1099 Lyfe: 6 Apps and Tools You Need to Be Your Most Productive
Consider us your work from homies.
Photo: Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels
Oh, the freelance world. Charming in its lack of predictability, cutthroat when it comes to competition, and total chaos when it comes to organization.
When it’s you vs. your inbox, deadline, receipts, mileage, and hustle there is a lot that can get lost in the fray. Until now.
It’s 1099 problems, but an app ain’t one. We’re rounding up some of our favorite apps and tools for freelancers to make life, organization, and even next year’s taxes that much easier. That way you can focus on the important stuff: like entrepreneur world wide web domination.
WriteRoom
Are you prone to distraction? Symptoms include: checking Instagram before reading a full paragraph, shopping online, vanity googling, googling exes, checking your RSS feed, and getting in Facebook arguments with your grandma. When you’re a freelancer, everything and anything is a welcome diversion. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment to minimize distractions and is super helpful when it comes to re-disciplining yourself. It’s obviously great for writers, but it also works when brainstorming ideas for brands. It’s a way to block out the noise and focus on the ideas in your brain.
“Block out the noise and focus on the ideas in your brain.”
MileIQ
If you use your personal vehicle for work, every mile you drive is worth 58 cents in tax deduction of mileage reimbursement. But logging that? Forget it. (And you do.)
The average MileIQ customer is logging $6,900 in mileage deductions. It’s an app that catches every drive, easily classifies drives as business or personal, and gives you a report with the push of a button.
Receiptmate
This is a fully integrated companion app for Evernote (also useful) that allows you to scan your receipts directly into Evernote, enter the amounts (or highlight the total and the app will read), organize and tag, and report on the totals. You don’t need an overcomplicated filing system or that shoebox under your bed (or worse, the center console in your car) because you can throw your receipts away after you scan them. Bless.
Apple Notes (yes, Apple Notes)
The notes app has come a long way. (Remember when everyone was jumping Apple ship to use the aforementioned Evernote?) You can collaborate with multiple people, live, in the notes app. For a freelancer, this means you can create interactive checklists and save time bouncing ideas back and forth in email. Even if you work alone, collaboration is crucial.
Stay Focusd
Have you ever thought, “Gosh, I would be so successful if it weren’t for the internet? Stay Focussd is a tool that blocks the amount of time you can spend on time-suck sites. It’s an app you manage yourself and is customizable. The way it works is simple. You choose the sites you want to block for a specific amount of time. If you are a freelancer who is chronically obsessed with social media, this app could help you immensely.
Toggl
If you need help tracking your hours, Toggl is the leading timesheet app for tracking hours. You can set multiple billable rates for various projects and you can organize as many projects as you can possibly juggle. They say that if you can measure it, you can improve it. Knowing exactly how long it’s taking you to complete certain projects will help you adjust billing and helps increase productivity.
Love this story? Pin the below graphic to your Pinterest board.
This story was originally published on June 16, 2016, and has since been updated.
MORE ON THE BLOG
Your Digital Diet: What Platforms Can You Nix Now?
We're leaving behind a digital graveyard, but what can we bury once and for all?
Call this your digital diet - in today’s digital age, you need to be on social media to stay relevant, but what matters the most is who you stay relevant to. Everyone’s brand is targeted to a certain demographic, so where exactly is your audience?
A lot of brands and companies make the mistake of making sure that they’re on EVERY PLATFORM KNOWN TO MAN (who even keeps up with Ello still anyways?), but the rule of thumb is to never stretch yourself too thin, especially with platforms that aren’t doing anything to grow your brand.
You don't need to create content for platforms that no one is paying attention to. (Which, is why we aren't including Instagram. You need an Instagram.) To figure out where you should focus your efforts and where you can cut back, below is a guide that will help you narrow it down.
"You don't need to create content for platforms that no one is paying attention to."
Tweet this.
