compare the number of followers you have, the quality of your interaction, or the amount of Twitter activity with the accounts of your competitors or peers.

Compare your Twitter analytics to other accounts with AgoraPulse.

Go to analytics.agorapulse.com, authorize it to access your Twitter account, and click through the confirmation email. Then add the other Twitter accounts that you want to compare. You can see over the last 30 days how much engagement other accounts are getting, as well as interactions or conversations per tweet. There’s a really great Twitter-specific dashboard for all of that high-level data.
If you’re doing a weekly or monthly report to show how your Twitter account is doing compared to others, or even if you’re in an organization that has multiple Twitter accounts, list them off using this tool and you have quick, easy reporting.

#5: Grytics

It can be a hassle to identify the most engaged people in the Facebook group you run for your business. Grytics is a great tool to analyze your Facebook groups.
Grytics gives you statistics based on your most active members, engagement, and activity scores. Plus, you can see which were the top posts in your group.

Analyze your Facebook group activity with Grytics.

When you open a post from your Facebook page’s insights, it tells you how many people liked it and breaks down reactions and clicks. Grytics gives you that kind of data on each Facebook group post and then carries that over into the group members. Possible applications could be rewarding engaged group members and giving them a public shout-out.
It’s a desktop tool you can get by going to Grytics.com. There’s a free version that provides a bunch of basic data. Then it moves up to premium, pro, and enterprise versions, and each is only a small step up – $12, $25, or $55 per month – based on features.

#6: Patch

Patch, a smart portrait editing app for iOS, automatically edits your images and simulates a blurred background effect that lets the subject of your photo stand out.

The Patch app blurs the background on your mobile photos, 

which improves subject focus.

Open up an image inside the app, turn up the intensity, and in 10 seconds the image is processed from a cell phone selfie into something worthy of framing.
You can use images from the built-in camera on your phone, uploaded images, or imported photos from your camera roll. So if you’re at a conference and take a bunch of awesome selfies, you can process them afterward!
Patch is free in the App Store but offers watermark removal for a $1.99 fee.

#7: Slim Lists for Trello

Slim Lists for Trello is a Chrome extension that’s a cool hack for Trello users.
If you’re not familiar with Trello, it’s a project management tool that’s web-based (and free). The browser extension works in Chrome on both PC and Mac.

Slim Lists for Trello is a cool Chrome extension that allows you to 

fit more on your screen.

Slim Lists for Trello takes your existing Trello boards and reduces the width. Trello has different cards that are ranked and sorted into lists. This will give you all (or at least most) of the information, reduced up to about 50%. Doing this allows you to fit more on your screen.
If you’re not already on Trello, check it out. It’s an amazing tool. If you work collaboratively with many people, Trello is a lifesaver. It also has an app that does real-time communication. You have all of the information and all of the right people with access to it in a nice, neat, organized location.
Go to the Google Chrome store to get Slim Lists for Trello.

#8: Ripl

Ripl, a mobile app that creates images, video, captions, and moving text, is different from other apps in that it lets you easily do a lot of motion graphics.
With Ripl, you can even have text that zooms toward you or on a crawl. Check out the Social Media Examiner Instagram account for examples.


Ripl is free but you can get a pro account version for $9.99 per month, which allows you to remove the watermark. You can also add your own watermark and branding, as well as have access to other pre-populated design templates.
It’s a very cool effect. Ripl is available on iOS and Android.

#9: Senders

Senders is like having caller ID for email. Senders pulls information based on a sender’s email account and lets you know all about him or her.
Senders will give you the person’s name, title, and bio, along with links to his or her Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. It shares last tweets, their Twitter follower count, and links to the Google search for that person.

Learn about people who email you with Senders.

You can even go into Senders with your own account and edit your information.
Senders works for most email accounts. All you need to do is give Senders permission to see your account and they don’t store, share, or read any of the content of the emails. Senders simply scans and searches the web for people’s contact info.
For now, Senders is free.

#10: OneTab

OneTab is a cool app that helps you manage the overload of tabs on your browser. For instance, you have a bunch of tabs open and you realize your computer is bogging down; however, you don’t want to lose all of those tabs. That’s where OneTab comes in.
Install the Google Chrome or Firefox extension and when you click it, it sends all of your tabs into one tab as a list of clickable links.

