commun.it

Bill Gates was certainly right when he noted that content is king, back in 1996. Today, it’s easy for anyone to be an online publisher. But it’s a pretty daunting prospect. Thanks to an entire tool lineup of smart new tools, it’s also never been easier to create, promote, share, and market your stuff. However, there’s a trade-off between ease and effectiveness. For the true content marketer, who really wants to make a difference with their content, it comes to this balance: easy does not always equal effective. Yet, we live in a time when it is essential for brands to be communicating 24/7. Those that have a powerful online presence and engage their audience are the ones that aren’t afraid to experiment with the tools of content automation – but know how to strike the right balance and stay engaged, relevant, and consistent in original creation. What tools can you use to automate your content marketing… and where do you draw that line in creation vs. automation? I’m here with an intensive step-by-step list, based on what’s worked for me after a lot of trial and error. Keep reading! 4 Key Tools to Use In Automating Your Content Marketing, & What to Avoid How can you successfully balance time-saving automation with the necessities of creative, original creation? Here are the top four tools I recommend. Some come with a warning label, so tread carefully. Tool #1: Buffer I love Buffer. For all-around social media post scheduling, it can’t be beat. Their dashboard is easy, customizable, and so clean. I’ve tried Hootsuite and Buffer, and like this tool the most. There’s just more features, cleanliness, and organization here. Buffer, of course, requires manual work, unlike tools like Edgar that do the repurposing for you: but I honestly don’t like letting go of scheduling out my tweets myself. I share my login with our social media manager, Rachel, who helps schedule out our blogs as well. In Buffer, you can upload visuals and videos to your posts as well as schedule them out. As you can see on the left in the screenshot, we have a ton of accounts hooked up to our one Buffer Pro account. I also love that Buffer removed their “automation” feature–better known as the Suggestions area. They took away a huge crutch for the automation-happy users, and I applaud them for it. There is no “bad,” or “don’t use,” in Buffer’s features. Good work, @Buffer! Tool #2: Commun.it Approach this tool cautiously. Do not, do NOT utilize this tool to it’s fullest. This tool offers some serious social automation. It has good and bad points. If you’re considering this tool, here’s something you need to know about Commun.it right now. Don’t even go to their site and check them out: read this first. If you sign up for this tool, you’ll need to immediately go to the Schedule tab (this used to be called Campaigns)… and turn OFF all the scariness of automated tweets, DMs, etc., that are “ON,” in this list (click Edit > Pause OR Delete): I don’t have a screenshot of when I turned on my account, but I wish I did. There were 20+ automated things on.  All the auto “tweets” you’ll find turned on I do not suggest even trying. (More on that in the do’s vs. don’ts list below.) @commun_it – if you’re listening, turn OFF these automation features for all new users! The automation ON is very, very dangerous… a new user could spam the heck out of everyone they know without even realizing. Now that we’ve clarified the bad and how to avoid it… There are some good features to this tool. I’ve hooked up about 6 accounts to my Commun.it and paid for a year of Business Pro, starting in January 2016. Here’s what my main dashboard looks like when logging in: After four months of using the program (only a few hours a week if that), the biggest benefits I’ve noticed are in the suggested “consider to follow,” and “consider to unfollow” lists. I’ve never been able to build such a targeted amount of Twitter followers before—with any tool. I can also “retweet” top tweets straight from here, to get the eye of an influencer, see all my notifications across the board (who interacted with me and said what), and more. My favorite area to go to every time I open the tool is the Community section: It’s very easy to just click through the tabs here and start engaging–real engagement, with some real users that align with your interests. Commun.it’s algorithm on who to follow is decently, but not always, helpful. Be sure to keep an eye on it, don’t just click-click-click and repeat: sometimes you’ll see an occasional follower not suited to your interests or audience type. Or, a 100% spam account will sneak in. DO use these features of Commun.it: Community-building feature Follow the “consider to follow” list, unfollow the suggested to unfollow, while keeping an eye on it as you do it “Leads” section to find strangers related to your interest and start building new connections Use the “monitoring” for brand mentions, hashtag mentions for reputation management/engagement building Set up your own well-written, reoccurring customized tweets or DMs to publicize your stuff – for example, a podcast you have, or a blog (no auto tweeting of their automated tweets – see below) DO NOT use these main two features: #1. Too much or non-personalized auto-DM’ing. Confession: I do have a few auto-DMs going. Here’s what I think about auto-DMs: Never do them with a free software. “Automated” or “by X tool,” inserted by the tool as the last line in the message, turns people off more than anything With my paid version, I can insert their name and a day of the week – this is ideal for personalization I check back and write replies, etc, when people answer them DM’s done in that way can be done well. I’ve been redoing them every month, but haven’t achieved any “clicks” – although I’ve seen replies from real people thanking me for the DM … Read more