Integrate Programs without Learning Code with Zapier

Zapier is a web-based service that lets you easily connect the web apps you use so you can automate tedious and time-consuming tasks.

Zapier is an API for APIs.

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing web-based software applications or web tools. A software company releases its API to the public so other software developers can design products that are powered by its service. An API is a software to software interface, not a user interface. With APIs, applications talk to each other — to share tasks and information — without user knowledge or intervention.

Zapier currently allows you to connect over 400 different web-based apps and perform a variety of different actions. A Zap is a Zapier-created connection between two apps that automates a time-consuming task.

An example of a Zap you could create is to automate the posting to Facebook of new articles that appear on your agency website. There is a library of over 60 different Zaps others have created to automate the interaction with Facebook you can use.

It is easy to create a Zap. You can copy another Zap and add your account information, or you can create a Zap from scratch.

Zapier has a free version that is limited to five Zaps and 100 tasks per month. The basic version allows 20 Zaps with 3,000 tasks per month and costs $15 per month ($165 per year). The improved productivity you would get by being able to automate the sharing of information between Zapier supported apps could make this a worthwhile investment.

I recommend that you explore Zapier and the apps they currently support to see if you can automate any existing tasks.

Now, wouldn’t it be nice if agency management system vendors had free, open, and well-documented APIs that could be added to Zapier? What else would you like to see automated? Leave a comment below.