OneTab allows you to merge and save all open tabs to look at later.

Let’s say you have six or seven news sites that you check every morning. Instead of leaving them open in your browser all day long and slowing your computer, you can create a OneTab list and they open in one shot.
Or if you’re checking multiple tabs for a project and then get interrupted, you can merge those tabs, put them away, and go back and look at them later. You can focus on what needs to be done in the moment and reload those tabs at any time.

#11: G-Lock Apps

If you send regular emails as part of a newsletter or promotion, you may have seen a reduction in your open rates lately. Maybe your emails get stuck in the Promotions tab or the spam folder.
G-Lock Apps offers a cool solution. Add a simple piece of code to the end of your email and G-Lock sends your email through a filtering system to tell you whether it will go to the Gmail Promotions tab, the spam folder, or the inbox.

G-Lock Apps shows what might send your email to someone’s 

spam folder before you send it.

G-Lock Apps gives you seven or eight dedicated emails you can use to perform all sorts of tests on the platforms you care about most. You can create a segment in your list, send your message to that little segment, and watch the results come in. Then it shows you what’s wrong with your email so you can fix it.

The basic subscription service is $39/month, and it’s worth it to get your emails into your subscribers’ inboxes so they get opened and acted upon. The ROI could be monstrous. There are also premium subscription rates, as well as a $25 pay-per-test option.

#12: Assistant.to

There are a lot of tools available such as Calendly and ScheduleOnce that remove the hassle of scheduling appointments.
Assistant.to is a native Gmail plugin that has access to your Google calendar. Simply press a button inside your Gmail to offer up a few available times, and they get populated into the email you’re writing.

Assistant.to makes it easy to schedule meetings via Gmail.

To set up an appointment through Assistant.to, you need to use the desktop version of Gmail.
First put the other person’s email address in the To section. Then in the email, you’ll see a little “A.” Click that to bring up your calendar and see availability. Select a few different time chunks that you want to offer as options. Then click Add and it pastes them into the body of the email.
All of the times are clickable. After the receiver selects an available time, the system confirms it and adds the appointment to both calendars.
Check out Assistant.to. It’s free.

#13: FUNIPICA

Do you ever find yourself trying to film something either on your laptop, computer, or smartphone and you don’t have a lens wide enough to get everything in the picture? Check out FUNIPICA.
On one end of FUNIPICA (which looks like a big clip) is a monstrously big lens that you clip over the top of the lens on your iPhone, Android, laptop, or computer. You instantly have a super-wide angle with a slight fisheye look to it.

FUNIPICA is a lens clip for your computer or smartphone camera.

This is a great way to take a picture in a selfie mode with lots of people or get a much wider view of wherever you are. So if you’re outside doing a live video show, this will give you the totality of your experience on site.
This product is a 0.36 super-wide lens. Unscrew the top of it and turn it into a 15x macro lens, which allows you to get in really close; much closer than with just the camera built into your device.
You can get the FUNIPICA F515 on Amazon.

#14: Darkness – Beautiful Dark Themes

Night mode is often an easier-on-the-eyes version of the user interface. The white portions of a browser or an app turn to a dark gray or pitch black and the text becomes white.
Now, a Chrome browser plugin called Darkness – Beautiful Dark Themes brings night-mode to your evening web surfing and Facebooking.

The Darkness theme makes your screen easy on the eyes at night 

or in the early morning.

If it gets to be 7:00 or 8:00 PM and you’re still on your computer, switch on Darkness. This is great if you have a hard time sleeping after staring at the bright screen on your computer and it helps reduce eye strain.
Darkness, free for Chrome and Facebook, offers a paid upgrade for additional websites such as YouTube, Twitter, and more. Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for Darkness – Beautiful Dark Themes.

#15: FocusMusic

Similar to Focus@Will, FocusMusic.fm is a cool music tool that helps you focus and get more work done when you’re busy.
In line with the principle that playing regular lyrical music distracts rather than focuses the mind, FocusMusic.fm has electronic dance music, downtempo, classical, and a channel called Rain.

FocusMusic is a simple site that gives you music for focusing.