DEMO: 20.5% of users are aged 25-34, followed by 16.7% of users who are 18-24
USAGE: 72% of all internet users (77% women, 66% men)
BEST FOR: Video content and news updates
WHO SHOULD BE ON IT: Everyone, especially now that Facebook Live serves as an alternative to reach a wider and established audience, compared to Twitter. The platform, that launched in 2004, is also refocusing on video content as an alternative to YouTube.
Despite the fact that your grandparents are on Facebook, it may surprise you that the main user-base is still under 30.
Oh, and Facebook owns Instagram. Instagram’s per-follower engagement rate for brands is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter. Instagram users are two and a half times more likely to click on ads than on other social media platforms.
DELETE IF: You want to move off the grid and say goodbye to the modern world.
DEMO: 37% of users are aged 18 to 29, followed by 25% of users who are 30-49
USAGE: 23% of all internet users (25% men, 21% women)
BEST FOR: News outlets and blogs nabbing readers' attention with a 140-character hook (AKA, getting people to READ)
Twitter has what founder Jack Dorsey called, "of-the-moment brevity." And it's powerful.
Great for live chats to engage with audience and start a real time online conversation with the use of one hashtag.
Perfect for immediate customer service and engaging with followers.
It is also important to note that the gender gap on Twitter is much less pronounced than other social media sites, showing an almost equal number of male and female users.
DELETE IF: There's no reason to "delete" Twitter, but if you haven't yet amassed a following and you're not a news site or a brand looking to convert clicks to sales, you could be saving your energy and using it for something else.
DEMO: 23% of users are aged 18 to 29, followed by 31% of users who are 30 to 49
LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30-to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds.
USAGE: 25% of all internet users (25% women, 26% men)
BEST FOR: Business pages who are sharing updates about their company.
Brands that want to built thought-leaders out of their CEOs and top executives.
Businesses that are looking to hire.
Good for businesses that want to be an influencer in their space and be ahead of the curve in news and research.
Businesses looking to publish stories.
DELETE IF: There's no reason to delete your LinkedIn, especially if you are a brand that is looking to built out their reputation as an authority.
If you end up moving jobs or need a reference, it's a great way to connect. (See new site WorkGrades as well for fast and efficient references.) However, if you aren't a "brand," LinkedIn isn't a platform that you need to be active on.
SNAPCHAT
DEMO: 45% of users are aged 13-24 and over 60% are 13-34
Millennials account for 70% of all Snapchat users
USAGE: 18% of all internet users (70% female, 30% male)
BEST FOR: Ideal for behind-the-scenes and exclusive content, Snapchat is "intimacy at scale," and if you want to reach the Millennial audience, this is how you do it.
DELETE IF: Your demographic is 34 and up, especially now that Instagram has launched Stories. The stats are yet to be seen for who engages on IG Stories, but considering the platform's 300 million daily active users, there's a high probability Stories is going to be a major player. Snapchat won't become obsolete, but pick the platform where you have more followers and focus on building that.
TUMBLR
DEMO: 27.7% of users are aged 25-34, followed by 23.5% of users who are aged18-34
BEST FOR: Fashion brands with a demo of teens or millennials
Can be used as a blog outlet for brands, but if you're serious about building your content or blog, there are better solutions, like SquareSpace.
DELETE IF: Your demo is not teens or if you're an established brand. There is no reason to have a Tumblr at this point. People aren't using Tumblr to find new and interesting information or brands. Save the space hit delete.
DEMO: 34% of users are aged 18 to 29, followed by 28% of users who are aged 30 to 49
USAGE: 28% of all internet users (42% women, 13% men)
BEST FOR: Brands with DIY audiences looking to find inspiration for home and lifestyle
Brands looking to drive traffic to their consumer sites-- conversion rates from Pinterest are reported very high among bloggers.
Brands can use this platform to share their blog content in a visual way with “click bait”-like headlines
DELETE IF: If you're a tech brand, there's really no need for you to have Pinterest. Lifestyle, Fashion, Beauty, Food, Design-- this is for you. No one is going to Pinterest to find the newest Silicon Valley updates.
