Hi there, Promo Marketing audience! I’ll get to the tools in a quick second, but I wanted to introduce myself first. My name is Mandy Kilinskis. I’m the content and social media manager for distributor Quality Logo Products, Aurora, Ill. I’ll be here monthly to share practical tips on digital marketing.
Enough about me—on to the reason you opened this article: social media tools.
More and more promo-item business is being done online, which means that maintaining a social media presence is more important than ever. However, there only are so many hours in a day, and you don’t want to be spending too many of them on Facebook when you could be helping clients. I totally get that. So with these three tools, you can make and schedule content in a flash, and get back to business.
Buffer (for Scheduling Content)
There are tons of social media scheduling tools, like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, but I’ve found that none of them are as easy to use as Buffer. With Buffer, you only need to connect your social media accounts, and then compose your tweets, posts or whatever, and drop them into your queues. It’s easy to rearrange your upcoming posts, and you can manage the vast majority of all social accounts from one dashboard.
There are multiple pricing tiers, but the free model starts you with 10 slots for updates. I’ve found that to be more than sufficient. The Buffer team has made browser extensions, and Buffer works together with tons of other apps to help you load that queue as quickly as you’d like.
IFTTT (for Smartly Sharing Content)
You’ve heard the phrase about working smarter, not harder, right? That’s exactly what IFTTT does for you. IFTTT is valuable because a lot of social networks, like Instagram and Twitter, don’t play nicely together. Using IFTTT will allow you to seamlessly share content from one network to another.
You’ll need to poke around on the channels and look at recipes, but you can probably find something that works for you. Here are just a few of the things you can do with IFTTT to make things a little easier for you business-wise:
- Have your account send a tweet when you publish a new blog post
- Post Instagram photos to other social networks
- Post YouTube uploads to a Facebook page
And this is just the tip of the iceberg! If there’s something you would like to do, or two social networks that you can connect, then you can probably find or create a recipe to make it happen.
Pablo (for Making Beautiful Images)
Not only is marketing getting more digital, but it’s also getting more visual. So blog posts, Facebook updates and tweets all should include some nice, quality images when possible.
Pablo (also from the makers of Buffer) is a great free tool that will help you easily create some images. Pablo has a searchable photo gallery (though you also can upload your own images), the ability to overlay text and three formats perfectly sized for social networks. Every social network has its own image size preferences, so Pablo takes care of figuring that out for you.
Once you create your image, it gives you the ability to easily download or share it. If you’re already using Buffer, then you can drop it right into your queue.
It’s not going to replace the finesse or expertise of a graphic artist, but it definitely will help you out in a pinch. If nothing else, it’s a great way to find royalty-free images for your social pages.
As more businesses turn digital and more social networks are invented, we’re all going to have to keep up to stay relevant and competitive. So the more that you can have your tools do, the better off you’re going to be. And again, the more time that you will have for your clients.
Have you used any of these tools before? Are there any that you like better? Let us know in the comments.
