APPS – These Are Our 5 Favs!

It goes without saying that apps are a Social Media Manager’s BFF!  They help us plan, analyze, stay creative, efficient, productive, curate content and SO MUCH MORE!  One thing is for sure, we couldn’t survive without them!

When challenged to share our favorite 5, it was tough to choose!  There are so many quality apps available today and new ones are emerging every day!  Below are 5 of our favorite go-to apps that you will want to get your hands on right away!  To grab these apps, head over to your devices app store to snag them.

Get Creative with These Apps

As a Social Media Manager or anyone who manages a brand’s social content, you need to be creative.  One of the goals of the content you post is to “Stop The Scroll”.  This requires interesting and engaging posts.

  1.  Adobe Spark Post!

Why We Love It:  

This app is great for creating anything from a social media post graphic to posters, and custom sizes.  Not only does this app have loads of size options available, its library of free stock photos is HUGE!  Not only does Adobe Spark Post make amazing images, it also animates images.  Fun Alert!  Once you start with Spark, you may not be able to stop!

  1.  Animoto

Do you have a bunch of pictures that tell a story about your brand, service or product?  Let’s face it, sometimes static images just won’t do the job.  Our solution…Animoto!  Animoto is a great resource for turning images into animated video.  Not only does it create a great video but it also has amazing stock music to help you hit the right vibe.

  1. Typorama

A good Social Media Manager knows that you can’t just have one resource for creating social media graphics.  If you only use one tool, your posts become predictable, and, well…boring.  To create a wide variety of post types, you need to have a wide variety of apps.  We love Typorama because it has a large selection of font styles you can use for your graphic posts.  

Pro Tip:  Check you Typorama’s sister app, Videorama.  This is a super cool app that has a large selection of stock video for you to use.  Get creative with Videorama by adding text overlays, music, and filters to your videos.

 

Get efficient and save time with these apps.

4 & 5.  Yes, we said “these”.  

There are two time-saving apps we adore which wouldn’t allow us to choose just one.  Here’s why…Social Media Managers are a busy lot!  We are always creating content, posting and tracking the engagement of our posts.  In order to be effective at all of those things simultaneously, we need a tool to help us.  

So, numbers 4 & 5 on our list are Buffer and Hootsuite.  Both of these apps have web-based and mobile device platforms which are designed to help you schedule the posts you create.  

We love Buffer for its ease of use when it comes to scheduling posts on multiple accounts.  Hootsuite rocks when it comes to monitoring the social conversation surrounding your posts.  Both have similar functions.  We encourage you to dive into each to decide which is the best fit for you or maybe it is a combination of the two!

Honorable Mentions

Yup!  It was hard to pick just 5 favorites.  We couldn’t leave these out because they help to keep your posts and feeds uber interesting!  Make sure you check out:

  • Boomerang for repetitive, looped animation.  Try it once and you’ll be hooked!
  • Ripl – Great for animated video
  • Hyperlapse – Speed up a long video using this time-lapsed video app. Great for instructional type videos
  • Vont – Edit and trim videos right on your smartphone with this easy to use video editor

Pro Tip:  One of the best things you can do for your social media accounts is to keep them fresh and exciting.  Take the time to get to know new and different apps to help you achieve this.

Have fun and stay social!

 

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Using Canva to Create Beautiful Images

Canva is a great tool for business owners to use, to create those eye-grabbing images for social media. It is an easy to use platform, that allows you to be super creative and make amazing images without being a graphic designer and having to pay a fortune for images. Canva is great for creating your branded images, marketing materials, presentations, menus and so much more! Sometimes you will see an image as you scroll through social media and say WOW that is an awesome image! You may think to yourself “how did they do that?” Now you know! Create images that STOP THE SCROLL as we say! Enjoy!

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2018 Social Media Marketing Planning Guide [Curated Content]

2018 Social Media Marketing Guide

Plan for Social Success in 2018

[This guide was originally published by Simple Measured]

Like the feeling of pulling your “ugly but hilarious” holiday sweater from storage, the arrival of our 2018 Social Planning Guide signals a new year is on its way. Planning next year’s social strategy across teams can feel daunting, but our guide and editable worksheets will have everyone working together.

