Quick links to set up Facebook Google Business Profile TikTok Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Pinterest If you’ve recently launched a new business or you’re an entrepreneur ready to release your brand, you’re probably thinking about how best to find customers and tell your story. The answer of course is online. If your brand is online you have access from local all the way to a global customer base. If your current experience of social media is keeping in touch with family and friends, setting up social media channels for your small business might feel onerous. But it doesn’t have to be. If your brand is online you have access from local all the way to a global customer base. Here’s our easy-to-follow guide to set up social media channels for your brand so you can start reaching out quickly and painlessly. Facebook This is the most popular social media channel and its shares have the greatest impact on Google rankings. Before you can sign up for your Facebook Business Page, you need to log into your personal Facebook account. So, if you’re not already logged into your personal account, log in now, then go into the Page creation steps. How to set up Facebook: Sign up for Facebook Page here. Follow the prompts to create your business Page. For your page name, use your business name. For category, type a word (or two) that describes your business. Add short summary of your business in the Description field, and click Create Page. Upload a profile (logo) and cover images for your Facebook Page. When you’re happy with your selections, click Save. Now you have Facebook Business Page created. This is your business's Facebook Page with minimal information, you can always add more information either now or later. Tip: When you have Facebook Page up and running you can connect it with all your other social channels to a social media marketing tool. Google Business Profile Google Business Profile is a free business profile on Google Maps and Search. It's a great tool for any business, especially if your business has a location(s) such as bakeries or barbershops. How to set up the profile: Sign in to Google Business Profile. Sign in to your Google Account, or create one. In some cases, your business might already have a profile automatically created by Google (e.g. restaurants, hotels, etc). Thus, you need to first get access to (claim) your business. Enter your business’s or chain’s address. Choose how your business will display on Google Maps. Search and select a business category. Enter a phone number and website. Verify your business, and select a verification option. Tip: When you have Google Business Profile up and running you can connect it with all your other social channels to a social media marketing tool. See also how to connect and verify Google Business Profile through Hookle. TikTok TikTok is a rapidly growing social media platform known for its viral content and engaged user base. Setting up a TikTok account for your business can help you reach a younger and highly active audience. How to set up an account: Download and Install the TikTok App, then sign Up or Log In. Create a Business Account: Tap on Profile in the bottom right corner to access your profile. Then, click on the Menu in the top right corner -> Settings & Privacy -> "Manage Account" and select "Switch to Business Account. Follow the instructions to set up your TikTok business profile. Follow the prompts to link your Instagram account if you have one. Customize Your Profile: add a profile picture (business logo) and a bio that describes your business. In your profile's "Website" section, add links to your business website. Engage with TikTok Community: Explore the platform to understand its unique style and trends. Engage with other users, follow relevant accounts, and participate in challenges to boost visibility. Create your first post. Record a video with your device's own camera or TikTok's app features. Use popular sounds, effects, challenges, and relevant hashtags for increased visibility and engagement. TikTok is a dynamic platform where creativity and authenticity thrive. Have fun experimenting with different styles of content and engaging with your audience to showcase your business in a unique and exciting way! Tips: Maintain a regular posting schedule for maximum engagement. Aim for a few posts per week to stay active and visible. Utilize Hookle's auto-posting feature to streamline this process while also publishing across your various social media platforms simultaneously. Instagram As Facebook owns Instagram, it’s better to sign up to Facebook first as it helps to create your Instagram profile. How to set up Instagram: Go to Instagram here and set up a professional account. Fill out information like contact and location. Add a Contact button. Convert it to a Professional account. Add a logo and create a bio, and point followers to your website. Make your first post with an image of your brand. Find other accounts that reflect yours and follow them. Tip: When you switch to a Professional account on Instagram, you’ll be asked if you want to link a Facebook Page. This is strongly recommended but not mandatory. By integrating your Facebook Page with Instagram, you can get the most out of Instagram professional tools. When you have an Instagram professional account up and running you can connect it with all your other social channels to a social media marketing tool. Read Instagram for beginners: 5 steps to start using Instagram for your business if you want to learn more about Instagram basics. LinkedIn LinkedIn is a business networking social channel and you can comment and share as a brand. This works similarly to Facebook. How to set up LinkedIn: Go to LinkedIn and set up your account. Click here to get to LinkedIn Pages and select the page type. Fill out the information (guided) and include your website address. Add a logo and cover image. Confirm you are authorized to create the page and click Create. Now you can interact on LinkedIn through your business page. Tip: When you have set up LinkedIn Page for your business you can connect it with all your other social channels to a social media marketing tool. Twitter 64% of Twitter users are likely to buy from a brand they follow online, so you should sign up your brand to this social media channel. You can have multiple Twitter accounts, so don’t worry if you have a personal account already. 64% of Twitter users are likely to buy from a brand they follow How to set up Twitter: Sign up here to Twitter. Enter your business name (@yourbusinessname) and your phone number or email. You’ll be sent a code to verify the account. Set up a password. Choose a profile photo and header photo . Create a display name. Go to your profile and create a bio, your business location, link to your website, and your business hours if you have a physical store. Create your first Tweet that says everything about who you are and what you do. Now go find people and brands that reflect yours, and start following people. Pinterest With Pinterest, you can get your business in front of 400 million people looking to buy, make and do. Having said that, Pinterest is not just a social network. It's a visual search engine and productivity tool where you can get easily tons of amazing inspirations for almost anything. How to set up Pinterest: Sign up here to Pinterest. Click create a free business account. Enter your email and set up a password. Enter your business name, and choose your business type. Add a website (optional) and pick topics you're interested in. You're done! Connect all your social channels to a social media marketing tool With so many social media channels you may be wondering how you’re going to manage them all by yourself. This is where social media manager and scheduler apps come in. There are many scheduler apps for different purposes, and thus we have listed a few for you to choose that best fit your needs. With a management app, you can publish, schedule, and monitor all your social media in one place. Some apps even support Google Business Profile, which is incredibly important for your business to be visible across Google services. With a management app you can publish, schedule, and monitor all your social media in one place If you want to read more about how to choose the right social media channels for your small business, you might consider reading this blog post. We wish you good luck in socializing and growing your small business! For an easy tool to plan, share and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App.

Photo by Rubén García on Unsplash Shortcuts Always post with images Try different keywords and combinations Go for liveliness Use colors that highlight your brand Post multiple pictures or carousel Unsplash is a website that shares stock images that you can use for free in your social media posts. With Hookle's Unsplash integration, you can add Unsplash images directly to your posts as you are creating them. With over 4 million images available, Unsplash is an easy way to add some flair to your posts. Here are some quick tips to get started! 1. Always post with images Research has consistently shown that posts with images get better engagement. Even on platforms that mainly work on text, such as Twitter, adding a photo to your post significantly increases the chances of your followers sharing or liking it. Research has consistently shown that posts with images get better engagement With Unsplash allowing you to easily find an image to any post, there is no excuse to post without one! 2. Try different keywords and combinations Unsplash's keyword search helps you find exactly what you're looking for, but sometimes it is useful to try a few different angles. Maybe "office" does not quite yield the photos that you want, but a slightly different keyword such as "laptop" does - experiment! You can also combine keywords. For example, the search "coffee laptop" or "coffee work" will yield tons of photos of depicting a coffee-powered night at the computer - if that's what you're looking for. 3. Go for liveliness Energetic and lively images tend to perform the best on social media. While you want to avoid photos that are too cluttered, choosing the livelier of two options - for example, a coffee cup held by a hand instead of a cup resting on a table - is likely the right choice. Energetic and lively images tend to perform the best on social media 4. Use colors that highlight your brand When choosing which of the dozens of great Unsplash images to add to your post, pay also attention to the color scheme. Photos with bright colors tend to engage more, and of course, if your brand is associated with a particular color, using that color is always a plus. 5. Post multiple pictures or carousel It is good practice to post multiple pictures once in a while. Multi-image posting is a convenient way to, for example, tell a story from behind the scenes or introduce a new product. Multi-image posting is a convenient way to, for example, tell a story from behind the scenes or introduce a new product. Most social platforms support multi-image posting in a very convenient way - as a picture carousel. Read more about multi-image posting and tips with Hookle. Credit the author Remember to credit the author! With Hookle app, we have make it easy for you as the credits will always be added automatically when you add images from Unsplash. Crediting is optional, but we strongly encourage you to credit authors as they have done an amazing job for these millions of free high-quality images! We hope these tips will help you get started with Unsplash. Try it out, and keep you social media buzzing! For an easy tool to plan, share and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App.

