#EducationMatters - Simplify Your Social Media With Tools

This month is all about #EducationMatters. Social Media can be a major time-suck but it doesn’t have to be that way. We’ve listed our top Social Media Tools to help keep you organized, stay on track, and, best of all, save you time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

1. Canva: Incredibly easy social media imaging tool that takes the guesswork out of image sizes. With over 50 templates available for various social media sites (From Facebook to YouTube channel art), Canva can deliver high quality productions with a wide variety of image and font choices, making it easy to #BeAwesome. Their price range for images are from $0-$1, but you can always upload your own into the template for free. It’s also available as an app for iPad and iPhone. Android users need not worry. There’s a Canva app on the way for you as well!
2. Hashtracking: Have you ever wondered if a hashtag you use is a relevant one? Or what a popular hashtag would be for a certain product or service? Hashtracking.com takes the guesswork out of hashtags for social media campaigns and events. If you’re not willing to pay for ongoing report options, they offer free social media snapshot reports without a subscription. You simply need to log in to your Twitter or Instagram account to use the service. This is a one-time log-in.
3. Feedly: Have all your content curation in one spot. Feedly is an RSS aggregator. This RSS reader can gather feeds from multiple sites based on your preferences, add feeds from publications, blogs, podcasts, and even YouTube channels. It works well with Google Alerts as well as a multitude of other apps. The best part of the service is that you can organize all your feeds into collections that make them more accessible in the future. One of its biggest pluses is the integration it has with another social media tool, Buffer. 
4. Buffer: Posting your social-media content across multiple social-media services just got a lot easier. With Buffer you can schedule Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+ pages all it once. To use Pinterest, you’ll need to pay for their service, but the others are free. Please note that you’ll need a mobile device to push out your Instagram posts, but that’s an Instagram requirement, rather than a limitation to Buffer. 
5. Hootsuite: Another option for social media content scheduling and sharing is Hootsuite. Hootsuite can connect to Twitter, Wordpress, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Please note that their free version limits you to three social media accounts. Their pro version is $9.99 a month and allows you to have real-time analytics and 50 social profiles. Like Buffer, you’ll need to use a mobile device to push out your Instagram posts.
6. Commun.it: For businesses that find Twitter especially valuable, this tool helps the user to manage their engagement and presence on the platform. This relationship management tool allows users to monitor and respond automatically with potential leads on the site. It will also track and monitor accounts you have expressed interest in and report their daily activities to you. As with most of the tools mentioned, there are both free and paid versions that offer different features.
7. Trello: This website exists as an online program management tool with a free option. Users create lists and cards to organize their projects. For businesses with team member, it is simple to assign different individuals to various cards as an indication for team assignments. 
8. Google Drive & Dropbox: Both of these sites are excellent (and FREE) options for cloud storage that can be easily shared with clients and team. Dropbox is more for just storing the files themselves, while Google Drive is an online document center allowing individuals and team to work within files right on the site. 

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Social Media Tools. Is there a place where you struggle with time? If so, let us know in comments and we might be able to direct you to just the right tool to help you #BeAwesome at what you do!

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars

New Year, New Habits - The Value of Learning Social Media from a Social Media Manager

Is this the year that you’ve decided to truly invest in social media and make it an integral part of your company’s marketing plan? There were over 179 Million social media users in 2015. That is a huge audience and should not be overlooked when creating a marketing strategy. Incorporating social media make not sound like a difficult task, however there are a lot of variables to consider when dealing with social platforms. Here are some thought-provoking reasons to seek out a social media manager before building your social media strategy.

Social Media Marketing

When doing your own marketing, content is any bit of material created with the purpose to establish or grow online presence.  This includes articles, blog posts, videos, websites, publications, podcasts and curated social media posts. A social media manager’s role is to take the most relevant and interesting content and post it at just the right moment so that the targeted audience will see it and engage with it. This means understanding the various social media platforms – including their strengths and weaknesses – and what content works best for each. It also requires understanding peak times and the best time to post, related to individual platforms. A social media manager stays on top of platform trends and knows the processes behind scheduling just the right type of content at the right time.

Social Media Engagement

Posting consistent social media content is important. However, motivating the audience to engage and then capitalizing on that engagement is the real benchmark of success. Some platforms require more attention than others. Also, there are a variety of tools available to help streamline and promote certain types of engagement. A social media manager is experienced with creating online environments that motivate organic participation. They also understand that engagement is essential and missed opportunities to engage are bad form. In fact, having social media content and not making engagement a priority is a waste of strategy and resources.

Social Media Advertising

With so many people using social media, it is an easy thing to get lost in the shuffle. Newsfeed algorithms automatically filter out quite a bit of content. Sometimes the push to be found requires a boost of social advertising. Most of the social platforms have established their own advertising options. A social media manager is familiar with the details of each of the social advertising possibilities and can show users what ads and campaigns will be more successful. They will also have the expertise to analyze and track the results in order to adapt the best possible strategy moving forward.

There is so much more to social media marketing than drafting some tweets and posts and hoping for the best. Training with a social media manager will ensure that an effective social media strategy is implemented – saving time, money and resources.

Don’t go into social media blind! Give us a call and arrange a time to discuss how we can train you to #BeAwesome with your social media marketing.

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don't get left behind ~ 

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a "#BeAwesome" Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , YouTube,Pinterest, Instagram  and the tools to manage them. 

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

#GiftYourBusiness – Gift of Budget

There are new social media tools being created every day. Many of these tools make the process of curating and scheduling content more efficient and less time-consuming. When it comes to running your own business, saving time is one of the most important aspects of becoming profitable. Therefore, one of the best ways to gift your business this holiday season is to sign up and incorporate some free social media and online tools into your daily routine. Here are recommendations for some of my favorite free social tools.

Canva

Since visual content is so important to social media, a tool like Canva is invaluable. Canva allows users to create social media and marketing images quickly and easily. These high-quality, easy to design images can be used anywhere. Not everyone is a graphic designer or has access to photo editing software. Canva eliminates the need for either of those and makes image creation simple and amazing.

Buffer

For those maintaining a presence on Twitter, Buffer is a fabulous free tool. Buffer allows users to track their follower activity and gives suggestions as to the best time to post or schedule tweets. It has built in scheduling and analytics. The analytics measures all major engagement statistics for posts on the major platforms.

Hootsuite

If we were to log into social media every day, all the time, nothing else would ever get accomplished. However, it’s important that our brands remain reliable and visible on each of the social platforms to maintain our following. Hootsuite is a widely known and popular tool for scheduling out content. It has also RSS feed capabilities and allows users to interact on various platforms via one place.

Commun.it

Another tool that is nearly essential for Twitter users is Commun.it. This tool is based on the need to stay on top of relationship management within the platform. It tracks all the major interaction on your Twitter account and automatically works to nurture and engage fans and followers on the site.  The tool monitors what others are saying about you, your brand and your business. It also shows who is linking to your site, discovers new leads for you, tracks who follows and unfollows, and reports back on community engagement. There are options to auto-engage people who follow, mention, post or retweet your content. This helps keep Twitter accounts relevant on a platform that moves very quickly.

Paper.li

This tool provides an area online to automatically curate and organize content based on chosen topics. It is displayed in a visually appealing newspaper format. These newspapers are a great place to gather together content into a readable feed. Feeds can be organized by topic or by type of media. Users can create multiple newspaper feeds at a time and can follow people, lists, and hashtags. It also has the capability to follow Twitter lists without actually following them via your own Twitter account.

These are just some of the tools available to make life and work easier for business owners and marketers. All of these tools offer a paid upgrade option with additional features in case you stumble upon one you just absolutely love and want access to additional benefits. However, each of these tools can be incorporated into your company today at no cost to you. So, give your business the gift of both time and money this holiday season by finding tools that make you more productive.  Use all that extra time you now have to come up with even more ways to #BeAwesome!

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don't get left behind ~ 

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a "#BeAwesome" Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , YouTube,Pinterest, Instagram  and the tools to manage them. 

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars.

Needing your help! Recommendations Contest!

We are developing the final stages of  our new social media training platform and we are needing recommendations from YOU!  Deadline for this contest is May 19th!

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, we would love to highlight your recommendation on our website!

* Have you found value in the information we have shared?

* Do you find our information to be informative, educational and provide a perspective on social media?

* Have we trained you 1to1 on any aspects of social media or online marketing / blogging?

* Have we provided an analysis for you on your current social media marketing campaigns?

* Have we Revamped any of your social media profiles?

* Have you attended a workshop, lunch and learn or informational call about social media?

* Do you follow/fan any of our social media pages and found value in the information we have shared?

What we are seeking for a recommendation - Only 4 things!:

(1) Please include in your emailed recommendation your profile picture for use on our website with your recommendation

(2) Please include wording stating how our education, information or training has been of benefit to you and what you were able to use from that time to enhance your online marketing experience

(3) Anything else you would like to include about our trainer or the information you found to be of value to you

(4) Your title / company / website address.  We would love to showcase your business in our launch as well!

We will pick the best recommendations to include on our new training website, giving the winners exposure for their business and also a Starbucks Gift Card.  If your recommendation is selected, we will reach out to you for your mailing address if we don't have it already.

DEADLINE is May 19th!

Thank you for your support!

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don't get left behind ~ 

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a social media manager, trainer and author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , Pinterest and the tools to manage them. Click here for her Social Media Links

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