Hey guys, it's Alex here from Alextooby.com.
And welcome back to my YouTube channel.
In today's video, I'm going to share with you 15 apps I use to automate and streamline
both my social media marketing and my online business.
If you're looking for quality software that is free or incredibly inexpensive, this video
is for you, but before we start, make sure you hit this one subscribe button and click
the link above.
Sign up for my free Instagram masterclass inside.
I share 10 secrets that can drastically improve your presence on Instagram while saving you
tons of time and energy.
So let's get started 15 of my favorite apps to streamline my business.
Since we all know and love Instagram, I will start there when it comes to streamlining
saving time and automation, you need a scheduler.
And I personally use later, you can use it on both your mobile phone or desktop, and
it allows you to schedule out posts, stories, and even carousels.
They offer auto publishing, a hashtag generation tool, and even allow you to schedule your
first comment leader is an incredible app and company and their free plan offers more
than enough for most users.
However, if you'd like to save on their premium plans, use code ALEX2020 at checkout.
Next up are editing apps.
A few of my favorites are Lightroom and Snapseed.
Lightroom is what most pro photographers use to edit it's available as a paid desktop app
or a free mobile app.
I personally prefer to edit on desktop, but use the app when I'm trying to post it something
on the go.
It allows you to not only edit the basics, exposure, shadows, and contrast, but lets
you dig a lot deeper by targeting specific colors, allowing you to create a unique and
personalized edit.
Additionally, you can purchase an upload presets from your favorite creators directly to Lightroom.
So you can consistently achieve the aesthetic.
You're looking for.
Snapseed has a variety of prebuilt presets.
You can add to your photos in one click or you can utilize their tool section to Up-level
your photos with perspective, selective editing, lens blurs and even double exposures.
There are a ton of tools to play around with here.
So I highly suggest taking some time to explore them.
They may just lead you to a brand new style of editing.
Some other editing runner-ups are VSCO facetune, a color story and enlight.
next is Instagram stories.
Now to be honest with you, I personally prefer creating Instagram stories directly in Instagram
with a variety of textiles, markers, gifts and engagement, generating additions like
polls and question boxes.
I don't typically need additional apps.
However, a few I have tried and enjoyed are over, unfold and Adobe spark post.
These three apps allow you to create professional looking Instagram stories with just a few
clicks, whether you use the templates provided or start from scratch, these apps can easily
help you stand out from the crowd.
The best about these apps in my opinion is being able to add animation.
This really brings your stories to life and otherwise would take quite a bit of effort
and video editing to create a similar end result.
Next, are apps for the link in your bio.
I personally use tap link while this app is only accessible by desktop, it will drastically
improve how your audience interacts with your content website and other external links.
Not only does it build you a link tree style page, which is another perfectly suitable
app to use.
It also allows you to collect payment list.
A number of frequently asked questions, display videos, and more this app does have a free
version, but the premium is where the real magic is.
If you'd like to try it out, use the link in my description box below for seven free
days.
Also watch this video.
If you'd like to learn more about optimizing the link in your bio.
Now let's move on to the apps I use in the rest of my business for Pinterest.
I swear by tailwind tailwind allows me to easily schedule a month of daily pins from
my phone or desktop in just a few minutes.
So I'm always active and constantly sending traffic to my website apart from easy scheduling
tailwind also gives me a variety of insights about my account, my pin performance and what
areas I need to focus on improving.
It's a super complex tool that's totally worth adding to your business.
If you're looking for more targeted traffic on autopilot, if you'd like to learn more
about tailwind and my specific Pinterest strategy, watch this video next are apps for YouTube.
I use TubeBuddy and Stufler.Pro.
TubeBuddy allows me to keep an eye on the performance of my videos, Reply to new comments,
easily grab shareable links and keep track of channel milestones.
Sufler.Pro is a teleprompter app that displays your script as scrolling text.
This allows me to plan out my video ahead of time, stay on track and get my recording
done in as little takes as possible.
I've downloaded a ton of teleprompter apps and this is the only one that allows you to
manage the speed size and orientation of the text for free for business organization.
I use a variety of apps starting with lastpass.
Lastpass is an absolute lifesaver with hundreds of different logins for all the services,
software and websites.
I'm a part of, I couldn't possibly remember all of my passwords and I don't want to revert
to the lazy method of using the same password for every account.
I have experienced a few instances of hacking in my time.
So it's super important to me to have an app that can create a secure password and remember
it for me.
So I'm protected and never have to think about it.
Lastpass also connects to my desktop.
So whether I'm on my laptop or phone, my passwords are all easily accessible.
Next is Slack.
I use Slack for managing and communicating with my team.
Slack allows us to have a variety of different channels that streamline our conversations
and keep ideas and topics separate.
So communication is always clear and documented previously.
I have tried both Trello and airtable for similar purposes, but Slack has come out on
top as the ideal team management tool.
For me, in addition to these business organization apps, I couldn't live without Google sheets,
Google docs and Google drive.
I truly can't believe these apps are free.
They allow my entire team to work on projects simultaneously they're accessible, even when
you don't have an internet connection and can hold up to 15 gigabytes of data for free.
So you don't have to keep everything on your computer taking up valuable space.
And finally, when it comes to conducting business online, one of the most important things is
a reliable payment processor.
There are plenty to choose from.
And funny enough, I actually use three of them.
I use PayPal, stripe and Square.
While PayPal Isn't my favorite, a large part of my audience uses and prefers it.
So I continue to offer it on top of that.
I use Stripe, which is my preferred method as well as square for a side business that
I have.
The reason why I use square for that business is that it's in the health and medical niche
and Stripe doesn't allow businesses in that niche to process payments through them who
knew in any case, whichever payment processor you choose, they're all basically the same.
So find out what works for you and your audience, and you're good to go.
So that's it.
15 apps I use to help streamline and automate my business.
But of course there are so many more.
If you're interested in seeing a part two to this, where I share more of the apps I
use in my marketing, like countdown, timers sales, page design, and lead generation tools.
Let me know in the comments below, if you love and use any of these apps or found out
about a new after going to try, hit the like button subscribe and tap the notification
bell to make sure you never miss another video from me.
Thanks for watching guys.
I will see you next time!