Shortcuts Promote your Valentine's offer Celebrate love Share personal stories Show some love to singles as well Remember hashtags! Bonus tip 💡: Schedule Your Posts with the Scheduling Tool Valentine's Day is a big spending holiday around the world, with people spending money on their partners, friends, and even pets. When is Valentine's Day? Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. Therefore, an engaging Valentine's Day message can really boost your social media marketing - but what should you post? An engaging Valentine's Day message can really boost your social media marketing Here are five tried-and-tested tips for Valentine's Day posting. 1. Promote your Valentine's offer This one is easy. Flowers, cakes, chocolate, romantic dinners, stays, or experiences - if what you're offering has a romantic side, highlight this prior to Valentine's Day with a special offer to your followers! 2. Celebrate love Whether or not your offering can bring lovers and friends closer together, your social media greetings always can! Post a nice, simple message spreading the love, or change your brand image to something love-related. 3. Share personal stories A nice personal story is always engaging. Share a story of love or friendship from your life, and invite your followers to share theirs. You can even run a contest for the best (or worst) love story! 4. Show some love to singles as well Not everyone has a romantic partner, but everyone can enjoy Valentine's Day! See if you can share gift ideas and offer deals that let your single followers celebrate with their friends, colleagues, or pets. 5. Don't forget the hashtags Proper hashtags let people searching for Valentine's Day ideas to find your post. Use the classic ones like #Valentine and #ValentinesDay, and add something that highlights what you have to offer. Schedule Your Posts with the Scheduling Tool Hookle is a social media marketing app that lets you plan, publish, and schedule posts to multiple social media channels from one app. Try it today (with template below) and take your social media marketing to the next level! Use the template below with all its texts, hashtags and picture with Hookle and share your message directly to the world. You can also encourage your customers to share it onward. Template "Wishing you everything that makes you happiest, today and always. Happy Valentine’s Day! 💕#valentine #love #valentinesday #valentines #valentineday #happyvalentinesday #flowers #postedwithhookle"

Shortcuts Make your brand worth following Seek out other brands and influencers Make it easy to find your content Post consistently, but don't spam Analyze your data Find your tribe Engage with your audience Use advertising Nowadays, small businesses need to be online with a website and on social media with several accounts. Why? Because that’s where your audience is and therefore where your customers and clients are. Why do you need to increase social media followers? The more followers you have, the more people see your incredible business. If people follow you, it’s because they like what you do or what you offer. Converting sales is so much easier when your audience is already eager to find out more. So let’s go through 8 proven small business tips to get more social media followers: 1. Make your brand worth following This might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people think just being ‘out there’ is enough to attract followers. Tease your audience with content that makes them want to click through Think of the brands you follow and why. Your brand account has to have content that catches a potential follower’s eye and have a lot of things to like and share. Make sure your profile is filled out to give you substance and legitimacy. Give your brand a story and make it personal. Put your photo in a prominent position. Tease your audience with content that makes them want to click through. 2. Seek out other brands and influencers that align with yours and follow them Don’t do it hoping to get follows back from them. Do it because their followers might follow you as well. You want your brand to be authentic so engage positively with the people and brands that reflect yours. Like posts that resonate with you, share content that you think your followers will value, and comment where you can. People will be curious about you and go on to follow you. 3. Make it easy for people to find your content Some people are Instagram addicts, others live on Facebook, some scroll Twitter on their breaks, and some focus on LinkedIn during the week. So cross-post your content. Someone may catch you on Facebook and then find you on Instagram because they liked your photos, or they’ll see your business profile on LinkedIn and decide to follow your Twitter handle. Cast your net wide and post across all platforms, making sure you’ve placed your social media profiles on each platform. It will give you the best chance to get in front of new followers. 4. Post consistently but don’t resort to spam If you only post once in a while, you quickly become irrelevant and followers don’t need much of a reason to unfollow you when there’s so much choice. There is no hard-and-fast rule but follow the natural flow of each platform, so for instance Twitter and Instagram turn over content quickly, whereas Facebook and LinkedIn are a little slower and posts can hang around for a while. Scheduling is a great way to keep your social channels active, so you should definitely try it out! Some social media management tools have automatic reminders that help you to post consistently. Read more about how to stay active on social media when you are short on time. In addition to scheduling, you can set up a recurring posts system, which is a massive time saver. You can set certain static posts, such as events or happy hours, to be automatically repeated so that you don't need to think about scheduling or posting them separately for months or even the rest of the year. Post consistently but don’t resort to spam. But don’t post poor content, just to try and stay in feeds. It will turn your followers off and tarnish your brand. 5. Analyze your data This isn’t as technical as it sounds. All you’re looking for is trends. Find out where your followers are coming from, which posts are trending, and what time your posts are being seen. Find out where your followers are coming from, which posts are trending, and what time your posts are being seen. Then you can use your time wisely. Start posting content that’s similar to your most popular posts, spend more time focusing on the platform where most of your followers are, and schedule posts to be front-and-center at the right time. 6. Find your tribe Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter (tweet chats) have groups which are basically like-minded brands coming together for support and sharing ideas. Join a group and become an active member. If you share content, your insights, and expertise enthusiastically, you’ll get other members following you and your brand. If you share content, your insights, and expertise enthusiastically, you’ll get other members following you and your brand. 7. Engage with your audience Remember when having direct access to a global superstar through Twitter was exciting and revolutionary? It was thrilling to be able to send them a message or hear what some Hollywood star had to say directly. People love to connect to the person behind a brand. They want to know what you have to say and sharing yourself with your followers builds trust. People love to connect to the person behind a brand. So, respond to comments people leave, react to mentions you’ve had, and answer questions people post. That’s the joy of social media, isn’t it? 8. Use advertising Advertising is a great way to achieve lots of followers for most of the small businesses. Especially, when you're starting up your business you shouldn't be afraid of using ads to acquire followers. However, advertising doesn't bring results cost efficiently unless you target them properly. For a local businesses easiest way is to target ads locally. For example, as a start it would be important for a novice restaurant in Vancouver to acquire lots of followers (advertising locally in Vancouver) to create a loyal customer base quickly. After that, they are able to market completely free for customers in the future. Most of the social platforms have well guided and predefined "get followers" campaigns. Do not hesitate to dedicate a small budget to build your follower base as it will pay off later for sure! If you’ve been neglecting your social media then put these proven tips into action today and start growing your followers and your brand! Wanna make your workflow more efficient and get even more followers? Use free scheduler tool like Hookle to automate your social publishings.

