For those of you who don’t know, I LOVE technology – especially my iPad. In fact, I take it practically everywhere I go AND I use it for business – some people say it’s only good for playing games, I have to disagree, it’s very useful.
I especially use it to help me manage my social media accounts. In particular, I find it helpful in the following ways: managing social media channels, creating content for my social media channels, and curating content (aka finding content to share on my social media channels).
Since people tend to send me questions all the time asking what apps I mainly use, I thought it would be helpful if I shared my Top 20 Social Media iPad Apps and How I Use Them.
- HootSuite: I use this app on every device. It can help you manage your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and makes keeping up with your social media channels easy. The HootSuite app also let’s you create cards with scheduled tweets, sent tweets, even ones for your favorite keywords. This way you can keep up with your favorite users on the go. One additional feature that I really like is that they have a built-in auto-schedule feature so that I can schedule tweets from anywhere with just the push of a button.
- Facebook Pages Manager: If you have one Facebook Page or multiple Facebook Pages, you need Facebook Pages Manager. Not only can you view the Facebook Pages that you manage, but you also can schedule updates, view messages you receive, and look at Facebook Insights – all from just this one app. I primarily use this app for managing multiple Facebook Pages and use its promoted post feature if my posts are not getting the engagement that I was hoping for.
- Facebook Messenger: Need to reach someone quickly on Facebook? For me, Facebook Messenger is an effective way to send private messages to friends and business partners. The app is also very fast too. One other feature that I like is that when you use this on your iPhone, you can now call your Facebook friends right from within the app.
- Klout: Klout comes in handy when I want to see my digital influence. The Klout app also integrates nicely with Passbook, so I instead of having to launch the app, I can just add my Klout score to Passbook and check my score, while accessing tickets and coupons in one convenient location.
- Pulse: If you’re tired of keeping notes everywhere, I recommend Pulse. For me, I use it to follow my favorite blogs, Facebook Pages and YouTube channels. If I find something I like, I can copy the link and drop it into HootSuite and hit auto-schedule, helping save precious amount of time.
- Podcast: A lot of people thought podcasting was dead. I think it’s just getting started. Whenever I’m traveling, I subscribe to my favorite podcasts to listen to on my trip. This let’s me keep up with what is going on in my field and also helps me generate ideas for future blog topics.
- Nozbe. While I love Reminders, Nozbe is my go-to app for keeping track of things I need to do. I also use it to keep me organized. This way I’m not overlooking a project or a call.
- WordPress: Ever wake up to a brilliant idea in the middle of the night, only to forget about it in the morning? Now I can fire up WordPress and create a draft blog post – right from my iPad. I use this app for jotting down new blog post ideas. I also use the WordPress app for creating posts. It’s pretty feature-rich – and even allows me the opportunity to include images right from my smartphone in blog posts. A total convenience tool.
- Analytics HD: It’s one thing to create content, but how well is your content doing? For me, Analytics HD helps me know how my site is doing. If I see that a particular topic is working well, I can head over to WordPress and create additional blog posts to capitalize on the topics popularity or Nozbe to jot down some ideas for interviews or eBooks.
- Dropbox: For me, I love the convenience of Dropbox. I can access files from anywhere in the world. I also use it to backup my photos and other important documents. It also integrates nicely with Mail so I can use it to save important attachments that people send me.
- Google: Sure, you can access Gmail and your Google Calendar, but my favorite part about the Google app is that I can hold Google Hangouts right from my iPad. Not to mention, there’s tight integration with Google+.
- LinkedIn: Simple and convenient, I use the LinkedIn app to stay in-touch with contacts. I also use it to consume content – updates from my connections, which I can easily integrate right within HootSuite.
- Filmic: While the camera on the iPad is good, it’s not great. That’s why I use Filmic for helping improve the quality of the videos that I take (some of my YouTube videos are filmed entirely with Fimic). This app let’s you improve the focus along with the brightness of your videos. This way you can shoot video with your iPad or even your iPhone and get it right every time.
- Camera+: Just like for video, the quality of photos is great (if you’re shooting in sunlight). If not, the subject of your images is usually too dark which means you end up with a bad photo that you can’t use in your blogs or on Facebook. I use this app to help take the best photos that I can (which I can then drop right into WordPress).
- Kindle: I don’t own a Kindle, but I do like the fact that I can purchase books on Amazon at a discount and read them on my iPad (or even iPhone). It’s also nice not having to lug around heavy books. Just me and my lightweight iPad.
- YouTube: If I want to watch any video tutorials, instead of going through Safari, I work right in YouTube. I can view and share videos and even check out the analytics on my own to see how they’re doing.
- Pinterest: The Pinterest app is a feature-rich app that I use to pin my favorite photos. I also use it to follow my favorite brands and to repin items I find handy. If I get some creative ideas, I use the hidden boards to take down ideas for later – yes, you can access secret pinboards on your iPad or iPhone.
- Instagram: Sure, I use Instagram for sharing some of my favorite photos (ckarasiewicz). What I mostly use it for though is adding filters to my existing photos. I simply launch Instagram, open my own photos, add my filters and save them. I’m no professional photographer, but at least I can make it look like I am!
- Bitly: Just because you’re on a mobile device doesn’t mean you have to stop working. I keep Biyl handy for shortening URL’s and for tracking click-thrus on links that I share through my social media channels.
- Atomic Web Browser: If you’ve ever had trouble accessing a website because it was “mobile only,” then you should look at using Atomic Web Browser. I primarily use this app for when I’m in a pinch and cannot access a companies full website. It allows me to trick the browser into thinking I’m on a desktop and not a mobile device. I also use this app to download items from the web – there’s a convenient download folder which integrates with Dropbox.
Overall, these are 20 of my favorite social media apps for the iPad. It’s pretty difficult to narrow down my selection of social media apps to just 20 because there are some really great apps out there. For me, I use these 20 social media apps to help me get things done more efficiently and stay on-top of what is being talked about. I even organize them into folders so that I can easily find them whenever I need to which is something I recommend you do too.
While I know I may have left off a few apps, that’s where I need your help.
Question: What iPad apps do you use for managing your social media channels? Click here to leave a comment.