5 Smartphone Apps to Enhance Social Media Marketing

Smartphones have become important tools for communication and connection in most people’s lives. For the social media marketer, a smartphone can serve multiple functions. Once you know the different tasks you need to perform, you can choose the smartphone apps that will help you do your job.

Here are several app categories based on social media marketing activities along with a few of the most popular apps that fit in each category.

1. Native Social Network Apps

While this may be stating the obvious, access your most-used social networks through their native apps. From X (formerly Twitter) to LinkedIn and Pinterest, major social network has its own corresponding app.

Other social-powered networks like Yelp, Reddit, and Quora also have their own apps. Facebook has several related apps including Instagram, What’s App, Messenger, Threads, and Meta Business Suite.

Most social networks operate similarly on the web although chances are their mobile apps have some additional features. Some have limited functionality on their desktop versions including Instagram and TikTok while a few are mobile only such as Snapchat.

Having the native social network apps on your smartphone is the bare minimum needed to properly manage them, particularly on the go.

2. A social media dashboard

Jumping from app to app can be time-consuming, but you can streamline the process for monitoring and responding to conversations happening in your social networks by using a social media dashboard. Popular ones such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social provide the tools you need to keep an eye on multiple social networks and manage customer communications.

3. A planner and scheduler

Some apps offer more specific functionality that may be included in a social media dashboard but could be easier to use when more focused. For example, Buffer can help you easily schedule posts based on a custom posting schedule and to share or queue up content you find on the web that you’d like to share with your followers. Another scheduler that covers multiple social networks is Later. An app like Planoly can be especially helpful for planning out your Instagram publishing schedule based on the arrangement and aesthetic of your visual posts.

4. A design app

Not a designer or are a designer but looking for easy-to-use tools to produce social media graphics and videos quickly? Canva has dominated the design category for producing a wide variety of social media-friendly visuals, but Adobe has released a competitor called Adobe Express to provide design templates, photo and video editing tools, and pre-sized files for everything from headers to square and vertical images.

5. Photography apps

Round out your social media app mix with some photo editing and enhancing apps such as Camera+ (iOS only) and VSCO that provide a variety of filters to modify your image in one click. Looking to easily add text onto an image? Phonto is one of the many apps that provides this feature (and Vont is the app for adding text to videos).

Other apps provide sets of filters to alter your images to appear like a Polaroid or a vintage photograph such as Hipstamatic. You can develop a particular style for your social networks or for specific campaigns by using a filter and other embellishment features such as frames that can be found in photography apps.

Whether you’re on an Android phone or an iOS-based device, there are many apps you can download to streamline and enhance your social media marketing efforts. Remember to keep your apps updated to take advantage of the latest features. Make sure to organize the apps on your device in a way that gives you fast access to the tools you need when you need them.