Sarah: Good morning, everyone! Welcome to Marketing Mix! Today we're going to talk about social media and social media can be time-consuming especially if you don't have the right tools to help you stay organized. So today, we're going to show you our favorite tools to help give you high-quality content so let's get started.

Kelsi: Good morning.

Sarah: Hey. Hey Kelsi, how are you?

Kelsi: I'm doing great. Welcome to Marketing Mix. You can catch us here every week on Tuesday at eight. We'll be doing different segments, highlighting different digital marketing topics. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel. You can catch us live on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, check the replays on those same channels as well as Instagram and LinkedIn. And we also have our podcast Marketing and a Mic.

Sarah: All righty. Okay. So today, we're going to talk about all our favorite tools. Now there's so many social media tools and resources to use but for us, we want to focus on the ones that we think will help you get started, be successful at social media and save you a lot of time. So let's get started. And I think really the first place to start wouldn't you say, Kelsi, is something that'll keep you organized and how important is that?

Kelsi: Yes!

Sarah: So, if you're managing multiple social media channels, and if you want to do it right, you need to be consistent. So for us, the best in the first place to get started really would be a scheduling tool. Now our pick is eClincher. And really what that is, well, let me back up, it's something that will keep your social media consistent and be able to post on multiple channels. It's really simple. eClincher, it's very efficient. You can manage all your accounts on one platform. So, we've got a little snapshot out of it over here, but if you can see on the side, you've got all of your social media channels. You can schedule in advance. This platform is so great because it integrates with all the top social media networks so you can go through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube. I mean all of it. You're also able to publish videos, gifs, articles, and links and what we really like about it too is it can embed the link, which means that it will embed the link and the image. So when people see it, you have the ability to hide the link on a lot of social media channels and just click on the image, it'll take you straight to the article. And shorten the link, which is really nice too because Kelsi, you and I know when we see a post and it's got this two or three-line extended link, so that's another great thing. And it's got a free image library, which is phenomenal so you've got a lot of images at your fingertips. You have the ability to tag from it, which is if you want to tag a specific business, it has the ability to do that. It also will give you suggested hashtags, which I think is so great too because if you want to plug in some relevant or trending hashtags, it's got that ability. And it's integrated with third-party applications, which means you can plug it into Canva, which we'll get into a little bit later. Wave.video, which is another third-party application where you can create videos and integrate it right into eClincher. And which is, this is a really key part too, is that you can, when you are connected to those social media channels, you can see all the activity that's coming in. So, if somebody makes a comment or you can kind of get, it gives you good analytics, so you can see kind of what's working and what's not. If people send you a message, you have the ability to respond to it right away. So again, it's just another really good feature all in one place. So, organization, organization.

Kelsi: Absolutely. I think my favorite thing about eClincher is the fact that it centralizes all of your social media things into one platform that you can manage everything. And it also gives you a great visual of what you have going on because you have your calendar there and you can see what days you need to post. You can view those posts and make sure they're just what you need. So, it's a really great tool. The second great tool that we want to talk about is a graphic design platform that we use called Canva. So, a very important aspect of your social media is your graphics because visual content is very important. If you want to catch people's eyes and make them stop on your posts and go to your page and read about your business. Fortunately, you no longer have to have a background in graphic design to create really professional-looking, captivating images. Our go-to platform is Canva, which is loaded. It's a tool that's just loaded with easy to use features and functionality that can help you create beautiful and engaging content. It comes with thousands of templates and layouts that you can choose from among thousands of stock images and illustrations to choose from. You have a library of fonts, an easy to use drag and drop editor, it even gives you animation features so you can create those gifs or have your texts float in. It gives you customizable branding options, photo editing options, and a library of graphic elements. You could incorporate video and music and they also have a library that you can choose from as well, as well as integrating with third-party applications like eClincher. So, you can integrate your Canva account directly into eClincher and load those designs and publish your posts. You can also integrate it with OneDrive or any other third party application like Dropbox that you need to save the content. So it's really, really useful.

