8 Must-Have Chrome Browser Extensions for Social Media Managers

Managing your own social media takes time. The platforms may be free to use, but your time is valuable. So anytime I can find a way to make social media marketing processes a little bit easier for myself or my small business clients, I share. I’ve often shared about social media management tools you should look into, including video creation apps and graphic design programs, but I’ve never talked about the Chrome Extensions that make my life easier as a social media manager.

Love it or hate it, approximately 70% of internet surfing is done via Chrome now and there are many good reasons for that. When I began using Google products many years ago Chrome was simply a faster, easier browser to use and I’ve never looked back. One of the things I love is the ease with which I can add browser extensions to help me work smarter and more efficiently in social media. Here are some of my favourite Chrome browser extensions for social media managers.

Social Media Scheduler

Whether you use Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialJukeBox, or some other social media scheduling program, pick one that has a browser extension. It will make your life so much easier. Reading an article on your local news website and want to share it? All you need to do is tap that icon in your browser bookmarks and BOOM! you’re logged in with the link and default text. It’s so much easier than copying the link, opening a new tab, logging into your scheduling program, and setting things up. It may seem minor, but when you’re managing a lot of social accounts, saving time is a big deal.

Screen Capture

Whether you like to screenshot things people say about your business and repurpose them or grab tweets that inspire you for later, or even just keep a record of things people said, everyone needs a screen capture program. On our phones it’s easy…for me, I just push two buttons simultaneously to get the screenshot, but on my laptop Print Screen just doesn’t cut it.

I use Fireshot to grab all my screenshots. It gives me all the options I need: save as PDF, edit before saving, and even the ability to grab just what’s in view or the entire page of comments. I will say occasionally it doesn’t work for what I’m trying to screenshot because the web page is in layers/frames and some of them will disappear when I try to use Fireshot. However, most times it works perfectly.

Password Manager

With a kajillion and two passwords to remember, and needing to make them increasingly complicated, I finally caved and got a password manager. Actually, I have two, plus the built-in system on my laptop. LastPass is the one I use the most. I like the ability to give freelancers access to accounts without telling them the password which is a great risk management practice. Having that icon in my browser bookmarks makes it so easy to find a password when needed and also updates your passwords if you change them.

Invite Post Likers

If you run Facebook contests that get more than a few entries you’ll know what a time-consuming job it is to go through and invite all of the people who liked the contest post to follow your page, right? Invite Post Likers does it for you while you take a break. There are pros and cons to this one, though, so installer beware!

Pros

• set it up to invite all likers automatically and walk away
• less repetitive clicking is hand/wrist-friendly
• lets you multi-task
• runs from an open Chrome tab and acts just like a human would to interact with the Facebook post

Cons

• definitely not approved/supported by Facebook, so you are taking a chance using it
• cannot do anything else on your computer while it’s running, not even in another tab. The tab has to be open to be active. I turn it on and take a bathroom break, make lunch, etc.
• Depending on the size of your contest it may not capture everyone as it does have limits.

Link Shortener

The more I dig in to using UTM tracking codes for everything pointing to my website, the more I use bit.ly to shorten things. There are so many places where you just do not want to show a long, ugly URL with a bunch of tracking codes on the end. Sometimes those long links look scary to people and they don’t want to click on them, and other times, I just don’t want to give that information out to anyone. Having that icon in the browser bookmarks will save you a few clicks every time!

Facebook Pixel Helper

This is one I don’t use a lot, but I do have it pinned to the browser so I can always see it. It tells me if the website I’m on has the Facebook Pixel installed, and what it is tracking. I mostly use it to keep track of my own pixel, to know if it’s somehow broken, but it’s useful for client researching and prospecting if you’re a Facebook Ads agency or freelancer. (Thanks to Vincent Orleck for this suggestion)

RiteTag

If you’re having trouble coming up with the 30 hashtags you’re allowed to use on Instagram, RiteTag might be super helpful for you. Clicking on this icon brings up a window to help you search for hashtags and it even lets you know if the ones you’re using are banned (so many seemingly innocuous hashtags have been banned on Instagram because of spam and abuse).

Keyword Surfer

This is a new one for me, suggested by @32Homies on Twitter. I can see how this will quickly become very useful for me in doing keyword research for blog posts. It populates the search volume and cost per click rate right in the search bar, and then in a box to the right tells me alternative search phrases to consider and their search volumes. This was a great find.

Do you find this list of Chrome browser extensions for social media managers useful? Did I miss your favourite? Share your favourite extension in the comments and I’ll check it out.