VINE
DEMO: 71% of users are millennials, and 28% of users are 18-24
BEST FOR: Actors, comedians, and social media influencers who are looking to grow their audience
Brands have to make sure that their content is able to compete with Vine influencers who post funny content, or partner with influencers to drive views to their own profile
DELETE IF: Vine is a (somewhat) dying platform, as a lot of Vine influencers are moving to Facebook and YouTube to post longer content and get a higher amount of views on their videos and reach a bigger audience.
Sites that you can say goodbye to for good: Ello, Periscope, MySpace, Flickr, and FourSquare (even if you are the Mayor of Taco Town).
MORE FROM OUR BLOG
Instagram Just Released Snapchat-Like Feature, But Here’s Why You’ll Use It
Carbon copy cat? Maybe. But it's in the prime position to work.
Gather 'round, it's story time kids.
This morning Instagram introduced Instagram Stories, a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your story.
In a blog post the app announced, "With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about over-posting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed."
Instagram has long been the "curated" social media. It's where users, brands, and influencers give the public a highlight reel of their life. No more. TechCrunch scored an interview with IG CEO Kevin Systrom who admitted to publication, “They deserve all the credit,” while insisting, “This isn’t about who invented something. This is about a format, and how you take it to a network and put your own spin on it.”
Stories is the spot where you can upload all of the stuff that isn't great for your grid-- because from a brand and gaining follower perspective we've heard over and over again how important it is to "get your grid right."
With Stories you can doodle, draw, and like Snapchat, they'll disappear after 24-hours.
At the top of your feed there will be a bar featuring stories from your best friends and favorite accounts. When the user adds something new to their story the profile will have a colorful ring around it. To see said story you tap the profile photo.
The feature follows the privacy settings on your account. You can also hide Stories from followers you don't want checking in.
According to the post, "Instagram has always been a place to share the moments you want to remember. Now you can share your highlights and everything in between, too."
It also solves the "too many apps, NO MORE!" crisis that many people have expressed anxiety over. Instagram Stories is the first useful attempt to consolidate the overwhelm of social. Clone or not, people will use it simply out of convenience. Snapchat showed that people wanted more than a highlight reel-- IG followed the crowd.
"Instagram Stories is the first useful attempt to consolidate the overwhelm of social."
Tweet this.
It will also prove useful for brands hiring influencers for campaigns to engage followers in BTS footage or event photos. Bloggers and influencers wont have to switch back-and-forth between apps and they'll be able to share moments on their IG without overcrowding the feed.
However, unlike regular posts there are no likes or public comments, so for the time being it might be difficult to measure engagement. But that's not going to stop the social platform's 500 million users from jumping on board.
Instagram Stories will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on iOS and Android. Your move Evan Spiegel.
More from our blog:
Google Finally Introduced These 11 New Much-Needed Emojis
Giving us something to smile about.
Illustration by Chloe White
Since the dawn of the emoji, we've seen a fairly restrictive approach gender stereotypes. More often than not, we see more male emojis that tend to describe general everyday actions and certain jobs, while female emojis are restricted to reactions, princesses, brides, and even that spicy salsa lady dressed in red (because, truth, sometimes you need to send someone a cha, cha, chaaaa, but sometimes you want to show someone you're cha, cha, ching the boss).
It’s 2016 - and women are holding down jobs in STEM, the C-Suite, and HRC is running for POTUS. So our digital emoji world was running a little behind up until last week.
Thanks to Google, women are now represented not only as pretty princess emojis. Earlier this year, Google proposed to Unicode to introduce 11 new emoticons that represented women in diverse work fields to promote gender equality. This week for World Emoji Day, Google announced that they’re coming to life as part of 300 new Google emojis that are being introduced with Unicode.
