Social Media Tools to Help Manage Your Online Life, Part Two by Nicole Miller

Last week, author and social marketing specialist Nicole Miller provided tools to help us organize our social media posts. You'll find Part One here. Today, she continues her recommendations to help make our marketing lives easier with tools for creating images. -- Sandy

Image Creation Tools

Pablo - (http://www.buffer.com/pablo) 

Images get much more attention than plain ol' text posts. There are now dozens of powerful image creation tools to assist with creating attention-grabbing pictures (and also while being mindful of copyright.) 

Pablo was created by Buffer and is free to use — you can enter in whatever text you’d like and download or share the image instantly. All the images are copyright free and stunning. Definitely check this one out! 

How I use this tool:

With how quickly you can create a stunning image in Pablo, I used this while I was live-tweeting at a writer’s conference and included quotes from the speaker. The Pablo images got dozens more interactions than the text-only posts. This is a great way to spice up your blog posts, highlight cool passages from your novel or promote events with!

Canva - (http://www.canva.com)

Canva is user-friendly and has an array of helpful templates that will turn any non-designer into a pro in seconds. Social media networks all have different sizes where images “fit” a bit better into the social streams. Canva has these all measured out and offers incredibly designed ideas for you to use. 

Most of the elements in Canva are free, but some images are $1 a piece, but you’re able to use them worry-free in knowing that you have the copyright a-okay. :) 

How I use this tool:

For more complex images, I turn to Canva. There are so many options and you can even collaborate with people on an item. 

Other tools to mention if you want to explore more! 

PicMonkey (http://www.picmonkey.com)

Bonus: Copyright-free images resource here! (https://blog.bufferapp.com/free-image-sources-list)

There are so many more amazing tools I use on a daily basis that I haven’t touched on (Evernote http://www.evernote.com, IFTTT http://www.ifttt.com, etc.), and new tools pop up every day! It’s a truly wonderful time do be doing what we do. We’re all connected to potential readers just a click away and there are many more resources for all of these awesome tools. 

If you do happen to get stuck, turn to Google for help! (Or, another idea: Ask your audience and friends what they use!) Test tools out for a week or two and if you’re finding it doesn’t jive with your workflow, give something else a go. 

The best tools suit your needs and your personality best. What works best for me might not be the best for you, but that’s the beauty of having so many options online. 

Do you use images in your posts? Do you ever create memes?

~~~~~

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.

Social Media Tools to Help Manage Your Online Life, Part One by Nicole Miller

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.

Pinterest 101 for Authors

Today is a marketing day on Writer's Wisdom Wednesdays and we're looking at Pinterest. For this post, I went to writer Nicole Miller with my questions, because working with social media is Nicole's niche.

Nicole, you have social media knowledge and use it in your day job. You’re also a big believer in writers participating on Pinterest. As writers, we’re taught that there needs to be relationship in all our social media posts so we won’t come off sounding like one big advertisement. What types of boards and pins do you find most effective for writers, and what ratio of balance should a writer have between personal and professional boards? What kind of boards or pins might be considered undesirable?”

For most authors, the mention of a new social media platform strikes fear straight into the heart. So my first rule in considering new social media outlets is considering: Is this something I enjoy? 

If you don't like using the platform and are participating because you "have to," it will come across that way. If you're not genuine, engaged and consistent, there is no need to even bother. Trust me, you'll be happier in life for it.

But for those who have dabbled in Pinterest, the online pin-board for images and videos that easily lets you comment, like or "repin" items, you probably knew right away whether or not you were into it. 

As writers, Pinterest offers you a way to visually display your plot locations, character influences, published books and even recipes inspired by or from the book. This is a way to bring your words to life. 

Create boards and pin items that resonate with you, your novels, your interests. There is no one-size-fits-all formula, but a general rule of thumb for authors would be to have a board for each of your published novels, topical boards (historical time periods), books you love, other personal interests (cooking, decorating, photography, etc.) 

Pinterest is also a powerful tool for your own story creation and brainstorming. The outlet offers "Secret Boards" that are visible only to you until you decide to publish it. This allows you to draft a manuscript without giving away too much.  

For examples of fiction writers using Pinterest well, see Jody Hedlund (http://pinterest.com/jodyhedlund/) and Tricia Goyer (http://pinterest.com/triciagoyer/). An example of a nonfiction writer/blogger using Pinterest to engage with his audience is Jon Acuff: http://pinterest.com/jonacuff/. These writers also do a good job of interacting with other pinners and posting their own content.  

Quick Pinterest Tips: 

1. Always properly attribute your pins. If you pin from a website (including your own) then the pin will always link back to that page. 

2. Keep to the social media 90/10 rule. Spend 90 percent of your time engaging in conversations, re-pinning, liking and engaging others, and less than 10 percent of the time promoting your own work.

3. Consistency is key. A handful of posts a week will pay off more so than a hundred posts at one time. 

4. Make things pretty. There are free photo editors (http://www.picmonkey.com) and quote generators (http://quote4fun.com/create/) at your disposal. Take a quote from your book or add words to an image to make things more enticing to "share."

5. Be genuine. Be interesting.  

Pinterest generates a vast amount of traffic and taps into a small, highly engaged audience of pinners who could fast become your readers. So take a deep breath, check out the platform, sign up, install a "Pin it" button into your browser and pin away! 

***

Nicole Miller is a social media coordinator by day and a historical fiction author by night. Catch her daily "Confessions of a Former Rodeo Queen" at http://www.nicolemillerbooks.com. Yes, she really was a rodeo queen. In spare moments, she consults small businesses on social media marketing and runs Miller Media Solutions, http://www.millermediasolutions.com. Follow Nicole on Pinterest: (http://pinterest.com/nmillerbooks/)

Thanks, Nicole! I've found Pinterest a bit addicting and can be on there for hours. What about you? What kind of writer boards have you set up on Pinterest? What kind of boards attract your attention? Do you have any of those...shhh...secret boards? Any questions for Nicole about Pinterest?