You guys are amazing. I literally found your channel because I was searching for an alternative for Expensify and now I just watched 4 of your videos and each one was amazingly valuable. I used to do social media management in a marketing company and this video hits every pain point. There is no doubt in my mind that this channel will become one of the biggest in the productivity space on KZread. Just from the videos i watched today you guys are already a top channel. Thank you so much and keep up the great work! Instant sub!!!!!

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Darren!!!! Okay, this has got to be the nicest and most validating comment we've ever gotten (Andra said I can't say this to people, but I feel like I have to just say it in this case because of the journey you went through and all the points you touched on) 🙊🙈 This just made our day/week/month/year and we just have to say thank you for the support, we have SO much in the works, and we're so beyond stoked that we get to do this for a living. Excited to chat more on other videos and excited for you to be part of the Efficient fam! With that, I've GOT to know (even though it's the wrong video), what did you decide on with the Expensify alternative 🤔😁

@darrenferony9769

Ай бұрын

Hey! Really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond!! So for more context, I used to co run a marketing company as the Creative Director (Digitality Marketing) and I had my own KZread channel (Makeshiftreality) that had some music videos go viral which lead me into the marketing world and building a studio. In the marketing company I built a lot of processes for managing workflows with ClickUp and other tools which is how I got into the productivity and task management niche. I transitioned out of that marketing business and I’m currently developing back end processes for managing the finances of my Families restaurant business and I’m also launching my own podcast on KZread based around optimizing health and habits (I’m a health coach and also work with clients one on one.) So all that being said, being organized and having systems has always been super important to me and with the advent of ai there is more opportunity now than ever to create tools that allow you to have full control of all the processes in your business. I used Claude 3 from Anthropic to code a spreadsheet in Google Sheets to create custom views for viewing all the business metrics for my families restaurant. It allows me to move faster than using QuickBooks and I can make it more custom to our own processes. I wanted to find a better way of managing cash receipts for the business and organizing those into a database so I was looking at Expensify to do that. I really want to go the Bill Spend and Expense route but it seems a little too advanced for my current needs. I think I’m going to start with Expensify for building a database for tracking physical and cash receipts and then I’ll transition to Bill Spend and Expense when there is more of a need for it. I will probably use it for my own personal business because it looks amazing. Huge thanks to you guys for bringing light to that. Does Bill Spend and Expense have a receipt capture tool on the mobile app? I’m assuming it does but I didn’t find a specific videos highlighting that.

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

This is an awesome history, just checked out some of the music videos on the channel, they are awesome! Completely and totally hear ya on the "move quicker than QBO using AI + sheets" as yeah, QBO is kinda the bane of my existence. You need it, but gosh, working with it is slow and rough... I will say, efficient.link/r/midday is looking SUPER promising in this area. Ideally it'll integrate with QBO in the future and it can be the interface instead of needing that spreadsheet of yours 😉 And got it, I will say though, as a long-time customer of Expensify a while back (used it for 4 years), I haven't missed it in the slightest since switching to BILL S&E. And I'd personally say BILL S&E are easier to use than Expensify, so it's interesting to see you saying that it looks intimidating. You can upload physical receipts no problem to BILL S&E (like if we get food out and use the business CC, you simply snap a picture of it from the mobile app and it connects it, or better yet, have the receipt send to your email and have it auto-forward to BILL S&E and it'll auto-match for you). So the truth of the matter is, I don't really someone starting off with Expensify then moving to BILL S&E in time, you'll be too exhausted to do that and just stick with Expensify if you go that path. I wouldn't recommend it personally. Promise you BILL isn't as intimidating as you might think. You seem smart, I've seen less technical construction businesses using BILL no problem. If you do give it a shot, definitely be sure to use this link though 🙏 efficient.link/r/bill even if you end up going with Expensify efficient.link/r/expensify - but yeah, I really really really do not recommend Expensify, they've fallen way behind in recent years.

It's so refreshing to see a non-affiliated, honest review. I work for a high volume real estate team and I really need something that allows me to post to multiple Facebook pages, our Google Business page, IG, Tiktok, KZread ect, while holding the format I created the media with. Maybe something that allows you to post to multiple platforms but individually edit cropping & captions. Also, something with a reliable central inbox that pulls in comments, mentions, DMs, reviews and Marketplace messages. A girl can dream...

