There are hundreds of tools out there aimed at helping startups build their brands online. With more appearing on a daily basis, it’s tough to keep track of the tools that your business needs to employ in order to stay ahead of the competition.

While every industry and every startup is different, there are some tools that are must-haves for any business in the digital age. Here are 5 of our top favorites:

Hootsuite – For Social Media Management

Hootsuite is the social media management tool that will kick your startup’s Facebook and Twitter into overdrive. The tool allows social media managers to map out campaigns across social media platforms and schedule posts hours, days or even weeks in advance. Hootsuite’s “autoschedule” function automatically schedules posts for the optimal time of day to maximize their impact with little effort on the user’s part.

Perhaps even more valuable to a young startup are the reports that the tool provides. Ever wonder if followers are actually engaging what you’re sharing on Twitter, or which Facebook posts are really getting the most attention? Hootsuite will tell you.

Flow – For Task Management

With multiple team members working on multiple devices in multiple locations, it can be difficult to keep track of who is doing what. Flow is a task management system that allows dozens of users to keep track of projects, share tasks, and have a digital list of exactly what needs to get done, when it needs to get done, and who needs to do it.

There are plenty of organization apps out there and we’ve tried most of them. Flow is our favorite for a few reasons:

• The ability to create mini-tasks (steps along the way to completion of a tasks)
• Not as overly complicated as other digital tools
• The ability to sync tasks to your calendar of choice
• Great cross Android/iOS compatibility

Google Apps for Business – For Email & Document Management

Google Apps for Business makes it easy and quick to manage typical IT challenges – including running email, adding and removing users, and collaborating on documents. For a startup, Google Apps can be quicker to get set up than many competing products (including Microsoft Exchange.)  Additionally, users tend to love the interface because it is identical Gmail, which most are already familiar with.

Beyond basic email functionality, Google offers dozens of tools that are invaluable to startups. Must-Haves include:

• Google Drive – Share documents with your team in real time without ever having to worry about corrupting files or forgetting to hit save.
• Google Analytics – The number one tool for tracking the traffic your website receives. Find out how many users are on your site and where they are coming from.
• Google AdWords – Bring traffic to your site through Pay Per Click advertising. While the tool is very popular, few users realize that Google actually has a team in place that will assist you in setting up your AdWords campaign free of charge.
• Google Webmaster Tools – Optimize your website’s backend and SEO for Google search. Simply connect your site and upload a sitemap and you’ll begin to see the way your startup interacts with Google search in a whole new way.

Silverback – For Usability Testing

When building a digital startup, user experience testing is essential to success. After all, even the best products will fail if users aren’t able to use them quickly and easily without feeling confused or frustrated. Silverback makes user testing easy.

Silverback uses the computer’s webcam and built-in microphone to record the way a user interacts with your site while simultaneously monitoring their on-screen activity. You can then share these videos with co-workers and clients in order to determine points of frustration, confusion, and how you can optimize your apps and website for conversions.

WordPress – For Website Management

At Exygy we are constantly singing the praises of the WordPress CMS, and there’s a reason for it: It’s simply the best. As a startup, using any other CMS to manage your brand’s website is just cheating yourself out of a more comprehensive and easy-to-use tool. From plugins and widgets to easy to use blogging and user-management tools, WordPress offers everything that a young business needs to be successful online.

If your business is ready to get started on WordPress, or your current WordPress site needs a boost, Exygy’s WordPress Development experts can help. Contact us today to learn more.

Are you using other tools? Make a recommendation for this list below.

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