The beat of the music keeps you in sync and moves you forward through your work at a tempo.
It’s a free, sparse website that does one thing and it does it well. When you open up the URL on any browser (desktop or mobile), you’ll see Play, Forward, and Back buttons, and that’s it. No other distractions to occupy your attention.

#16: Crowdfire

Crowdfire, a web app for iOS and Android, lets you publish to Twitter and Instagram, engage with your followers, clean up your followers, find new followers based on keywords, and schedule based on the best times to publish.

Manage your Twitter and Instagram content and relationships with Crowdfire.

Because Instagram’s API doesn’t allow scheduling, Crowdfire walks you through the process of creating content on your smartphone and allows you to save it in a hopper. The app then pings you at the scheduled time so you can manually publish your post.
Crowdfire is free for one account with limited features but offers several paid account options to fit a variety of business needs.

#17: Speedtest

Speedtest is a simple but powerful tool that lets you test and troubleshoot the download and upload speeds of your Internet connection with the push of a button.

Check your Internet connection with Speedtest.

While super-fast download speed is great, it’s your upload speed that’s critical when communicating with people online in real time. Run Speedtest.net before you run live webinars, use Skype, or broadcast live video to make sure your upload speed is fast enough to let people on the other end hear you.
Ideally, your upload speed should be at least 2 megabits per second, if not more. If it’s not, Speedtest will quickly isolate problems so you can determine whether the problem is with your network, your computer, or so on.
You can access Speedtest from the website and via the app for Android and iOS.

#18: Google Analytics URL Builder Chrome Extension

Google UTM parameters allow you to track the activity around a URL inside Google Analytics. The Google Analytics URL Builder Chrome extension is a free tool for people interested in UTM traffic.
Install the extension and you can quickly create UTM codes after you click a bookmarklet in the upper right-hand corner in your Google Chrome browser.

Select the bookmarklet in your Chrome browser to create UTM 

codes with Google Analytics URL Builder.

Go to the link where you want to add the UTM parameters and click the extension button. The UTM Builder shows up, and after you type in your Source, Medium, Term, Content, and Campaign terms, the trackable URL appears.
You can fill in the form with unique parameters or use a drop-down menu to automatically populate the standard parameters you use most often.

#19: Editorr

Editorr is a great service for text editing. Get 24/7 writing help from real people who will edit your text when you submit it to them. Use them for press releases, blog posts, or even social media posts that are a paragraph or two.

Take your draft text and submit it, either through the web, iOS, or Android app. It goes off to their team and one of their editors claims the job. They edit your words, send them back to you, and point out every change. Fast turnaround time, too.
Your first 100 words are free but you have to buy words as you go. The more words you buy in bulk, the less expensive it becomes.
The starter package is 150 words for $5.

#20: Google Data Studio

Do you ever find yourself perplexed by the reporting on Google Analytics? Google has come up with a brand-new free product that allows you to create visual dashboards easily for yourself, a customer, or your boss. To find it, go to DataStudio.Google.com.

Create and customize visual dashboards with Google Data Studio.

Log into Google Data Studio with your Google account, and you’ll be presented with a blank page where you can create whatever kind of dashboard you want.
In addition to your Google Analytics account, you can connect other sources of data, such as Google Sheets. You can then drag and drop elements such as bar charts, pie charts, tables, geomaps, scorecards, and more onto the blank canvas. You can even include a data range selector and a source filter in each module.
When you’re done creating the report, you can easily share it with other people.
It’s really easy and super-powerful.

#21: Pocket Explore

Pocket, a bookmarking site, recently added Pocket Explore. This new feature curates all of the content saved to its site into a searchable, public news feed, allowing marketers to find popular stories they may have missed.

Pocket Explore, an addition to the Pocket bookmarking site, 

curates content into a news feed.

Pocket knows how long somebody scrolled through an article to read it, how long it was open, and whether they shared it. Pocket Explore uses all of those signals to surface the top-rated stuff.
Marketers can type in “social media,” “Facebook,” “Twitter,” and even “marketing” to find top shared news about these topics. It’s another great resource to find cool stuff.
Pocket Explore is built into the paid and free versions of Pocket and is usable on desktop as well as iOS and Android devices.

#22: Prisma

Prisma, available on iOS and Android, takes your images, whether you take the photos in the app or import them, and applies artistic filters.

Prisma turns your images into art.