The Simply Measured planning guide helps you to:

  • Identify and incorporate trends that will keep your messaging current in 2018
  • Outline and capture the social metrics that reflect success for your business
  • Map your social strategy clearly and concisely using our editable worksheets

Download your Social Media Marketing Guide Here

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Boosted Posts vs. Facebook Ads

boosted posts vs. facebook ads

Scratching your head about whether to ‘boost’ a post on Facebook or to utilize the power of Facebook ads?  Boosting a post is sometimes ‘simple’ but not always the best answer to get to the folks that really matter to your brand!  Remember, Facebook is not a spray and pray proposition. Getting into the newsfeeds is getting harder and harder for ranking capability.  Soooo…get ready to dig into your pocketbook, whether boosting or using Facebook ads.

Boosting a post on Facebook, let’s face it, is easy-peasy, as opposed to going behind the scenes and utilizing the awesome tools on Facebook Manager. All you have to do is hit the ‘boost post’ button and off you go, right?  WRONG. Hang on ‘pardner…

In the past, boosting did not have many of the attributes that Facebook Ads Manager had, but now the Boost post button might not be such a bad strategy after all.  You can now actually re-target and optimize your boosts to actually drive traffic for developing your brand followers!  

There are some key factors that come into play when boosting your posts.  You must consider:

  1. What is the goal for the boost?
  2. DO NOT boost a post that does not benefit you, such as a resource post that does not lead back to your website, as an example.
  3. Again, boosting is not a ‘spray and pray’ proposition.  Make sure that you are targeting your demographic for the post.
  4. It’s all about the Facebook Pixel!!!!  In order to get the best traction, make sure that you have installed the Facebook Pixel (it’s FREE) on your website so you can get your tracking enabled.

So why is Facebook Manager a greater preference for ads?  Let’s be frank, candid and honest…Facebook Ads Manager does have a learning curve…no doubt…but it does have the ability for in-depth targeting, which is a HUGE coup! AND AND AND…if you are an organizational freak, the only way to keep completely organized with your ad spend is to create campaigns within Facebook Ads Manager.  You don’t have that ability with boosting posts.

For example, if you want to stay organized on Ads Manager for ‘campaigns,’ you can organize your campaigns strategically:

  • App installs
  • Engagement
  • Brand Awareness
  • Reach
  • Traffic
  • Video Views
  • LeadGen
  • Messages
  • Conversions
  • Product Catalog Sales
  • Store Visits

If you are merely ‘boosting’ a post, you do not have the ability to categorize your ‘boosted posts’ into strategic campaigns on Facebook to examine analytics per campaign goals.

So, to wrap it up quick and easy…boosted posts will help you develop a fan base and reach, and ads can actually help you transition your brand’s presence into tangible brand outcomes!

Stay tuned for more info…lots to share!

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Twitter Tactics

How can you get the most out of Twitter for your business?  We get that question A LOT!  Twitter can be confusing and some may be stumped on how to use Twitter.  When getting started with Twitter, it’s best to take baby steps and then grow from there.  Once you get your feet wet and splash around a little you can’t help but take a swim in the deep end.

Starting Out…

When first with Twitter, use it for two things:

  1. Gather information
  2. Share information

Gathering Information:

Twitter can be extremely valuable for gathering information on a number of topics.  To do this effectively you will want to follow these steps:

  • Follow credible sources who deliver valuable content about the topic you are interested in.  Topics can range anywhere from sports scores, business trends, world news, marketing tactics, etc.
  • As you identify the sources you want to follow, add them to lists in order to sort the feeds by category or topic.  Using lists will help you keep all of the topics you want to follow organized
  • To create a list, follow these steps:
    • Visit your “Lists” section of Twitter by clicking the gear icon drop-down menu or by clicking Lists on your profile page.
    • Click Create List.
    • Name the List & create a description.
    • Mark the List as Public or Private.
    • Save the List.
  • Now that you have your list created, you can easily add sources to the list by:
    • Click on a Twitter user’s profile
    • Click on the person icon drop-down menu on the profile.
    • Choose add or remove from Lists.
    • Choose the List you would like to add the person to or uncheck the List the person was already a member of.
  • Add as many people to your various lists as you would like
  • Check your lists often to get the latest news from your trusted sources

Sharing Information:

Twitter is a great way for you to position yourself as an authority on a certain topic, field or industry.  The trick is to share “tweet-able” information, share it often and on a consistent basis.  A good rule of thumb is to share 21-70 Tweets a week.  That is a minimum of 3 Tweets a day or a maximum of 10 Tweets.  It seems like a lot, but there are a couple of things to remember:  

  1. You are Tweeting sound bites of information that link back to a bigger story (your website, blog, landing page, or another social platform that has more detailed info).
  2. There is only room to Tweet up to 280 characters which is not a very large amount of content.
  3. If you do not maintain a constant flow of information, a single message will get lost in the Twitter-sphere minimizing your opportunity to be found by others.