As a small business owner, it can be difficult to manage social media accounts alongside managing a business. And, with so many holidays - both on social media and otherwise - it can be easy for an entrepreneur to miss something relevant to their customer base. So, without further ado, here are the key dates and social media holidays for a small business content calendar in 2021, and some ideas to get the ball rolling. January 1st New Year’s Day #NewYearsDay A great opportunity to wish customers well in the year to come. 18th Martin Luther King, Jr. Day #MLKDay Share a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., or information about current civil rights issues. 24th National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay Encourage followers to take part in a compliment chain in the comments. February 12th Chinese New Year #ChineseNewYear #LunarNewYear #YearOfTheOx Wish customers well for the Chinese New Year or share facts about previous Years of the Ox. 14th Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay Share a nice message to celebrate love and friendship. 17th Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay Host a giveaway on social media or give something to a customer 'just because.' March 5th National Employee Appreciation Day #EmployeeAppreciationDay Post about how vital your employees are to your business, or share a link to a petition for worker’s rights. 8th International Women’s Day #InternationalWomensDay #BeBoldForChange Celebrate the women important to business and in the business owner’s life. 17th St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay Share a photograph of the team wearing green. 20th First Day of Spring #FirstDayOfSpring Share upcoming releases for the season or a spring picture. April 1st April Fool’s Day #AprilFoolsDay Make a harmless joke about the business or a relevant industry. 4th Easter Sunday #Easter #EasterSunday #EasterBunny Host an Easter egg giveaway. 15th National Tax Day #NationalTaxDay Remind followers to get started filling out their taxes or share something lighthearted. May 5th Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo Share facts about Mexico or recipes for tequila cocktails. 12th Eid al-Fitr #EidAlFitr #EidMubarak Celebrate the end of Ramadan by sharing your holiday offers, or just wish your Muslim followers 'Eid Mubarak.' 31st Memorial Day in the U.S. #MemorialDay Commemorate a loved one or local hero who died in the military. June 1st Start of the Pride month #Pride2021 Celebrate the month with LGBT people by using a rainbow flag or theme. 21st First Day of Summer/Summer Solstice #FirstDayOfSummer #SummerSolstice Share plans for the summer or take a picture of a summer display in the shop. 30th Social Media Day #SocialMediaDay Share links to other social media accounts and encourage followers to interact with them. July 4th U.S. Independence Day #July4th Wish followers a happy Independence Day and share facts about the USA. 15th Get To Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay Ask customers to share a fact about themselves or a funny picture. 19th Eid al-Adha #EidAlAdha #EidMubarak Wish your Muslim followers 'Eid Mubarak' on the Feast of Sacrifice. August 21st World Entrepreneur’s Day #EntrepreneursDay Write a post about what inspired the creation of the business. 26th Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay Share facts about important women who fought for women’s suffrage. September 6th Labor Day #LaborDay Celebrate business employees or share information about workers’ rights. 22nd First Day of Fall #FirstDayOfFall Share a fall display from the shop or plans for the fall season. October 10th World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHealthDay Share information about mental health charities or host a giveaway for something mental health related. 31st Halloween #Halloween Dress up for the day or host a ‘trick or treat’ giveaway. November 4th Diwali, the Hindu festival of light #Diwali Share your holiday offers or simply wish your followers a Happy Diwali. 11th Armistice Day, Veterans Day (U.S.), Remembrance Day (U.K.) #ArmisticeDay #VeteransDay #RemembranceDay Celebrate a loved one or local person who served in the armed forces. 19th International Men’s Day #InternationalMensDay Celebrate a man who is important to the business or share statistics on men’s issues. 25th Thanksgiving #Thanksgiving Share what the team is thankful for this year. 26th Black Friday #BlackFriday Encourage followers to shop with small businesses instead of big-box retailers. 27th Small Business Saturday #SmallBusinessSaturday Talk about the importance of the local economy or what the business means to the team. 29th Cyber Monday #CyberMonday Host a giveaway or share a code that’s only available for your social media followers. December 21st First Day of Winter/Winter Solstice #FirstDayOfWinter #WinterSolstice Share plans for the season or news about upcoming events. 24th Christmas Eve #ChristmasEve #MerryChristmas Host the last giveaway of the year. 25th Christmas Day #Christmas #MerryChristmas Share a holiday picture and wish followers a great holiday season. 31st New Year’s Eve #NewYearsEve #NYE Celebrate achievements from the past year and the people that made them happen. Schedule Social Media Content with Hookle Hookle makes building a content calendar and scheduling social media posts quick, easy, and painless. With an intuitive interface, at-a-glance overviews of social media accounts, and scheduling tools, Hookle’s app is a handy tool for entrepreneurs and small business owners to take control of their social media presence without sacrificing time better spent on vital business tasks. Book a demo and find out more about Hookle.

Shortcuts Pictures are a core element of social media that can help to propel a small business’s success and brand awareness. However, correctly posting and utilizing images on social media platforms can be tricky. Each platform is designed differently and will require differently sized images for different purposes. Pictures are a core element of social media that can help to propel a small business’s success and brand awareness. Therefore, it is important for a small business to remain up to date on the best social media image sizing practices to ensure their profiles on each platform look clean and crisp. This post will help small businesses optimize their image sizing and content creation to be efficient and easy to understand, thus boosting their ability to engage their followers on social media! Facebook Facebook profile images should be at least 180 x 180 pixels. The cover image should look good at both 820 x 312 pixels (desktop) and 640 x 360 pixels (mobile). Shared images are recommended at 1200 x 360 pixels. Facebook has added the feature to post stories – these should be sized at 1080 x 920 pixels. On Facebook event pages, event cover images should be 1920 x 1080 pixels. Instagram The Instagram profile image is recommended at 350 x 350 pixels, and shared images can be in 1080 x 1080 (square), 1080 x 566 (landscape), or 1080 x 1350 pixels (portrait). Pictures used for stories on Instagram should be 1080 x 1920 pixels ideally. Pictures can be resized in the app to fit within the story’s boundaries if necessary. Twitter The recommended size for the Twitter profile picture is 400 x 400 pixels. The header image should be 1500 x 500 pixels, and the recommended size for photos is 1024 x 512 pixels. LinkedIn The LinkedIn profile photo should be at least 400 x 400 pixels, the header background should be 1548 x 396 pixels, and the recommended size for shared images is 1104 x 736 pixels. For LinkedIn business pages, the logo is recommended at 300 x 300 pixels and the cover at 1776 x 444 pixels. Article headers should be 2000 x 600 pixels. Google Business Profile Google Business Profile images are recommended at 250 x 250 pixels and cover images at 1080 x 608 pixels. Additional photos should be at least 720 x 720 pixels but can be larger. How to Resize Images If an image that is meant to be used on social media is not the correct size, there are several programs that can be utilized to resize images. One good tool is Canva, which you can use easily on your mobile as well! Final Thoughts Proper image sizing on different social media can be quite the hassle for small business owners. In the end, it is about looking good, and after updating your profile on any channel, you should get into the habit of checking that it looks good on both mobile and desktop. However, we hope that this article will give you a good starting point and make visually promoting your business on social media easier and more efficient.

Photo by dole777 on Unsplash You know that you should be more active on social media. But you are a busy person. As a business owner, you have to juggle everything. Product development, admin, marketing, sales… You name it! Summary Why It’s Important To Stay Active on Social Media How To Create a System for Growing Your Social Media Presence How Social Media Management Software Can Help You Stay Active Conclusion So how can you grow your social media presence when your plate is already full? That’s exactly what we are going to discuss today: Why it is important to stay active on social media. How to create a system for growing your social media presence. How social media management software can help you stay on track. Want to take your social media game to the next level? Read on... Why It’s Important To Stay Active on Social Media What is the most common social media marketing mistake that small businesses make? They fail to update their social media profiles regularly. What is the most common social media marketing mistake that small businesses make? They fail to update their social media profiles regularly. Often, when the initial enthusiasm wanes, they start posting less and less often, until their social media profiles are completely neglected. It immediately raises a lot of questions: Is the information provided still accurate? Is this company still open for business? Is it even a legitimate business to begin with? At that point, it’s often easier to simply go to the competitors instead of trying to figure out what’s going on. So if you want to get into social media marketing, you need to take it seriously and commit to it. How To Create a System for Growing Your Social Media Presence You can’t rely on that initial burst of enthusiasm to carry you all the way through to having an engaged social media following. You need to have a simple system that will allow you to consistently grow your social media presence: Collect relevant content Set aside time for social media marketing Create a content calendar 1. Collect relevant content: Your followers didn’t click the “Follow” button to get bombarded with endless sales pitches. Sure, an occasional promotion is fine, but the majority of your status updates should be content that provides value to them. That can be tips and tricks, industry news, articles, stories, etc. Have a look at our 8 quick tips to get started! 2. Set aside time for social media marketing You may have heard the saying: “If it’s not on your calendar, it doesn't exist.” The truth is that if something is important to you, you need to put it on your calendar because “I’ll get to it when I have the time” means that you will never get to it. So set aside time each week for: Creating posts. Scheduling posts. Answering comments. Analyzing the data. Ideally, you want to create a regular slot in your schedule for all this, so that each week you’d work on social media marketing on the same day and at the same time. Of course, running a business can get hectic, so if a regular slot isn’t feasible then at least make sure that there is a slot for it each week. What matters is that you put it in your schedule. 3. Create a content calendar You don’t want to be flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to social media marketing. You don’t want to be flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to social media marketing. That’s why it’s important to use social media management software (like Hookle in the picture) that allows you to schedule your posts in advance. That way, you can upload your social media posts for the whole week or month in one go, and then they will be published automatically according to the schedule you have set. This also allows you to stay focused on your work throughout the week without getting distracted by social media. Another way to increase engagement is to set up a recurring posts system, which is a massive time saver. You can set certain static posts, such as events or happy hours, to be automatically repeated so that you don't need to think about scheduling or posting them separately for months or even the rest of the year. How Social Media Management Software Can Help You Stay Active Modern social media management apps such as Hookle offer many useful features that help you stay active. In addition to making the drafting and scheduling of content easy, Hookle offers reminder notifications that help you with time management: "Performance alert" warns you when your performance (Social Score, score between 0-100) drops significantly. Once you get this alert, you should schedule new posts soon to keep your audience engaged. "Activity reminders" remind you to stay active on social media if you haven’t posted anything in a while. This is especially helpful when things get crazy at work. “One Hour Before” reminds you that a scheduled post is about to be published so that you can take one last look at it and make any last-minute changes if needed. “Successfully Published” reminders that a scheduled post has been published, which allows you to jump right into the comment section, interact with your followers, and encourage a discussion. Learning how to efficiently use these and other features, in the way that works for you, can help you stay active on social media. Modern social media management apps such as Hookle offer many useful features that help you stay active. Most importantly, it allows you to have peace of mind so that you don't have to try to remember what you need to do on social media and when. Conclusion Social media marketing, with the help of the right tools, can be a powerful way to get your message out there. However, it’s important to understand that building an engaged social media following requires a sustained effort over an extended period of time. Social media marketing, with the help of the right tools, can be a powerful way to get your message out there. And the only way you can keep up that sustained effort over weeks, months, and even years is by creating a system that allows you to grow your social media presence on autopilot. So get serious. Start collecting interesting content, make space for social media marketing in your schedule, and create a content calendar. Also, enable reminders to keep you on track! For an easy tool to keep your business active on social, share, and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App.