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Haha our tag line isn't "no BS software reviews" for nothing 😄 Glad you enjoyed it! In terms of what you're looking for, Buffer would be the best if you're okay to compromise on it missing some formatting features (IG, Tiktok, Meta, YT). Although don't think they have Google Business. Buffer does also have a central inbox for comments, mentions, etc (maybe not reviews and market place). It might do 80% of what you need, which might be enough to make you more efficient but then you'll need to supplement for where there are limitations! Do you think you'll give it a shot?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

oh just saw Buffer actually does have Google Business!

Most informative and non biased videos I've seen...and I've watched every video on social media planners on KZread. Thank you!

@efficientapp

20 күн бұрын

So glad it was helpful! It was the video I wish I had when I started this research... I felt like there wasn't anything showing a balanced view of the reality of using any of the tools! Which tool do you think you'll end up trying? Or will you post directly to the social apps?

This comparision is on point! We came across this video while searching videos about how to become a boss on TikTok. Being as we are currently in the process of searching for a Social Media Manager, we had come across a two of these four tools. Researching these tools has been an important process in selecting the best candidate for this Social Media Manager position, so we figured we would give it a click, see what's what. This video is phenomenal! It has provided much needed insight and has allowed us to course correct in our search for the 'Expert' we hope to find. Great presentation and very to the point. We would even go as far to say that this video is fire. Thanks Alex & Andra for taking the time to post this insightful video. Much appreciated. Definitly recommend this video to fellow business owners attempting the 'find the one.' Cheers!

@efficientapp

4 күн бұрын

This is such a nice comment! So glad it helped 🙌 It's the video we wish we had when doing our research!

This video saved me so much pain. Thank you for taking all this time and sharing your experience. Unfortunately, it looks like I’m manually posting still.

@efficientapp

21 сағат бұрын

Haha so happy to hear we could help! So sorry/sad that the outcome is the most manual and painstaking process 😅 We just felt like all the videos on this subject were oversimplifying the actual pain-point and solution. Not saying they were recommending Metricool solely because they are the only ones with an affiliate link, buuuuuut 🤷‍♂️ Catch ya in the manually posting path, our new friend!

@BobbyKDesigns

20 сағат бұрын

@@efficientapp I just get up early and make the posting part of my morning coffee routine. There are no shortcuts…yet! Thank you again.

@efficientapp

15 сағат бұрын

Hahaha we know that routine all too well. Tell me you don't somehow get sucked into the social media of choice's algorithm, consuming content, 5 minutes later realizing you were trying to post, not consume, amiright? 😏🤭

Thank you for this video. Great content. I am the responsible for the tool we use in a project management association in Switzerland. We use buffer for free but I am not conviced. Actually as I prepare designed pictures on Canva, I use now Canva to schedule the posts to LinkedIn , X (I could do more but no time). The calendar of publication from Canva is good, the only down side of the Canva platform is the editor for the text is really poor at the moment. Thank you again for your high quality reviews.

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Appreciate the kind words! If you're using LinkedIn and X most (e.g. those are your two main channels), then efficient.link/r/typefully would be a great and enjoyable option (it's what Andra and I use exclusively now for X & LinkedIn). That said, you can't expand past those two channels with it for now. Completely hear you on Canva lacking a good text editor. Hope you find something that works best for you based on the channels that are most important for you-glad we could be involved in some way in the journey 🙏 Hope to see you around in other videos!

I hardly comment but thank you sooo much for breaking this down. I love how you went into details and gave an honest review❤ I loveee it!

@efficientapp

2 күн бұрын

Awe, means a LOT that you left a comment especially then! So glad to hear this video helped 🙏 so what did you end up going with (if any) and for what use-case?

@SoniaEmeni

2 күн бұрын

@@efficientapp I went with Buffer! It might be limited with it's free plan but it's certainly what I need.

@efficientapp

Күн бұрын

Sounds like a good move! Glad we could help in the decision! 🚀

Thank you for the honest review of these social management tools.

@efficientapp

29 күн бұрын

Of course! Curious what you ended up going with and for what needs do you have?

This is great content and really great to the point summary without the nonsense

@efficientapp

3 сағат бұрын

Awe, this means a lot! So glad we ended up recording this one-it felt like we couldn't keep this knowledge to ourselves haha so this feels super validating thank you! So what did you end up moving forward with?