So What’s “Tweetable?”

We are glad you asked!  Below is a list of some generic ideas to get you started:

  • Industry trends
  • Tips
  • Events
  • Statistics
  • Recommendations
  • Best tools for your industry
  • Links to your blog post
  • Pose questions (this is a great way to encourage engagement)
  • Attention-grabbing graphics
  • Video
  • Quote
  • Poll
  • Follow appreciation post
  • Short and sweet “how-to”
  • Data
  • Something funny

Now that you get the idea of what types of things you should post, it’s time to put a plan into action.  An efficient way of releasing multiple Tweets a day is to use a bulk scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer.  Visit this blog post to get more information about bulk schedulers.

Happy Tweeting!

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3 Twitter Image Sizes You Need To Be Aware Of

You know the old adage “A picture’s worth a thousand words”, well, that holds true on social media too! The best image with the wrong dimensions can completely derail your plan for the perfect post and kill your quest to go viral.

Make note of these image sizes to ensure you are putting your BEST foot forward on Twitter:

Header/Banner Image:
This is the image that runs across the top of your Twitter profile.

For best results aim for an image that is:

  • 1500 x 500 pixels
  • A recommended file size of 10 MB
  • File format JPG, GIF, or PNG

Profile Picture:
Your profile picture is the square image that sits on the left, bottom side of your header photo.

For best results aim for an image that is:

  • 400 x 400 pixels
  • A recommended file size of 100 KB
  • File format JPG, GIF, or PNG

In-Stream/Newsfeed Image:
This is the image that accompanies your “tweet”.

For best results aim for an image that is:

  • Minimum to appear expanded 440 x 220 pixels
  • Maximum to appear 1024 x 512 pixels
  • Appears in news feed collapsed at 506 x 253 pixels
  • Maximum file size of 5 MB for pictures and 3 MB for animated GIFs

Happy tweeting!

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Utilizing Scheduling Tools

Hootsuite:

HootSuite is a social media communications dashboard used for online brand management. It publishes to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and WordPress. It also publishes to Flickr, Tumblr, and YouTube via HootSuite Apps. It is also a Twitter client. We LOVE Hootsuite mostly because of the Twitter management, it keeps everything super organized and easy to manage.

Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008.[6] The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and much more.[7]

Buffer:

Buffer is an easy way to share content to your Social Media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and will send you a notification for Instagram. Buffer is a strong tool to utilize in your social media marketing strategy.


What it does is simple. Posts in your queue will be sent out automatically by Buffer, according to the posting schedule that you put in place. You can create a custom schedule if you would like, you can upload manually like we do and choose the days and times you would like your posts to go out to certain platforms.

All you need to do is select the social media platform you’d like to customize the posting schedule for, select the Settings tab at the top, and then select Posting Schedule. From here, you can choose which timezone is best for this account and customize the days and times your posts should go out. Select the days you’d like to include and add the individual times you’d like your content to be shared.

It’s like your magic box you can use anytime to fill with great Tweets, Facebook stories or LinkedIn updates. Just drop them in and you don’t have to ever worry about when it will be posted, it’s all taken care of by Buffer for you. Buffer is FREE up to 3 social media platforms and then VERY affordable after that.

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APPS Are the Answer!

Have you ever seen a business or someone who seems to be able to churn out social media content effortlessly?  You know the the type!  They’re the ones who seem to have a newsworthy tweet on Twitter, an amazing image with the perfect caption on Instagram, a super-cool infographic on Pinterest and an ultra-engaging post on Facebook…on the daily!  How can they possibly do it all AND do their job?

Let’s face it, writing, creating, organizing, graphic design, and scheduling social media posts can be a DAUNTING task.  The good news is, it doesn’t have to be!  As a matter of fact, we know the secret to becoming super-human when it comes to social media.

