Originally published: September 10, 2019
Updated: August 2026 to reflect the tools our team currently uses
Reviewed by: Karla Fisher, Owner, Authentic Web Solutions
Digital media tools can make running a business easier, but having more tools does not always mean getting better results. The right tools should solve a problem, save time, improve communication, or help your team work more efficiently.
When we first published this article in 2019, our digital toolkit looked very different. Technology has changed, our clients’ needs have changed, and the way we manage websites and digital marketing has changed too.
At Authentic Web Solutions, we work with businesses and organizations on websites, SEO, digital marketing, social media, and ongoing website support. The digital media tools we use are not simply products we found on a “best tools” list. They are tools we use in our own day-to-day work and, in many cases, directly with our clients.
Here are some of the tools that currently help our team manage marketing, websites, projects, communication, design, and troubleshooting.
A Quick Look at the Digital Media Tools We Use
| Tool | What We Use It For | Especially Helpful For |
| Hootsuite | Social media publishing, monitoring, engagement, and Google Business Profile management | Businesses with more involved social media needs |
| Buffer | Social media scheduling and publishing | Small businesses that need a simpler social media solution |
| Asana | Project and task management | Organizing projects from start to finish |
| Canva | Social graphics, presentations, marketing materials, and branded visual content | Creating consistent visual content efficiently |
| MarkUp.io | Website feedback and client collaboration | Giving clear feedback directly on a webpage |
| Vimeo | Video and screen-recorded instructions | Showing a process that is difficult to explain in writing |
| ChatGPT | Research, strategy, brainstorming, and task assistance | Organizing information and working through ideas |
| Jam | Website bug reporting and troubleshooting | Showing developers exactly what is going wrong |
| CSS Peeper | Reviewing website styling | Quickly identifying fonts, colors, spacing, and other design details |
| FireShot | Full-page website screenshots | Documenting an entire webpage in one image |
Social Media Management: Hootsuite and Buffer
Social media management can become time-consuming quickly, especially when a business has several accounts to manage. Scheduling tools help us plan content ahead of time rather than logging into every platform each time something needs to be published.
Two platforms we use and recommend are Hootsuite and Buffer. They serve similar purposes, but we do not necessarily recommend the same tool for every client.
Hootsuite: When We Need More Robust Social Media Management
We continue to recommend Hootsuite for clients who need more than basic social scheduling.
Hootsuite allows users to create and schedule posts in advance, manage multiple social accounts, monitor activity, review analytics, engage with audiences, and manage conversations from a centralized dashboard. Its platform also includes social listening and reporting tools.
One feature we find particularly useful is its connection with Google Business Profile. Hootsuite can help businesses create Google Business Profile posts and respond to reviews, making it easier to manage both social activity and local reputation from fewer dashboards.
For businesses managing multiple social channels or locations, having those activities in one place can save time and make it easier to keep track of customer interactions.
The tradeoff is cost. Hootsuite offers a broad set of features, but a smaller business that mainly wants to schedule a few social posts may not need everything included in the platform.
That is one reason we also use Buffer.
Buffer: A Simpler Option for Smaller Businesses
For some of our smaller clients, Buffer can be a better fit.
Buffer allows businesses to create content in batches, add posts to a scheduling queue, and have those posts published automatically at scheduled times. Users can also view upcoming content in a calendar, making it easier to plan social media ahead of time.
Buffer supports major social platforms as well as Google Business Profile. Businesses can schedule Google Business Profile updates and manage customer engagement, including responding to reviews.
For a small business that primarily needs an organized way to plan and schedule content, Buffer can offer a simpler starting point.
Hootsuite vs. Buffer: How Do We Decide Which One to Use?
Hootsuite may be a better fit for businesses that need more advanced social media management, while Buffer can be a practical option for smaller businesses that primarily need scheduling and publishing.
The right choice depends on budget, number of accounts, reporting needs, team size, and how the business manages customer engagement.
If the main goal is to prepare a month’s worth of social content, schedule it, and keep publishing organized, Buffer may be enough.
If a business needs more extensive analytics, social listening, account management, engagement workflows, reporting, or reputation-management capabilities, Hootsuite may make more sense.
There is no universal “best” social media tool. We look at what the client actually needs before making a recommendation.
Before choosing either platform, we also recommend reviewing current features and pricing because software plans can change over time.
Businesses that would rather have someone help manage the strategy behind their social media can also explore our social media and digital marketing services.
Project Management: How We Use Asana to Keep Work Moving
Digital work rarely involves just one task.
A website project, for example, may include content, design, development, SEO, client feedback, revisions, testing, and launch. Without a central place to manage those steps, it is easy for something to get overlooked.
We use Asana to organize our daily tasks and manage projects from beginning to end.
Asana allows teams to create projects, assign tasks to specific people, set due dates, create subtasks, add comments and files, track dependencies, and view projects in several different formats.
For us, the value is organization.
Instead of relying on someone’s memory or searching through email to figure out what happens next, we can see the project’s tasks, responsibilities, and progress in one place.
Design and Content Creation: Why We Still Use Canva
Canva was included in the original version of this article in 2019, and it remains one of the digital tools our team uses regularly today.
We use Canva to create visual content for social media, digital marketing, presentations, website graphics, and other client materials.
One of the features we find particularly useful is the ability to keep brand elements such as logos, colors, and fonts organized in one place. This makes it easier to create new materials while maintaining a consistent visual identity.
Canva has also expanded beyond basic graphic design. Teams can collaborate on designs, create templates, resize content for different platforms, organize brand assets, and create a variety of visual and video content.