Sarah: Yes. And Canva, it's so nice, it's always making updates. It's always upgrading. I mean, it's a beast really and truly because it's got so much at your fingertips and I love too that dependent on what social media channel you are posting to, which we know very well all have their specific dimensions. So you can take, if you've designed something and you feel really good about it, you could go ahead and resize it right there and not lose it, almost duplicate it in a way, and then post it throughout all those social media channels. And it's just very user friendly. We love, love, love it. I mean, it's just so easy and very much recommended. There is a free version on that but depending upon your capabilities and what you're looking to do, you probably want to get some of the paid versions because you'll just have access to more features. So, okay. Moving right along, let's talk about video. So, we've all been kind of forced into video these days. We've had to do a lot of video chats and a lot of video conferences. And because we just can't make contact or make contact as much as we used to, video really is kind of a go-to outlet. And I think especially for businesses, this is really important. But to take it a step further beyond just doing a live Zoom or using StreamYard, you really want to put videos out there about your business. And it could be if you want to do something that is just talking about your services, if you want to do kind of a more personal video to talk about things going on within your company, whatever it is, videos are important. But we know so much that people feel intimidated a little bit with video or they really don't know what tool to use or what's going to be helpful to them. So, we've talked about Animoto in the past and Animoto to us is the best video maker tool because much like Canva, you don't have to have this background in videography or any of those types of things to put together some good quality professional videos. So, let me highlight what we love about it. Animoto, it has multiple styles and templates. This is so huge because all you need to do is walk in and think to yourself, "What kind of video am I looking to put together? Do I want to do a promo video? Do I want to do an explainer video? Do I want to do a motivational video?" Whatever it is, it's got the ability to give you those templates right then and there. And those templates are fully loaded with music, with transitions, with text, it's got that kind of built-in marketing storyboard, which means that it's got that whole trend, it's got the whole fluidity of a video in place. You just have to swap it out with your own customized features, your own images. It's got that drag and drop format which is so easy to use. You just find what you like and pull it in. Customizable font styles, video transitions. You can resize it to landscape, vertical, and square dimensions, depending on where you want to post your video, what platform you want to use. And it's got an extensive music library, which is so nice too. Everything is fully licensed and you can use it. And it's got a lot of branding options, meaning you can pop your logo in, you can have it shown throughout the whole video. And Animoto too, it'll kind of give you that foundation of a template to use but you can customize every single slide. And I say slide because how Animoto works is that you'll kind of build your little slides but then when you hit play, all those slides come together in a video, it's a nice transition. So I mean, to me, it's so easy and there is a free version, but again, a paid version really, if you want to get all the bells and whistles is the way to go, but it's a good pick to us.

Kelsi: Animoto is a good pick, it's very user friendly. So, when Sarah approached me and said, "Hey, you're going to start making some videos for some of our clients." I was like, "Oh gosh, I don't even have a clue on how to do that?" She was like, "Don't worry about it. It's really easy." And I think we spent maybe 30 minutes to an hour going through all the features in Animoto. And then I realized it's easy-breezy and anybody can do it. So, they did a really good job creating that platform for people to use.

Sarah: Yeah. It's almost like what will take you more time is just designing it to how you like it because you could get lost in it. And I think that's similar for Canva too, there's so much at your fingertips. They give you a lot of templates also with Canva. So when you look at it, you could get lost in just the design elements of it because there are so many features to it which makes it nice because you just know you've got one platform and you could go in there and just find whatever you need to make, customized graphics and customized videos.

Kelsi: You could spend hours going through the stock image library or you can use your own photos. Find a template that you like, drag and drop your own photos into Animoto or Canva and you've got a perfectly branded, beautiful graphic or video.

Sarah: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because Animoto and Canva, they give you a library to use, however, you can upload any of your own stuff so very easy.

