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Speed up your productivity
Are you using social media tools and looking to speed up your productivity? Well, I’m really pleased to welcome Kate Vayle as my guest blogger. Kate is a virtual assistant who owns Smart PA Support and offers social media management as part of her VA services.
In this post, she will be giving you 4 tools that she uses and some tips on how to use them. Her contact details will be at the end if you want to connect with her.
For Kate, the 4 brilliant social media tools to speed up your productivity are Canva, Mailchimp, Loomly and Facebook. But read on to find out exactly how Kate uses them in her virtual assistant services.
Getting an idea of what social media tools there are to help you with your business can cut out the procrastination time as well as help understand what each tool does.
If you’d like to have an audit as to what tools are appropriate to your business needs, just drop me a comment or email me at hello@thatwoman.tech and I can do a quick audit of your social media and see if you have got an efficient system that works for you rather than against you. Or if you’re ready to go ahead, click here.
And if you are a new business starting out and you’re wondering whether you need to focus on your social media tools first or get a website, well have a look at this earlier post to help you make that decision.
So over to Kate!
What are 4 social media tools?
As a Virtual Assistant, my job is to give business owners time back in their day so that they can get on with doing the work that makes them money. One of the most time-consuming jobs for business
owners and, therefore, one of my most frequently requested services is social media management.
I currently have 15 clients for whom I do anything and everything from setting the theme for each
month, creating post wording and images, scheduling the posts and linking them to newsletters and blogs (which I can also write if required).
Some of the tools I use to complete this task are as follows:
Social Media tool tip #1: Canva
Canva is a fabulously easy tool to use for creating post images, Facebook and Instagram Stories or videos as well as PDFs, fliers, newsletters and much more!
I set up ‘Brand Kits’ for each of my clients where I can store their brand colours, font and logo. I can then either use stock images to create posts relevant to their social media or I can upload their own photos or videos to be set in posts. I can be as basic or as creative as needed to convey the message each post is giving. Of course, I also use this tool for my own posts as shown:
Whilst Canva does have a free version, if you regularly create posts or any marketing materials, I recommend a paid version. For just £99.99 per year, I get access to many more images and tools. I can also add team members so I can collaborate with others to create designs, or they can create designs for me with my login.
For my own social media, I can schedule posts directly from Canva into platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and even TikTok
When I create newsletters for my clients, I can send these directly into their Mailchimp or emails (if I have access of course!).
Social Media tool tip #2:Mailchimp
As mentioned, another great tool I use is Mailchimp. I use the free version and it is super easy to use to send out email marketing including newsletters and promotions. I would recommend using this if you have an email with your own domain name as generic emails e.g., gmail.com do tend to end up in the recipient’s junk.
Social Media tool tip #3:Loomly
There are a lot of great scheduling tools out there, but as I have several social media clients now, I have invested in the base version of Loomly which costs me £258 per year.
I trialled several platforms before picking Loomly and found this the easiest and most reliable tool for me. Whilst I am limited to only 10 social accounts, I work around this by using other free tools for some clients.
By using Loomly, I can schedule posts to whichever platforms I need to. I work a month ahead for all my clients, so I schedule their posts in for the following month. This way, I don’t miss any (I can, of course, change posts at short notice if a client wants to put up a different post to perhaps promote an event or award!) Loomly displays the schedule in different ways so I can see the image quickly or I can spot any missed posts easily.
Social Media tool tip #4:Facebook
Facebook business accounts have access to their own scheduling tools which can also be linked to Instagram. For clients who only want me to schedule on either or both of these platforms, I use their own Business Suite planners to schedule their posts a month in advance. It’s easy to use and you can review performance stats in the app to see how your posts are doing.
I can also, if required, create paid ads on Facebook for clients which is done through Business Suite too.
The systems mentioned are ones that I use so I can recommend them, however, I would suggest that business owners find what works for their individual needs. As research is another service I offer, I can, if needed, research platforms on their behalf if they would like to work with me.
Next steps to speed up your productivity
If you’d like to work with Kate you can email kate.vayle@smartpasupport or find her details here.
Social media tools are like buses: for a while it seems like you can’t find the right tool, then all of a sudden you discover loads of the same variation all at once!
that woman tech
Yes, there are so many social media tools so really it’s good advice from Kate as to working out what works for you. This is simply a case of signing up to the free trials, blocking out some time to play with it and determine whether it will work for your business and help you systemise and automate.
If you already have Canva, take a few minutes to create your brand colour palette as this will save you a huge amount of time locating your colours.
In addition batching your social media is a better time-saving activity than trying to do it on the fly. It also means you can cross-fertilize it with your newsletter and a monthly blog theme.
Creating snippets of your existing content can repurpose and refresh your message. There are two tools that are a lifesaver for me at that woman techquarters: Headliner and Repurpose.io
What social media tools do you use to increase productivity?
Are you already a productive aficionado of productivity hacks? If so, let me know in the comments and give the readers 1 social media hack tip that helps you stay super productive.
*Please note some of the links are affiliate links meaning that I may earn a commission when you click the link at no additional cost to you. You can read the full details in my website terms and conditions-thank you.
