My Everyday Free Social Media Tools
People say it takes a village to raise children, well I like to think of my business and clients as all my children too and it takes a several tools to be a successful social media manager. I am constantly on the hunt for free tools that will help me spend less tedious hours of doing work. These are tools I am in or touch every single day, the allow me be a successful social media manager and are FREE social media TOOLS!
A Scheduler Tool – There are so many out there and so it is hard to pick the best one. My favorites are Sprout Social, for larger companies, Later, and Planoly. But many people rant and rave about Buffer as well. Choose one that is going to work best for you, but a scheduler tool is A LIFE SAVER. I schedule all my posts for my clients and my own personal profiles weeks in advance. It allows me to plan my content in advance and not spend such a tedious amount of time posting in the moment.
Trello – This program helps me to stay organized and on top of my sh!t, because I have a lot going on. For each client, I have a seperate board and create several to do lists per services that they signed up for. I share the board with my client that way they can see what is currently being worked on and what I left to tackle for the month. It allows for a collaborative space with my clients and organized my million thoughts and ideas all in one place.
Canva – Holy crap, I am not sure how would accomplish anything with using Canva. The motto is “empowering the world to design”, and that is exactly how I feel. Many of the graphic designs I do are created in Canva. They offer so many beautiful fonts and every social media graphic size possible. You can upload your own photos or use their free graphics too. You can truly design anything that you have in mind and it is extremely user friendly application.
Bit.ly – I like to track my blog posts or website links and bit.ly helps with this and also make your link way short and cleaner looking. It will tell you the source of where people clicked your link from, so you can see what platforms are working best for you. Traffic to your website is the most important and this application helps to track that easily.
Linktree – This tools is a link that you put in your Instagram bio that will then link to multiple links. If you have multiple links you would like to promote it helps to do this. My first thing I usually do when getting a new client is see if they have LinkTree yet. If that don’t then I can immediately set it up for them. If you don’t have the swipe up feature, this one is a MUST. The LinkTree also shows you how many times that specific link was clicked too. Just another way to monitor how well your links are doing.
VSCO – Stick to a few filters that you use every single time. Try to stay consistent with the look of your photos, it is in a way representing your brand. I always go for bright and light, but these apps allow for finding what works best for you. I will edit in VSCO first and if anything else is needed I use my phone or just directly though IG’s edit tools.
Google Analytics – I am kind of a analytics nerds. I love diving in deep and seeing what my impressions and engagements were. This allows me to see what is working and not working, so that I can improve for future posts. It give me an overview on how my website is doing but also it shows me my conversions and how each social media platform is helping.
Unsplash – Sometimes you need some help with stock photos or pictures. The best free website I discovered has been Unsplash. Photographers put their photos on this website and allow users to use them for free, commercially. I use them often for blog post graphics or I just need inspiration for my flatlays. This site has been a life saver.
Join a Facebook Group – I am in several Facebook Community Groups that allow me ask questions when I need help or search for others that have already asked my question. It helps me to gain insight on the every changing world of social media and what others are doing to tackle it. I highly recommend joining a community where users sharely freely and love to help one another.
The best part is that these are all FREE tools to use to your advantage. Most of them do have services you can choose to pay for, and some of my clients do, but their FREE aspects of their tool does the job too!
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