Social Media Platforms – The Usual Suspects
Incorporating social media on your website requires using many tools. We continue this series with the “usual suspects” of social media platforms, additional options, and recommended tools for creating content.
- Personal account
All Facebook users must begin by creating a personal account. You can then establish pages for businesses and groups. The essence of Facebook is personal interaction, based initially on your friends, relatives, and colleagues, then expanding out to include a wider circle. - Business page
- Manage Pages > Create a Page button (at top of page)
– Select Get Started button for either Business / Brand or Community / Public Figure - Advantages: extend your reach, run ads, add other users to administer the page, create new page roles for users, use a Call-to-Action button, analytics (Insights), and much more.
- Place a widget in your sidebar to show this social media’s post feed on your site.
- Manage Pages > Create a Page button (at top of page)
- Group
- Manage Groups > Create Group button (in left sidebar)
– Name Your Group, Add People, and Select Privacy settings
- Advantages: this is where “community” happens (discussions, announcements, and events)!
- Media: upload images and videos (video time limit = 120 minutes)
- Manage Groups > Create Group button (in left sidebar)
Instagram
(now owned by Facebook)
- Very visual: photo and video sharing
- Posts = “permanent” items on your profile feed. Description followed by hashtags. Can also include tags. You can delete posts from your feed whenever you want.
- Video time limit = 60 seconds
- Stories = 24-hour posts, used to show moments of your day.
- Becoming more and more popular; number of active story users has quadrupled in the past 2 years!
- Can be styled with text, hashtags and tags, etc.
- Can add engaging content, like questions, polls, stickers, animated gifs, and music.
- Video time limit = 30 seconds
- Terminology
- “Tag” = identifies another Instagram user
- “Save” = bookmark
- Popular posts = videos, multiple images
- Analytics – available on a Biz Account. Demographic tends to be ages 18 – 34.
- News, information, entertainment, sports, politics, quick snippets of daily life, etc.
- Tweets = posts; limited to 280 characters. Can include images, videos, and links.
- Video time limit = 2 minutes, 20 seconds
- Terminology
- Lists = categories
- Hashtags = filters, reveal what’s trending
- Likes = appreciative gestures that indicate you like the content; also a way of bookmarking
- Impressions = number of times a tweet appears in a user’s timeline
- Sidebar widgets can be used to show this social media’s post feed on your site.
- Analytics > click on the 3 dots under left sidebar
- Very visual
- Pins = posts
- Uses boards: nice way to categorize
- You can make boards private
- You can share boards so teams can upload to them
- Inspirations, ideas, references
- Analytics > Audience Insights. Pinterest’s analytics are fascinating. User engagement is broken down into categories, interests, age, gender, location, and device.
Platforms – Other Options
YouTube – owned by Google
- Google is largest search-engine in the world; YouTube is #2
- Video-sharing platform (public, private, unlisted)
- Audio and visual
- Need a Google account in order to create a Channel
- Video time limit = 15 minutes
- Analytics > Each video has its own button
Vimeo
- Video-sharing platform for those who need more control over their content
- Audio and visual
- No time limits, but there are file size limits (500MB per week for Free accounts)
- Legacy free account limit of 5GB; now requires minimum of $7/month (free trial)
- Analytics > available in paid accounts
- Professional networking site
- Share content, build brand, comments, likes, shares
- Job search
- Video time limit = 10 minutes
- Submissions feed for questions, links, and images
- Discussions and voting on submissions
Tumblr
- Microblogging and social networking
- Posts “tumble” in a continuous feed
- Messaging app – Started as an alternative to SMS
- Supports sending and receiving of text, photos, videos, documents, locations, and voice calls
Messenger
- Originally a FB feature, now a standalone communications tool
- Text, chat, advertisements, newsletters, planning
- Evolved from a messaging app to an multi-purpose platform
- Messaging, group chat, social media and mobile payment
- Popular in China and parts of Asia
Snapchat
- Snaps = photos and short videos
- Popularized the Story format
- Demographic tends to be ages 8 – 18.
- On the decline, due to the rise of Instagram
- Video time limit = 10 seconds
Social Media Tools
Content doesn’t appear out of thin air. You need tools to create it! Here is a guide to some of the most popular applications available.
