It was around 10am on Saturday. I made tea as my younger brother rummaged through his room, avoiding his childhood toys and reminding me of the older Andy in “Toy Story 3”. Very loudly, he rattled off some of the supplies he’ll need when he starts college in a couple of weeks.
“Backpack, notebooks, laundry bask… Oh wait, WE FORGOT BEDDING!”
He looked at me, panicked. I laughed and told him he was a sad, strange little freshman who had my pity. My laughter abruptly stopped when I realized that I, like my brother, needed to prepare for the transition to fall. As a public relations professional with social media responsibilities for clients, it’s important for me to note the differences in social media usage as seasons change.
August is one of the most popular months for vacations. Many families use this time to enjoy what’s left of summer, before a new school year begins and schedules get busy again. With this in mind, I compiled a list of tools to help prepare for the hustle and bustle of increased autumn activity on social media. The following are my go-to resources and tools for developing content strategy all the way to infinity, and beyond:
Hootsuite
From keeping up with notifications to tracking metrics, managing multiple social media accounts has its hurdles. Hootsuite enables me to monitor all accounts seamlessly. Though I use it primarily for scheduling posts across channels, Hootsuite also provides customizable metrics reports that span various ranges of time. When I add streams to my dashboard, I can also see the latest notifications (messages, comments, likes, etc.) as soon as I sign in.
Canva
The brain can identify images in as little as 13 milliseconds and content with relevant visuals gets 94 percent more views than posts without. Such easy consumption means social media professionals should include visual content as part of their strategy whenever possible. Through Canva, I’m able to easily design high-quality graphics that fit any budget. The site provides a plethora of templates to jump-start my projects.
SocialMediaExaminer
Pew Research Center reports that 76 percent of online adults use social networking sites, up from 7 percent since they began systematically tracking social media usage in 2005. SocialMediaExaminer updates me on useful data points and conducts an in-depth social media industry study each year. What’s more, the company hosts events and webinars, provides training, and offers two free podcasts as well as a weekly live video show to help me hone my skills.
I’m a big believer in the increased access to information and power of connectivity that social media provides, and these tools help me navigate the ever-evolving galaxy that is social interaction.
Which tools or resources do you use for social media? Leave us a comment or tweet us @Rosecomm.
That was a nice read, Stephanie!
Social media tools are undoubtedly necessary to keep up with such a fast-paced environment social media definitely is. Personally, I can’t imagine community management on social media with a dedicated social listening tool. To be honest, I eat our own dog food in this respect and use Brand24. Not only does it allow for staying on top of all the important keyword mentions but is also effective in influencer identification as well as sentiment analysis.