Shortcuts Photos of your product or service Photos from behind the scenes Tips on your product or service Teasers and announcements Links to your blog posts Links to content elsewhere Reviews and testimonials Re-posts of successful content Do you know you should keep your channels active and your followers engaged, but you are short on time? Here are eight tried and tested tips on effective content that you can create quickly to send off right now, or pick a couple of ideas from the list and schedule them over the next few weeks to keep your social channels buzzing. 1. Photos of your product or service Your followers follow you because they love what you are doing. Keep them happy by showing them your latest creations! 2. Photos from behind the scenes Show the people behind your business - how they create what your customers love, or what they do to have fun! Tip: use multiple photos to tell a story! 3. Tips on your product or service Is there a way your customers could get more out of your product or service? Post and tell them! 4. Teasers and announcements Do you have a new product feature, event, or service coming up or just launched? Let your followers know! 5. Links to your blog posts Do you keep a blog that you'd like to share to your followers? Social media is a great way to promote your favorite posts in your blog! 6. Links to content elsewhere Maybe you came across a post or article online that might interest your followers? Share the link to your feed and help your followers find it! 7. Reviews and testimonials Have you received particularly inspiring feedback from your customers? Let your followers know, and include a photo of your product or service for extra impact! 8. Re-posts of successful content Do you have an old post that was well-received? Don't be afraid to post your top posts again for your new followers to see! For an easy tool to share and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App. Download Hookle now for free!

Shortcuts Trendy look Eye health Better focus Blue light suppression Saves energy How to enable the dark mode in your Android and iOS. As more of us continue to spend time indoors on mobile devices, dark mode is one emerging trend that is easy on the eyes in more ways than one. Major tech companies like Apple and Google have made it available on their platforms and devices, and in October 2020, Facebook (finally!) included a dark mode option almost a year after Instagram did. Google has successfully launched dark mode in several apps like YouTube and Calendar to the delight of many, and cell phone manufacturers have realized that this trend is here to stay. Dark mode is one emerging trend that is easy on the eyes in more ways than one. Having a dark mode option gives apps a cool, sleek, and modern aesthetic, to be sure. But there are a few other, less obvious benefits that come with utilizing dark mode. As more people come to understand the ways that dark mode can benefit their health and well-being, extend battery life, and improve the overall user experience of their favorite applications, this feature will continue to become more widely available. This post will show you some of the main reasons why you should consider switching your mobile experience to dark mode now. What is dark mode? When apps enter dark mode, the interface darkens, and the colors are inverted to make consuming digital content easier on the eyes. Instead of reading black text on a bright white screen as you usually would, the text in dark mode shows up as white in a sea of black. Dark mode works on most newer Android and Apple phones and Mac computers, in apps that support this feature. For some apps, dark mode automatically comes on according to the display settings you set for your device. Other apps let you toggle back and forth between dark and light modes as you please. What are the benefits of using dark mode? 1. Trendy look Dark mode just looks cool, and it makes apps look new, sophisticated, and even a little mysterious. Dark mode really makes images pop on apps like Instagram, so photographers especially love it. It can also make an app feel more personalized if you have the option to choose. 2. Eye health With virtual work-from-home setups, people are spending more time staring at their screens than ever, and dark mode is an easy way to reduce eye strain. Between time spent watching TV, browsing on mobile devices, or working on a computer, dark mode offers a welcome reprieve for tired eyes. Dark mode is especially helpful in low light conditions, like right before bed, and it's great for reducing glare, too. 3. Better focus Because dark mode reduces eye strain, you can spend more time using your favorite apps effectively without having to take a break. Apple says that having your content stand out in dark mode also "makes it easier to stay focused on your work." 4. Blue light suppression Another health benefit that comes with dark mode is blue light suppression. Using dark mode helps you get to sleep faster by allowing the body to produce the melatonin needed to regulate sleep patterns. Down the line, proper melatonin production can help prevent obesity and certain types of cancer, so dark mode is quite literally good for your health. 5. Saves energy When dark mode is on, the screen's individual pixels don't need to emit as much light as they normally do, so using dark mode can save quite a bit of energy and extend the life of your battery in mobile devices. Google reports that dark mode can save 15% of the battery over a typical white screen, and a whopping 60% of screen energy on full brightness. Newer iPhones and most Android devices in particular benefit from this extension to battery life. Should you consider dark mode? There are a few situations where dark mode isn't the best choice. Dark mode makes very small text and longer blocks of text harder to read, so it may not be optimal for reading longer posts or text-heavy content. Especially in bright light conditions, text in dark mode can appear washed out and becomes challenging to read. If you mostly use your device during daylight hours, switching to dark mode might not be necessary. For most users, however, the benefits of dark mode outweigh its drawbacks, and you should at least try and see how you like it. Conclusion As entrepreneurs, we like to stay ahead of the curve, which is why Hookle moved swiftly to integrate a dark mode option in our app. Customers and potential customers asked us for the choice, and we've learned a lot about its benefits while making it work for our own platform. There are plenty of benefits of utilizing dark mode, and it can also help our small business customers to make their social media management more pleasant. Dark mode isn't going anywhere, and its popularity and availability will continue to increase. There are plenty of benefits of utilizing dark mode, and it can also help our small business customers to make their social media management more pleasant. If you haven't experienced dark mode yet, do yourself a favor and give it a try. For an easy tool to share and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App - now also in dark mode.

