6 Mobile Apps For Business Owners

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Is Your Business Mobile Yet?

There is no question about the importance of any business having a presence on mobile applications (or apps for short). With millions carrying their smartphones everywhere and children being able to tap and choose a YouTube video before they can even read, you know that mobile is the way to go with your online marketing.

Even if you’re a brick and mortar shop without a website, you have to find a way to have a presence on social media so you can reach these potential customers while ‘ogling’ at their screens during the waiting intervals as they’re out and about in their daily lives.

This week Instagram, one of the main social media platforms, celebrated a milestone; they announced they now have more than 300 million monthly users. We already highlighted the potential of this platform mixed with Facebook in a marketing combo. Instagram IS a mobile App itself, very popular among teenagers and with great potential for social marketing. Other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, started on web and are now all mobile.

Not only you should have a presence on these platforms but you should also be able to respond to questions and engage with your followers and prospects ‘on the go.’ It is not enough to install the applications for the main social platforms. There are other tools that will help business owners simplify what they have to manage and be more efficient.

Mobile Apps To Install Now – If You Are Business Owner!

Apart from the main social platforms mobile apps, any business owner must have the following:

1. Facebook Pages Manager. It is not obvious that there is a separate app for managing Facebook Pages, as I often need to show business owners where it is and what it can do. Once you have any role as an ‘Admin’ of a page, you can install this application for free and it will connect with your Facebook account and find the pages that you manage. You will be able to schedule posts, reschedule them, place Ads, edit your Ads, your posts, access your page’s insights and know by just a tiny red dot if there’s anything to check or not. I find this is one of the most valuable features. In the past, you either had to have notifications ON for your page, or check it for notifications. Now, if there’s anything to check, this app will point it out as a red dot.
2. Twitter. I love Twitter’s mobile App. You can setup the notifications and be aware of any mentions as they happen. You can also connect several Twitter accounts (up to 10 for it to run at a good speed) and check them all on your mobile phone at a tap on the screen. This is something you cannot do on your desktop without logging in and out for each account. I wrote an article on my blog with all the details to set this up and how you can use it for tailored trends and different languages or geographical regions.
3. Instagram. This popular platform is a MUST (didn’t I say that already?) and you can only post photos from your phone, so the app is a must too. Just install it NOW please if you don’t have it yet. It’s a life changer.
4. Pinterest. This is an app that makes you look at Pinterest in a completely different way compared to how you perceive it on desktop. It is the PERFECT platform to help you unwind at the end of a tiring day or during a break. You can only do that resting your back comfortably and holding a small device like your phone or tablet. It has all the features the web version offers, really. Settings, editing features, all!
5. Feedly. If you curate content for your social media profiles, then you have to have a reader like Feedly. Dorien convinced me to try it and now I bring it up to you. It’s a MUST, even if you think that you won’t be sharing OPCs (other people’s content), you will, eventually. Apart from having interest lists on Facebook, following the right people on all the social platforms where you have a presence, you need a tool like Feedly to get the latest articles from the blogs that are more relevant to your business.
6. Buffer. This is a scheduling tool that also has most of its features available on the mobile application. If you have the free version, you can schedule posts for up to 3 social platforms, but if you pay $100 per year, you can schedule for up to 12 profiles, any number of posts at set times and you also have up to 15 RSS feeds per profile that allow you to choose from your ffavoriteblogs from within Buffer.

 Sounds like too much?

It took me a while to get to the point of using all of these apps. There are so many tools available and I’m not the typical tech geek, but they can really help you as a business owner manage your pages or collaborate with your social media manager. Remember that, even if you’re paying someone to do your social media marketing it is YOUR voice that has to shine through. It would be good, if you haven’t yet, to start reading blogs related to your business and to start following what your competitors do. It is a very important piece in the puzzle of being an entrepreneur, so make your pick and start now.

Start small, one app at the time. Do not move to the next tool until you feel you’re ready. It can feel overwhelming and you shouldn’t force yourself to adopt any app until you feel you can handle it.

There are other tools that I use besides the ones on this list, but I thought we could start from here.