There's always something new coming out to help writers remain organized when it comes to social media. Today, author and social media specialist Nicole Miller provides information on a few of these tools meant to make our writing lives easier. Make sure you read Part Two next week. -- Sandy
Nicole: A writer’s life
is full of so much more than putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
Networking, tweeting, Facebook-ing… But the right social media tools can
help keep these things in order and under control.
When it first
comes to picking which social media networks to spend the most time in, I
recommend finding the sites you enjoy the most and pick two or three to focus
on. The same applies with tools — find one or two that you “click” with.
The best tool is one you will use consistently.
Social Media Tools
Buffer (http://www.buffer.com) - Buffer is
the simplest way to publish to social media and offers a free plan and paid
plans. Originally designated as a way to spread out your Tweets, Buffer works
with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ pages. When you create
posts and send them to your Buffer account, they will go into a queue that
will hold the posts until pre-determined posting times. You can set the times
and how many posts per day for each network.
With the
handy-dandy extension, you can click the Buffer button that is installed in
your browser and it will pre-populate a post based on the web page you’re
visiting. Buffer also offers analytics, blog feeds and more.
How I use this
tool:
When I start
out the day, I check out some blogs from my email inbox or social feeds.
If I read an article that I know would be of interest to my
followers, I hit the Buffer button in my browser and then queue it into my
social profiles. After three or four articles, I’ve got a steady stream of
posts for the day and it is like I’m posting online all day without being on my
social media channels 24/7. I also use the analytics to see which posts were most
popular among my followers (most favorites, retweets, etc.) and know to post
more of those in the future.
Free plan: up to
10 queued posts, 4 profiles
Awesome Plan:
$10/month for up to 200 queued posts, 12 profiles
Similar products:
Hootsuite (http://www.hootsuite.com) (free and paid); Sprout Social
(http://www.sproutsocial.com) (paid)
Tweetdeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com) - Tweetdeck
offers an efficient means to organize your Twitter feed. Create columns by
hashtags, users, topics, and more! At a quick glance, you can follow the latest
on a specific item and keep track of mentions easily.
How I use this
tool:
Twitter is one
of the most powerful social networks for connecting and sharing information
quickly. I have several columns in my Tweetdeck with hashtags I follow, users I
follow and my mentions. I’m able to scroll through these quickly and reach
out to people who have similar interests or thank people who mention
me.
Tailwind (http://www.tailwind.com) - For the Pinterest lovers, this is an incredible tool for analytics on your pins and followers. Use these weekly analytics to track what is most successful and do more of that!
How I use this tool:
Analytics are a powerful way to work smarter online. Though numbers can sometimes be intimidating to us writers (I’m guilty of that one!) tools like Tailwind make these stats very approachable. A quick glance or two can really tell you all you need to know about your most popular topics. Pay attention to the types of posts that your audience responds to - was it the length of your post, the type of image you used? All this is helpful in knowing what to use going forward!
A few other
tools to mention if you want to explore more!
Klout
(http://www.klout.com)
Bit.ly
(http://www.bit.ly)
Even more resources
here!
61 of the
Best Social Media Tools for Businesses (https://blog.bufferapp.com/best-social-media-tools-for-small-business)
What social media networks are your favorite? Do you use any of the tools I’ve mentioned? Did any of them stand out to you?
Nicole will share more helpful information in next Wednesday's post, so be sure to read it!
~~~~~
Nicole M Miller is a team member at Buffer, a social media management tool
with 2 million users, and a historical fiction writer. A journalism major from
Western Washington University, she has worked as an event coordinator,
designer, marketer and everything in between. She blogs about her urban
homesteading adventures with two dogs, two horses, 17 chickens and four ducks
at nicolemillerbooks.com.