As we have previously discussed, Google Business Profile is important because It helps people find your business when they search for you online It gives your business legitimacy Your customers are making decisions based on their searches and reviews If you’re on Google, you’re everywhere Through Hookle you can easily Create, set up, and verify your free Google Business Profile Update your business info on Google Maps and Search Keep your business active by planning and scheduling regular updates on Google Interact with customers on Google Monitor the performance of your Google presence Wouldn't you like to be the first search result that pops up for your potential customer? Wouldn't you like to be the first search result that pops up for your potential customer? By following the below steps, you can get the most out of Google Business Profile with Hookle and have your online presence stand out to your customers. 1. Create, set up, and verify your free Google Business Profile First, you need to create a new (or claim access to your existing) Business Profile on Google and manage how your business information appears across Google, including Search and Maps. It's completely free! After that, Hookle makes it easy to set up and verify your Google Business Profile in one place. You don't need to be an expert as the tool guides you step by step along the process. Even very small businesses can perform well in digital marketing, thanks to social media and other simple tools available to assist you like Hookle. Even very small businesses can perform well in digital marketing, thanks to social media and other simple tools available to assist you like Hookle. 2. Update your business info on Google Maps and Search Keeping your profile information up to date (opening hours, address, website, contact information, reviews, and more) is vital. Imagine if the customer comes to your business and it is not open because you forgot to update the opening hours in your Google Profile. Or they search for your business on Google and see that it's closed even though you are not, just because you forgot to update once again. Customers will probably never come back after such a bad experience. They will also inform their friends and write reviews about it. Keeping your profile information up to date (opening hours, address, website, contact information, reviews, and more) is vital. With Hookle, it is easy to update your business information and prevent such things from happening to your business! 3. Keep your business active by planning and scheduling regular updates on Google It is crucial to keep your profile up to date with fresh, engaging content as your latest posts on Google Business Profile are visible among the first search results for your customers. So if you don't add content regularly, it looks like your business is not active anymore. Managing social media content, as well as Google Business Profile updates, is a chore for a small business if you don't have a way to automate and schedule the posting. Managing social media content, as well as Google Business Profile updates, is a chore for a small business if you don't have a way to automate and schedule the posting. Hookle consolidates all of your business's social media, including Google Business Profile, in one place. You can plan your content and schedule posts easily to keep your online presence constantly updated. 4. Interact with customers on Google Customers can ask questions, give reviews, and upload photos on your Google Business Profile for other customers to see and learn of your business. Thus, it's important to be able to respond and react to different kinds of feedback as soon as possible. Hookle makes it simple to respond to comments and reviews without opening each social media app separately. 5. Monitor the performance of your Google presence In the Hookle dashboard, Social Score indicates the overall performance of your social media presence. It consolidates the performance of all your social media channels, including Google Business Profile, into one simple score. Account-specific performance, like your Google Business Profile performance, you can find easily in the statistics view. Post-specific performance can be seen in the Post Details view. In the Post Details view, swipe between the accounts to see the post-specific performance in the bottom left of that specific post. The total performance of the post (aggregated from the different accounts) is in the top of the post in the Post Details view. Three quick post ideas for Google Business Profile 1. Highlight a feature of your product or service The easiest way to keep your Google Profile active is by regularly posting about what you do, and brief promotional messages that tell your customers about the value that you provide them is a good way to do that. If you don't have time to come up with new content, re-publishing old posts is perfectly acceptable. 2. Post an offer or event Have an event to come or a celebration day? Why don't you try creating a promotional offer or let your customers know about your upcoming event beforehand! 3. Tell a story from behind the scenes Every business has a personality, so why not leverage that for better Google marketing? The idea is to humanize your business and strengthen each touchpoint with your brand, including Google Business Profile. If you operate an auto repair shop, introduce the team members with short, perhaps humorous, mini-bios. Or if you own a restaurant, you could choose an employee at random and tell their story. That's it - shine online with Hookle! For those not familiar with Hookle, download here and get started now for free!

Shortcuts Facebook: Mon to Fri at 8am and 3pm Instagram: Mon to Fri at 10 and 11am Twitter: Wed to Fri between 8 and 10am LinkedIn: Tue to Fri at 8am We all adhere to routines in our day-to-day lives, and these routines can help you understand when and how your audience uses social media. Today, we’re going to show you the best time to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to make sure that your posts get seen by as many people as possible. Why Does Posting Time Matter for Your Social Media Success? When you’re a small business owner, you want to make sure that you maximize the impact of the content that you create on your social media. So instead of settling for just a few views, why not get as many shares as possible? This is why posting time matters. If you’re a small business owner and you don’t have a huge audience already, you might want to avoid the most popular posting times. This is why our research and our data suggests scheduling your social media posts at medium-intensity times to steadily build your audience. Otherwise, your audience’s feeds could be “drowned” in the sea of influencers’ content, and they might not even see your posts. Keep in mind that the best posting times vary, depending on your audience and their habits. While we’ve sourced our data from major posting times studies, you should keep an eye on your own data that’s relevant to your audience. So let’s see what the best times for each network are! What’s the Best Time to Post on Facebook for Small Businesses? Source: Sprout Social Best time to post on Facebook in general: Mon to Fri - 9am to 2pm Best time to post on Facebook for SMBs: Mon to Fri - 8am and 3pm If you want to cut through the social media buzz, we recommend posting to Facebook from Monday to Friday around 8am and 3pm. If you post at 8am, the peak crowd (9am - 2pm) will still see and engage with your posts. Similarly, plenty of people are still using Facebook at 3pm. Don’t post much later than that, as people return home from work and have plenty of things to manage at home. There’s not much time left for scrolling. Best posting times for Facebook haven’t changed significantly because of COVID-19. If anything, the engagement has become more consistent. What’s the Best Time to Post on Instagram? Source: Sprout Social Best time to post on Instagram in general: Mon, Tue, and Fri - 11am Best time to post on Instagram for SMBs: Mon to Fri - 10 and 11am Similarly to Facebook, you should aim to post on Instagram during the work week - not during the weekends. This is when you’ll get the highest engagement, especially if you post in the morning. COVID-19 changed things for Instagram in terms of engagement. Previously, Wednesdays were the absolute winners, but the engagement window expanded to include pretty much the whole week. If you’re still growing your audience, it might be good not to post at peak times, when bigger accounts are posting as well. Instead, keep it consistent with a Monday to Friday schedule, and post between 10 and 11am. What’s the Best Time to Post on Twitter? Source: Sprout Social Best time to post on Twitter in general: Wed-Fri at 9am Best time to post on Twitter for SMBs: Wed-Fri from 8 to 10am Twitter definitely sees the highest engagement from morning crowds. However, this wildly varies depending on your audience and your industry. Still, Twitter has good organic reach even for accounts with few subscribers, so you can post during the peak (9am) for low-volume hashtags. If you’re targeting major hashtags that a lot of big accounts use, go for the 8-10am window. 4. What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn? Source: Sprout Social Best time to post on LinkedIn in general: Wed to Fri - 9am; Wed at 12pm; Thu: 1-2pm Best time to post on LinkedIn for SMBs: Wed to Fri - 8am Not much has changed with COVID-19, either. The main difference is expanding the window of opportunity, so you’ll get a lot of engagement even if you post around 8am and 3pm during the high-frequency days. This is great news for small business owners who are still growing their audience! Additionally, be mindful of WFH-ing (working from home). With more and more companies switching to remote work, people are signing in and checking out later. We recommend aiming for steady work days like Tuesday and Wednesday to avoid the Monday morning static (everyone’s getting ready to get back in action), or the Friday crickets. Source: Unsplash When Should You Post on Social Media? Start by posting at the recommended times. Then, refine your strategy as you learn more about your audience and their habits. For an easy tool to share and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App. Download Hookle now for free!