Sometimes you need to send someone a cha, cha, cha, but sometimes you want to show someone you're cha, cha, ching, the boss.
Tweet this.
“While there’s a huge range of emoji, there aren’t a lot that highlight the diversity of women’s careers, or empower young girls,” wrote Nicole Bleuel, Marketing Lead & Diversity Champion, Emoji, in a recent blog post.
The 11 new emoticons include: doctor, policewoman, cook, coders, a female David Bowie-esque rockstar, farmer, mechanic, construction worker, and many more. The only two emojis that did not make the cut: tech line worker and a nurse.
“We proposed a set of new emoji to the Unicode Technical Committee that represent a wider range of professions for women (as well as men), and reflect the pivotal roles that women play in the world.,” said Google in their announcement on their blog. The new emojis will “make emoji more representative of the millions of people who use them.”
However, of course you can’t have progress, even in the emoji world, without a few haters.
“Why don't we get emoji's to represent humans/ mankind? Why women in particular? Then men also need some emojis like father, son etc.,” said one Twitter user in response to the announcement.
“I can't believe you let feminists get to you. Where is our Demi-queer Bi-gender disco pony day????,” said another user.
However, the fact that a conglomerate like Google was the first to campaign for more emoji representation of women in diverse work fields speaks volumes to the movement that continues to create equality for women in the workplace in the past century. (Even though there is a whole group of boys who see Anna and Elsa from Frozen as the new superheroes. More on that here.)
If Google, a powerful Silicon Valley-based tech company that is notorious for it’s lack of gender and racial diversity, is calling out for more representation within the world of tech itself, it's a step we can throw some love at. (Include all happy emojis here.) And it's a move that will hopefully influence the rest of Silicon Valley to recognize women for tech jobs.
We commend you Google, and we thank you. Because finally, we can show via text that we’re businesswomen, and we don’t have to substitute with a male emoji. Heart. Smiley. Thumbs up.
More from our blog:
Snapchat Adds The Old With The New In Its Recent Update
Maybe some snaps were meant to last forever.
We’ve only known Snapchat as an app that only lives off of what’s going on in the now, only to be erased after one view or the span of 24 hours. As of yesterday, Snapchat is changing that.
Snapchat has introduced its newest feature Memories, which allows you to collect all of your saved snaps and stories in one memory bank for you to look back at. Not only that, you’re able to add older snaps to your story and send it to friends as well for them to look back on, and even add stickers and geofilters to the snaps even if you’re not in the area. These older snaps will appear with a time stamp when they’re viewed by your friends if added to your story.
However, this new update is a game changer for the real-time based app.
SCHEDULED INSTAGRAMS
If you want to make sure your Snapchat followers are able to see something that’s confidential til a certain date, you will now be able to post it at a later date instead of having to not post on Snapchat at all.
When the day comes that you want to snap something on a scheduled day, just take the snaps you are going to take, but instead of posting them to your story, save them to your memories.
From there, you can pull any snaps that you have saved and post them all to your Snapchat story.
WEAVING IN OLD WITH THE NEW
Snapchat storytelling for brands and influencers is becoming more and more important each day, and storytelling is all based on the narrative you build for your audience to watch.
If you are adding snaps to your story and want to allude to an older snap, you can weave it in to your Snapchat story for a more substantial and longer narrative.
Also, the Memories feature allows you to share memories with certain people, and even hide other memories you rather not show to anyone else. You can place these in a section called “My Eyes Only,” which are only accessible after you enter a pin for privacy.
So no more screenshooting snaps onto your camera roll and having it take up all of your phone’s memory. Safe to say that this new update to Snapchat will redefine its dependency on real time content and its expiring snaps.
Maybe some snaps are meant to last forever.
Exposing Engagement: Why You Need This Instagram Tool
Dig deep and analyze what matters.