I subscribed after the first minute - finally the KZread algorithm is actually showing me videos I'm interested in! what is the yellow cover thing you're using at 11:35?

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Awe! This comment just made our day 🥲 thank you KZread algorithm! Curious to learn, are you interested for personal use? Or for a company/your team? And ah yessss, so you're seeing Clicks: efficient.link/a/clicks

@monica4158

2 ай бұрын

@@efficientapp 😊I run a small marketing Agency in London so It's for business use. Thanks again for the info. Not sure if you've done any videos on CRM's but what do think about Bigin CRM? I've been using it for a while now and think it's the best CRM tool out there for businesses with under 50 employees...

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

That's awesome to hear! So curious what solution you've ultimately gone with for posting on social media and if the video related much with any of your pain-points? And regarding CRM videos, you got it! We have a full video on that here: efficient.yt/crm and even have a full "Best CRM" page on our site here: efficient.link/crm (we have a lot of opinions about a lot of software 😉), maybe shoot over a comment on the video there and we can talk more about Bigin 🙌 have had a couple others ask about Bigin in the comment section of that video 👀

Appreciate it guys

@efficientapp

3 күн бұрын

Awe, course! What'd you end up going with? 👀

Amazing this was super informative, I have been using Metricool for a year or so but after watching this I think I might give Buffer a go and compare which works better for me.

@efficientapp

19 күн бұрын

So glad it was helpful! Are you running into any specific limitations with Metricool? Or are you just curious to explore other options out there? Thanks for being here!

Wow thus channel is just amazing, I first saw your CRM comparison video, and now I'm here, and i don't think i would ever leave here 😂, you're just great especislly the video production quality is phenomenal 👌♥️

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Your comment is sooooo sweet! Thank you so much, shared your nice words with the entire team. So glad you're getting value from the software reviews. We have some pretty exciting videos coming out later this month too (currently being edited now). Curious, did you end up picking a CRM or social media app? Happy to help with any questions!

Thank you for this! I need some serious help on the social media front 😂 Thank you for your awesome work Alex & Andra!

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Gosh, it's such a tough nut to crack-glad to hear this could help! Also, good to see you again our friend! What platforms are you trying to focus your efforts on most? 👀

@TSI-Mike2024

2 ай бұрын

@@efficientapp Instagram, twitter & starting tik tok from zero! Hoping to be fully integrated by the end of 2024! If you guys did a video on live streaming to tik tok… that’s my next step in bringing sports to the 🌎

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Got it! So are you leaning on Buffer then based on the video recommendation for those channels? efficient.link/r/buffer The truth of the matter is we're not likely to do a video on that as TikTok doesn't fit for our audience at all and there's also a chance it's shut down by the end of this year. We've just found that KZread for long-form (especially live streaming) is a better solution than TikTok. It's also incredibly difficult to monetize on TikTok. Sounds like you have a solid plan though! Excited for you!

@TSI-Mike2024

2 ай бұрын

@@efficientapp it was a tough choice between hootsuite and buffer but yes! I definitely understand, love your content and recommendations! We keep rising! 📈📈

Appreciate the information! I'm gonna go ahead and move forward with Buffer and the strat with TikTok I will do with other platforms! Keep creating!

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Sounds like a good plan my friend! And will do 🙏 super curious, what platforms are most important for you specifically?

Fantastic deep dive. 12:55 really enjoyed the high level plan

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

So glad to hear this! Wanted to give insight into the realistic picture of how we’re scheduling content as creators. What platforms do you post on the most/will you use any tool to schedule or keep posting manually?

Great Video! Thank you

@efficientapp

9 күн бұрын

So glad to hear! Super curious what you ended up going with as your solution?

I tried buffer and I hated their UI SO I switched to Typefully and been using it for over a year now and it's just been the because of their beautiful UI

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

That’s fair! Typefully is definitely best for X/LinkedIn so if that’s what you’re focusing most on, it makes total sense! If you have a ton of short-form video that you’re trying to post across channels like Instagram and TikTok and want to do it all in one fell swoop, Buffer is your best bet. Wish Typefully and Buffer had a baby though haha maybe one day Typefully will expand further, but also kinda like their focus on X and LinkedIn versus getting too sidetracked.

Great video Thank you alot!

@efficientapp

11 күн бұрын

This means a lot! What did you end up moving forward with and for what use-case? Always fun learning what others have decided!

