Branding 101: 5 Apps Every Entrepreneur Should Have

Building a brand is hard work, but the payout can be so overwhelmingly positive that it's something every new entrepreneur should consider. Luckily, there are plenty of apps out there that can assist with all the myriad tasks involved in creating and managing a successful brand. Here's a list of five of the best apps that every business owner should have downloaded to help them manage their brand.

Buffer

Have you ever wanted to make a post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for your brand but you have to do it all separately? What should take five seconds eats up minutes or even hours of your day, and you'll likely forget to post on at least one social media platform. Buffer is the app that takes your post and publishes it simultaneously across all your social media profiles so you don't have to do it yourself. Plus, you can set it so that Buffer makes your post at a specific time in the future, so you know you're getting maximum engagement. Managing social media has never been this simple.

LogoCreator

Every successful brand has a memorable logo that's simple and conveys the brand's image. The Nike swoosh, the Apple apple, the McDonald's golden arches; all these things instantly make people around the world think of the brand. Your brand needs a good logo, but as a small business owner, you probably can't afford a big budget graphic designer. One great free graphic design resource is http://logocreator.io, which provides powerful tools for the budding graphic designer. Instead of paying for a logo, create one for free. It also lets you create other graphics you need for your advertising, marketing, and social media footprint. 

BuzzSumo

If you're managing your brand on social media (which you should be), it can be helpful to know what's trending across social media so you can engage with your market on relevant topics. BuzzSumo helps you analyze trends to identify what sorts of posts and content get the most likes and shares so you can tailor your brand outreach to fit your audience's preferences. BuzzSumo can even tell you the social media influencers that might affect your audience so you can get them involved with your brand directly.

EveryoneSocial

If you have even a couple of employees, you have the potential for free social media outreach to their following, however humble. EveryoneSocial provides an easy-to-use interface to make your whole team brand ambassadors, empowering your employees to build your brand wherever they're on social media. It provides a variety of tools that also help ensure a consistent, uniform message is spread about the brand. 

Grammarly

Let's face it; many customers will immediately write off a brand if their communications are replete with grammatical mistakes. Grammarly is much more than just a spell-checker, however; it can provide sentiment analysis to tell you if your post comes across as too aggressive or too friendly, and it can tell you if your marketing communication is clear and precise, or meandering and vague. Plus, it all comes in one easy to use app that you allow to access other apps, and you can download the plug-in on whatever browser you use as well. Grammarly is like having a handy little editor in your pocket at all times. 

Apps: A Key to Your Success

Managing a brand is tricky, but there are plenty of apps available to make the process more efficient for even the busiest entrepreneur. If you've got a cell phone in your pocket and you have a brand to manage, take the time to check out a few of the apps we've listed above. You'll be glad you did and they can help take your brand management to the next level.