Ah, Facebook. Whether you love it or love to hate it, it’s now considered a standard for businesses. And on top of Facebook, you’ve probably heard that you should probably have a presence on other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or even SnapChat. But keeping even just one platform updated can be a time suck””let alone all those others!
What’s a printing business to do? It’s time to streamline. Here are some of our favorite social media tools that will help you free up some time in the morning.
1. Buffer App
Buffer is awesome because it does three things really well: Posting articles from anywhere, tracking performance, and easily re-posting the highest-performing posts.
Let’s start with posting articles from anywhere. See, they have this handy little tool that lets you easily share whatever page you’re looking at right now. It’s a chrome extension that appears to the right of your search bar.
When you click it, it opens a pop-up with the page title and link pre-populated. This gives you an opportunity to write some creative text before scheduling.
Okay, so that’s pretty fancy. Now, your main dashboard looks like this:
You can write a post, then add it to a queue that will post automatically for you throughout the day. Want to change the order? Drag-and-drop the post to the right time slot.
As I said earlier, Buffer also makes it easy to check performance and re-share your best posts. This is all housed in the “Analytics” tab. For each post, you can see information such as comments, likes, clicks, reach, and shares. Then, if you want to share it again, just click “Re-Buffer” to add a copy of it back into your queue.
Buffer’s free version has everything you need to get started, and you’ll only need to upgrade if you want access to deeper analytics or you’re running more than one profile per platform. Snazzy, no?
2. Feedly
Finding worthwhile articles that are both interesting and informative for your social media pages is a job in itself. Luckily, there’s Feedly. This website is a tool that helps you find and follow blogs and news websites, combining them into a feed of relevant articles that you can check on whenever you need something to share on Facebook or Twitter.
Feedly does have the option to upgrade your features, opening the door to keyword alerts, integrations with Buffer, and following unlimited sources. It works out to just over $5 a month. Most users won’t need this level of involvement, so we suggest starting with the free version and upgrading only if needed.
3. Bit.ly
Bitly is a link-shortening tool. If you’re not into a social media tool like Buffer, you’ll still want to use this. Essentially, Bitly takes this:
And turns it into this:
With a free account, you can create a custom name for your shortened link too””so we might do something like “https://bit.com/inksoft-niche”
And as a nice little add-on, you can track how many clicks your shortened link receives. This is awesome if you’re partnering with another business and they agree to promote your business on their blog. Instead of just sending your homepage URL, you can make the URL into a bitly and see how much traffic you’re getting from that promotion.
4. Iconosquare
Facebook and Twitter, today’s mainstays of social media, both offer analytics tools so you can keep tabs on how well your audience is responding to what you’re posting.
Instagram, on the other hand, does not.
This is where Iconosquare comes in. When you get set up, it begins monitoring your posts for you. On top of checking post performance and seeing what’s working from a big picture, it can reveal information like what time of day you get the most engagement. If Instagram is a tool that you want to use to grow your business, Iconosquare can provide the data to get you there.
However, Iconosquare comes at a price, which may rule it out if you’re not using it as a central marketing tool (though we argue that it’s worth it). After a 7-day free trial, pricing starts at $49 per year for one Instagram account””roughly $4 per month.
5. A Color Story
Do you spend forever trying to get your Instagram photos to look just right? After all, you’re in the printing business””color is everything.
A Color Story is an advanced filter app that lets you adjust the lighting in any photo. In addition to your basic editing tools, you can also add effects like lens flares and bokeh to make photos really sparkle.
While these features are fun, the real magic of the app lies in the ability to save your filters. Professional photographers do this all this time when they edit their photos, as applying the same complex filter to a group of photos gives them all a similar look and feel. Once you create a filter that makes your photos look fantastic, you can use it over and over again.
A Color Story is free to get started with, and most people will do just fine with the tools it comes with. However, you can buy mini packages of new filters and add-ons for a few dollars a piece.
Share your knowledge
Have you used any of these social media tools, or have others you recommend? How do you stay sane while managing social media? Sound off in the comments!
