Are you curious about what my favourite social media tools are?
Keep watching because, in this video, I’m going to break down all of the different social
media tools I’ve used in the last few years, pros and cons for each of them and why I’m
choosing to keep things simple.
[Music]
Hi, my name is Mei Pak, and I help makers, artist and designers create a consistent income
selling their handmade products online.
Let's get into talking about my favourite, current social media tools.
If you're on Instagram- I currently use Planoly, and I have heard that Later is very similar
if not even better than Planoly.
What I like about Planoly and Later; I've done a little bit of research is that: they're
both free to use for Instagram.
So both Later and Planoly can auto-post for you which is very very nice; what I like both
of this software too is that there's a very nice visual layout builder, so when you upload
your post you can kind of shift them around to see what looks nice visually.
So for example for me: I like a very colourful feed, but it's kind of a pet peeve of mine
when we say a red-themed coloured post is right next to another red themed coloured
post.
I want to kind of spread them out a little bit and make sure they're not right next to
each other.
So let's talk about Facebook.
Facebook is kind of an odd one: because Facebook is one of those social media platforms that
knows when you're using a third-party software to schedule post.
I don't know if you have paid attention or if you've seen this before, but sometimes
some people's post when you see under the little timestamp underneath their name you'll
see "Posted by blah blah blah."
Posted by Hootsuite, posted by Buffer, posted by Meetedgar.
Facebook knows when you are using a third-party platform because you have to connect that
software to Facebook, right?
So facebook doesn't like it when you use third-party software, and that's fine because facebook
has their own built-in scheduling system.
It's completely free, and using their own scheduling built-in scheduler means your
post are not gonna get penalized and it's going to reach more people when you use their
built-in system.
So facebook is a huge reason why I used the app that I use.
And we'll get into these later but when I talked about using general apps like Hootsuite.
Hootsuite can do all the platforms.
It can do Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
I don't care about using tools that can do all the platforms because I don't need a tool
that can do all the platforms because I'm already using Facebook's built-in scheduler.
I do highly recommend that if you're focusing on Facebook marketing that you use their built-in
scheduler and try to avoid using third-party software for it.
You're going to see overall, better reach, better engagement with your post's completely
free, and using their own scheduling built-in scheduler means your post.
Here's a question for you that I loved to find out.
What is your favourite social media tool?
Please let me know in the comments.
Let's talk about Pinterest now.
Number 3.
My favourite Pinterest software is Tailwind.
Now Pinterest's social media is really great for people who blog or — If say you are
a business owner that has education to share with people.
You have some knowledge that you need to share with your audience.
Blogging is a great way to market that kind of business model and Pinterest go hand and
hand with blogging very nicely.
Now a few things I love about Tailwind: One, their newest looping feature.
This is a feature that helps you re-pin, pins into boards on auto-pilot for you.
This is a feature that I used to love when I was using a software called Board Booster
that's no longer around, but this looping feature is what single-handedly made me grow
to tens of thousands of followers in just a few short months.
And of course, with Tailwind you can schedule your pins to boards or to group boards.
Unfortunately, Tailwind is not free.
I haven't yet found a better solution that is free for Pinterest.
But if you have any tips definitely let me know in the comments.
And finally, for those of you guys who are looking for solution that's kind of all-in-one
that covers all the different platforms because I know there are way too many platforms for
us to keep track off.
Hootsuite is what I recommend.
It's free to use; it works with all the platforms; it has all the features you would ever need.
It also keeps everything, all your comments and direct messages and your scheduling of
post — all in one place.
I do wanna talk about some of the tools I've used before that didn't work out so great.
And I'm talking about, some of the more complex social media scheduling tools like Meetedgar,
Coschedule, Buffer.
These are usually not free to use, but I just want you to be aware about cons of using these
tools.
Just in case you're considering getting them.
Some of these tools do a really cool thing where it repurposes your content.
So for example, if you uploaded 10 posts, and each one is scheduled to go out once daily
then at the end of 10 days you're going to ran out of content, right?
Well, software like Meetedgar for example and there are others that are kind of like
it where it has this repurposing feature at the end of 10 days it will start recycling
the first ten posts that you've posted before.
So if you have to go on a vacation or for whatever reason you didn't upload new
post, it'll just reuse the first ten post that you had uploaded before.
And the reason why I was using the strategy and these tools before you know repurposing
and recycling content is because I have created so much content to the point where I had like
a year's worth of content.
So when I posted something on January first 2019.
I wouldn't be until January first 2020 that a person would see that same post again.
And it's very likely that a person seeing that post in 2019 is not going to remember
it in 2020 if they will even see that same, to begin with.
Because you know the algorithm does weird things about like who can see what kind of
content, right?
So knowing all this information, the problem that happens is that if you're not
careful, you can start to post content that is not timely.
Even when you're using software that doesn't have these recycling and repurposing feature
when you're in the habit of scheduling social media post that means that you're not on the
fly creating content that you know is relevant to that day.
You can definitely plan around things and be strategic about it, but I've been in pickles
before where I've posted Christmas products in the middle of March.
And it just doesn't make sense and is kind of embarrassing.
Because these make you post content that is kind of less relevant and less timely, that
also means that you're becoming less engaged and your post and turn are less engaging.
And, you know in some ways you're no longer playing an active role and having an active
conversation on social media.
So my recommendation for you to avoid all of what I've just said when you do schedule.
Do not schedule things so far out in advance.
Maybe like a week period is a good amount of time to schedule post for.
And the third disadvantage for using social media scheduling tools is that social
media now knows when you're using a third-party app to schedule post with them and sometimes
social media doesn't like it when you do that.
And when they don't like it.
You know what that means right?
They are not going to show your post as too many people.
I use software like that for a couple of years in my business, and I saw the quality
of my post and my engagement go down slowly over time.
So it's kind of like catch 22 but you going to have to decide for yourself and your priorities
with your business what's going to be best for you.
If you want to learn more about how to use social media to market your handmade
business online, click on the next video on the screen.
Thanks for watching this video.
I'll see you over there.