Thanks so much for the information! Help me to stop searching around and loose time.

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Awesome to hear we have helped! Wondering what you ended up landing on for your own strategy?

@fabiokotinda

2 ай бұрын

@@efficientapp I'm going to use Notion to plan my posting through different social medias and use the native program for each platform to plan the postings.

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

That sounds like a good plan, makes total sense! 🔥 Maybe one day you can give Motion a shot as it'll actually pull the posting tasks right onto your calendar 😉 that's actually what we do along with planning out content with Flows: efficient.yt/motion

Very helpful. Thank you !

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Our pleasure! 🙏 Will you try any of the tools?

@bagchisoahum

Ай бұрын

@@efficientapp Probably typefully ! To be honest love your perspective.

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

@bagchisoahum Typefully is fantastic! Alex and I now use it almost daily. So glad you found it all helpful ☺️ Be sure to use this link so their team knows we sent you! efficient.link/r/typefully

Thank you

@efficientapp

16 күн бұрын

Course! Which did you end up moving forward with?

I learned what I was looking for and came across this yellow keyboard kinda gadget attached with your iPhone at 11:35 What is this gadget called? Just curious.

@efficientapp

3 күн бұрын

Haha that's great to hear! What did you end up learning and moving forward with? Regarding the yellow gadget, it's Clicks: efficient.link/a/clicks

Hi, first of all, this was a great video, thank-you for bringing all this down to a 17 minutes Video! So I'm someone who is currently trying to figure all this out. My Question, what do you think of it? Wouldn't it also be possible to write all the posts in a normal calendar and then schedule the post for every app, in each scheduling site the app offers?

@efficientapp

25 күн бұрын

So glad you enjoyed it! While it's definitely possible do what you're suggesting, it's introducing a lot more work than is required. I think you'd burn out pretty quickly. Instead, I'd recommend figuring out which single platform you care about most, posting directly there, and then using something like Buffer for the rest of the platforms.

excellent video.

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Awe, thanks! Curious what option you ended up going with and for what team size/use-case?

@enriquevaldivieso1661

Ай бұрын

​@@efficientapp Thanks to your video, I realized that we are still far from finding an API that can keep up with updates and gather all the most significant social media windows. For now, we have decided to continue our research. Additionally, we are considering the Digital CC you mentioned; however, the data they keep is what worries me the most.!

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Oh yeah, we definitely love BILL Spend & Expense! Did you catch our whole video about it? efficient.yt/expense We don’t have any worries with data - they are one of the largest companies in the world doing this (public traded) so security is something they invest in heavily. Also they also helped us catch someone stealing credit card numbers from one of our vendors and they returned the money to us instantly. If you end up signing up, be sure to use this link so their team knows we sent you and takes good care of you: efficient.link/r/bill

What about Zoho Socials?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

oh gosh, stay away from Zoho! There's a reason why we don't even cover them on our site or in any of our software reviews. Zoho is trying to be everything - social media, a CRM, project management, HR solution... Zoho offers a horrible user experience!

What about Facebook ! you dont use it ?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Oh, no we don’t use it really (only when Instagram asks if we want to also publish to our Facebook page we say yes). The reason is because our audience isn’t on there! But Buffer and all the other platforms work with Meta too!

What are you thinking about socialbee and sociamonials?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

These didn’t make the cut when doing our initial evaluation and research, are you using them? 👀

Gives me a headache trying to figure out which one to use...

@efficientapp

18 күн бұрын

Us too 😅 what social media platforms are most critical for you? Top 2?

@FBAMogul

18 күн бұрын

@@efficientapp Instagram and KZread are my two main ones.

@efficientapp

18 күн бұрын

Yeah, wouldn’t use any platform for KZread, so if it’s just Instagram left, you are better off posting to Instagram directly. I think I just saw they now allow you to schedule the posts natively within the app. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest solution!

I am needing to manage 8-10 SM accounts (IG and Facebook mainly) at once. Which management platform would you recommend ?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Would say Buffer, they have agency plans, and we found they worked the most consistently with IG (while the other tools had given us errors which is why we ultimately ended up using Buffer). Metricool also works for agencies, it was just more unstable than Buffer when we tried to use it.

I want to switch to Social Media Management, what are the things I need to know and work on?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

- Psychology (What content creates with people and why?) - Actual Content Creation (Basic filming/editing is table stakes these days) - Persistence & Patience (Keep posting & trying new things til you find your audience) Whether you are managing your own account or others accounts, all of the above will pay off 🙌 What is the first thing you'll do?