Prisma is easy and intuitive to use. There are a variety of artistic filters so you can make your photos come across as brushstrokes, like it’s hand-drawn, Van Gogh or Picasso style, and more. It’s a great way to transform your profile pic into an artistic rendering of yourself.
When you publish your image, there’s a Prisma square in the bottom right-hand corner; however, you can turn that off.
Experiment with your marketing images by adding other artistic elements to them. Also, if you’re doing advertising, this is a cool way to dress up some of your images and make them stand out.

#23: Slither

Want a fun distraction? Pull Slither up in your browser, or download the app on your iPhone or Android. Slither is a game that lets you move around as a snake, along with other players. The goal is to intercept the other snakes, knock them off the board, and eat their dots.

Slither is a fun diversion when you need to take a break.

The game also works in airplane mode and it’s an absolute blast. Check it out. After all, marketers need a break every now and then, too.

Over to You
Social media tools are constantly evolving to help marketers improve their content, save time, and be more productive. Check them out and see which ones work best for you.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these social media tools or apps? What tools and apps have you found useful? Please share them in the comments below.

Source

23 Tools and Tips for Social Media Marketers

Do you need to streamline your daily social media tasks?
Looking for tools to increase visibility?
The right apps can make a world of difference in the life of a busy social media marketer.
In this article you’ll discover 23 of the top tools and tips shared on the Social Media Marketing podcast.

Discover 23 innovative social media marketing tips and tools.

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#1: BuzzSumo Chrome Extension

The BuzzSumo Chrome extension shows you the share counts on any site you are on for all of the different social networks, including Twitter, which recently shut off the API that allowed third-party tools to collect Twitter counts on articles.
If you want to track the number of shares a piece of content gets on Twitter, this plugin will reveal that data for you.

The BuzzSumo Chrome extension shows you the share counts on any social media network.

There are a couple of other cool features that let you view which Twitter users shared a page you’re tracking, the backlinks pointing to that page and other content from the page‘s author. You can also see some of the most shared content on that site and even analyze the website.
The BuzzSumo Chrome extension is free but requires a free or paid BuzzSumo account.

#2: Scannable by Evernote

Scannable by Evernote lets you use your mobile device to take a picture of a document when you don’t have a scanner. Pull up the app, hover the camera over anything (such as a piece of paper or a business card) and it automatically scans and crops it.

Scannable by Evernote automatically scans and crops anything you hold the camera over.

Hold it over a business card, and like magic it scans the card without pushing any buttons. Afterward, it asks if you want to add the person as a contact. If your Evernote is connected with LinkedIn, it will create a contact and pull in their data from LinkedIn.
Scannable is a free iOS app.

#3: SumoRank

SumoRank.com analyzes the rank and content of your Facebook page. For example, we tried it with the Social Media Examiner Facebook page. It told us our most popular post type, as well as our most popular day of the week and the most popular time to post.

SumoRank analyzes your Facebook page content and tells you what works best and when.

SumoRank shows monthly interactions and the average engagement per post type to give you a feel for whether video, link or image posts get more engagement. It even analyzes the engagement based on the number of characters inside the post, so you can determine whether short posts have higher engagement than longer posts. Plus, review your top posts over a period of time.
SumoRank is a free tool.

#4: Reverse Image Search on Google

Have you ever seen an image on social media or on a blog and wonder where you’ve seen it before? Ever come across a saved image on your computer and want to know where you found it? Use Google’s reverse image search to find out.

Find the origin of certain photos with Google’s reverse image search.

Go to Images.Google.com, drag an image into the search box or paste in a URL for an image, and Google will show you other images that are exactly like or similar to that image. Easily find the origin of any image.
Google reverse image search is a free resource.

#5: Trello

Trello is a project management system that integrates with Dropbox and Google Drive. The tool lets you create boards, cards with tasks on them to assign a deadline, lists and more. Plus, you can @tag people involved with the project. Each person assigned a particular task can leave comments, attach notes and drag in images.

Trello manages projects for marketers.

When Trello is open in your web browser or if you have the app on your mobile device, you immediately get an alert whenever you‘re tagged on something. Act on it immediately and you won’t even receive an email.
Trello is a free tool.

#6: Reader View and Reader

There are a few different ways to make it easier to read your favorite website on your desktop.

