25 apps you need to rock your business in 2020

Business
Written By Kerra Aucoin Mansfield

As a Social Media Consultant, the question I get most often from my clients is: How do you stay on top of everything for both your business AND your clients businesses?

If you are still scheduling your own social media and building your strategy yourself, it can seem impossible to juggle the daily tasks for running your business with what you need to do to market it consistently. 

As a small business owner myself, I totally get it. So my short answer to how I manage it all? 

Apps. 

It makes me wonder constantly how we ever survived before the first app was introduced to our phones! I actually didn’t realize how many apps I purchased in 2018 until I saw my receipts come in from apple--oops!

I had to remind myself that apps, my computer, my phone, and my wonderful assistant Crystal are essentially the only overhead for my business and I couldn’t make it all work without them. 

I’m always finding new apps and testing them out but today I wanted to introduce you to 25 apps that I simply can’t live without. 

What is an ‘App’?

When I’m talking apps in this post, I’m 95% of the time talking about apps that are on my phone. While there are dozens of computer apps, a few of which I use on my laptop as well, today we’re just tackling the ones I use for managing the marketing of my business. 

Many of these apps are free to download, and the only investment you need to use them is your time. (And if time is what you’re lacking, you can take a look at our social media management services right here. https://www.kasocialmedia.ca/social-management)

Social Media Apps

The first apps I’m going to cover are, of course, my social media apps! These are all the applications I keep on my phone for nurturing online networks for my business and my clients. These include: 


Many of these apps need no introduction as you probably have them on your phone already, but no list of apps I need would be complete without them. 

After the main social media platforms I have apps that help me make life easier whether they are scheduling apps or apps to help me create content.

Here’s some apps that I use to help me run my business:

Scheduling Apps

Buffer

Buffer is a scheduling app for social media that allows you to layout all of your content at once, and posts it for you to all of your social media platforms. 

I use Buffer for putting out 80-85% of my online content, leaving around 20% of the effort I put into my online presence as live interactions with my audience. 

Buffer is user friendly and affordable. While there is a free version, the paid version allows you to schedule several weeks of content at a time. So those holidays coming up around the corner? Yea. It’ll have you covered so you can go back to doing what you should be--spending time with you loved ones. 

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another scheduling tool preferred by a few clients, so I have added it to the list. 

While not as robust and user friendly as Buffer, it does allow me to schedule on the go with an accessible mobile application. 

Organizer ( EventBrite)

Find yourself selling tickets on Eventbrite and want to check your guest list and event details on the go? This is the perfect app for you. 

You can view all your details and check off your attendees right on your phone. 

Content Generation Apps

Poto

There are dozens of apps to create collages, posters, and memes. A new one comes out every month seemingly, but when it comes to my images, I stick with this app. 

I started using Poto several years ago as an affordable and easy to use option, and it’s been with me ever since. 

Repost

Ever find a user-generated post you really want to share because one of your followers took a great shot of your product or featured your work? Sadly, unlike Facebook and Twitter, you can’t easily reshare those posts on instagram. 

That’s where repost comes in. 

Repost is the app that I’ve been using for User Generated Content for years now! It’s the easiest of all the apps I’ve tried in the past to share content on instagram. 

iMovie 

As a Mac user, when I decided to start creating video content for my blog EatDrinkandBeYou.com, it was an obvious choice for me to use. 

This app is easy to get started on, and allows you to make changes on your laptop and phone. 

Canva 

Canva is the graphic design program for the non-graphic designer! 

I use canva for all my social media graphics for KA Social Media as well as my clients. The paid version comes with premium graphics included, and a tool that resizes my graphics across all social platforms of my choice. 

Pixlr

This is another app that creates collages, posters etc. If I’m not using Canva or Poto this is the one that I use.

I started using this app as client preferred it over my other top choices. It makes working together on our content a breeze. 

Mojo

While instagram provides tools for creating stories for your feed, sometimes you just want something to jazz it up a little. 

Mojo helps create fun and vibrant stories for Instagram, even when you don’t have graphic design skills at your disposal. 

Life Lapse

Stop motion pictures and videos is a neat trend that involves using a series of pictures to create a video. There aren’t many apps that help with this process as seamlessly as Life Lapse does. 

I was a little unsure of the app at first, but after meeting the creators at a conference last year and seeing how cool the finished videos look, I was hooked. 

Productivity Apps

Lastpass

Seriously I would be LOST without Lastpass! At anytime I can be managing 10 to 15 Facebook pages, 10 Twitter accounts, 2 to 3 LinkedIn accounts , 5 to 7 Instagram accounts PLUS all my own passwords that I need to remember. 

I’m not sure about you but between my business, my toddler and well life there is NO way I’m remembering ANY passwords so LastPass functions as a single secure login for all of my accounts and client accounts. 

Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud based program that I use to store my personal documents and client content. It makes connecting all my various devices a breeze so I can access images and documentation that I was working on using my desktop anywhere.

Asana

Asana was introduced to me most recently by my assistant Crystal Picard. There are a few different applications that can do the same thing, like Basecamp and Trello, but where we split up the work on most of the projects we work on together, something we really needed to have in place was task-due-dates. 

If you’re working solo, you might consider a project manager like Trello, but if you’re working on a team, having a little more control of all your projects with something like Asana is a must. 

Bonus: we’re loving the little unicorns and narwhals that streak across the screen to celebrate whenever we check something off our list! Try it out to see what we mean. 

Zoom

We all know time is money, and the time you lose on traveling to locations for meetings, getting ready to go to the meeting and finding parking all take up hours of time out of your week. 

Zoom is the best platform I’ve found for having a quick one-on-one with your clients and team from the comfort of your home/office/local coffee shop.

I personally use this for both webinars and client consultations. 

CamScanner

Ever need to sign a document on the run? This app is a godsend! Whenever I have something I need to scan and send, I can take a photo with my phone and it’ll translate it into a document that I can attach from my phone to send off right away. 

No more connecting the bulky scanner for me! 

Fun apps that keep me sane and motivated:

Spotify

I listen to Spotify probably 75-85% of the time that I’m working! 

Want to know what I’m currently listening to? Download my holiday playlist right here.

Podcasts

If I’m not listening to spotify I’m listening to a podcast. Some of my favorite podcasts are:

YouTube

I often listen to music on YouTube and listen to social media videos. Some of the channels I like to listen to are: 

While new apps are coming out to help with our businesses every day, I can’t help but look back at this list and wonder how we did it before we had all these tools on our phones! 

It also makes me excited, as we look forward to the beginning of 2020, to think about all the apps that are yet to come and how they will change the face of business for so many of us. 

Do you have an app not listed that you couldn’t run your business without? Comment on this post to share them with us!

Kerra Aucoin Mansfield
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