As business owners, we all spend a large part of our time creating content to use in our marketing on social media.

I don’t know if you know this about me yet, but I am ALL for making my life easier wherever possible!

There are so many apps, websites and tools available to make our lives easier when it comes to business so I thought it was about time I shared my favourites with you.

I started off thinking just about online tools that I use, but looking at my desk and my day, it became clear that I always use a couple of offline tools too so I’ve included those as well. Despite making a living from social media marketing, I’m not ready to give up my trusty paper and pen just yet!

These 5 things are what I use day in day out to create for both myself and my clients. They are by no means the only things I use, but they are certainly the most used by a long way.

Number 1 - Canva - it is something I use pretty much daily. All my graphic posts are created there and I use it for client content too, adding logos to photos for example.

It has huge amounts of templates you can use for free and all the sizes for the various social media platforms.

There is both a free or pro paid version depending on your needs. Unlike some apps and sites, the free version offers quite a lot of flexibility. With Canva, it is by far easier to use the web version on your laptop than to try and design using the app on your phone.

You can then download your graphics to your computer for scheduling or if posting on your phone, open the app on your phone and save your design there.

Number 2 - Facebook Business Suite - I talk about this alot as it’s where I schedule posts. It also gives you access to your messages and comments and you can look at your Insights too.

It allows you to schedule Stories if you want to (although I don’t necessarily recommend this, the point of Stories is that they are a bit more ad hoc and ‘in real time’).

What I love about it, is you can add your copy and image once which will post to both but then you can edit it individually for each platform e.g taking off the hashtags on your Facebook post.

This is a totally free service too and you access it through Facebook, it’s there on the left hand side when you log in.

Number 3 - Flick Hashtags - if you’ve worked with me before, you’ll know I find hashtag research THE most boring part of Instagram strategy. But it is important to help you get new eyes on your content.

In Flick you pop in your suggested hashtag and it tells you not only the size of it (remember you’re looking for ones under 500k ideally) but it also gives you related ones you can use too. You can save them into various categories and copy and paste them into your content when writing your posts.

It saves a lot of time!

This is a subscription service, and I do pay to use this. If you want to try it, I have a referral code for 10% off your first month

Number 4 - Janet Murray’s Social Media Planner - this isn’t an app, or on the computer, in fact it’s a paper diary, specifically for planning your content. I find it really useful to use when planning my content in advance. It also provides a whole host of awareness days to use should I need some inspiration. I’ve used these ever since I started my biz and have just ordered my third one.

Number 5 - Yes Mum Cards - now these aren't specific to my biz, in fact I’ve had them since I was a stay at home Mum, to give me a little pep and reframe when I needed it.

There are now plenty of business specific cards on the market which will give you some advice, reframing and a little hug when you need it (always necessary for those of us working on our own).

But these cards sit on my desk reminding me I have totally got this. I pulled out ‘I do not compare myself to others’ this morning and if that’s not a good reminder to us all I don’t know what is.

I’d love to know what you think about these tools? Do you use them? Are you going to try them? Or do you have a must-have tool you’d like to share? Let me know below...

🌟My Top 5 Favourite Tools 🌟