Firefox Reader View allows you to adjust the font and the background color of articles you read online.

Open Firefox’s Reader View and click on what looks like an open book in the URL bar to remove graphics from a page‘s sidebar, and change the font size and the background color.
Safari’s Reader offers similar options.
Either feature lets you quickly consume a long article without being distracted by things like animated ads and other chaos that you often see on a website.
Reader View and Reader are free.

#7: World Clock for Mac

World Clock is a Mac app that is much more than just a clock. Select your favorite cities and change the time by clicking and dragging on the screen. The rest of the time zones change in sync, so you can see what time it is at any point on the map.

World Clock helps you manage time changes to more effectively schedule meetings and posts.

World Clock is useful for scheduling meetings and social updates, and you can use it across the board to get in front of different audiences as they come online.
The World Clock app is $4.99 and includes a widget for the sidebar of your Mac.

#8: Night Mode in Opera Mini Browser

The Opera Mini Browser has something called “night mode,” which changes the way the light comes off of your screen to make reading at night easier.
Night Mode adds an overlay to the browser to filter out the blue light and display a subtle, dark sepia tone instead.

Opera Mini Browser adjusts the light to make it easier to read your screen at night.

If you find yourself looking at screens, particularly your smartphone, late at night, you’ll notice the light that comes off it is blue. It’s scientifically proven that blue light stimulates your brain the same way sunlight does, which makes you think it’s daytime and keeps you awake.
The Opera Mini Browser is a free app available for iOS and Android.

#9: Facebook Security Settings

Facebook lets you access a number of cool security features by logging into Facebook, going to Settings and clicking on Security.

Facebook has a lot of security features that keep your account safe.

These are the top five features you should consider to keep your account more secure:

• Turn on login alerts. This will alert you every time someone logs into your account from a new app or a new browser.
• Turn on login approvals. According to Facebook, this adds an extra layer of security. It will text you on your phone and give you a code to verify new login attempts.
• Use the code generator. Get to the code generator predominantly through your mobile device. Open up your Facebook mobile app and along the left, go to Code Generator. If you ever lose your phone, you can use the code generator. It provides a number you need to put into your Facebook account in a very short period of time to get in.
• Trusted contacts. Pick three people whom you really trust. If you ever get locked out of your Facebook account, the Trusted Contacts can get you back in.
• Legacy contact. Determine who will take over your account and carry on your legacy if you should pass away.

Facebook Security Settings are free.

#10: SumoMe

A lot of people have asked about the social sharing bar we use on Social Media Examiner and why we think it’s special. There are lots of tools out there that do this, but the one we use is called SumoMe.
What’s special about this particular plugin for WordPress is that it’s mobile-optimized in a really cool way. On a desktop, the share bar floats at the side of the screen. On a mobile device, it appears at the bottom of the screen.

On a mobile device, the SumoMe sharing bar is consistently at the bottom of the page.

The paid version of SumoMe provides UTM tracking, as well as some mobile-only plugins, such as WhatsApp and SMS messaging. Plus, the pro version is set up to only appear if you’re on a mobile device.
(Note: I don’t pay for the pro package because I suggested many of its features. I am not compensated for recommending this app. I use it because I love it.)
SumoMe offers a free and $20 per month option.

#11: See First on Facebook

Are you familiar with the See First feature on Facebook? It lets Facebook users tell their feed to always see a particular person’s or page’s content first.
It’s a marketer’s dream, since you can train your Facebook fans to request that your content be seen at the top of their news feed.
Here’s how to request that your content be seen first.

On the desktop, hover over the Liked button, scroll down and then click See First. On a mobile device, click to like the page. Then next to it, click where it says Following and then you can select See First.
Do that for all of your favorite pages. And feel free to share this video with your fans so they will check the See First box on your page.
Everybody wants his or her page to show up first in the news feed. Train your fans and help them understand the value of checking the See First box.
See First is a free Facebook feature.

#12: Raindrop

Raindrop, which functions as an archive and collection system, is a cloud–based web, desktop and mobile app that syncs across all of your devices. Use it as a collecting, organizing, sharing and collaborating tool.
Drop in content, organize it and share. There are also different visualization preferences, so view your content as images in a Pinterest-type format, as small tweets and more. Create collections, add descriptions and tags and even give a collection a screenshot so it stands out visually.

