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7 + 17 Top Tools for Content Curation
Scoop.it: Become an authority in your vertical
1Scoop.it (tagline: “share ideas that matter”) ranks as one of the top content curation tools right now. The service, which has both free and premium versions, styles itself as a series of online magazines centered on niche topics. Pick a topic you feel knowledgeable or passionate about and start adding to your collection: articles, blog posts, Twitter lists, videos and so on. Socialbrite’s Debra Askanse, for example, has Scoop.it pages on Facebook and Twitter best practices.
Gabriella Sannino put it well: “Scoop.it is like being your own newspaper editor.” The quality of the curators on Scoop.it is high, though you’ll need to root around a bit to find the subjects and authorities that interest you the most. Note: While you can embed it on your own site, it works better by viewing the topics on the main Scoop.it site.
• Chill is a video-centric curation service that lets you vote up stories (mostly locally produced video), Digg style.
• Diigo is the social bookmarking site, research tool and knowledge-sharing community I’ve been using for the past two years.
• Paper.li, Flockler, LOUD3R and Searcheeze are among the new breed of DIY instant news publications on niche topics.
• Qrait is “a real-time curation platform designed to fulfill the needs of content curators and reduce information overload for the rest of us.”
• Curation Station, a paid service, can be used to help you create streams of curated content for your community through websites, social channels, email digests, widgets and more.
• Locker Project provides users a locker, “a container for personal data, which gives the owner the ability to control how it’s protected and shared.”
• Top tools to help you curate business content (Socialmedia.biz)
• Content Curation Tools For Brands (Return on Clicks)
• 5 tools to help you master Pinterest (Socialbrite)
• My review of “Curation Nation” (jdlasica.com)
• Scoop This: A Comprehensive Guide to Scoop.it for Content Curation (Search Engine Journal)
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* this post 17 of the Best Content Curation Tools to Use in 2015 appeared first on Express Writers.
1Scoop.it (tagline: “share ideas that matter”) ranks as one of the top content curation tools right now. The service, which has both free and premium versions, styles itself as a series of online magazines centered on niche topics. Pick a topic you feel knowledgeable or passionate about and start adding to your collection: articles, blog posts, Twitter lists, videos and so on. Socialbrite’s Debra Askanse, for example, has Scoop.it pages on Facebook and Twitter best practices.
Gabriella Sannino put it well: “Scoop.it is like being your own newspaper editor.” The quality of the curators on Scoop.it is high, though you’ll need to root around a bit to find the subjects and authorities that interest you the most. Note: While you can embed it on your own site, it works better by viewing the topics on the main Scoop.it site.
Storify: Curate your next event
2Next time you’re covering a nonprofit conference or putting on an event, consider firing up a Storify account and then pick and choose the best images, tweets, blog posts, videos, etc., that others publish and tie them up with a nice ribbon — your overall take on the proceedings, of course. Storify is becoming a favorite of bloggers, journalists and Tweeps who like its curated take on current events. You can pull from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram and many other sources and then export it to your WordPress, Tumblr or Posterous blog or share it on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus via social buttons. (Side note: I know the founder, Burt Herman, who’s a nice guy, and I always root for former-journalists-turned-entrepreneurs.)
2Next time you’re covering a nonprofit conference or putting on an event, consider firing up a Storify account and then pick and choose the best images, tweets, blog posts, videos, etc., that others publish and tie them up with a nice ribbon — your overall take on the proceedings, of course. Storify is becoming a favorite of bloggers, journalists and Tweeps who like its curated take on current events. You can pull from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram and many other sources and then export it to your WordPress, Tumblr or Posterous blog or share it on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus via social buttons. (Side note: I know the founder, Burt Herman, who’s a nice guy, and I always root for former-journalists-turned-entrepreneurs.)
Pearltrees: Cultivate your interests
3My vow for the fall is to spend more time with Pearltrees, which recently did a reboot and looks to be one of the most advanced tools you can add to your curation toolkit. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but here’s how it works: Your browser app lets you “pearl” the page you’re visiting. Connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts, then start organizing interests into topic folders (“pearltrees”). Any other curator expert in your topic area might ask to team up with you (and vice versa) to make your tree branches richer. You can share your pearls through Twitter, Facebook, email or embed them in your own site. You can also share pearls with colleagues or your own team. Curators, behold the potential of the pearl.
