Today's social media marketer needs to be a Jack or Jill of all trades, with constantly evolving elements requiring a broad range of tools - from imaging, text and video apps, to scheduling and analytics tools like Buffer and Hootsuite. And that's before you even factor in the ever-changing social websites themselves.
Fortunately, many of these apps are free, at least for their basic packages, and geared towards consumers, making them intuitive to learn and operate. However, this accessibility comes at its own price - power and functionality are limited, updates are constantly rolled out requiring branding and strategy overhauls, and everyone is now on social media, making it harder and harder to stand out.
Therefore, it may come as something of a mixed blessing to learn that your PC actually contains a ton of under-publicized tools and apps that can help you to produce and organize your social media content, as well as boost your productivity by making your computer life easier in general.
Microsoft have always thrown a bundle of more or less forgettable extras in with their Windows package, but with Windows 10 they've really stepped up, adding a whole range of Microsoft versions of other brands' game-changing software, as well as a few innovations of their own. And if you're already running Windows, you can access them in just a couple of clicks.
Take Sticky Notes, for example. The classic 'digital Post-It' is a real savior for professional Tweeters, who can scribble down a rough draft of a genius Tweet with a digital pen the moment it comes to them, and come back to it later when they're good and ready to finish it. Further, by using Windows Ink you can create smart Notes, which add information to your scribbles - for example, by prompting you to add information to your schedule or set a reminder. Bundle this up with Buffer, and you're always going to be several tweets ahead of the competition.
And this just scratches the surface of what you can do. Search out Snipping Tool for smarter screenshotting; People for a definitive digital address book; 3D Builder for spatial imaging; and you'll soon find your social media game has reached another level.
For a brief rundown on some of the tools you may have overlooked, check out this guide to Microsoft's sleeper software - it could turn your working day around.