Kelsi: It's awesome! The fourth tool that we want to talk about is a Content Calendar. And while I love all of these tools, this one right here is my saving grace. So, at Fusion One, we often use terms like brain-dump or popcorn brain, because we love to sit around and brainstorm and then we'll sit on the couch for a little while and then we'll just end up having all of these ideas pop into our head and this Content Calendar is a way for us to load all of those ideas into one central location so that we don't forget about it down the road. So, when you're having really creative moments, you just dump those ideas into this Content Calendar. It's got the, I'm sorry, my brain just quit on me. It's got all of the holidays preloaded into it as well as national days, which helps you pick out those extra little things you want to post on your pages while keeping you organized, ensuring that you're consistent with your posting. Having those brain dumps helps you save time and stress down the road. If you could plan ahead and go ahead and get a few ideas for the week or the month down on paper then when you go to publish them, those posts, it's super easy. So, I really love this tool. It helps me see the type of content I've put on some of my platforms or channels. And that way I don't duplicate anything. If I've already posted an article about how to do this, I want to make sure that I don't post that again anytime soon. You can actually block those things out months down the road and remind yourself, "Hey, it's been four or five months since I talked about this topic," so I'm going to put that on my calendar for September and I'll remember to post about it again.

Sarah: Very much so. Yeah, it gives you this ability to kind of visualize your content strategy kind of all one place and keep you organized. And again, like you talked about, we have those terms of a popcorn brain or a brain-dump. And it's really when you have those very creative moments and you're like, "I got to put this somewhere." So, that gives you that ability to where you can get all your content all in one place and you can visualize it to your point. You don't have to worry about duplicating things because you can see it and you can get a good month to month layout of, "Okay, here's what I want to do social media-wise and keep it all in one place." And also too, because you don't want to do anything on the fly. If you use social media correctly, you've got to post consistently. So, you don't want to be in a position where, "Oh gosh, I know I got to post this week I don't even know what I'm going to do," when you're just kind of popping stuff up there and it's not the quality that you're looking for. So, that's just to us the best way to kind of keep all of your content and your visual strategy in one place so-

Kelsi: And keep your sanity.

Sarah: And keep your sanity because it is, it can be stressful if you know you've got to do all these posts and you're like, "Oh, I don't know what to do," and just keep it organized. So, let's review the four real quick, shall we? So, the first thing you should do, get a scheduling tool. There's a lot out there. Our personal favorite is eClincher And again, what that does is it keeps all of your social media channels in one place, you can schedule in advance and you've got the ability to kind of house it all in one space. Second, Canva. Canva is a great graphic design tool, so many features you can make animated images, video, there's so much you can do with it. The third, Animoto, a video maker tool, it's such an easy drag and drop feature to use to create really professional-looking videos. And the fourth is a Content Calendar and that is just to keep all of your ideas in one place. So, there you have it. And again, there's a lot of more tools out there and there's a lot more that we use but if you need to get started, this to us is kind of the go-to if you're a business owner or if you're just kind of a one-man show entrepreneur trying to get out there or even if you're a pop-up marketing company like us, helping other clients. So again, that's the best place to start.

Kelsi: Absolutely. So, one of the biggest values that we bring to our clients is the ability to fully manage their social media for them. So, we already have all these tools in-house. We love to provide you with the information about that so that if you want to take on your own social media campaigns, you're fully equipped to do it well. But if you just don't have the time to dedicate to it, that's where we come in. We can come in and do that for you. So, we love to invest in the best tools on the market so that we can do our job more efficiently.

Sarah: Absolutely. And because we have the tools, it makes it so much easier and because of our ability to save time, that's kind of what helps our clients a lot is that we can put all of that stuff out there. We've got the strategy, we've got the tools to do it for them. So, if your business could use a boost in social media and you need some help managing it and you need some help getting started, please feel free to reach out to us. So, that's it for us, four great tools. I hope you guys got something out of that today. And we will be back on Friday with Biz Talk with Lisa Phillips. So, thanks for tuning in, we'll catch you all next time!