Email Marketing
Call to Action: should lead directly to associated event on website
- Aweber
- Free trial
- Plans start at $19/month for up to 500 subscribers
- CampaignMonitor
- Plans start at $9/month for up to 2500 emails
- Constant Contact
- Free trial
- Plans start at $20/month
- Little Green Light
- Free trial
- Monthly or annual subscription plans starting at $39/month for up to 2500 contacts
- Richly featured donor management tool with email marketing
- Mailchimp
- Free plan for up to 2000 contacts
- Paid plans start at $9.99/month
- Example of Blog to Email via Mailchimp
https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=2b8f989133&u=65a02b0a6ef9c3ca16e54dbf8&id=9ecccb7de6
- Send in Blue
- Free plan for unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails per day
- Paid plans starting at $25/month for extended features
Publishing and Sharing
(WP) = WordPress plugin available
- HootSuite
- Schedule tweets, lists, streams
- Multiple accounts (paid version)
- AddThis (WP)
- Share and Follow buttons for users to spread and follow the content
- ShareThis (WP)
- Share and Follow buttons for users to spread and follow the content
- Buffer (WP)
- Plan, collaborate, and publish
- Dlvrit
- Automate posting to FB, Twitter, LI, and more
- Automatic recycling of content
- Bulk scheduling
- IFTTT – If This Then That
- Software platform that connects apps, devices, and software so that you can trigger automations based on conditional situations
- Integrates an extensive list of apps and devices
- EXAMPLES:
– Instagram videos are automatically shared to Twitter oSend thanks to new Twitter followers
– Sync Instagram posts to a Pinterest board oInstagram posts are automatically uploaded to a Facebook page album
– Share Facebook Page updates on Twitter
– Save new iOS Contacts to your Google Contacts - Good article: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3239304/what-is-ifttt-how-to-use-if-this-then-that-services.html
- Zapier
- Chief competitor to IFTTT
- Connects apps, triggers and automates actions between them
- Co-Schedule (WP)
- Content Marketing Editorial Calendar for WordPress
WordPress Plugins
- WordPress SEO
- JetPack
- for single and multiple MailChimp forms, including popups
- Genesis eNews Extended
- Adds a widget with an email subscribe form that integrates with email list manager
- Atomic Blocks / MailChimp block
- Embeds a MC form
- JM TwitterCards by Julien Maury
Image Editors
- Photoshop
- $9.99/mo. for Photography plan (includes Lightroom)
- $19.99/mo. For all Creative Cloud apps
- See my blog post about Photoshop alternatives:
– https://www.askdesign.biz/blog/2015/11/best-alternatives-to-photoshop/
- GIMP
- Free
- Full-featured image editor with most of Photoshop’s capabilities
- Pixlr
- Free
- Decent image editor that can crop, resize, modify, and compress files.
- Affinity Photo
- $49.99 (free trial)
- Professional editing software for enhancing, modifying, and retouching your images.
Screen Recorders
- QuickTime Player
- FREE
- Apple product: packaged with Mac OS
- Game bar
- FREE
- Packaged with Windows 10
- Screencast-O-Matic
- FREE
- Mac, Windows
- Movavi
- $49.95 for Screen Recorder
- $69.95. For Screen Recorder Studio (includes video editor)
- Mac, Windows
Video Editors
- DaVinci Resolve 15
- FREE and paid version (Studio)
- Mac, Windows, Linus
- Apple iMovie
- FREE
- Mac
- Adobe Premiere Pro CC
- $20.99/mo. for Single application
- $49.99/mo. For all apps
- Mac, Windows
- Adobe Premiere Elements
- $69.99 to $149.99
- Mac, Windows
- Final Cut Pro X
- $180.71 to 299.99
- Mac
Sources
and…
Life in the Social Media lane
Video of Slides
You can watch the video of the slides I showed at the Tech4Good MeetUp:
VIEW VIDEO
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A Guide to Incorporating Social Media with Your Website – part 1
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Discussion
We’d love to hear from you!
How do you use the platforms?
What are your favorite tools?
Do you struggle with anything?
Let us know your answers to these questions in the comments area.
I am always amazed at the rich content you share with your correspondents. This last one is terrific.
Denise, What great feedback! I am so glad to hear your appreciation. Thank you!