Shortcuts Use the right keywords Use Halloween-themed images Share Halloween “tricks” and treats Offer a seasonal discount Host a contest Fall is here and Halloween is right around the corner! Are you looking for a fun, seasonal way to engage with your audience on social media and get them interested in what your business has to offer? Why not create some easy Halloween content to (pumpkin) spice up your social media platforms? Read on for some ideas that will help you to create simple but effective Halloween-themed posts as part of your business’s social media marketing strategy. 1. Use the right keywords A good starting point when you’re trying to come up with ideas for your Halloween social media posts is to do some keyword research. This will help you to get an idea of what your target audience wants to see and what kind of posts you can create that will be helpful or entertaining (or both) to them. Use an online keyword research tool (Keyword Tool, Google Trends, and Ubersuggest are all good options) that will help you to see what people are looking for and what kind of topics you can center your posts around. Searches for Halloween costumes and Halloween-themed games are often popular at this time of year. People might also be looking for Halloween movies or Halloween or fall-themed recipes. Once you have some ideas of what people are looking for online, you can start crafting posts that address their problems and provide them with value. 2. Use Halloween-themed images It’s common for brick-and-mortar businesses to get into the Halloween spirit and invite people into their stores by decorating for the holiday. Who says you can’t do the same thing online? Halloween-themed images can help enjoy the spooky season and encourage followers to engage with your posts. By “decorating” your posts with Halloween-themed images, you can help your followers enjoy the spooky season and encourage them to engage with your posts. You might even want to consider swapping your profile picture or cover image for a more Halloween-friendly option. Changing your logo colors temporarily to reflect the season is another way to stand out. You can simply upload a spooky picture of your team or some of your seasonal products. Whether you want to go big or keep it simple, there are lots of ways to decorate and appeal to your Halloween-loving customers. 3. Share Halloween “tricks” and treats When it comes to “tricks”, it’s best to not actually pull one over on your customers and social media followers. There are plenty of ways to have fun and invite them to engage with your posts, though. Consider sharing ideas for Halloween-themed games or activities that will help them to keep their kids entertained on the days leading up to the big holiday, for example. You can also invite people to comment on your page by sharing their favorite Halloween song, movie, or a costume they wore as a kid. These comments help to boost the visibility of your page, and they also give you a chance to connect with your audience on a deeper level. This can increase their loyalty and keep your business at the forefront of their minds moving forward. As for treats, consider sharing some simple recipes for Halloween or fall-themed meals and treats. As for treats, consider sharing some simple recipes for Halloween or fall-themed meals and treats. Food-themed photos are almost always a hit, no matter what industry you’re in, so don’t be afraid to incorporate them into your social media marketing strategy. 4. Offer a seasonal discount Advertising a Halloween discount on your social media platforms is a great way to catch people’s attention and get them interested in buying what you’re selling. You might create a post promoting a 15 percent off discount on certain fall-themed items, for example. Sharing a code that people can use on their next purchase for a limited time is also a good option. If your goal is to drive traffic to your website and get people to purchase your products, you can’t go wrong by incentivizing them with the double whammy of a reduced price and a limited time offer. 5. Host a contest The Halloween season presents you with the perfect opportunity to host a costume contest on social media. Lots of businesses do this every year, and many of them see significant upticks in social media engagement as well as their follower count as a result. Invite your followers to share photos of their costumes and to tag your business in them. Then, on Halloween (or a few days before if you prefer), go through the entries and pick a few winners. The prizes could be anything from Halloween-themed goody boxes to gift certificates they can use at your business. Bonus tip: plan ahead When you’re putting together your Halloween social media marketing campaign, it’s important to plan ahead and map out your posts in advance. After all, it will take some extra work to create these posts and make sure they get published with enough time for people to see and engage with them (especially if you’re running a contest or hosting a giveaway). As a small business owner, you’re a busy person, and you might be wondering now how you’re supposed to find the time to create, publish, and manage Halloween-themed social media posts on top of everything else you have to do. Scheduling apps can be a great tool to help you streamline the social media management process. Scheduling apps can be a great tool to help you streamline the social media management process. They can help you to post to several platforms at once, and many of them also allow you to manage posts and respond to comments all from one app. Learn more about scheduling and tips here! Halloween social media post examples Hopefully, after reading through these Halloween tips, you’re feeling a little more inspired about how you can incorporate the holiday into your social media posts. It might also help to see Halloween-themed social media marketing in action, though. Here are few great examples that businesses used last year to connect with their online audience: 1. Burger King Burger King recognized the benefit of food-themed posts and combined them with some spooky “decor” (i.e., a creepy color scheme) when they introduced the Ghost Whopper on their social media feeds last year. 2. Chipotle Chipotle regularly crushes the seasonal marketing game, and the brand’s Halloween-themed social media posts last year were no exception. Every October, the restaurant offers the Boorito celebration with a good offer. 3. Lush Lush Cosmetics regularly shares fun holiday posts on social media, and their Halloween posts from last year were particularly appealing. This post showcases the brand’s beeswax cleanser and positions it as a great antidote to stubborn Halloween makeup. 4. Lunar Beauty For its Halloween-themed drip campaign for the Moon Spell Collection, Lunar Beauty (owned by Manny MUA, a YouTuber and beauty blogger) created a series of witch-themed social media posts, including this one released late in September of last year. 5. Modcloth The clothing brand Modcloth regularly finds creative ways to get its audience excited for Halloween (and shopping with them) on social media. In October of last year, the brand showcased a variety of Halloween-themed clothing pieces throughout the month, starting with this post on October 1. 6. Nothing Bundt Cakes Nothing Bundt Cakes is a bakery known for its delicious bundt cakes. In October of last year, they used their social media platforms to showcase a variety of Halloween-themed cakes perfect for any Halloween party. How’s that for a combination of Halloween treats and Halloween decor? Hookle is a free tool for small businesses to publish, plan, and schedule posts across a variety of social channels. Download and try it out here or book a free demo.

Taking care of all of your business's social media may be too much for one person, and managing and providing content for your firms' social channels is often a team effort. Hookle can make this social media teamwork much easier and more efficient for you! If you want to create a draft post that someone else in your team finalizes have a colleague double-check your post before it goes live have a teammate substitute for you while you are on vacation easily monitor what your team has published and is planning to publish manage clients in case you're a small social media agency or otherwise, team up in keeping your social media buzzing, Hookle's teamwork functionality is the solution. Hookle can make this social media teamwork much easier and more efficient for you! Hookle allows several people to be connected to your social channels, providing for a flexible approach to social media teamwork. How you like to work with your team is up to you, but in this article we will show you some possible approaches that we have found efficient in managing multiple social channels with a team. Setting up Teamwork There are two main approaches that you can use for linking team members to social channels: Teammates all use the same joint Hookle account to connect to your firm's channels, or Teammates connect to your firm's channels through their individual Hookle accounts. 1. Teamwork through joint Hookle account In the first approach, the firm sets up a single Hookle account linked to all its social media channels. Create the account with a username and password combination for easy sharing with your team. If the account was created using a social signup method (Apple, Google, or Facebook), sharing that specific password is necessary for team access, though it may be more complex. Team members can log in simultaneously to this shared Hookle account via the app, enabling them to manage all connected channels with a single login. The benefit of this approach, depicted in the example above, is that you don't need to have your team members log in to each of your social accounts separately. This also means that if you add a new team member, you only need to have them log in to your firm's Hookle account and they can immediately manage all your social media. Similarly, if you add or change a social media channel, this change is immediately live to all your team members. The downside of this approach is that all members see the same set of accounts in the joint Hookle account. This means that members that you don't need to work on a particular social channel will still have it in their list of channels. 2. Teamwork through individual Hookle accounts In the second approach, every team member has their own Hookle account. Team members can then connect these to the company's social media accounts and see and manage all the connected accounts' activity on their own Hookle accounts. In the example above, three team members are managing three social accounts - in this case, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The benefit of this approach is that the different members don't have to have the same set of accounts connected to Hookle. In this example, team members 1 and 2 are managing all of the firm's accounts, while team member 3 only participates in managing Instagram. The team members can see and edit everyone's drafted and scheduled posts on all of their connected channels, regardless of who originally made them, allowing for a flexible management of the workflow. The downside to this approach is that every member needs to connect to each social media account separately from their Hookle account. This also means that you need to give every team member the login rights (or assign them as admin) on every account you want them to manage. Of course, you can always combine the two approaches to suit your unique needs. For example, you can have several company-wide Hookle accounts, each with a different set of connected channels, where you give each team member access to the Hookle account most suitable for their role. You can use Hookle in the way that works for you! Tips and Tricks Hookle is a tool for small agencies to manage clients' social channels and offer clients the opportunity to see the results independently using their own Hookle. This is easy with Hookle's Social Score feature. Thus, include Hookle as part of your offering for your clients. Clients can also connect their own social channels to their Hookle app to track agency results. Thus, Hookle is a tool for the small agency to manage clients' social channels and offer clients the opportunity to see the results independently using their own Hookle When multiple users edit a drafted or scheduled post at the same time, your teammates may accidentally overwrite any changes that you are simultaneously making. Avoid this by taking turns and not editing over each other. Notifications pertaining to a particular post, such as the reminder 1h before publishing, go to the last person to save the post, so have this person finalize the post for scheduling. Make sure that the whole team is using the latest version of the Hookle app to avoid confusion due to different functionality. We recommend enabling auto-update in the app store so that you always have the latest version of Hookle on your phone If you are using Hookle Premium, all team members have to be Premium subscribers to use full premium functionality, unless they are using a joint Hookle account. However, free and premium accounts can connect to the same social channels, so team members who do not need access to premium functionality can keep collaborating with Hookle Premium users using their Hookle Free accounts. Update your brand logo on the Profile (tap the profile picture pen icon) to get the unified brand experience in teamwork while using a joint Hookle account. Use filter functionality to plan and search your content easier and more efficiently, especially when you have multiple accounts to manage. Hookle is a completely mobile and free tool, designed especially for small business use. Download and try it out here or book a free demo.

