Much of my role in Project Management requires heavy lifting in organization. If I didn’t have a handle on our projects, my responsibilities, and those of my team, then I wouldn’t be doing my job well. To do it I need to rely on a lot of programs. Below are my favorite five applications to use, to-date:
Accelo:
Accelo is my money maker, money saver, communication tool, and it keeps my team and I responsible of our time. Accelo is a ServOps tool and I spend majority of my day here.
My team means the world to me, so Accelo’s integration with Quickbooks assures me that they are getting taken care of immediately. Here, I retrieve invoices, expense them to a project, create a PO, and order payment all in one swoop.
Speaking of money, Accelo helps us to keep a tight leash on budget. The app has mastered most everything in alternative payment styles, milestone contingencies, and task assignment. The retainer also shows me where we are at in real time, and even better, where we are projected to be based on task assignment- hows that for seeing the future!
Finally, project templates. Our team has built a number of templates to use time and time again. This allows me to build out a project with a quick start date should a client request an early kick-off- no more starting from scratch. More importantly, it keeps the projects my colleagues build congruent with my own for better scalability as we continue to grow!
HubSpot:
A wonderful pool of information – this blog is one of my favorites
Ready-to-go templates for anything from social media calendars to attractive
infographics!
An amazing system for our sales team as well; this subs as a CRM (Note: the timeline
feature is my favorite – a huge help to outside departments needing a quick update on our relationship with a client over time)
Lynda.com:
Are you a novice? Check out tutorials, accreditations, and videos on filling your role.
If you’re experienced, keep in-tune with industry practices.
Learn new skills anytime, anywhere – find new ways to continuously improve!
WordStream:
Manage all of your AdSpend and assets in one place (Facebook, Adwords, Bing, etc.)
Take a look at its 20 Min Work Week feature for regular analytics and professional
suggestions to succeed!
Build reports to dive even deeper into analysis
PLANN:
Schedule Instagram Posts in advance- saving you time on the day-to-day
Get an advanced view of what your page would look like once your scheduled
content goes live- move around for a better look to match your business/personal
brand
Build a hashtag strategy, and add trending tags when you get a reminder to roll
out your scheduled posts. Important for bringing in viewers.
Analytics, importantly, peek at your competition! See how you line up against those you
care about most.
Set goals, run tests, and keep track of past actions in order to continuously improve your
strategy
Final Thoughts
I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate the ease these apps make my job (and for those who had introduced the apps to me)! However, many of these applications are a bit particular to the Marketing industry. Even so, try not to let it keep you from trailing yourself. Hey, even if you work in Finance, yet still want to grow your personal social presence, PLANN has your back!