10 Go-To Digital Marketing Tools

30 April 2016July 13, 2021Ann Mills1 Comment

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”– Michael Jordan

With so many apps and tools at our fingertips, one would think digital marketing has never been easier. Not so. As the freelancing or “gig” economy takes off, remote teams are becoming commonplace; and digital marketing with its many moving parts can pose real logistical challenges. Upwork estimates one-third of American workers are now freelancing, and project work, digital or otherwise, demands that everyone stays talking, collaborating and informed.

It can be frustrating to roll out a collaborative tool only to find it doesn’t have the functionality to facilitate a team or do what is needed. Over the past several years, my team has found that some of the tools we use for our digital marketing projects consistently make the “A” list. So, I thought I would share! Whether you’re a small business mostly managing your own marketing efforts or a large cross-border team, there is something on this list for everyone.

Here is the Resourceful Business list of ten go-to digital marketing tools:

VISUALS

1. Create great visuals in Canva

Graphics are a necessity for online marketing and often need to be created. While Adobe Photoshop is best for more complex projects, Canva is a simple drag-and-drop design platform for creating social posts, documents, banners and other visuals. It is an important tool for our social media team. The canvas size you choose can be customized by social network (e.g., Facebook post, Instagram post, Pinterest graphic), and pictures and watermarks can be maintained in an Uploads library. There is a wide selection of fonts and templates; and in the premium version, designers can create brand folders, save brand colors, and resize images for different social platforms.

Favorite Canva feature: Team stream, which allows different team members to share their work and comment on team submissions

Canva.com

2. Find high resolution, free stock photos on Stock Up

It’s impossible to be in digital marketing and not utilize imagery. According to Hubspot, “Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images.” It’s only one of 37 must-read visual marketing stats in a recent Hubspot article. Stock Up is a unique website that aggregates photos from 27 free stock photo sites. There are close to 14,000 pictures, and the number continues to grow. Users can put keywords in a search bar to search for images, and the photo selections are expansive and varied.

Favorite Stock Up feature: If you hover over the photo, the license terms appear.

sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up

SOCIAL MEDIA

3. Schedule Instagram posts with ScheduGram

For any business that has the luxury of beautiful product visuals, Instagram is an essential social platform. As a digital marketing agency creating social media for clients, we prefer not to do things on the fly. ScheduGram is a scheduling platform for Instagram posts, and it is available on desktop. In our view, this feature is mission critical. Posts can be scheduled in advance, and first comments–the preferred location for hashtags–can be as well. ScheduGram allows us to review, edit and see our posts on a desktop prior to posting. Tagging photos, or identifying other people or businesses in the post, through the Schedugram platform is currently in test, and we hope the ability to add location will follow in short order.

Favorite Schedugram feature: First Comments field so that hashtags can be scheduled in the first comment at the same time you schedule the post itself

schedugr.am

4. Manage social media posts with Hootsuite

Social media work for clients should be a collaborative, tag team effort. Content can be written by one part of the team and then edited and hashtagged by another. Creatives can design graphics, and if the client uses paid social campaigns, other team members can manage the ads too. For us, scheduling social media posts is a must because it drives consistency, quality and collaboration. We use Hootsuite for social media; it allows us to schedule posts and use different team members in the creation process. Recently, Hootsuite added an integration with YouTube, so now you can schedule videos too.

Favorite Hootsuite feature: AutoSchedule, which will send scheduled posts at optimal times

hootsuite.com

5. Develop a list of relevant hashtags with Hashtagify

When a “#” is put in front of a word, it creates a hashtag, or clickable link, that directs you to content which also contains that hashtag. Hashtags are an important tool in marketing, because they can drive a person to your content–and ultimately your business–via the hashtag. If a person doesn’t know about your company, (s)he may never find your brand through traditional search. However, hashtags can attract an audience with an interest in your subject matter. The Hashtagify portal allows a user to type in a hashtag and see other related, popular hashtags. Visuals like the size of a circle that surrounds a hashtag and the thickness of connecting lines that extend from the hashtag being analyzed cue the user to a hashtag’s popularity. You can even see Top Influencers and compare performance between hashtags.

Favorite Hashtagify feature: The Hashtag Wall which gives a tiled, visual representation of recent posts for a hashtag

hashtagify.me

CONTENT CREATION

6. Correct spelling and grammar with Grammarly

Grammarly is a writing app which has a handy Chrome add-on. It highlights grammar, syntax and spelling errors. The interface is incredibly user-friendly. Errors are underlined in red and then upon hover, fixes are suggested in green. It is easy to see errors visually, and Grammarly offers an explanation for the problem. You can take the suggestion or decline it. Although not currently integrated with Google Drive, a quick workaround is to download your Google Doc as a Microsoft Word document and just pick the errors up from there. Another alternative is to copy and paste the copy into Grammarly directly. A Google Drive integration is apparently in the works.