3My vow for the fall is to spend more time with Pearltrees, which recently did a reboot and looks to be one of the most advanced tools you can add to your curation toolkit. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but here’s how it works: Your browser app lets you “pearl” the page you’re visiting. Connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts, then start organizing interests into topic folders (“pearltrees”). Any other curator expert in your topic area might ask to team up with you (and vice versa) to make your tree branches richer. You can share your pearls through Twitter, Facebook, email or embed them in your own site. You can also share pearls with colleagues or your own team. Curators, behold the potential of the pearl.
Pinterest: Share your favorite visuals
4Pinterest entreats you to “organize and share the things you love,” but it’s really all about compelling visuals. (And, by the way, here’s a Pinterest board on curation tools.) This year Pinterest has become the third most popular social network in the world, trailing only Facebook and Twitter, by making it drop-dead simple to “pin” images that you think are cool. The more serious Pinterest curators create boards around topics, like nonprofit marketing strategist Noland Hoshino. You can, too.
4Pinterest entreats you to “organize and share the things you love,” but it’s really all about compelling visuals. (And, by the way, here’s a Pinterest board on curation tools.) This year Pinterest has become the third most popular social network in the world, trailing only Facebook and Twitter, by making it drop-dead simple to “pin” images that you think are cool. The more serious Pinterest curators create boards around topics, like nonprofit marketing strategist Noland Hoshino. You can, too.
Delicious: Find & bookmark cool stuff
5Delicious, the first social bookmarking site, is arguably the granddaddy of the curation movement. Now that Yahoo! sold the service to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, there’s wind in its sails again. It’s pretty simple: Find a valuable story or post, bookmark it and share it with the community. Your tags can be used by you or anyone (if you select public rather than private). The collective body of knowledge on any topic — such as wildlife, bears or HIV prevention — is simply staggering.
5Delicious, the first social bookmarking site, is arguably the granddaddy of the curation movement. Now that Yahoo! sold the service to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, there’s wind in its sails again. It’s pretty simple: Find a valuable story or post, bookmark it and share it with the community. Your tags can be used by you or anyone (if you select public rather than private). The collective body of knowledge on any topic — such as wildlife, bears or HIV prevention — is simply staggering.
Bundlr: Bundle your multimedia
6With Bundlr you can create topic pages with photos, videos, tweets and documents and then share them with everyone. I haven’t used the service but it looks to be influenced by the Pinterest craze.
6With Bundlr you can create topic pages with photos, videos, tweets and documents and then share them with everyone. I haven’t used the service but it looks to be influenced by the Pinterest craze.
BagTheWeb: Add to a knowledge network
7OK, now we’re getting a bit repetitive. BagTheWeb helps users curate Web content through a different metaphor: Create a “bag” to collect, publish and share any content from the Web. One interesting twist is that BagTheWeb enables users to build networks of bags so that topic areas can be linked together to provide rich datasets about any subject.
7OK, now we’re getting a bit repetitive. BagTheWeb helps users curate Web content through a different metaphor: Create a “bag” to collect, publish and share any content from the Web. One interesting twist is that BagTheWeb enables users to build networks of bags so that topic areas can be linked together to provide rich datasets about any subject.
Other curation services worth checking
Other social curation services worth a look include:• Chill is a video-centric curation service that lets you vote up stories (mostly locally produced video), Digg style.
• Diigo is the social bookmarking site, research tool and knowledge-sharing community I’ve been using for the past two years.
• Paper.li, Flockler, LOUD3R and Searcheeze are among the new breed of DIY instant news publications on niche topics.
• Qrait is “a real-time curation platform designed to fulfill the needs of content curators and reduce information overload for the rest of us.”
• Curation Station, a paid service, can be used to help you create streams of curated content for your community through websites, social channels, email digests, widgets and more.
• Locker Project provides users a locker, “a container for personal data, which gives the owner the ability to control how it’s protected and shared.”
Related
• Curation tools to help you cope with info-overload (Socialbrite)• Top tools to help you curate business content (Socialmedia.biz)
• Content Curation Tools For Brands (Return on Clicks)
• 5 tools to help you master Pinterest (Socialbrite)
• My review of “Curation Nation” (jdlasica.com)
• Scoop This: A Comprehensive Guide to Scoop.it for Content Curation (Search Engine Journal)
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The Top 17 Awesome Content Curation Tools to Use
- Trap.It. This particular content curation tool is really neat. It is an “intelligent” tool, which means the more content you curate the smarter Trap.It gets. This helps you find excellent content by “trapping” it in folders for you to peruse and gain great inspiration.