What’s the secret to effective social media marketing?  A good plan and a collection of APPS to help you get the job done!

3 Apps We Can’t Live Without!

To stay on top of our social media to-do list, we rely on certain apps that we access daily.  After you take them for a spin, we think you will understand why we believe they are the best for helping to create and manage social media efforts efficiently and effectively:

  • Create amazing graphics with Typorama
  • Bulk schedule your social media posts with Hootsuite
  • Stay on top of Facebook engagement with Facebook Pages Manager

Enjoy!

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All About APPS!

In the social media world, one of your biggest allies are mobile applications or “Apps” for short.  They can help you manage your social channels and accounts on the go so you are not chained to your desk and chair all day, every day.  Not only do “mobile” apps help you stay mobile, but, they also help you to create systems, be creative, manage workflow and, they help you to easily adjust and pivot when your business demands it.  Once you begin using apps, you may, well, become addicted!  The power of conducting business from your smartphone or mobile device is truly liberating!

In this blog post, we will explore 3 types of apps you will need to be successful on Social Media:

  1. Creative Graphics Apps – Create professional apps that help to capture attention
  2. Scheduling Apps – Schedule social media posts ahead of time so you aren’t spending valuable time posting to social media when you should be working on your business.
  3. Never miss a Facebook Notification Again

BONUS TIP/APP:  Facebook Response Assistant.  Learn how to automatically respond to people who message your Facebook Business Page.

Intrigued how you can accomplish all of this and start saving a ton of time?  Read on!

Creative Graphics Apps:

These, by far, are a favorite of the Social Speak Team!  A good graphics app can make you look like a rockstar on social media.  Many of the apps we use have FREE versions which are very robust.  In most cases, for just a few extra dollars you can open up premium features to further your rockstar status.

Here are 3 of our favs that you should start using today!

  1. WordSwag (available in the App Store & Google Play Store) – Add text overlays to professional grade images from their image library or to your own photo library
  2. Typorama (available in the App Store) – Add text overlays to professional grade images from their image library or to your own photo library
  3. Adobe Spark (available in the App Store and on your desktop) – Add text overlays to professional grade images from their image library or to your own photo library, create collages, posters, animated images and so much more!

Scheduling Apps:

Save yourself time, become more productive and stay on top of what is happening on multiple social media channels with two of our favorite scheduling apps:

Hootsuite:  FREE & Paid versions available

Check out these 4 things you can do with Hootsuite:

  • Schedule Content
  • Content Curation
  • Analytics
  • Social Monitoring

Buffer:  Manage and schedule all of your social media accounts from this one app!  Pick the most popular times to schedule your posts to ensure the best results.

Both of these apps are effective from your mobile device and your desktop computer.  Regain control of your work schedule with these apps.  Elect to use either the free or paid version of both of these apps.

Facebook Notifications:

Don’t you hate it when you miss a Facebook like, comment or share or on your business page?  We do!  We want to consistently stay engaged with our brand followers and fans.  The best way to do this is to know when a post receives engagement or when you get a message to your page and respond immediately.

The good news, there is a way to accomplish this!  Facebook page manager.  This free mobile app will alert you every time someone likes, comments or engages with your business page.  You can also access page analytics and see other types of “back office” functions through this handy little app such as:

  • Messages
  • Reviews
  • Check-ins (if you are a brick and mortar)
  • Shares
  • New Likes
  • Followers
  • Manage scheduled posts
  • Manage page settings
  • AND SO MUCH MORE!

Download the app and tap on all the icons to reveal what’s available.  Do be afraid of “tapping,” you cannot break anything.  

Check out the image below to discover what the various Facebook Pages Manager functionalities/icons are:

BONUS TIP:

One of the most important things you can do when managing social media is to be responsive.  An easy and effective way to check this box is to turn on your

Steps to get there:

  • Click on “Settings” in the upper right corner of your Business page
  • Click on the second option in the left-hand panel called “Messaging”
  • Scroll to “Response Assistant”
  • Turn this option “ON”
  • Customize your outgoing message.  Consider adding your phone number to this message, prompting people to call you.

All of the apps we shared with you today are very helpful to managing your social media accounts successfully.  Let us know how you were able to implement them in your business by leaving us a comment.

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