In your quest to work smarter, not harder, these new social media tools can help you grow and connect with your audience so you can get more done in less time.
Are you making the most of your social media presence? Sure, you tweet. You connect with friends and fans on Facebook. You post videos of your shows on YouTube. You’re even trying out Snapchat to see what the fuss is all about, although you are not quite sure what a “snap” is. You are doing your best to connect with fans on social media. But it’s time consuming. You’d rather focus on writing and performing your music. Social media used to be fun. Now it’s a thorn in your side. Luckily there are sites and hacks that can make your life easier all while keeping up with the Joneses.
My motto is “work smarter not harder.” I’m going to share tools that will help you grow and connect with your audience. The best part is it’s not time consuming. You’ll get more done in less time. And most are free.
TweetJukebox
TweetJukebox is a simple tool that allows you to schedule tweets and basically “set it and forget it.” You take all your long-lasting content, we call this evergreen, and place it into a “jukebox.” You then set a schedule, turn it on and that’s it. You now have tweets going out regularly. This is a great way to have a steady stream of content out in the Twitterverse. You can sign up for a free account. This includes two Jukeboxes. You load up your jukebox with tweets and decide how often you want it to tweet out. It’s simple and easy to use. And the best part, it frees you up so you can focus time on engaging with your community and playing your music.
Best use: This is great for promoting information about you and your band, your various social media sites, and anything that you would tweet out again and again. If you like motivational quotes, turn on the Free Quote Jukebox. It’s filled with over 200 tweets. Just turn it on and it will start running. Motivational quotes are popular and get great engagement. Twitter only – Free and paid account.
Social Quant
We all want to get noticed and have more followers. If you want to grow your Twitter account, check out Social Quant. They help you increase your followers, engagement, and leads. It’s not one of those services where you buy follower, Social Quant uses the power of big data and analytics to grow your follower account. I’ve been using this service and can say with confidence it’s a tremendous platform that will get you results. I have 9,000 new followers in just five months! Social Quant offers a free 14-day trial, so it’s worth checking out.
Use my link to get a coupon good for 50% off if you decide to continue past the 14-day trial.
Best use: Pick your keywords carefully. You want to choose 15-20. And have a compelling Twitter bio. Social Quant will cast the wide net with the keywords you choose. Your profile image, header, and bio needs to be outstanding so that people will be enticed to follow you once they arrive on your page. Twitter only – Free 14 day trial then Paid account.
IFTTT
If This Then That (IFTTT) is a great tool that allows you to automate products and apps. I use it to automate certain features on Twitter like adding people to a list and posting Instagram photos. I also use it to save pins from Pinterest to my Evernote. You create “recipes” that trigger an action. If you want to “work smarter not harder,” this is the tool for you! It can also do cool things like text you the weather and send you an email when something becomes available on Craigslist. It uses apps like Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more.
My friend Aaron Lee wrote a helpful article called “WARNING: These 9 Awesome IFTTT Recipes for Twitter Are Dangerously Efficient.”
What I love about IFTTT are the endless recipes people have created that are at your fingertips. Simply click on “Browse” and you’ll uncover an endless stream of helpful recipes. You’ll be amazed at how efficient you’ll become when you start using this tool.
Best use: If you go to Aaron’s IFTTT article, check out item #1 – Automatically Add Those Who Mention You to Twitter List. It’s a brilliant recipe because if someone mentions you on Twitter, it will add them to your Twitter list. I call mine “Awesome People.” For musicians, I would call it “Awesome Fans.” So imagine this: you send me a tweet (@madalynsklar). You then receive a Twitter notification saying: “Madalyn Sklar has added you to her Awesome People list.” How would that make you feel? Pretty darn good! I could certainly do this process manually and add people to my Twitter list, but it’s time consuming. Why not let IFTTT do the heavy lifting for you? This will free you up to spend more time engaging with your fans and playing your music. And maybe writing a new song about the joys of IFTTT. Variety of Social Networks and other tools & apps – Free account
Nuzzel
If you’re like me, you are tired of all the noise on Facebook and Twitter. It’s information overload! But you don’t want to miss the good stuff. Nuzzel is a super easy way to see news from your friends. The app will help you discover the best news stories shared by your friends on Facebook and Twitter. You can also view news from “friends of friends” which expands your network. A new feature called Discover showcases curated topics and people. Nuzzel is available on a browser, iPhone/iPad, and Android.
Best use: I use the Nuzzel iPhone app because it integrates with Buffer so I can quickly and easily schedule an article as a tweet. This is a great time-saver! I can also pin an article to my Pinterest. Variety of Social Networks – Free account.
Getting the most out of your social media does not have to be a time consuming affair. These four tools will help you shine online and allow you to “work smarter not harder.” Give these tools a try and see how they can greatly improve your online presence and help you connect with more fans.
Madalyn Sklar is a Social Media Coach and Consultant helping countless entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses of all sizes do one thing very well: “Work Smarter Not Harder.” With 20 years of online marketing experience, Madalyn is one of the most in demand speakers at conferences, discussion panels, and college courses. In 1996, Sklar founded GoGirlsMusic.com, an online community of female musicians, still going strong today with its mission to empower women in music. Today Sklar is the host of the #TwitterSmarter podcast where she interviews top social media and marketing experts like Ariel Hyatt, Mari Smith, Pat Flynn, Kim Garst, and Mark Schaefer. You can listen on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Soundcloud. She also runs the wildly popular #TwitterSmarter Twitter chat every Thursday at 1pm ET. It’s become THE place to connect, learn, and share Twitter tips.
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Everything is peachy though until some of those auto tweet sites go rogue and begin spamming all your Tweeps and get you suspended