91% of social media users access their favorite networks from their smartphones, and smartphones are increasingly used to manage businesses' online presence as well. In this review, we’re going to show you our top 10 mobile apps for social media management. This list isn’t arranged in any particular order and it focuses only on mobile apps and mobile features - not desktop use. Additionally, we decided to put more focus on evaluating tools from a small business perspective. And by small businesses, we mean especially entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, freelancers, micro-businesses, and other small business owners that usually involve less than 10 workers. There are many existing comparisons of management tools for big enterprises, but not for small-business owners. All reviewed tools are great in their own way and within their niche. There are of course other great tools not listed here, and we would be happy to hear your experiences if you have tried other mobile social media management tools. Please let us know your ideas and thoughts here. Thank you! If you’re short on time, check out the quick breakdown below: The 10 Best Mobile Apps for Social Media Management 1. Hookle Hookle, chosen as one of the best social media management apps for iPhone, is an affordable all-in-one social media marketing app. It offers a modern user interface and all the key features you need to get started with social media management as well as planning a simple social media strategy. It’s available on iOS (rating: 4.8) and Android devices (rating: 4.6). Key Features in the mobile app: All-in-one dashboard AI Writer: generate engaging posts with help of AI AI Images: get a perfect image for your post with help of AI Smart scheduling: schedule posts at best time with help of AI Social Score: one simple metric of your performance Content calendar (Planner), easy planning of your social posts and strategy Smart guidance to get started and keep social media active Scheduling, publishing, drafts, post customization, and cross-posting Recurring posts to automate publishing Hookle Academy for tips to become successful Google Business Profile support to let your audience find you on Google Map and Search Social Networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google Business Profile. Pricing: Hookle mobile app is free for basic use. The premium plan starts from $4,99/month with annual billing - and you have a 14-day free trial. Pros: Hookle’s main advantages are its easy dashboard, AI assistant, simple performance monitoring (Social Score), and content calendar (Planner). With the help of the AI assistant, you can generate high-quality posts in seconds. The Planner is a great help when planning your monthly social postings. The Social Score monitors your analytics across platforms and condenses them into a simple score that shows your overall performance and what you should improve. Hookle is also the only app you can actually experience before connecting your social accounts - this is great for those hesitating to give out their social identity just to try out an app! Cons: Currently, Hookle's ease of use means that it does not include all the features that more complex desktop-based management tools do, such as advanced analytics. Summary: All in all, for small businesses Hookle gives great value with a modern look-and-feel for an affordable price! Hookle is completely designed for mobile use (there is no desktop). Therefore it is easy to use - all key features are accessible with the swipe of a finger directly from an intuitive dashboard. 2. Hootsuite Hootsuite is a pretty well-known social media management tool, with apps for both iOS (rating: 4.3) and Android (rating: 4.1). Key features in the mobile app: Team management Scheduling Monitoring Content curation Approval flow Analytics Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn. Pricing: Hootsuite has a free plan and 30 days free trial, and paid plans start from €29/month. Pros: Hootsuite is a good platform for scaling your social media management and marketing. You can get started with the free plan, and upgrade as you go if you pay more. They also offer plenty of resources and courses. Hootsuite's mobile app has a content calendar, which is designed for large businesses and social media departments. Composing posts works well. Cons: Their mobile app is just a tiny add-on in their offering as the main product is the desktop platform. The tool is designed for enterprise customers and with all the features it might be rather complex for small businesses. Also a post published to multiple channels ends up as separate posts in your content calendar, which makes it hard to see the big picture. There are also some uncomfortable features, such as that you cannot disconnect accounts in the mobile app - instead you need to log in to do it on the desktop. Summary: All in all, Hootsuite's mobile app is rather good, but works best for large companies and enterprises when you are using the desktop version as your main management tool. 3. Buffer Buffer has been around the block for a long time, and you can get the Buffer app for iOS (rating: 4.4) and Android (rating: 4.1). However, Buffer's main product is in desktop, and thus it is a better fit for large rather than small businesses. Key Features in the mobile app: Scheduling, publishing, drafts Post customization Team working (approval flow) Social Networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Pricing: Pricing for Buffer is modular, and starts from $15/month. There is a free 14 days trial, and you can switch to a free plan after your trial runs out. Note that if you want to e.g. create drafts you need to have a Buffer Business plan and pay $99/month extra. The Analyze product is not available on the Buffer mobile app. Pros: Buffer has a good range of functionality, although a lot of this is limited to the desktop version. One of Buffer’s advantages is their freemium plan which you can get after your free trial runs out. One of the benefits for SMBs and entrepreneurs is scheduling Pinterest posts. Cons: The pricing is a bit complex, especially since they’re divided into two key plans, Publish and Analyze. You may therefore have to pay double for features you’d get for a single price with other tools; however the Analyze plan is not included in their mobile app. There is no dashboard and it is difficult to see the big picture because you can manage just one platform at a time. Thus e.g. customizing one post to 5 social networks will end you up with 5 different posts in separate views. There is no content calendar or planner in the Buffer mobile app. Summary: Buffer has been on the market a long time so it is a rather safe choice, especially for those businesses who want to use the tool primarily in desktop mode. 4. Crowdfire Crowdfire mobile app offers many useful social media management features, with an addition of content curation. You can get the app for iOS (rating: 3.9) and Android (3.5). Key Features in the mobile app: Scheduling and publishing posts at the suggested time Curating content (share third-party articles and images) Analytics Social listening (track and reply mentions) Social Networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and (with additional upgrades) Pinterest. Pricing: Crowdfire has a very limited free plan, and the paid plans start from €10.99/month. To get advanced analytics and monitor/reply to mentions you need to subscribe to the €54,99/month plan. Pros: Crowdfire has a pretty standard offer, but curating content is a handy option if you want to streamline social media content creation. Also tracking mentions of your firm online is very handy, although it is not available on the free plan. Crowdfire's compose view is modern and simple to use. Cons: There is no content calendar so planning on the go is not as convenient as it could be. Analytics is not available for free so you need to upgrade at least to the Plus plan to get the basics. Switching between profiles is not possible on the mobile app. You cannot see all scheduled posts in one view as you need to select the account first. Summary: Crowdfire's content curation is very good, so this is the tool to go to if you are a heavy user of that feature. 5. Falcon Falcon has currently three mobile apps in both app stores for different social media purposes: Hub for scheduling, Engage for customer interaction, and Quick Publish for publishing posts. Ratings on the stores for iOS (Hub: no ratings, Engage: no ratings, Quick Publish: no rating) and Android (Hub: 4.2, Engage 3.0, Quick Publish: 4.3). Key features in the mobile app: Hub: scheduling Engage: customer interaction Quick Publish: publishing Social Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Pricing: Falcon starts from $129/month, and it comes with a 14-day free trial. Pros: Falcon has three separate mobile apps for different social media management purposes. So if you prefer to only use a mobile app for a specific task, you might find Falcon a suitable choice. Cons: Falcon is mainly targeted for bigger companies and for desktop use, so the mobile functionality is not particularly smooth. You need to request for an account (might take up to a day) in desktop before being able to use their mobile app. Falcon has three separate mobile apps, which makes it impossible to manage social networks using just one app. Pricing is not readily available, so don’t get shocked when you get in touch with them. Summary: All in all, Falcon stands out when it comes to enterprise packages that offer advertising and content curation - but in a desktop environment. 