6 Tools to Make This Year Your Best Social Media Year Yet
For some, blogging is a hobby. For others, blogging is a full-time job. Either way, it takes some serious effort to keep your blog looking clean, produce interesting content, and share your dishes and thoughts with the world. Wouldn’t it be great to make some part of that equation a little bit easier?
Maintaining a meaningful social media presence takes up a ton of time. From tailoring your message (and re-tailoring your message, hehe), to scheduling your posts there is a lot of thought and TIME involved for a tweet that feels gone in an instant. But making your mark on social media doesn't have to be such a time suck. As the social media manager here at Chicory, I've become familiar with a bunch of bloggers' fave tools. So, I put together a list of some of our most impactful social media tips and tools that will improve your productivity help you kick some serious butt on social media in 2016.
Tailwind
One of my favorite tools, one that we use here at Chicory, is Tailwind. Feel like you’re not pinning enough or curious how well your pins are performing? This is the tool for you. Tailwind offers so much (and even a free trial) to its users. I love how Tailwind provides the optimal times you should be pinning your content so that you can receive the greatest engagement. When you are surfing the web, any picture you hover over displays the tailwind icon and you can simply click to pin that content. They even offer cool insights like industry trends and the ability to pin photos straight from your Instagram account.
Archie
Archie will help your channels grow like crazy. They claim to help their users gain anywhere from 500-1,000 followers a month on Twitter and 300-800 a month on Instagram, not to mention, it'll garner tons of likes on your photos. Ok, I know what you’re thinking: BOTS. Nope! Archie works by allowing its users to “define your customers” by adding hashtags that you know your target audience frequents (think #f52grams or #eeeeeats for food content). Archie then gets to work and likes about a dozen or so pictures every hour from the hashtags you provide. In return, your photos receive some serious love: likes, comments, follows. We totally get if you're all about that organic growth, but Archie sure does work. If you’re looking for some fast growth, Archie is pretty affordable: $9/mo for either Twitter or Instagram and $18/mo for both services.
Facebook Boosts
With Facebook’s ever-changing rules and algorithms, getting high engagement on posts can be difficult no matter how great the content is. Ever notice how your posts only get served to a handful of people even though your page has hundreds of likes? Super frustrating. But there is a way to get the most out of the algorithm: boosting your posts on Facebook for even $1 can make your posts reach way more of those people who already follow your page, rather than the few that Facebook selects as a test when seeing if your content will "stick." Once more of your followers see that post, you have more of a chance of those people liking, commenting, or sharing. Kickstart the engagement with a small boost and it can seriously pay off. If you're looking to reach brand new people, boost your homemade marshmallow recipe that got lots of organic engagement--by boosting a good performer, it's more likely that new eyes will have the same, positive reaction to your content, resulting in loyal readers and greater post reach.
PicMonkey
Ever wonder how people make those awesome stacked vertical photos for Pinterest? Well, we asked tons of food bloggers and PicMonkey is the answer! Besides looking pretty, those stitched vertical pins receive way better engagement over a regular single picture pin. It’s so simple to make and they even look great on your site. The collage tool is PicMonkey’s biggest claim to fame, but they do tons of other great things with your photos. Using their editor you can do all of the basics (crop, rotate, change the exposure) and even add themes, textures, borders, and one our favorites add text. Another tool, touch up, allows you to edit portraits--maybe not the most useful tool for editing food photos, but who knows, maybe your waffles would look even more fabulous with some airbrushing!
Tweetdeck
Most of you are probably already using this, but it’s definitely worth a mention. Tweetdeck's layout helps you see everything from who’s using your favorite hashtag to your scheduled tweets. The tool is completely free and makes Twitter SO much easier. Like most of you, we participate in Twitter chats--using Tweetdeck, we're able respond to questions, keep track of Chicory’s mentions, and follow along with the chat is efficiency all at a glance. Twitter doesn’t have to be all work and no fun, you can add trending topics columns so you can keep tabs on the latest news.
Ahalogy
This tool is ~exclusive~. You have to be accepted to use their tool, but when you do it’s amazing. It’s totally free for bloggers and we couldn’t believe all the tools they offer. Their interface is clean and offers PicMonkey integration right from within. Plus, you can schedule pins, you get access to Ahalogy's content network filled with high quality pins from awesome bloggers, and there is an awesome analytics tool.