Around 2.5 billion photos and videos are liked on Instagram every day. It is the ruling King, Queen, and Court Jester of social media. And if you have a public Instagram, you have a brand-- whether you are conscious of this or not. Your brand is who you are to the world. Now whether you choose to market this-- AKA tell people what you do, is a personal choice. However if you want to be successful on Instagram you have to understand your engagement.
It is the best way to build awareness, drive traffic to your blog, brand, or brick-and-mortar, and ultimately, grow your business. Figuring out your engagement is what separates successful grammers from the mediocre, and there's a new tool simplifying the process.
Peoplemap is an Instagram marketing tool that features: profile analysis, list building, campaign tracking, and statistics. If you are an individual with multiple accounts you can manage all accounts on a single platform; if you are a brand or a company, your entire team can access the account and information.
You can search groups, communities within a specific geographical region, and it exposes engagement numbers that are important to brands and individuals.
WHY IS THIS USEFUL TO BRANDS?
One: list building. Peoplemap has created a way to analyze Instagram marketing efforts and strategically build a targeted community. They make it easier to sort, filter, and analyze any user so you can create "the most comprehensive and strategic Instagram rolodex for your company".
Now let's chat about exposing engagement. Say you're building a list of beauty influencers, but you want to filter those with the highest engagement, you can do that. If you want to only hire influencers who have 2% engagement and up, you can do that. There is also an option to "analyze" a profile. If you click "analyze," in about an hour Peoplemap will send you a report that highlights who recently, liked, commented, or who was tagged. It's a way for brands (as well as individuals) to really understand the audience.
These are tools to really help brands understand the who, what, and why of the influencers they're hiring.
WHY IS THIS USEFUL TO INDIVIDUALS?
As with brands, understanding what performs well and what doesn't is key to growing and engaging your followers. When you analyze the posts that are not performing well vs. those that are, it will help you create a more robust, comprehensive strategy. The higher your engagement, the more money you'll make from brands who are looking for influencers.
"Understanding what performs well and what doesn't is key to growing and engaging your followers."
Tweet this.
It also helps you easily compare your engagement to others. While they say comparison is the thief of joy, in this instance it could also be a thief... of dollars. When you understand your engagement in comparison to others who are working in similar categories, you might be able to charge more. Let's say you have 200k followers less than an Insta-famous fashion blogger, but they have a .89% engagement and you're clocking in at 5%. You may have fewer followers, but you can make the case to a brand that the ROI is better with you.
You can also build a "competition" list in Peoplemap and compare your engagement to others. If your engagement is lower, use this as a means to analyze your content vs. someone who has high engagement and change your strategy.
When it comes to IG, knowledge and understanding is power. Peoplemap is putting the knowledge in your hands. It's up to you to understand your engagement, the numbers, and ultimately, your business.
More from our blog:
Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Business Tools
Launching this week.
Instagram is arguably the best social platform to raise awareness for your business. With over 400 million users it remains a unique way to visually tell your brand's story and to capitalize on mobile domination.
It makes sense that the social sharing platform would develop Instagram Business Tools.
Armed with insights and hundreds of interviews with business owners, Instagram developed new features. “With so many companies using Instagram, and many people on the platform interacting with them, there was a desire from our business community to do more. So we listened,” they said via their blog. The company said that three needs became clear: businesses want the ability to stand out, get insights, and find new customers.
Here’s how they are addressing those concerns, as well as the pros and the cons.
STAND OUT
For companies that want to be recognized as businesses on Instagram, the platform is now offering a free “Business Profile” feature. “With a business profile, businesses can choose how they want their customers to get in touch with them: call, text or email with a tap of the contact button as well as get directions. Business profiles also unlock access to insights and the ability to promote.”
PRO: It’s free to change your profile from personal to business and changing your profile will give you access to other bonuses listed below.
CON: Unlock is a key word above. Instagram is essentially forcing your hand in labeling yourself as a business in order to get those analytics. Who isn’t going to want those analytics? Sure you could go to apps like Iconosquare or Plano.ly, but those aren’t free. The question is: is $X/month worth not being labeled as a business? If you have more of a brand than a business, you might be better off not labeling yourself as such. (I.e. if you're a blogger with a larger following.) Followers don’t want to be sold to.