Favorite Grammarly feature: explanation cards for errors which describe the mistake, suggest the correction and offer an “Add to Dictionary” option

grammarly.com

COLLABORATION

7. Collect client input with Google Forms

Whether it is a website information questionnaire or input for a logo design, every business needs client input. The collector must be user-friendly, gathered in an organized way and viewable by the team. Google has a cloud-based solution for survey creation, Google Forms. There are several ways to receive and view the responses. Our favorite is to have the responses automatically populate a Google Sheet, which is accessible by the entire team.

Favorite Google Forms feature: basic customization tools for branding such as a header image for logos and a color palette

google.com/forms

8. Collaborate with Google Drive

Great content begins with a talented writer or creative. Better content is a collaboration of many inputs and viewpoints. Google Drive, a cloud-based file creation and storage service offered by Google, is our go-to tool for team collaboration. Notwithstanding the importance of all of the work being in the cloud for accessibility by the team, the Google Drive interface allows for direct editing, review and comments. A user can see past revisions and which team member has recently worked on the document. In fact, our team will drag and drop almost everything a client sends us into organized Google Drive folders, and the search toolbar functionality is robust. One handy feature is the ability to see Recent items that have been worked on or viewed, which makes finding current work a breeze.

Favorite Google Drive feature: Suggesting mode so team edits are seen as suggestions and only incorporated if accepted

google.com/drive/

9. Assign work out to the team with Wrike

As any business grows, so too does its client base, project list and task complexity. Our agency needed an application that would allow the management team to assign out the various moving parts of each project, keep track of progress and deadlines, and allow other members of the team to provide input. We landed on Wrike. As projects come in, they are scheduled on Wrike and assigned out to team members. Tasks can be made recurring, moved around on a calendar, and organized by folder. The team can add comments, upload attachments and mark assignments as complete.

Favorite Wrike feature: Daily To Do emails that show tasks and overdue tasks, each with a link back to the original Wrike task

wrike.com

10. Tackle big projects with Basecamp

There are projects and then there are projects. Large, complicated client engagements, websites for example, have many inputs and require the involvement of multiple parties, possibly even outside freelancers and creatives. Basecamp is one of the most versatile project applications around, and it has a great dashboard–my personal favorite of any of the applications I use. In the various sections on the dashboard, project team members can see documents, the project schedule, team chats in the campfire section, and the running to-do list. It shows team profiles across the top of the dashboard so you always know who is involved, and importantly, it will email or “ping” people to keep them posted on updates and communications.

Favorite Basecamp feature: Link a Google doc, where you can add a document by just linking the URL of a Google Doc

basecamp.com

What makes a digital marketing tool best in class?

No doubt you will have noticed some consistencies in our list of go-to digital marketing tools. They offer user-friendly dashboards and portals, utilize the cloud for accessibility and storage, and facilitate the many inputs and stages of complex project work. Tools that are emerging as best in class facilitate teams collaborating from all corners of the world.

Think of the possibilities!

____________

Please note that on occasion, RB may use an affiliate link in its blog and receive some form of compensation should you purchase a specific product. RB will only use an affiliate link for a tool we actively use ourselves and recommend as a resource.

A 10 Step Social Media Strategy That Doubled Revenue

31 January 2016February 15, 2018Ann MillsLeave a comment

Sometimes the proof is in the pudding.

In 2015, one of our clients asked us to rework their social media strategy. Social media was growing in importance within their industry, and beyond a basic Facebook presence, the business really had not done much with social media at all. Our agency was thrilled to learn in January of this year that the client’s top line revenues doubled over the previous 12 months, and they credited much of the boost to the rippling effects of the social media overhaul.

Here’s a 10 step social media plan that captures the key elements of our strategy. Of course, no two companies are the same, and each will be in a different starting place with social media. However, hopefully this step-by-step guide can offer some touchpoints for looking at your own company’s social media strategy, and who knows, it may just double your revenue too.

1. Tidy Up Stray Social Media Accounts

Often organizations delve into social media marketing with a stop-and-start strategy. Various employees within the company get assigned the task of managing the organization’s social media presence and setting up the accounts. The result can be a mishmash of social media pages and no master list of usernames or passwords to access those pages. As employees change, accounts are forgotten and continue to live on the internet with posts that may be years old.

Before launching a new social media strategy, identify and streamline all social media accounts. Deactivate unused ones and ensure the company name reads consistently across all social media platforms.