- Feedly. Feedly helps you to curate blog content that can be used as resources for future posts or give you great ideas for upcoming content. It doesn’t pull images, but the lack of visuals doesn’t diminish the importance of this tool.
- Pinterest. Wait, a social network can be a content curation tool? Why yes it can! Follow people in your industry, as well as pop culture icons to get access to tons of great content ideas. Save these ideas to boards on your account, and work with them to curate excellent content for you and your clients.
- Quora. Quroa is a content curation tool that I really enjoy. You can set up an account, and then search your keywords to find excellent content to store away for future use. You can also set up your account to be notified about articles that pertain to your field so that you can get more articles and interesting ideas in your inbox.
- Scoop.It. This tool is incredible because you not only get to curate content but you are also put in connection with other content curators. This helps you gain insight from leaders in various fields, and those within yours. It also gives you the chance to share your information with others to help another curate their own content.
- iFlow. This platform allows you to make specific filters and ideas that fit with your niche market. This can help you find adequate content that pertains to your industry, and the flow will give you constant streaming content ideas that you can look through and sort as you see fit.
- MyCurator for WordPress. This tool is perfect for those who utilize WordPress for their website and blog. It gives you the chance to curate content regularly by installing a plugin. It will bring in articles from all over the web that pertain to you, helping you curate content that can be very beneficial.
- Spundge. Spundge is similar to Pinterest in that you can set up keywords and find great content that is relevant to you, saving it for later. However, Spundge does something different from Pinterest in that, over time, it learns what you are interested in, tailoring your results to meet your needs. You can also send out your curated content in RSS form to help provide people with the chance to find your content and receive help.
- Learnist. This tool is great because it helps people learn from industry leaders. You will be able to curate expert content, and even learn new information about your industry. Constantly learning is great for content curation and creation, and Learnist provides you with this opportunity.
- Slideshare. While this doesn’t act like most of the other content curation tools I’ve mentioned, it does provide you with the chance to learn from others and share your knowledge. You can look through various Slideshares of those in your industry to gain new information and curate content, and you can always share what you’ve learned to help someone else who may be looking.
- Storify. This is an awesome visual tool that can help users create storyboards for their content campaigns by utilizing content curation. You can either be the one doing the creating, offering people content to curate, or you can look through the storyboards and curate content from others. In addition, you can also get a WordPress plugin for Storify.
- List.ly. Whether it is in a blog, a grocery list, or a simple to-do list, everyone has some sort of love for lists. They are great at helping you keep track of things, and they are perfect when it comes to content curation. On List.ly, you can gather your information together in a great list, and then users can up-vote or down-vote each part. This can help you find content that will be more impactful, and which content you might want to stay away from. Again, just like with Storify, there is a handy WordPress plugin for List.ly.
- ContentGems. This program gives you access to over 200,000 RSS feeds, which makes it very likely that you will be able to curate content that will be applicable to your needs. All you have to do is search your chosen keywords, and you can skim through several different resources, curating content along the way.
- Bundlr. Bundlr takes what you’ve found across the Internet and bundles it into easy to manage groups. As you scour through the Internet, you can clip articles or social posts you’ve found to save for later. Once you’ve created an entire bundle, you can add meta data and publish it for others to find great content. You can also add it to your website or share on social media if you feel so inclined.
- Triberr. Triberr is a great way to help connect with industry leaders and curate their content. This program provides groups called tribes, which are basically areas of interest. You can find your area(s) and join the tribe to begin curating great content, and you can share that content when you find something useful.
- Post Planner. This tool helps you to share your curated content on Facebook at some of the best times. It promises that it can help you get viral content by just spending ten minutes each day on the program. It looks at your Facebook and decides what dates, times, and content pieces will work best for you, giving you the maximum reach with your content and blogs. This can help boost Facebook engagement, and get those curated pieces out to your audience.
- Curata. Curata is another intelligent content curation tool because it makes sure to find articles and content that meets your interests. It goes throughout blogs around the Internet and tailor makes content lists for you to look through. It gives you the chance to look over the curated content, annotate the pieces, and curate the best content for your industry needs. This is an especially great tool if you happen to be very busy, as well!
* this post 17 of the Best Content Curation Tools to Use in 2015 appeared first on Express Writers.
The Ultimate List of:
50 tools for bloggers
Web Hosting Tools
To keep your site alive and running, you need the right web hosting (with the right plan). Here are some of my favorites that won't let you down. #Must reads:
- 9 Awesome Tools for Content Authors and Bloggers
- How to Learn Social Media Marketing: 15 Blogs for Beginners
- How to Create Perfect Headlines for Social Media Posts
- 9 of the Best Free Social Media Analytics Tools
- How to Promote Your Event With Social Media Marketing
- 12 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy
- 50 Top Tools for Social Media Monitoring, Analytics, and Management
- 20 Top Twitter Monitoring and Analytics Tools
- 10 Tools for Measuring Your Social Media Influence
- 100+ Social Media Monitoring Tools
- 10 Great Alternatives to the Google Keyword Research Tool
- How to Learn Social Media Marketing: 15 Blogs for Beginners
- How to Create Perfect Headlines for Social Media Posts
- 20 Top Twitter Monitoring and Analytics Tools
- 37 of the Best Facebook Page Apps for Brand Marketing
- 9 of the Best Free Social Media Analytics Tools
- 10 Examples of Social Media ROI [Infographic]
- The Role of Color in Marketing [Infographics]
- Social Media Marketing Tips and Tricks for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and More
- Using Social Media as a Communication Tool [Infographic]
- How the Internet has Changed in the Last 10 Years [Infographic]
- 7 Ways to Raise Facebook Engagement [Infographic]
- 65 Terrific Social Media Infographics
- 35 Great Social Media Infographics
- 10 Tools for Measuring Your Social Media Influence
- 7 Facebook Marketing Case Studies
Hyper Island Toolbox: for team building
“Hi Toolbox“ this is a resource for anyone who wants to do things more creatively and
collaboratively in their team or organization. It’s a collection of
methods and activities, based on Hyper Island’s methodology, that you
can start using today.
via HyperIsland
via HyperIsland
10 Software Tools for Collaborating with Virtual Assistants
I thought I’d share these tools with you, in case you are working in a virtual environment and want to explore a few of these with your team. Currently, we use the following apps:
Resources for Writers
We’ve put together this list of ebooks, courses and other
resources for writers, so you can find one — or several! — that’s the
best fit for you.
64 Essential Tools for the Location Independent Entrepreneur
Everything you need to work from anywhere. Every tool you need to run a business from the beaches of Bali, the mountains of Chile, or the comfort of your own home.
Sean Ogle, creator and founder of Location 180, spent the last three years of my life learning how to travel and work from anywhere in the world.Below you’re going to find his entire list of everything he uses to help him live the Location Rebel lifestyle.
Upgraded Hosting – For a little bit more money you can get a VPS solution – totally worth it in the long run. If you’re technically inclined (or work with someone who is) Linode is about as good as it gets, and is what I use. For usability however, Dreamhost VPS is still a good bet here.
WordPress – The CMS I use to run ALL of my websites. Want a blog? Use WordPress. Building an E-commerce store? WordPress can do that. Membership site? Check. Best of all? It’s free and has an unbelievable support community behind it.
Google Analytics – Essential for figuring out what’s working and what isn’t. Also free, so there’s no excuse for not taking 3 minutes to install on your site. You can get info about how people are finding your site, where they’re from, and what your most popular pages are – and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Cyberduck – Open source FTP client. This allows you to access all of your website’s folders and files. You’ll need this at some point, I promise. FileZilla is also a similar program that I use.
Sean Ogle, creator and founder of Location 180, spent the last three years of my life learning how to travel and work from anywhere in the world.Below you’re going to find his entire list of everything he uses to help him live the Location Rebel lifestyle.
Basic Web Essentials
Basic Hosting – One of the few things here that is a non-negotiable, must have thing if you want to be a location rebel. I used Fat Cow for three years due to their good customer service. These days however, I recommend Dreamhost.Upgraded Hosting – For a little bit more money you can get a VPS solution – totally worth it in the long run. If you’re technically inclined (or work with someone who is) Linode is about as good as it gets, and is what I use. For usability however, Dreamhost VPS is still a good bet here.
WordPress – The CMS I use to run ALL of my websites. Want a blog? Use WordPress. Building an E-commerce store? WordPress can do that. Membership site? Check. Best of all? It’s free and has an unbelievable support community behind it.
Google Analytics – Essential for figuring out what’s working and what isn’t. Also free, so there’s no excuse for not taking 3 minutes to install on your site. You can get info about how people are finding your site, where they’re from, and what your most popular pages are – and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Cyberduck – Open source FTP client. This allows you to access all of your website’s folders and files. You’ll need this at some point, I promise. FileZilla is also a similar program that I use.
A list of writing tools is a displacement activity
Writing, focussing, assembling, editing, collaborating, feeding back, researching, structuring, outputting and publishing. (Updated Feb 2014.)