GAIN INSIGHTS
“Insights on Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts resonate better than others—all from within the mobile app. By learning more about the behavior and demographics of your audience, you can create more relevant and timely content.”
PRO: Pretty much everything listed above. Creating relevant and timely content will help you organically grow your following and create deeper engagement with your followers. Businesses want simple ways to get insight and refine their marketing strategies. Instagram is offering a solution that doesn’t require a third out-of-app step.
CON: As stated above, you only get insights if you’re listing your profile as a business. There are no cons however about understanding your analytics. You don't want to turn a blind eye to what's performing well and what's not.
PROMOTE YOUR CONTENT
Much in the same way Facebook does, Instagram is offering a way to promote content. You pick a post you’ve already shared, add a button “encouraging people to take action,” and then select a target audience. You can also opt to have Instagram select a target audience for you. That post is promoted for the length of time desired.
PROS: Whether we like it or not, the IG algorithm is changing. Businesses need Instagram to attract new clients and in order to attract new clients you have to get that content seen.
CON: It’s an ad and will be labeled as such. You will be getting more eyeballs on your content, but nothing beats organic marketing.
More from our blog:
SnapChat Is Now Shoppable Thanks to This App
All it took was two emojis.
When there's an app, there's a hack. Especially when it comes to brands figuring out how to monetize social platforms that aren't yet shoppable. Like Snapchat.
Since its launch Snapchat has been the mystery meat in the social media sandwich, confusing brands and influencers alike on just how to use it. There are a couple of kinks in the snap chain: it's difficult to know how many followers you have, the videos are only available to your followers for 24 hours, and there is no way to link out.
Until now.
"Since launch Snapchat has been the mystery meat in the social media sandwich, until now."
Tweet this.
PopSugar owned ShopStyle is offering the first solution to the "what now" problem of Snapchat, introducing a new e-commerce app called Emoticode™. PopSugar CEO Brian Sugar told Digiday, "It was clear that people wanted to take action from our snaps and it wasn’t as easy as it could be. The lightbulb went off."
That lightbulb lead the way to Emoticode™, a Snapchat companion app which uses the combination of emoticons and screen shots to create what is effectively an affiliate link program. Sugar again, told Digiday, “It works for shopping. It will work for recipes, workouts, articles, really anything you want to engage more with beyond a snap or an Instagram post.”
Here's how it works:
ShopStyle Collective members can search a product they want to share on Snapchat or Instagram. When they tap “Copy Emoticode” below the product, a shortened affiliatized emoji link is created. The first two characters are emojis. They paste the unique emoticode in their post.
The Collective members receive credit for the clicks and conversions made through the Emoticode™ integration.
Followers will need to download the ShopStyle App or the Emoticode™ App, screenshot the post with the unique emoticode, and upload it in the ShopStyle app to shop the product that's being shared.
It's not completely seamless because there is still no way to link out directly from Snapchat, which has yet to introduce brand integration into the platform, but it is the first app that has addressed the two main issues everyone has asked from gate: why do we use this and how does this make us money?
Emoticode™ is the first way to track sales and facilitate revenue sharing for influencers. It may also encourage bloggers who have yet to really engage on Snapchat to integrate the app into their social playbook.
"Emoticode™ is the first way to track sales and facilitate revenue sharing for influencers."
Tweet this.
Julia Engel of Gal Meets Glam (and C&C DTLA mentor) told Digiday, “I really like the idea of Emoticode, especially because the screen-shotting behavior is so natural. I screenshot everything.”
It will also save time for bloggers who are spending time answering individual messages from followers about what they're wearing.
For brands, the power of Snapchat is yet to be seen, but this is the first real step in Snap monetization.
via Brian Sugar
More from our blog: