The Tools I Need To Make My Social Media World Go Round

This article was originally published at diamondandbranch.com
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My day-to-day to-do list changes every day at work, but one thing is consistent – social media. Many think social media is only about coming up with clever captions and posting a pretty photo, and while that’s the surface of social media, there’s actually more to it. Behind the scenes, there is a lot of planning and researching that goes into a solid post.

Here are a few questions and reminders that clutter my brain when I’m crafting social media:

What am I going to write about?

For most of our clients, it’s important that I stay in the know about what’s happening in San Diego, California, and nationwide. There are a bunch of ways I stay on top of what’s trending – Google, Twitter, and my handy news apps. I’ll typically plan my content early in the week and look for things like upcoming events, national days, weather, and popular hashtags. For example, if I know it’s going to rain all week, I’m not going to post an article about going to the beach because it’s unlikely people are going to connect with that content. I have to think about each client’s audience and understand what they want and when they want it.
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How am I going to present my ideas?

Will I find an article to post, create an image or video, some sort of combination of both? Well, it really depends on the audience. During my weekly planning, I have to consider the client’s followers – do they come to us for interesting article content, funny videos, and images, or inspiring quotes? No matter what type of content it is, something that is always true to me is that it must be visually compelling. People are drawn to visuals, not text.
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How do I respond to positive and negative comments?

In my daily monitoring, I check social media messages, comments, and reviews – which can be a job on its own, depending on the day! Something that I think about constantly when engaging with an audience is the brand’s tone. Whether addressing positive or negative comments, it’s super important to know what’s appropriate and what’s not. Before I respond to anyone on social media, I triple check tone, spelling, grammar, and ask myself ‘will this offend anyone.’ Screenshots live forever, get it right the first time!
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If you want to be an efficient and awesome social media marketer, welcome tools, and resources into your life! Here are my favorites:
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Social media management: Hootsuite

Hootsuite keeps me sane. Not only can I schedule Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn posts, I can even auto-schedule my posts to when I’ll see the highest engagement. I can also add “streams” that will show me content posted using a specific hashtag, location, or keyword. This allows me to efficiently engage with people using your brand’s hashtag or location, and any keywords that are relevant. Hootsuite also has an analytics dashboard that shows social media data such as engagement, followers, and traffic. Talk about all-in-one!

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Social media design: Canva

Social media is all about the imagery!! Make it pretty and eye-catching, and your people will love it. Canva is my go-to tool for all things design. They make it super easy for people like me, with no graphic design experience, to create really beautiful designs for social media posts, ads, emails, landing pages, flyers, and much more! I can start from scratch or choose from over 50,000 templates that saves me a lot of time when I’m on a time crunch. They also have a section with pre-made font pairs that I can just add to my template – so simple! In my opinion, font pairing can sometimes take the most time if you don’t have the right resources. Two of my favorite resources for pairing fonts are Font Pair and Fontjoy. Font Pair helps me pair Google fonts and allows me to download the font pair or individual font. Fontjoy automatically generates font pairings, which is super helpful if I’m starting from scratch.

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Social media images: Unsplash

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‍I cannot stand generic stock photos. They drive me crazy. I try my very hardest to avoid using a photo that 1,000+ businesses have already used. I think that people connect more with a photo that portrays the brand: your target audience, location, and voice – and your generic stock photo typically will not hit those things. Yes, it’s a real struggle to find great images, but it’s well worth it. If the photo op for my social media posts is not obvious, I turn to Unsplash. Unsplash is a free online resource that can be used for commercial and noncommercial purposes, without the need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash. They have photos for every search, from business to nature to San Diego – you name it, they’ve got it!

Social media video maker: wave.video

‍If you haven’t heard, video content on social media is on the rise! Why? Because, people are more likely to engage with video content, making it a popular approach for social media marketers. According to Social Media Examiner, 77% of marketers are going to increase video production, meaning you better make your videos relevant and attractive! Because of this, I’ve done some research on different video tools and found one that is easy to use and gives me the freedom to customize just enough to make it relevant and compelling – Wave.video. They have a gallery of free images and videos, and a library of music that I can add to my video! I can customize a video to match branding by adding your logo and/or a watermark, custom fonts, and colors. Super simple, but very effective!

Google

Google is my best friend. Our friendship stems deep; I learn and get inspired from Google every day. Any questions or ideas that pop in my head, I do a Google search…you’ll learn a lot about me by looking at my search history. For our local clients, I do a Google search to stay up-to-date with current events (even the weather!) and get new ideas for social media posts. If you ever feel stuck with what to write or how to word something, Google is a magical place for inspiration.

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Social Media Examiner and Social Media Today

I gotta stay in the know! Social Media Examiner and Social Media Today are the resources that keep me in the loop with all things social media. Social media trends, insights, and news change every day, making it important to understand what’s going on so that we can make informed decisions!

As the social media world changes, I’m sure I will discover new tools that add even more glitter to my job! I’ll be sure to add any of my new faves to the list and keep you updated!