When I sit down with clients to chat websites or social media, I am always recommending my favorite apps for scheduling content or staying on task, so today I'm sharing them all in one place! Whether you need a photo editing app, a digital to-do list or a way to communicate with your team, keep reading. I love technology so if it's an app that's going to make my life easier, I'm happy to test it out. Not all apps have lived up to my expectations, but these are the ones I'm happy to recommend. (And no, this isn't sponsored but it probably should be!)

1. Canva
   If you are a business owner you NEED to know about Canva. Canva is a website with a pretty sweet mobile app that allows you to design just about anything you'd hire a professional graphic designer for. Marketing materials like business cards, brochures, Power Point presentations, social media posts or ads - there's a template for that! And not just a blank template - Canva has thousands of predesigned templates that are ready to be used, you just need to add your details or logo. The app also features free stock photos and design elements to bring any concept to life. The app is free, or you can upgrade to unlock "pro" features. If you use it a lot, the pricing is super reasonable and gives you access to additional stock photos, animation tools, background remover tools, and all kinds of fun effects to turn 2-D graphics into moving animations and videos. Some of Canva's features I use most often are the pre-sized templates for FB cover images, IG posts or IG story templates, and logo or presentation templates for my clients.
   
   
2. Lightroom Mobile
   "How do you get your photos so bright?" I hear this all the time! Secret's out... I use presets with the Lightroom Mobile app. While Lightroom for your desktop computer is only available with an Adobe Creative Cloud membership, the mobile app is FREE. What is a preset? A preset is like a filter. Photographers can save settings like brightness, tint/hue or saturation and sell them as a "preset." So as a Lightroom Mobile user, all you need to do is select the preset of your choice and apply it to your photo. When you apply a pre-set, all of the above settings are preselected so you don't have to manually adjust brightness, colors, saturation etc. Many presets come in packages for achieving a specific style. You can purchase them and add them to your Lightroom app easily. Some of the best places to find presets are Etsy or Creative Market and all of the presets I've purchased have come with instructions for installing the files which is super helpful!
   
   
3. Unfold
   This is my favorite app for creating beautiful Instagram stories, reels and anything visual! I love the clean and classic layout and design options and new animation features. The app is free and works seamlessly with Instagram to make sharing your stories and feed posts simple.
   
   
4. Planoly
   I've tried a ton of apps for scheduling content and this is hands down my favorite for scheduling Instagram posts. Planoly offers a great visual so you can see what your feed will look like and it makes it easy to save your hashtags into groups so you can reuse them. I do most of my planning on desktop, and use the mobile app to check on things and With the free plan you can upload and plan up to 30 images per month to your feed and for some of my clients this is enough. If you are planning multiple carousel posts per month, upgrading to the "Solo" plan will give you more uploads.
   
   
5. Post Planner
   If you're scheduling Facebook content, Post Planner is the best! I have been using this app for about 3 years and it has changed the way I schedule content - making it faster, allowing me to set some posts as "recurring" if I'm promoting a special event or want to re-share evergreen content. Post Planner allows you to create a unique schedule for each of your accounts and add items to a que instead of having to select a date and time for each post. Post Planner allows you to create a content library for each of your accounts which is a major time saver, and you can also search their content library for links, articles and recent events.
   
   
6. Evernote
   I've used this app for years and over time it's grown from a notes app to a full feature productivity app. I love that it syncs from my laptop to my phone and in addition to notes you can crate tasks and reminders. If you need something that's simple enough to figure out in a few minutes, but robust enough to handle all your needs, Evernote is a great choice.
   
   
7. DropBox
   This might seem like an odd one to have on this list, but if you are a creative that's managing tons of photos or files, DropBox makes it easy. I love the way the desktop app shows all my files in my file explorer (I use a Microsoft Surface Pro) and the mobile app for my iPhone syncs quickly and makes it easy to find images or graphics when I need them. 
    
8. Slack
   We manage a ton of projects at once and to keep track of where we're at with every project my team and I use Slack. Slack is free and is a great tool for catching up, sharing ideas and organizing conversations using hashtags. Slack isn't or task management, but for communication it works well.

If you're ready to get organized or dive into content creation these apps will definitely save you time and help you create beautiful, cohesive graphics and visuals. Improve your photo game with presets and share things easily from one device to another with DropBox and Evernote. Have questions? Don't hesitate to reach out! I'm happy to offer a complimentary social media or website design consultation to each of my clients so contact me today.

-Rachel