I realized that I left a big part out of my Favorite Blogging App series - promoting! If you've been blogging for any amount of time you know that getting your blog out there and read is important whether you have commissioned posts or just want to meet new people. Of course for most of us, we have school, jobs, children, and like sleep so getting something out on each and every social media outlet can be very time consuming.
Fortunately there are apps to help with that. These are the ones I use most often.
IF - formerly IFTTT. Available on iOS & Android.
IF utilizes recipes. There are tons and tons of recipes in their database, but if you can't find exactly what you're looking for you can always make your own. These recipes do everything from turning on a light in your house, to automatically downloading all of your Instagram pictures, to automatically tweeting when you've posted a blog post. It's based on an IF/THEN statement which shows you just how versatile this app can be.
The recipes I use for my blog the most are:
- Send a tweet when you post about something on your Blog.
- Post Instagram picture on Twitter as a picture (not a link).
- If any new post on your blog, then create a link post on your Tumblr blog.
You can also use it to automatically post about your newest post on your Facebook Page. I had that one but it wasn't working correctly with my current Blogger template and I haven't gone back to look through it. And don't worry if you have Wordpress. It works the same way. The best thing about IF is that you don't have to think about it. The app works in the background, so as soon as one of the IF statements are triggered, it automatically does the THEN.
I know this post is for promoting your blog but you really should give IF a looksie. They have so many different recipes to make your life a lot easier.
Hootsuite - Available on iOS, Android
Hootsuite is a beast of an app. It can take so many of your social media accounts and show you their feed, schedule their posts, and even give you analytics on them. For those who have group blogs or shared Facebook pages, this app will alleviate all of your drama because it allows for awesome integrated collaboration. There is a free and a paid version depending on your needs.
I use Hootsuite to schedule most of my tweets. Hootsuite has this "smart" autoscheduling that will try to schedule your post at an optimum time of day. What I love most about the app is that it will auotmatically shorten your links - no need to head to Bitly before composing. It also will show your Twitter pictures as native instead of links which helps with audience connection.
There is also a desktop Chrome app which allows you to easily share any website, picture, story, or Pin on the web with just a click of the button.
I admit that I haven't delved into this enough to utilize all of its capabilities but just the Twitter thing does it for me. It's invaluable and I hardly even use the actual Twitter app anymore.
Facebook Groups - Available on iOS & Android.
Facebook has gotten so much better separating all of its components. The Groups app allows you to manage, connect, share, and view all of the groups you are a part of. No need to go through your personal feed to get to what you really want. From here you can add to a thread, comment, or share your own post. This is what I use to read a lot of the daily group threads for my various blogging groups. You have the option of notifications for each group, which I love, because I am a part of some groups that I don't need to be constantly up to date with. This option lets me pick and choose which groups or actions I think are worthy of notifications. Easy to use with a simple yet useful layout.
Facebook Pages Manager- Available for iOS, Android.
The Facebook Pages Manager lets you post, comment, look at your Insights, chat, and schedule posts to your Facebook Page. This app is easy to use and helps when you don't want to be bothered by your personal Facebook feed. I love that it allows me to add posts from this app as opposed to waiting until I'm at my desktop. It also makes it easy to connect with readers since you have the option of putting notifications on. There's not much to say about it, but it's definitely a life saver.
So that's what I use on a daily basis. What about you? Are there some apps I've completely overlooked that would make my life so much easier? Let me know in the comments!