Access your Raindrop collections with one click.

If you’re browsing and find something you want to look at later, just hit the Share Sheet button (on your browser or in the app) and send it to Raindrop. You can either drop it into a general inbox or a specific location.
To use Raindrop for collaboration, sign up, log in and set up a shared folder or two. Then allow access just as you do with services like Dropbox.
Raindrop is a free service.

#13: Katch

Katch.me lets you collect your Meerkat and Periscope broadcasts in one place with cloud storage and instant replays.

Katch records your Meerkat and Periscope broadcasts and makes it easy to share them.

It works automatically, as long as the account is hooked up. Shortly after you finish your broadcast, Katch sends out a tweet to watch the replay.
Katch is a free platform.

#14: Save Links for Later With Pinterest

Did you know you can use the Pinterest app on your phone or desktop to save links to boards to read them later?

Create secret boards and use them to save links to articles you want to read later.

Set up your sharing. Hit the Share button, hit More and then flip the toggle for Pinterest. From that point forward, if you’re on an article in your browser, you can send that link to Pinterest. Create a secret board and pin what you want to read later to it.
You can even create a secret board for links to share with someone such as your spouse. It doesn’t even have to be a secret board; it can be a “what I am currently reading” or “articles I’ve found interesting” board.
Saving links to secret boards is a free Pinterest feature.

#15: Blab

Blab.im is a live-casting platform that lets you interview multiple people at the same time from your desktop or mobile device.

Interview multiple people on a live-cast blab. This podcast was recorded on Blab.im.

Blab is like a Google hangout, but better. The click of a button allows you to bring people from anywhere in the world into your conversation. As soon as you’re done recording your blab, the video is available to watch. Plus, Blab sends you downloadable mp3 and mp4 files.
Unlike Meerkat and Periscope, where you’re a solo broadcaster looking into your phone and trying to track a bunch of comments as they come by, Blab allows you to gather a panel of whomever you want. Bring along a sidekick, bring along a guest or just play roulette and allow people to come into the show and talk with you.
I’ve done a number of shows on Blab, including the Morning Social Media Marketing TALK show, and this podcast was recorded on Blab. At the end of the broadcast, some of the listeners came on and asked Stephanie Sammons their questions about LinkedIn. Visit Blab.im/Mike_Stelzner to see the shows and subscribe.
Blab is a free tool.

#16: Apple News

News brings the news you want to your iOS device.
To get started, open the app and indicate your interests (such as business), and then add any publication you want. For example, you can search “social media” and you’ll find Social Media Examiner. After you add a publication, you can read the articles from the app just like you would with Flipboard or an RSS reader.

Check out the new News interface on the iOS9 update.

The really cool part is that once the News app is activated, when you’re on the home screen of your iPhone and push your thumb to the right, a bunch of top news stories will show up. It’s a great way to keep in touch with what’s going on in the world.
News is a free feature in iOS9.

#17: Involve People of Influence

When we celebrated the 6th anniversary of Social Media Examiner with a live blab, one of the questions that came up was, “What’s the most important thing necessary to grow today?”
Whether you have or plan to launch a blog, product or podcast, the most important thing for growth is influencers. You can have the best content or product in the world, but if you don’t have a great relationship with someone who has access to your audience, it will take a lot more time to grow.
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I touch on this in my second book, Launch. It’s part of what I call “the elevation principle.” Great Content + Other People – Marketing Messages = Growth. The idea is that the Other People component should consist of influencers you’ve built strong relationships with over the years; people you call friends.
This is really key to the growth of Social Media Examiner. In the early days, I went out of my way to help significant people in the world of social media marketing. I would get them on camera, interview them and promote the heck out of the video. I didn’t just go after people who were superstars, I went after people who had amazing potential for success.
The idea is to strategically pick a small group of people to pour yourself into. Ultimately, down the road, when you want a bit of help, you can ask them. These people of influence will help you grow.

#18: MileIQ

MileIQ is a smart drive detection app that will help save you money if you deduct your driving miles from your taxes.

MileIQ tracks your miles for you. It’s a great time-saver.

