Although I’m generally a paper + pen kinda girl – both for my business and in my personal life – becoming a business owner meant finding the most efficient method possible to keep track of important items like receipts, bills, mileage and also to complete my work, especially when it comes to social media. Over the last few years, I’ve found a lot of apps and online programs that claim to be helpful – and maybe they are to some people! But for me, the apps/programs I continually come back to are: Mile IQ, Later (formerly Latergramme) and Tailwind. I use a few others but these three (in addition to 17Hats) are the ones I touch every single day of my business.
Mile IQ: This program ROCKS. I don’t know about you, but trying to track mileage manually is a pain in the behind. I actually tried using this once before but wasn’t entirely serious about it – plus was worried about data – and deleted it. However, once I started shooting more, attending more meetings in person and even performing 5x/week, I knew I needed something to log miles. This app just runs in the background on your phone and logs any drive you make while the program is on. Then, all you have to do is sort them: personal or business. At the end of the year when taxes come up, it’s super easy to get the mileage you drove for business purposes in a handy, dandy spreadsheet! I also love that you can categorize things (so I was able to separate show performances from photography so when taxes come, I don’t accidently write off the wrong amount!). It’s AMAZING!
Later: For a long time, I tried to handle Instagram on my own. I tried to come up with witty comments under pressure because a post was way overdue for that morning which meant I wasn’t coming up with useful + purposeful content. While I’ll admit I occasionally still do this, I do try to use Later. Later allows you to dump any images into the software you want (website or app!), schedule out your posts for the month/week/days ahead, add hashtags and even gives you insight to how they’re performing. When I schedule blog posts, I go in and schedule as many posts related to that content as I can for the weeks ahead. This is SO helpful!! When it’s time for the post to go live, a notification comes on my phone and I just copy the caption into Instagram and voila! (It’s annoying some days that IG won’t let the third party software post directly… but WAY easier than coming up with new captions every time!). This is definitely the most helpful when I’m going to be on vacation or have a busy week – it makes sure I’m still PRESENT (even if I’m actually on the beach, ha!).
Tailwind: Tailwind is actually a newer program to me! I’m still determining how I want to use Pinterest for my business, but the other folks I work for are PERFECT for Pinterest. The problem with the Pinterest algorithm (ugh, that word!) is that unless you’re consistently pinning throughout the day AND week, you’re likely to fall to the end of the pages – meaning folks won’t find you! This is why Tailwind is helpful… You can PLAN your posts!!! You can add images directly from a blog post, your website or even upload your own pins (infographics, images from sessions, anything you can think of!). The program has a timeline and will automatically post whatever you loaded into the queue to the board you picked – keeping your posts consistent, constant and helping you build followers. You still have to manually follow other folks and boards, but you can schedule repined content from them (which is also great for your Pinterest SEO!). Guys, this is SO awesome!!!!
Although there’s tons of programs out there, these are the ones I continually come back to (alongside a few others I might share later down the road!). I’d love to hear about your favorite apps or programs for your business because efficiency is key!!! Any questions about these programs? I’d love to see if I can help so drop me a line!
xoxo
Kristina
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