Tech for assistants
These are our 7 favorite tech products for administrative assistants, and most are free.
Manage social media: HootSuite
Within HootSuite, you can manage your company's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn accounts without toggling back and forth from your personal account to the corporate account, which can be a recipe for disaster.
There are analytics built into HootSuite, so you can track how successful campaigns have been and measure customer engagement. HootSuite offers a free trial, but even their Pro subscription is affordable ($19 a month with 10 social profiles supported).
Get Meeting Availability: When is Good
With When is Good, you create a free account and then select potential meeting times that work for your executive; you can choose as many or as few choices as possible. Then, you email a link from When is Good to all invitees. When they click the link, they'll see the availability you've selected, and click on the times and days that work for them. Once everyone has responded (which you can easily track) you can visit your results page and see which times worked for the most people.
Start to finish, When is Good is a timesaver and a major stress saver when it comes to scheduling meetings with busy professionals, and it's totally free.
Share travel itineraries and directions: TripIt
Once you make accommodations, TripIt automatically creates a mobile itinerary for the individual, and you can maintain multiple itineraries for different people at the same time. If you forward all of the travel confirmation emails (hotel, car, flight) to the TripIt app, it automatically organizes them in one place, which means you and the person you're planning the trip for have easy access to all the travel information.
You can even add directions to a TripIt itinerary, so the exec your planning for can open TripIt and not only see all their flight and hotel info but also directions from the airport to the hotel, from the hotel to the conference center, etc.
You can sign up for TripIt for free, but there are also paid versions available.
Manage your emails: Followup.cc
You can add an auto follow-up email, send emails at a specified date and time, track emails and receive live notifications when emails have been opened, or set follow-up times for future dates/times.
With Followup.cc, an email thread will never slip through the cracks again; in fact, this tool is great for PR and sales people, event coordinators and any other professional who conducts lots of business via email. Folowup.cc is $18 a month for the entry-level subscription, but you can try it for free.
Take notes and record audio: AudioNote 2
AudioNote 2 allows you to take notes the way you usually do, and then link them with recorded audio clips. This app automatically cuts out long pauses when no one is talking, reduces atmospheric noise and makes it easy to pause or stop recording. You can take notes with a keypad or a stylus and even integrate PDF slides directly into your notes.
You can export your notes (complete with embedded media) to a file sharing platform like Dropbox or iCloud, or you can email them. AudioNote 2 is free and the Pro subscription is $6.99 a year.
Share files: Dropbox
If you're in a position where you're frequently sharing files with people outside your company, like clients or contract workers, Dropbox is a good option because, odds are, the individuals you're sharing with already know how it works.
There is a free version of Dropbox available (called Dropbox Basic), but if the business you're working for starts to outgrow Basic, you can always upgrade to Standard ($12.50 per user, per month) or Advanced ($20 per user, per month).
Manage contacts: Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is built for teams, and it seamlessly integrates with other commonly used products, such as Google apps, WordPress, MailChimp and, of course, the entire Zoho suite. Zoho CRM works across all mobile devices and makes updating client information, tracking sales and communicating easier; in fact, you can even message other Zoho CRM users within the app.
There is a free version of Zoho CRM available (for up to 10 users), which is great if you're in the position of convincing others at your company that a CRM will save time and reduce confusion, but there's also a paid version. The Standard subscription starts at $12 per user per month (billed annually) and the Professional version costs $20 per user per month (billed annually).