There is a new kid on the block called Sociamonials - have U tried it ?

@efficientapp

25 күн бұрын

It didn't pass our first layer of vetting in terms of software to consider (which in and of itself is a red flag)! Would say any of the tools we covered in this video will be a much better bet!

What do you think of Meta Business Suite to schedule for FB and Insta?

@efficientapp

11 күн бұрын

Yeah, I think it's a good option! If Meta platforms are the ones you care about most, then that's the way to go! Meta will always favor you using their own features vs. a third party app.

Why you don't make your own social media manger system 😉 ?

@efficientapp

5 күн бұрын

Haha because there are too many API limitations across all the social media platforms, so the problem is less the product, and more what these social media platforms want people doing. We'd also rather report on it than build it 😉😁

How about Later?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

We tried it for a bit and it felt somewhat kludgy, so we didn't stick with it. Don't 100% remember what the reason for getting rid of it was at the time (this video was shot 6 months ago), but we definitely tried it and decided to not even include it in the video. Just didn't work well for us.

Which social media app are you using and care most about? See the full comparison here: efficient.link/social ↳ 🥇 Buffer (All): efficient.link/r/buffer ↳ 🥇 Typefully (X & LinkedIn): efficient.link/r/typefully ↳ Metricool: efficient.link/r/metricool ↳ Hootsuite: efficient.link/r/hootsuite

Maybe I missed it, but did you evaluate Loomly?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

It didn't quite pass the initial evaluation when looking at the "best" social media scheduling apps we wanted to actually try to implement in our business.

Did you take a look at Sprout Social at all?

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Sprout Social is for enterprises, have a friend that works there and their clients are huge companies like Estée Lauder. Their entire homepage copy is very much speaking to these huge companies as well, they even list a phone number as that’s who their target audience is 😂 Don’t think we use any SaaS that would ever list a phone number. For us as a small business, it’s not a contender and really wouldn’t recommend it to any non-corporate team!

@chrititout

2 ай бұрын

Makes sense. This might sound crazy but I actually was thinking of Vista Social in my head. 😂 I probably got mixed up because Sprout always ranks first on Google for this topic. I would love to know your thoughts on Vista Social.

@efficientapp

2 ай бұрын

Hah yeah, Sprout has a lot of money to invest in organic and paid spend. Regarding Vista Social, we actually aren't familiar with it and it didn't come up in our search for the best social media scheduler tool, though thinking our our would be similar to others in the video. None of these tools are "great" due to API limitations, full data delete permissions, and other reasons mentioned in the video. We're probably not going to go too far down this category as we found what works best for us, and it's really just finding one of these tools that checks the boxes for the platforms you don't care about, and then posting natively for the ones you do care about. Since we're not a social media marketing agency, we're not trying to manage dozens of accounts for other companies, so our needs may vary a bit from yours depending. Never intended to make this video, just realized that we ended up going to the depths and doing a ton of research and testing, so figured might as well help out others who were in a similar situation to us. It was pretty grueling work testing out all these tools and feeling pretty good to not do more testing for now that we landed on something pretty great, if that makes sense 😆

@chrititout

2 ай бұрын

Yea, that makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and keep making great videos!

🙌🏾🙏🏾👏🏾

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the 🧡! Hope to continue seeing you around here!

Is that possible to add someone in my tiktok account to manage it(posting, replying comment, answering DM)? If so, how can I do it?

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

Use one of the apps mentioned in this video, invite them as a user and viola you've delegated your Tiktok management 👌

What about metricool or later?

@efficientapp

Күн бұрын

What do you mean? Metricool is talked about in this video, did you watch it? 😅 We considered Later but nothing about it stood out and it wasn't something we ultimately decided to truly consider after our initial tests. This video consists only of the finalists we considered, so Later didn't make it to the video for a reason, if that makes sense?

Metricool is the cheapest

@efficientapp

Ай бұрын

If the tool is actually saving you time, I wouldn't judge it based on being "the cheapest". The tool that does the job and saves you time for your specific needs will more than cover the software cost in terms of efficiency. That said, Buffer for example is actually free depending on some use-cases with less accounts, etc. so even just calling out Metricool is the cheapest isn't actually accurate. There's much more context required.