7 Apps You Need as a Social Media Consultant

According to data from The CMO Survey, overall marketing budget devoted to social media is expected to more than double over the next five years, from 11 percent now to 24 percent by 2020. Unfortunately, 53 percent of businesses do not know whether social media is working for them.

Also, recent statistics show that social media is now the No. 1 source of traffic to websites, accounting for more than search engines.

This–coupled with the fact that 83 percent of Americans use social media and 59 percent agree that customer service via social media is essential–points to the growing dominance of social media.

The statistics we just looked at point to two things:

Both for businesses and consumers, social media is absolutely essential: Since many businesses and brands don’t understand social media, there is–and will continue to be–an increase for social media consultants.
To be efficient as a social media consultant, you need the right applications that encompass every aspect of your social media activity and business: This list includes more than just apps for managing social media activity; instead, right from the get-go, it features pretty much all the apps you need to manage your business as a social media consultant:

Due

When you offer your services as a consultant, one of the very first things you need to think about is getting paid: How do you effectively track work you do for clients and bill them accordingly? For this, Due is a top choice for consultants and freelancers, allowing you to create customized invoices in a matter of minutes.

You can link your Due account with PayPal and Stripe, and you can also set it up to be paid via Automated Clearing House or cryptocurrencies. More important, you can integrate with BaseCamp to make communication with your clients easy.

Some other essential features include the ability to track time spent on projects, monitor cash flow, set up automated payment reminders and schedule recurring payments. And it’s free.

GetResponse

As a social media consultant, one of your biggest challenges will be customer acquisition. GetResponse makes this easy with email marketing automation, drag-and-drop work flows and integration with essential apps that will make it easy to attract leads and close deals. GetResponse’s strength lies in is its rich features at an affordable price–you get quality features without having to break the bank on marketing automation software like HubSpot or Marketo.