I use a lot of resources and tools to manage clients and their social media marketing initiatives but there are only a few that I refer to regularly. I like to think of these resources as “Agency tested – Stephanie approved.”

Life is too short to be stuck in an office all day which is why I make it my mission to work smarter. So without further ado, here’s my top ten list of resources for serious social media professionals.

1. Social Media Marketing Podcast. Hands down, this is my favorite podcast. Michael Stelzner releases a new podcast every week and makes it his mission to help listeners stay on top of social media trends with case studies and interviews with social media influencers. If you browsed the podcast app on my iPhone, you’ll notice a number of episodes I have saved throughout the year to reference again.

2. Social Media Marketing World. Michael Stelzner and the Social Media Examiner crew have done a phenomenal job with this conference. They bring in the best speakers in the social media industry and provide valuable content to attendees. You’ll walk away with a list of actionable ideas and feeling a whole lot smarter. I’m 100% confident that attending will make a positive impact on your current social initiatives.

3. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger. This isn’t the first time that I’ve raved about Contagious. Berger’s 6 STEPPS blueprint has changed our approach to content development. Berger’s framework helps his readers create ideas, campaigns and messages that spread like wildfire.

4. Asana. Since moving to Asana as our project management hub, we haven’t looked back. Asana makes it easy to create projects, organize tasks and keep conversations within tasks without getting buried in emails. We can add files from Dropbox, Google Drive and Box to a specific project and visualize our team’s goals and milestones in a calendar view. The latter is extremely helpful when we need to figure out which resources are available for an upcoming project. Best of all, you can get started on Asana for free. Once you add more than five members, you’ll be subject to their premium pricing which starts at $21 per month annually.

5. GroupHigh. If you’ve ever had to do blogger outreach and had to work with Excel, you’re going to love this software. GroupHigh’s database has more than 10 million bloggers with stats updated frequently (e.g., PageRank, website traffic, total online audience). It cuts down the amount of time needed to research, organize and manage blogger communications which means our team gets to focus on the bigger picture.

6. IFTT. Keeping up with the latest on social media can be overwhelming which is why I love IFTT which stands for “If this, then that.” When you go to the website, you can simplify your social media tasks by creating automation “recipes” without having to know how to code or script on the backend. Best of all, the service is free and you can automate simple tasks such as, “if Facebook updates their official newsroom, then send me a text,” or “if I post a photo to my Instagram account, then post it as a native picture on Twitter.” Check out their list of 40 IFTT recipes to help streamline your social media workflow.

7. Facebook Business Manager. At the agency, we manage multiple client pages and Facebook Business Manager allows us to collaborate with our clients and coworkers without having to worry about privacy. The platform makes it easy to manage client assets and update who should have access to specific pages.

8. LastPass. LastPass Password Manager is a browser plugin that helps you keep all of your log-in information secure. You log into your main account and then LastPass will automatically log you into your bookmarked websites. If you work with interns, contractors or even virtual assistants, you can easily give them access to your “vault” without releasing the true password so you can disable their access when their contract has ended. This helps protect you and your company from rogue employees.

9. Hemingway Editor. Editing is one of the most important steps in publishing a blog post, which is why I find the Hemingway Editor website so helpful. You paste your article and then the website will highlight sentences that might be too long or difficult to read so you can go back and edit them. It helps with copywriting and has become a part of my blogging routine now.

10. Google Drive. Simply put, Google Drive makes file sharing simple with cloud storage. New users get 15 GB of free Google storage which is perfect for storing word documents, spreadsheets, video, pictures and more. Google Drive allows my team and I to collaborate on documents in real-time and quickly get feedback from clients on proposed editorial calendars. I also love the fact that Google Drive works seamlessly with Asana so I can easily keep files and tasks together.

There are a ton of resources and platforms out there and truth is, these are the ones that I’ve actually had the time to test drive.