The Best Social Networking Apps

At Brave Media, we understand that digital marketing is a forever-evolving beast. To stay competitive, we need to always be looking forward - to try and monopolise on the future while we’re very much still in the present. Apps, invariably, are integral to that future.                         

There will likely come a time when there is an app for absolutely everything - every whim and want, but right now we’re focussing on social networking. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr are mainstays and also givens, but what social networking apps make for a richer experience?

Snapchat

Though Snapchat may seem an odd opener to this list, Gary Vaynerchuck, he of one million Twitter followers and Vayner Media, believes Snapchat is the best marketing tool you can use right now. Its key is in its visceral and engaged nature: Snapchat works on what feels like a one-on-one basis, even if the same content has been sent to a dozen users.

It offers close to 100% engagement from active accounts - because you don’t know what the photo is and you know it won’t take any longer than a couple of seconds to engage with, you’ll click it.

Is it a realistic tool for marketing? In terms of impressions, it’s a win-win and it offers a personal appeal that can’t be ignored. Snapchat’s promise is in its potential: if a company can build a database of usernames, then they can tailor their content to suit - and no doubt, the image/video will be engaged with. For certain companies and competitions, Snapchat is ideal: think of it like a scavenger hunt of images leading users to the ‘X’ that marks the spot.

Snapchat campaigns will inevitably very much become a thing and here at Brave Media we are implementing a snapchat campaign for a client at the moment so we will let you know how it goes.

Download Snapchat Here.

FollowerWonk

FollowerWonk is something we swear by at Brave Media for our client’s social media management. FollowerWonk is a sleek and easy-to-use Twitter analytics app from Moz.

FollowerWonk allows the user to analyse Twitter accounts to optimise a Twitter marketing strategy. Because Twitter is such a hodge-podge of people, businesses, and interests, it sometimes makes targeting a particular audience difficult, but FollowerWonk solves this with five simple tools:

1. Search Twitter bios. This literally allows you to search bios for people whose interests match those of your client.

2. Compare Twitter users. Want to see who your competitors or your client’s competitors are targeting? This is your chance.

3. Analyse Followers. Analyse Followers is FollowerWonk’s greatest success - an in-depth psychographic look into your followers: when are they online, who are they, etc. - all delivered in beautiful and easily-understandable graphs.

4. Track Followers. Like Ronseal, this does exactly what it says on the tin.

5. Sort Followers. A handy tool for applying filters to categorise your followers: when did they last Tweet, who doesn’t follow you back, etc.

With clear visualisations, strong analytics, and the ability to allow your business to connect with top influencers, FollowerWonk is integral to optimising your Twitter strategy.

Use Follwerwonk Here.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is another of our favourite Twitter tools. Social media is important, so we treat it with the respect it deserves. TweetDeck is one of the best desktop applications for Twitter, but it has also been rolled out to the iPad and iPhone.

Essentially, TweetDeck deals in managing several personal or company Twitter accounts. It makes multi-Tweeting easy and takes all the hassle out of having to manually log-in and log-out of client Twitter accounts to see what’s going on. It adds organisation to a bustling community of Twitter accounts and can be customised based on keywords for social media monitoring.

Further, TweetDeck allows for cross-platform use: the app supports status integration with Facebook, Foursquare, Google Buzz, and Myspace.

Note: TweetDeck is quite similar to Hootsuite and Twitterrific, hence why they haven’t been included in this list.

Download TweetDeck Here.

FastFeed

FastFeed is a Tumblr app. Tumblr is an interesting one, because it’s often ignored by digital marketers or businesses, even though it combines some of the best parts of other social networks: it’s a blogging site, primarily, but it’s perfect for sharing pictures, audio, and video. It also contains a detailed indexing system around ‘tagging’ posts for relevant audiences that provides a window into exactly what drives that selection of people.

Tumblr is a hub of enthusiastic people and the micro-blogging style makes it a dream for sharing quick content. FastFeed, then, makes the Tumblr experience even better, providing a smooth, easily-navigable, and attractive Tumblr feed.

Download FastFeed Here.

That’s it. A quick list of the social networking apps I swear by!

Seán Leamy is the Co-Founder of a dynamic digital marketing agency based in Dublin Ireland. He has been in the industry for the last few years and loves every minute. He also enjoys playing American Football for his local team based in Ireland.