3 time-saving tools to make social media easier

Do you love social media? Many of us have a love-hate relationship with it. We love engaging with the community, but we hate how time consuming it can be.

There are what seems like innumerable networks to join. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google Plus, Tumblr and a million others.

But there are only 24 hours in a day, and most of those we dedicate to providing our clients with exceptional customer service.

How in the world do you make the time to involve yourself in each of these social networks?

Well, be thankful. Some bright people have developed great tools to help us figure it out.

Buzzsumo

This first tool helps with two important things:

1. Ideas
2. Curation

Finding ideas for content doesn’t have to be so hard. With Buzzsumo, you can find the most shared content on the Web for a topic with ease.

How it works

When you land on Buzzsumo’s site, you will see a search bar. Click on the search bar and enter a topic, then hit “go.”

The results page will show you the most-shared content for:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• Google Plus

You can filter the results in several ways. You can filter by:

• Date
• Language
• Country
• Content type
• Social network

You can also include or exclude specific domains.

Now that you can see what people interested in your topic are sharing, you can come up with ideas for your own content.

Furthermore, you now have a curation list of great content. Take some of those posts and share them with your audience.

Buffer

This next tool is perfect for scheduling posts. But it’s also a great curating tool when used in conjunction with its Google Chrome extension. When used with the extension, this tool will save you a ton of time.

It also has a built-in analytics tool to help you measure the success of your posts.

How it works

When you sign up for a free Buffer account, you can connect to the following:

• Facebook profile, company page or group page
• Twitter account
• Google Plus page
• LinkedIn profile or company page

When you “upgrade to awesome” you can connect up to 10 social media accounts.

When you’re done linking Buffer to your social media pages, you will need adjust your settings for each platform. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through the steps.

On the left-hand side you will see your various accounts. Click on the top account and adjust the following:

1. Schedule: It’s the third tab, toward the top of the page.
   1. When you land on the tab, first set your time zone.
   2. Next, choose the days you want to post. I usually post on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
   3. Then, set the time you want Buffer to make the post for you. I set this to 8 a.m. If you want to make multiple posts in a day, you can add extra posting times.
2. Settings: It’s the fourth tab.
   1. This is optional, but I like to shorten my links to make the post look cleaner
   2. If you are using Google Analytics — and you should — make sure the “enable campaign tracking” is set to “yep.”

When you’re done with the first account, move to the second and so on.

The next step is adding content. Just click on the “content” tab for each platform and add your link and text. The posts are published automatically based on the settings you specified.

Optional add-on

To make life even easier, you can download the Buffer Extension Tool for Google Chrome. This tool makes sharing great content with Buffer a breeze.

Click on this link to download.

Now, to share videos, pictures or articles, all you have to do is click the Buffer icon at the top right-hand of your browser. Buffer will add it to your “queue” and will send out the post in the order it was added. You will also have the option to post right away if you like.

Instapic

This last tool is great for posting high-quality photos to Instagram. It also allows you to post pictures to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and Foursquare.

Today’s smartphones can take some pretty amazing shots, but if you want to share professional-grade photos, then this tool is for you.

How it works

First, you’ll have to download the app to your computer to use Instapic. Once you have the app downloaded, you will sign in using your Instagram login information.

At the top right-hand side of the app you will see a gear icon. Click here to add other accounts.

Go to the section marked “settings,” click on “linked accounts,” and follow the login instructions.

You can also use the tool to find your Facebook friends on Instagram, find your email contacts or change your profile picture.

When you are ready to make a post, follow these steps:

1. Click on the camera icon in the upper middle section of the app.
2. Click on the photo icon at the bottom; this will open your desktop folder.
3. Find the picture you want to upload and click “open.”
4. Crop your photo.
5. Add a filter (optional).
6. Add hashtags in the “caption” section.
7. Click on “share.”

That’s it, you’re done!

Now you can stay active on social media without spending all your valuable time on it.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest other great time-saving tools, please leave a comment below.

Michael Johnson is the founder of Crown Listings. You can follow him on Twitter or Linkedin.

Email Michael Johnson.