Influencers Should be Using These 5 Tools Today…
As many experienced influencers know, popular websites and top-notch content are made possible with a well-stocked influencer tool kit. With an overwhelming amount of software, plug-ins, extensions, apps, gadgets, and websites claiming to be must-haves, how can you be sure they are worth using?
Not to worry – we’ve compiled a list of five essential tools, suggested by some of Linqia’s expert influencers. Adopting these tools can help save time, beautify photos, kickstart content, and expand your audience and influence.
Social Media Management Platform
Use a social media management platform to schedule and send social posts across multiple networks, monitor channel feeds, and quickly reply to followers.
Linqia influencer A Grande Life uses Hootsuite to create her social content ahead of time. “Compose your tweet and, instead of hitting the send button, click the calendar icon. A calendar will open and you can choose the date and time for the scheduled tweet.” Buffer is another platform that allows users to monitor multiple feeds, schedule, and send social posts. Both services have downloadable web browser extensions that let you instantly save a webpage or image to the platform to send right away or at a later time.
Influencer Oak + Oats loves CoSchedule because it offers the all of the social media capabilities above plus the added option to automate posts to WordPress blogs. Unlike Hootsuite and Buffer, which both have free options, CoSchedule only offers free trial before you must pay.
Influencers are busy people but that doesn’t mean they can only maintain and post to their sites during the wee hours of the morning. Social media management platforms help influencers juggle their busy schedules without skipping a beat in their content.
Smartphone or Camera Tripod
Invest in a tripod to improve the quality of your photography.
“I got an iPhone tripod and a simple remote clicker and it is the easiest blog photo-taking secret ever, “ says influencer Thoughts By Natalie. “No other people are necessary to take the photo, and my photos are already on my phone for editing and posting.”
“Another great thing about using a tripod is that you can experiment with your image layout without having to move your camera,” Thoughts by Natalie continues. “You can snap a photo, move things around, and snap a photo again.”
Not only does a tripod give you independence, it also lets you capture unique angles. Top-down images and videos (images taken from an overhead angle) are much easier to work with when you have a tripod holding the camera steady. Since tutorial videos, especially recipes, receive much higher engagement when filmed from the top-down angle, it’s a good idea to use a smartphone tripod for your next tutorial post.
Google Ads Account
Create a free Google Adwords account to optimize your content for SEO. The Adword’s Keyword Planner is especially helpful before you sit down to write content. Midwestern Moms suggests using it because “it will tell you the average monthly searches and the amount of competition for that keyword.” This information helps gauge its popularity and relevance to your post topics. The Google Keyword Planner will also generate keyword ideas for you if can’t think of a good keyword for your content.
“Once I have made my decision on a keyword, I plan my title, URL, and description of the post to contain that keyword,” she continues. “While writing, I know what keyword to include in the post to achieve the best SEO for that post.”
Improving your SEO will help your content be more visible to new potential followers and likely grow your audience size. It will also impress brands and advertisers, as most prefer to work with influencers whose content ranks highly in search results.
Email Marketing Service
Subscribe to an email marketing service to build an email newsletter contact list from your audience.
“[An email service] is a necessary blogging tool if you want to grow your blog,” says For the Love of Crust. “It makes sending out newsletters super easy.”
If you don’t already send out a newsletter, we strongly recommend you start, even if it’s only quarterly. Email is one of the best audience engagement mediums – in fact, readers are 6x more likely to click on a link in an email than a link in a tweet. Placing sponsored posts in newsletters is an effective way to reach your audience and encourage them to engage with your content.
With an email service, you can lay out a newsletter and test its appearance for both computers and mobile devices. Because your audience is constantly on the go, it’s important to make sure your emails are mobile friendly. You can also track email opens and link clicks, giving you insights into what content is most appealing to your audience.
MailChimp or Benchmark are two of many free email services that let you build contact lists, design layouts, schedule releases, and analyze audience engagement, all in one place.
Font and Design Resources
Periodically update your fonts and general website design to stay current and aesthetically pleasing to your audience and potential advertisers.
There are many options to source fonts and design elements – like Creative Market, 1001Fonts, and Vector.Me – which you can browse to either download items or serve as inspiration to design your own. If you don’t have the natural design eye, marketplaces like Etsy, Fiverr, and Freelancer offer rock-bottom prices on professional custom website designs. Updating your blog design every few years is important for maintaining a modern, clean appearance that is attractive to both new audience members and advertisers.
These 5 crucial influencer tools can improve the quality and appearance of your content, save time, and attract attention from new audiences and advertisers. If you want to learn about more effective influencer tools and strategies check out our Knowledge Base. Share your favorite influencers tools on our Facebook and Twitter.
