5 Programs to Take Your Social Media Marketing to the Next Level

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – If you aren’t using social media for your business, you are doing yourself a huge disadvantage. While most people are using social media to promote their business, they may be missing out on several programs that can help take their social media marketing to the next level. Here are some of those platforms.

As a salon owner, we know you are always busy and may forget to post regularly on social media. Hootsuite is an awesome platform that allows you to schedule posts in advance. You can manage all of your social media posts on one platform. You also have access to detailed analytics to see how well your posts are performing and monitor your growth. For the “professional” plan, you can maintain 10 social profiles and schedule unlimited posts for $29 per month.

Not an expert in Photoshop? With Canva, you can create Photoshop worthy designs using their premade templates! From digital (social media graphics) to print (posters and menus), even the least creative person can design anything on Canva. The best part is, Canva is free to use! You’ll have access to over 8,000 templates, 1 GB of storage, and two folders to organize your designs. If you want access to 400,000 free photos, illustrations, and templates, you can upgrade to their premium version for $12.95 per month.

Nowadays, having a cohesive looking Instagram feed is key to gaining more followers. But unless you are a professional photographer or influencer, you may struggle to envision your feed before you post a photo. That’s why we love Planoly. It allows you to upload and plan your Instagram feed before you post the photos. You can also schedule posts, stories, and track your analytics. Planoly is also free to use if you are only uploading 30 posts per month. If you are a daily poster, you can upload unlimited posts for just $7 per month.

Instagram stories are very important. They can be extremely simple or highly curated. To give your Instagram stories a facelift, try Unfold. Like Canva, Unfold has a variety of templates to create aesthetically pleasing Instagram stories. Unfold is an app on your phone that is very simple to use. Unfold is free to download but they do offer certain story packages for a small fee.

Finding photos to use for a website or social media can be tricky. Unsplash and Pexels offer free stock images that you can use anywhere under their creative commons license. They have a huge library of images from travel, holiday, and even beauty. Both of these platforms are free to use! They do encourage you to recognize the artist who made the photo you are using. What are your favorite social media marketing platforms? Tell us in the comments below!