For us, the biggest advantage is efficiency. We can create or adapt professional-looking marketing materials quickly without starting from scratch every time.
Canva does not replace professional web or graphic design when a project requires custom creative work, but it is a practical tool for many of the everyday visual needs that come with digital marketing.
Website Feedback: Why We Use MarkUp.io With Clients
We use MarkUp.io to make website feedback more specific. Clients and team members can click directly on a webpage element and leave a comment instead of trying to describe the requested change through email.
Website feedback can become confusing surprisingly fast.
An email might say:
“Can you change the picture near the blue section about halfway down the page?”
The designer and client may be talking about completely different things.
MarkUp.io allows someone to open digital content, click directly on the area they want to discuss, and leave a comment in context. It supports websites as well as images, PDFs, videos, and other file types.
We use it both internally and with clients.
Instead of trying to describe which button, photo, headline, or section needs attention, the client can point directly to it.
That can reduce long email chains, limit misunderstandings, and help revisions move more quickly.
It is one of the tools that helps make our website design and development process more collaborative.
Video Instructions: When Showing Is Easier Than Explaining
Sometimes writing instructions takes longer than simply showing someone what to do.
That is where Vimeo has been useful for our team.
Vimeo’s recording tools allow users to record their screen, camera, microphone, or a combination of them. Recordings can then be saved and shared.
We use recorded videos when we need to walk a team member or client through a process that could be confusing in written instructions.
For example, rather than writing several paragraphs explaining where to log in, which menu to open, and which button to select, we can record the process and show the person exactly what we mean.
It saves time for us and can make instructions easier for the person receiving them.
AI Assistance: How We Use ChatGPT
At Authentic Web Solutions, we use ChatGPT as an assistant for research, brainstorming, strategy development, organizing information, and other day-to-day tasks. We do not treat AI output as a finished answer; information still requires human review, verification, and professional judgment.
Artificial intelligence has become another tool in our workflow, but we think it is important to be clear about how we use it.
Some of the ways we use ChatGPT include:
- Brainstorming
- Research
- Strategy development
- Organizing information
- Working through ideas
- Task assistance
- Comparing information from different sources
AI can help gather, compare, and organize information, making certain research and planning tasks more efficient.
However, AI does not replace professional judgment.
Sources still need to be checked. Information still needs to be reviewed. And the final strategy needs to make sense for the individual business, audience, and goal.
We view AI as something that can assist the person doing the work, not as a substitute for experience, critical thinking, creativity, or human oversight.
Website Troubleshooting: How Jam Helps Us Explain Bugs Faster
Anyone who works with websites has probably heard a version of this sentence:
“Something isn’t working, but I don’t know how to explain what happened.”
A screenshot can help, but sometimes it still does not tell a developer enough.
We use Jam when we need to record and communicate website bugs or technical problems.
Jam can capture a screenshot or screen recording while also collecting technical information such as console logs, network requests, user events, browser and device information, and other details that can help someone troubleshoot the problem.
That gives our development team more than a message saying, “The form isn’t working.”
They can see what happened and have additional technical context to help determine why it happened.
For website teams, that can reduce the back-and-forth required to reproduce a problem and begin troubleshooting it.
Tools like Jam help with troubleshooting, but ongoing website maintenance and support can help businesses address updates, errors, security needs, and other website issues before they become larger problems.
Small Browser Tools That Save Our Team Time
Not every useful digital tool needs to be a large software platform.
A few browser extensions make small tasks much faster for our team.
CSS Peeper for Website Styling
We use CSS Peeper when we need to quickly review the visual styling of a website.
It can display information about dimensions, spacing, typography, colors, shadows, and other design properties without requiring someone to search through the site’s code manually.
For example, if we need to identify a font, color value, margin, or other visual detail on a webpage, CSS Peeper can help us locate that information quickly.
FireShot for Full-Page Screenshots
A normal screenshot usually captures only the part of a webpage visible on the screen.
We use FireShot when we need to capture the entire webpage, including portions that would normally require scrolling.
This is helpful when we need to document a webpage, review a full design, save a reference, or show someone exactly what a page looked like at a particular point in a project.
How Do You Choose the Right Digital Marketing Tools for Your Business?
The best digital marketing tools are not necessarily the ones with the longest feature lists.
Start with the problem you are trying to solve.
Ask questions such as:
- What task is taking too much time?
- Does more than one person need access?
- Does the tool replace several manual steps?
- Will your team actually use it?
- Does it integrate with tools you already have?
- Does the time it saves justify the cost?
- Do you need advanced features, or would a simpler solution work just as well?
A small business that needs to schedule a few social posts has different needs from an agency managing multiple client accounts. Likewise, a two-person team may not need the same project-management system as a company managing several departments.
More software does not automatically create better marketing.
The goal is to find the tools that support the way your business actually works.
When Digital Marketing Tools Aren’t Enough
Digital media tools can save time and make certain tasks easier, but they still need the right strategy behind them.
You can schedule dozens of social media posts, for example, but a scheduling tool cannot decide whether those posts support your larger marketing goals. Analytics software can provide numbers, but someone still needs to understand what those numbers mean and what to do next.
The same is true for websites, SEO, content, and digital marketing.
At Authentic Web Solutions, these tools help our team work more efficiently, communicate clearly, and manage client projects—but the tools are only one part of the process.
If managing your website, social media, or digital marketing is taking too much time away from running your business, we can help.
Learn more about our digital marketing services or contact the Authentic Web Solutions team to talk about the support that makes sense for your business.