6. Agorapulse Agorapulse rolled out their mobile apps for iOS and Android a year ago, and they currently have a 2.6 rating on Google Play, and 3.3 on App Store. Key Features in the mobile app: Inbox for message and comments management per platform Follower labeling and tracking (lead management) Post scheduling and publishing Social listening (track mentions of your brand on social media) Social media analytics Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Pricing: Agorapulse plans start from €79/month. It doesn’t have a free plan, but you can get a 28-day free trial. Pros: If you are a pro user, you might like Agorapulse as there are lots of features in the mobile app. The calendar layout also looks rather good. Cons: You need to create an account in desktop before being able to use their mobile app, which is a bit overkill. Even though the calendar looks good, you can only see one platform at a time. This means you need to switch between platforms to see their specific posts, which makes it a bit harder to plan your social media strategy for different platforms at the same time. Summary: Agorapulse is slightly more expensive than what we’re used to. It’s probably best fit for bigger businesses, agencies, and social media departments. 7. Ripl Social Media Ripl allows you to create social posts from templates. It's a social media marketing tool with apps for iOS (rating: 4.5) and Android (rating: 4.0). Key features in the mobile app: Video and image creation + templates Personalized advice Posting and scheduling Some analytics Social Networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Youtube. Pricing: Ripl doesn't offer a free plan, and the paid Pro plan that includes post scheduling is $14.99/month. Pros: The main Ripl pros are video and image templates. Since social media users are big on visuals, having access to templates will help you create social media content that stands out. Cons: The user experience is not so great as the interface is not intuitive and requires effort to find basic features. Also, there is no free plan anymore so you need to subscribe to the Pro plan right away to be able to use the app, although there is a 7-day free trial. Summary: All in all, the templates-based approach is a good idea, however the implementation could be smoother. 8. Sendible Sendible is an option for managing multiple brands’ accounts, and they offer both Android (rating: 3.4) and iOS (rating: not enough ratings) apps. Key features in the mobile app: Publishing Collaboration Analytics Social listening Content curation Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Business Profile. Pricing: Sendible plans start from $29/month. Pros: Sendible has a handy priority inbox and analytics, so you might find their tool useful for customer communications and interaction. Sendible also allows you to manage the approval flow for social media posts pretty conveniently. Cons: Sendible has two separate apps in the app stores (Sendible Engage and Publish), which makes it impossible to manage social networks using just one app. Navigation in the app is a bit complex as there is no clear dashboard or home view. Basically these mobile apps are just add-ons for their desktop product. There is no free plan. Additionally, you must register through the desktop version as registration is not supported on mobile. Summary: The approval flow management makes Sendible useful for agencies and large companies. However, if you’re a local business owner, the handiest feature is posting to Google Business Profile. 9. Sprout Social Sprout Social is a social media management platform with iOS (rating: 4.5) and Android (rating: 3.2) apps, but does it work for small businesses? Key features in the mobile app: Scheduling and posting Community management Analytics Social media listening Customer profiles Social Networks: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Pricing: Sprout Social plans start from $99/month, and it has a 30 days free trial, but no free plan. Pros: There is pretty good onboarding on desktop, but unfortunately not in mobile. In general, you get a pretty professional feeling using their mobile app - the colors and the theme is nice, and it feels like a modern app. There is a good range of features, including integrated CRM. Cons: Sprout Social is definitely a lot more expensive than most of its competitors and there is no free plan. Also again, you need to sign up first in their desktop product to be able to use the mobile app. There is no dashboard in their mobile app to see the performance of all your social media in one view. Summary: The main benefits of Sprout Social are professional level analytics/reporting and integrated customer relationship management, but those can be overwhelming when you’re starting out. 10. StatusBrew StatusBrew has standard features, as well as Android (rating: 3.5) and iOS (rating: 1) apps, for managing your social media on the go. Key features in the mobile app: Bulk scheduling and posting Analytics (per platform) Message management Social listening Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Business Profile, and LinkedIn. Pricing: StatusBrew has a 7-day free trial, and the plans start from $9,99/month. Pros: You can connect one account per each platform to StatusBrew for free. They have a dashboard that indicates the number of scheduled posts per platform and top performing posts. To be able to use Google Business Profile is a plus. Cons: You can send the same post to multiple accounts but end up seeing the posts separately. StatusBrew doesn’t really offer anything that stands out even though it’s one of the most expensive platforms. Seems like Google Business Profile needs to be connected using desktop. Summary: We recommend it only if you’re working with a social media management team, using their mobile app as an add-on to their desktop tool. Hookle is a completely mobile and free tool, designed especially for small business use. Download and try it out here or book a free demo.

Shortcuts Show multiple facets of an event, product, or person Use the first image to get the attention, and the subsequent images to provide further information Show the progression of an exciting process Guide your followers, step by step Engage your followers’ brains with quizzes Social media is more visual than ever, and no firm can use it to its full potential without including images in its posts. Nowadays, most social media platforms allow you to include multiple images in a single post, letting you communicate more visual information in one go. But should you post multiple photos, and if so, when and how? Social media is more visual than ever, and no firm can use it to its full potential without including images in their posts. First, if you don’t have a good reason to post multiple images at once, sticking with one per post should be your go-to play. Only the first image is typically shown to your followers when they are browsing the social platform, which means that the rest are only seen by those who actively go look for them. Many people are passive browsers and won’t be bothered going through the image carousel – and many people may not even notice that there is more than the first photo to see. However, when used correctly, multi-image posting can give you new, effective ways to engage with your followers. A good rule of thumb is that the images should in some way work together to provide more engaging content than they would in isolation. Below are five great ways to use multi-image posting to increase your engagement. However, when used correctly, multi-image posting can give you new, effective ways to engage with your followers. 1. Show multiple facets of an event, product, or person This is the most common and easiest way to use the multi-image functionality. Simply take several photos of whatever it is you want to show your audience – an event your company attended, a new product or product line that you want to highlight, or a person you wish to introduce – and add them to the carousel. Multi-image post gives the interested followers more visual information than a single photo and increases their engagement, while keeping your feed from getting crammed by overly similar content. Multi-image post gives the interested followers more visual information than a single photo and increases their engagement 2. Use the first image to get the attention, and the subsequent images to provide further information Perhaps you want to communicate something a bit more complex, such as a new product or service, that is not easily communicated in one photo and may even need some explanation to be fully appreciated by your audience. Instead of presenting your followers with a wall of text, you can start by showing them a “teaser” photo first – something that tells them that they should check out what you have to say. Then, add images containing text and photos that let them know the full story, with all the detail that you want them to know. 3. Show the progression of an exciting process Many firms have loyal customers that would love to see how their favorite product is made, so make use of the multi-image to show them! Many firms have loyal customers that would love to see how their favorite product is made, so make use of the multi-image to show them! The first image can let them know what you’re going to show them, with the subsequent images showing the process from the start to the finished product. You can also showcase other processes, like before and after photos of your service, or how your store looks through the changing of the seasons – the only limit is your imagination! 4. Guide your followers, step by step Sometimes, the process that you want to show is a process that you want your customers to learn. Perhaps your website has a new exciting booking feature that you want showcase to your customers, or maybe your audience needs to see how easy-to-use your product really is to fully appreciate it. Whenever you want to post a step-by-step guide in your social channels, multi-image is the way to go! Whenever you want to post a step-by-step guide in your social channels, multi-image is the way to go! 5. Engage your followers’ brains with quizzes A great way to promote active engagement with your content is to make your followers think. Ask an intriguing or thought-provoking question related to your business in one image, and provide an answer in the next. Ask an intriguing or thought-provoking question related to your business in one image, and provide an answer in the next. This gives your audience a reason to flip through your content and engage. Try to keep the quiz relevant to your business, and end it on a high note – maybe a call to action. For an easy tool to share and schedule posts to all your social networks, you can try the Hookle App. Download Hookle now for free here!