When you start driving, the app detects your drives and logs them automatically. It then calculates those drive distances, as well as their value, based on the deduction per mile that‘s already in the app.
You can wait a month and then go through your drives to categorize them into personal and business trips. The app even gives you the start and finish location of each drive and lets you add notes.
MileIQ offers 40 free drives per month, with paid upgrades to track more drives; it’s available for iOS and Android.

#19: Overcast

Overcast has been revamped to improve the way you discover and listen to podcasts.

The Overcast podcast app for iOS mobile is vastly improved.

Want to discover new podcasts? Connect your Twitter feed to find shows your Twitter friends have been tweeting about. You can easily share an episode while you’re listening to it, and episodes can get upvoted and then ranked and shown to people inside the app.
The biggest benefit is the voice boost, which will auto-normalize the audio levels in the show you’re listening to.
Overcast’s smart speed feature is cool because it shortens the length of the natural pauses in conversations so the show goes faster. This lets you finish listening minutes ahead of time without making the podcast sound like it’s sped up.
And if a show has time codes in the notes, you simply press one and it automatically jumps to that place in the episode.
Overcast is a free iOS app.

#20: Countdown Monkey

After doing a lot of research, I found this cool website called CountdownMonkey.com, which allows you to create different kinds of timers for your website (scoreboard, rolling, etc.). You can even control the special effects, colors and font sizes.

Countdown Monkey allows you to create customized countdown timers for your website.

CountdownMonkey comes with a WordPress short code, so you can easily add it into your sidebar widgets and sales pages. Another cool feature lets you hide the counter once the sale or event time is up. For example, if you set a sale to end at midnight, the counter will automatically disappear from your page at that time.
The sense of urgency readers get from the countdown clock when a sale is coming to an end may lead to extra sales, so it may pay for itself. To see it in action, take a look at the Social Media Marketing World page.
Countdown Monkey is $79 per year.

#21: Facebook Business Manager

Facebook Business Manager is a tool that helps you manage your Facebook pages and advertising accounts more securely. Sign up and log in, and you’ll see how much money you‘ve spent on advertising, total impressions, your ad account and page account. You can also access Ads Manager, Power Editor and Business Settings.

Facebook Business Manager puts everything in one place.

Under Business Settings, there are many different options such as People, Pages, Ad Accounts, Apps, Pixels, Product Catalogs, Instagram Account, Payment Methods, Projects, Partners and more. It’s a simple interface for managing all aspects of your Facebook marketing.
An important feature of Business Manager is that you can assign anyone a role on your Facebook page, whether you’re friends with them or not. Had we been using Facebook Business Manager when our page disappeared, we could have assigned someone who has a big ad account to our page and allowed them to escalate our issue with Facebook.
Facebook Business Manager is a free tool.

#22: Facebook Notify

Do you struggle to keep up with the latest news in your industry? Facebook Notify lets you know when important news items break.

Facebook Notify gives you a heads-up on important news in your industry.

The app, currently available only for iPhone, is simple to use. Install it on your smartphone and log in with your Facebook account. Then you can select the different categories you’re interested in, like news and tech, and choose the publications you most want to monitor.
Now, whenever a major news item comes out, you’ll get a notification on your phone. When you click on the notification, you’re taken directly to the article. It’s important to remember that these notifications only stay in the app for about 24 hours but you can bookmark certain kinds of stories if you want to come back and read them later.
Notify is a neat way to keep up with breaking news in your industry so you can be one of the first to report it on your social networks.
Facebook Notify is a free iOS app.

#23: Squirt

Squirt is a bookmarklet you install in your Chrome, Firefox or Safari browser bookmark bar.
Go to a web page you want to read, click the Squirt bookmarklet and it will display the words of the article using an optimal recognition point (ORP).

Squirt is a bookmarklet that pulls up one word at a time and makes things easier to read.

Basically, Squirt pulls up one word at a time in rapid succession, centered on the screen, and you train your eye to look at that one spot. Squirt allows you to read faster without losing comprehension.
Squirt is a free bookmarklet.

Over to You
The tools social media marketers use are constantly evolving to help us do our jobs more effectively and efficiently. Each of the tools, tips and apps above can help you save time and work smarter. Try a couple of them to see how they make a difference in your daily work.

What do you think? Have you used any of these tools, apps or tips? Have you found other useful social media tools recently? Please share them in the comments below.

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