2. Set Up a Social Media Posting Schedule

Erratic posts on social media reflect a haphazard approach to content. To develop an audience, every company that is using social media needs a posting schedule. Content should be varied and planned to include blog posts, original middleweight and lightweight content, curated articles, pieces of interest, infographics, and video. Within the posting schedule, key original longform pieces, or pieces over 800 words, should be repurposed and reused.

Establish a content calendar and daily posting schedule. Create content in advance to post on social media, and hyperlink back to key longform content on your website several times per month.

3. Write a Blog

We began to ghostwrite a monthly blog for the client. The blogs became the cornerstone pieces of longform, heavyweight content. The objective of the blogs was to establish thought leadership by covering relevant topics in the client’s space. Depending upon the industry, the frequency of blogs will vary, but the key is the consistency, originality and quality of the blogs that are being posted.

Either write a blog or hire someone to ghostwrite one for you. Build content authority and establish thought leadership in your field.

4. Gather and Post Employee-generated Content

One of the most difficult aspects of managing a client’s social media presence is learning and ultimately reflecting the appropriate voice for that client. Without it, the content will seem out of place and is less likely to engage the audience. Our team encouraged the client’s employees to send us pictures from various work-related events they attended. All of the employee-generated content was vetted for appropriateness and usability and then some of it was posted.

Establish a stream of appropriate, employee-generated content for use on social media. It will personalize the business and gave a face to the employees.

5. Include Hashtags

For many companies, the use of hashtags is a mystery. Hashtags are words or groups of words preceded by a “#.” The pound sign turns the word(s) into a searchable hyperlink, and hashtags allow people to find other internet content that contains the same hashtag. One of our clients recently told us that they were advised that hashtags were “just for fun.” Not so. As a company tries to grow its audience reach, hashtags become a critical tool, which can identify and “tag” the type of content they are distributing. New clients don’t know you and would not necessarily know where to look for you on the web either. Hashtags provide a way for people to find your posted content and from there, possibly go on to your company website.

Our client had never used hashtags in their Facebook posts. We developed a list of relevant hashtags for reference and began using them across all of their social media platforms.

Research and use appropriate hashtags with social media posts. Register new hashtags relevant to the business on sites like Twubs.

6. Brand Social Media Banners, Backgrounds and Profile Pictures

While every social media platform is different, they will typically offer the account holder an opportunity to customize and upload a banner, background, or profile picture. It’s a fabulous branding opportunity. Customized visuals that are sized properly and utilize compelling images can make an immediate statement about a company and advertise the brand. Images that are not sized properly, pixilated or look hastily done also say something about the organization.

Create and customize social media banners, backgrounds, and profile pictures with imagery and correctly sized logos which amplify the business brand.

7. Set Up a YouTube Channel

Videos and live streaming continue to grow in importance. Our client had a handful of videos that had been done over the years, and the videos were scattered across multiple websites. We tracked them all down and uploaded them onto a newly created YouTube channel for the business. The YouTube channel banner was customized and linked back to the client’s other social media platforms and website. We categorized the videos as well.

Consolidate any video or webinar links on a branded company YouTube channel.

8. Add Live Streaming

It depends upon the business as to whether live streaming makes sense. In the case of this client, our team decided that live streaming conversations about different aspects of the business could draw a new audience. We chose Blab which allows 4-way live stream conversations. Cheat sheets and bulleted reference point documents were developed for each team member in advance of the scheduled “Blab.” The live streams were promoted on social media in advance and the links used with content on social media afterwards.

Establish a live stream series that can be advertised in advance on social media and boosted with paid social. Use the session links to advertise the content after completion.

9. Constantly Re-evaluate the Social Media Strategy

The business had a fairly steady flow of visuals that we were able to post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and a LinkedIn company page. All had a growing list of followers. Yet after doing some research on comparable businesses in the same industry, it was clear that Instagram was an untapped medium. We established an Instagram presence for the client, started developing content and posted regularly on Instagram. People began engaging with the Instagram posts immediately, and the number of followers continues to grow.

Re-evaluate your social media strategy along the way and be on the lookout for additional platforms that can add a new audience dimension.

10. Add Paid Social

Facebook continued to be the dominant social network for the client, both in terms of actively growing followers and engagement. In addition to a Facebook ad campaign, we began to selectively boost posts that were tied to key pieces of longform content on the website. The strategy revolved around growing the client’s thought leadership amongst a wider audience. To grow the local presence for the business, we also added geographically targeted boosts based on location plus radius.

Use paid social to strategically boost content posts, both geographically and across carefully defined target audiences.

Hopefully, our 10 step social media plan can become the basis for your company’s strategy, or at the very least, get your team talking about how to re-energize the social media game plan.

Remember:

There needs to be a social media strategy. No, really.
Social media demands consistency, attention and time.
It’s hard. If you don’t have the skills, software or patience to properly create a custom social media banner, for example, outsource it.
Social media is constantly evolving. Note the subtle shift taking place from video to live streaming.

A successful social media strategy engages the right audience with the right content. If your social media results are a disappointment, it just may be time for an overhaul. Interested in discussing your current social media presence to see whether it’s on target? Contact ann@resourcefulbusness.com, or call (973) 218-6558.

5 Shortcuts to Finding and Managing Great Social Media Content

25 September 2014December 19, 2022Ann MillsLeave a comment

For small business owners, there are never enough hours in the day. They juggle business strategy, production schedules, bookkeeping, payroll, marketing, human resources, content management and social media. It is no surprise that with such a long to-do list, social media marketing can fall by the wayside leading to inconsistent content posts and mundane points. But, there is hope for small business owners in pursuit of a social strategy filled with relevant, noteworthy and interesting topics that will engage their clients. Here are 5 shortcuts to finding and managing great social media content.

Set up News Feeds for Aggregation

Every industry has websites and electronic newsletters covering topics that are worth following. Feedly.com is one service that helps aggregate news feeds of interest, and you can create custom lists to follow. Our company, for example, manages content for multiple clients and we set up a custom list for each client, which collects stories from relevant news feeds in their industry. Another aggregation tool I really like is GetPocket.com. By installing the Chrome extension for Pocket or Feedly on your browser, you can upload any articles you want to read with a mouse click and even tag the articles. If you would like news to come directly to your Inbox, another option is to set up a Google Alert, www.google.com/alerts, a notification system based on keywords. Google Alerts will send you a list of relevant articles based off of your keywords and found in search as they happen, daily or weekly.

Follow Blogs by Industry Thought Leaders

Every field has thought leaders or individuals who are blogging and of interest to you. It is fun and educational to follow and engage with them. Their blogs also provide relevant social content that you can share. Feedly.com allows you to follow blogs, so it is a great option for both news feeds and blogs. Often bloggers post their blogs on Facebook pages as opposed to WordPress or other blogging platforms. In that case, Liking the Page will do the trick and you can receive notifications of new blog posts. Another easy way to follow a blog is to click the RSS feed button if the blog has one. Typically, you will get an option to choose a Feed Reader service which will show all of the new blogs posted from the website and sometimes an option to receive an email alert. RSS feeds are often a point of real confusion amongst our clients, so here is a brief tutorial should you choose to try the RSS feed route, What is RSS.

Search for Content by Hashtag

In the context of social media, the pound sign is called a hashtag. A tool first used on Twitter, hashtags group topics and allow the reader to search and follow those topics through a clickable link. You can look for what is Trending on Twitter, and then even build some of your own social content around trending topics with high user engagement. You can also identify hashtags and related hashtags on relevant subjects with tools like Hashtagify.me. Once you have identified the hashtags you want to follow, set up a free Tagboard using the hashtag and you will get a fabulous visual of all of the trending content linked to that hashtag. Since all of the major social media platforms are using hashtags, creating great content means learning both how to deploy hashtags in your posts as well as how to use them to search for content.

Manage your Content with a Social Media Management Tool

After finding or creating your social media content, there are a number of tools you can use to schedule and manage it. Two of the most popular social media management tools are Buffer and Hootsuite. These platforms permit a user to post content to several social media accounts simultaneously, see user engagement and respond. User-friendly dashboards display character counts and image previews. Posts can be scheduled by day and time, so content postings can be input in advance. Many of the social media management tools offer news feed links right in the dashboard, so users can follow relevant content and then post it right from the news feed.

Nothing equates in value to original, creative content written by you.

Create Original Content

Most importantly, take the time to write your own content. Nothing equates in value to original, creative content written by you. If you like sharing interesting articles, write headlines yourself and post them on social media. If you blog, write about interesting trends in your industry. Answer common questions in your field of expertise. Summarize an interesting conference that you attended or offer a unique point of view on a controversial subject. Can’t think of a topic? Try the really fun, Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. You simply enter three keywords and then the algorithm will give you a week’s worth of blog topics. In short, although thoughtful social media content takes time to write and develop, it is well worth it because you will slowly establish a following on social media and build a respected online voice.

Hopefully, these shortcuts will save you time and help you find and manage great social media content. If you think there still aren’t enough hours in the day to do your social media marketing, contact us. We can customize and implement a content management strategy for your business that is timely, consistent and engaging!