Social media platforms are continuously adding new features where your brand can benefit. As an example, you can check out our latest social media tip blog on How to Successfully Use Instagram Stories for Your Business.While the features can bring in more views, likes, and followers, it’s often difficult to juggle it all. So, this month, we’re covering 3rd party apps to improve your social media presence. Some of the below may be entirely new or you may already use them. Check out our list to unearth their full potential!

• What it does : Technically, this app is by Twitter so a little less 3rd party. However, it does what Twitter alone cannot. The dashboard provides a summary of your number of Tweets, impressions, profile visits, mentions, and followers. You can see the trend of these metrics over time.
• When to use it : Make Twitter Analytics a part of your monthly marketing plan. In addition, you can bring up your metrics on a weekly basis to keep your marketing initiatives on track. It also has some helpful tips on how to get the most interaction with your Tweets.
• Limitations : This dashboard gives you all the data you need to improve your Twitter presence. However, you’ll need to rely on your market knowledge and business intelligence to produce compelling content.

• What it does : It’s a dashboard to manage, organise, and schedule social media posts. It links with all of your social media accounts so you can cross-promote with a single click – no cut and paste required.
• When to use it : In advance! Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts way into the future. You can use it to anticipate holidays, align with your promotions, and even save you from forgetting important events. It’s a real workhorse.
• Limitations : Hootsuite doesn’t work well with Instagram. You have to complete an extra layer of approval to post. While this isn’t world-ending, it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the efficiency of the platform.
  

• What it does : This is a URL shortener as well as a link manager platform. Bitly takes your full links and truncates them down to minimal characters.
• When to use it : Bitly is imperative for a variety of social media platforms. While Twitter no longer adds links in its character count, convoluted URLs make any post look very clunky. In addition, you can sign up for an account and gain insight and analytics for your clicks.
• Limitations : None – it does everything you need! You can even have customised business links!
  

• What it does : Smarthash collates and organises your hashtags for use on social media. It connects to your Instagram account to complete split testing to rate the efficacy of your hashtags.
• How to use it : Released early April 2017, this app has a lot of potential. If used diligently, your brand can really get to know which hashtags are valuable to use for your market. You can also use it to create your ideal format for your hashtag organisation (such as adding symbols).
• Limitations : It does take quite a bit of manual input. However, once you get started, everything stays organised and in place.
  

• What it is : Another native Twitter app, this one lets you manage multiple accounts, search across the app, and customise your Twitter use. It’s like Twitter on highly organised steroids.
• When to use it : TweetDeck puts your feed, notifications, messages, and activity all on a single screen. With just a glance, you can get a full overview of your account.
• Limitations : While informative, TweetDeck puts everything in front of you at once. You’ll need to know your way around the Twittersphere and what you’re looking for to make it useful.
  

• What it does : This app scans through your Instagram account for the year and compiles your top 9 posts. It takes into account all levels of engagement including likes and comments. Best 9 then produces a 9-image grid perfectly sized for sharing on Instagram.
• How to use it : Many people use this app to share their popular content. As a brand, you can use it to reflect on all of your engagement and relive the memories with your audience. In addition, it gives you valuable insight into what type of image gets your brand the most attention.
• Limitations : Best 9 is a fun app to use and share, although it doesn’t go any further than simply showing you results. Don’t rely on it for measuring your reach to your target community.
  

Of course, the use of too many 3rd party apps might leave your head spinning and no time to come up with actual content. However, these apps can transform the way you share, Tweet, like, and interact. Knowing when and how to use them is the key to making it all work.
Do you have any 3rd party apps or platforms to add to our list?