Focus through constraint:
Focus through constraint:
- iaWriter - "Keep your hands on the keyboard and your mind in the text". Has good reviews.
- Byword - "Simple and efficient text editing". Also has good reviews.
- Writeroom - appears a generation older than iaWriter and Byword.
- Textmate - does text, html and a zillion other developer's things.
- Hemingway - "makes your writing bold and clear".
- nvALT - Speeds up that did-I-already-write-about-this? moment, auto-saves, does text files, Markdown. Nice. I'm writing this post in it.
- Pinboard - elegantly executed webpage bookmarking.
- Draft - its drafts are neat version control, has premium "ask a pro", updates frequently. (Has a no-going-back Hemingway mode, thought isn't the same as the Hemingway above.)
- Poetica - "Get feedback about your writing from people you trust, wherever they are" - not released yet. Amusingly, screenshot critiques Word track changes and Google Docs. Reviewed by Rev Dan.
- Google Docs - good at collaboration and export, auto-saves. Has automated versioning but without actual version *control*.
- Editorially - "makes collaborative writing easy", via here but sadly shutting down.
- Penflip - "helps you write better with others".
- Authorea - "the collaborative platform for research. Write and manage your technical documents in one place".
- Ulysses 3 - "All your texts. In one place. Always." Not tried, but this review says "the app reimagines the text editor in a way that visually resembles Mail and conceptually sits somewhere between iA Writer and the project-based Scrivener". Which sounds like quite a thing.
- Scrivener - looks a bit of a mess to be honest. They also have Scapple, a mind map/words-on-sticks app.
- LeanPub - "Publish Early, Publish Often - Authors and publishers use Leanpub to publish amazing in-progress and completed books". Costs $0.50 plus 10%.
- Lacuna books - "the best way to write and publish a book". Big on structuring, rendering chapters and ebooks easily.
- Quip - "Beautiful documents on any device".
- Marquee - "a full-stack publishing platform... to help everyone, from editors to designers and developers, come together to make great content for the web".
- Marked, because between text and html, Markdown is the popular "intermediary" format, (like nvALT) is good at simultaneous preview.
- Mou - good at simultaneous preview of Markdown, custom css etc, always seems to recover well from its frequent crashes.
- And a simple Google Apps script to convert a Google Drive Document to markdown.
- Medium - "A better place to read and write things that matter" - becoming a centre of gravity for serious writing, per-para commenting interesting.
- Wattpad - an ebook platform/store/agora that isn't Kindleland.
Curation tools
Aggregation dashboards
1. NetVibes.com—NetVibes
is one of the original content aggregation dashboards and still one of
the best. The best feature of NetVibes is the abundance of ready-made
feeds and widgets that can get you up and running in minutes. Freemium
and premium versions are available.
2. Symbaloo.com—Symbaloo
is almost identical to iGoogle but is presented in a much more
image-shaped manner. If you’re looking at an easy-to-use dashboard that
aggregates all the forms of content important to you (images, blog
posts, videos etc), this is a great way to go—and it’s free.
3. ProtoPage.com—Completely
free and straightforward. ProtoPage, despite the odd bug or two, is
worth consideration as it gives you the most manual control over
relevant content. The benefit that Protopage delivers, and that most
others don’t, is a bookmark-style dashboard which reminds you to
manually consult non-blog platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram. You
can even set up Twitter hashtag feeds to monitor multiple conversations
relevant to you.
4. Feedly.com—Feedly
has been around for a while but has become more popular since the
departure of Google Reader. Feedly enables you to add content by URL,
title, and topic. It is great for blog post aggregation but doesn’t pull
in other forms of content (such as images), which would make it a more
complete solution. Free and premium versions available.
5. Individurls.com—One
of the most basic aggregators out there and very similar to Feedly.com.
The best part of Individurls is the ease in which content scanning
takes place and is replicated on your mobile phone for discovery on the
move. This one is free, too.
6. Google Sites—Another
free option, this is the least sexy, but it enables you to customize a
dashboard-style site featuring bookmarks and links to your favorite and
most relevant sources.
Content discovery tools
7. iFlow.com—iFlow
is a part dashboard, part discovery tool. The interface looks very
similar to Google Reader and helps you to find content based on keywords
and topics. It is another tool that helps with real-time discovery and
sharing.
8. Zite app—Zite
a free mobile-only app which finds and aggregates content based on
topic and the popularity of individual articles (based on a proprietary
algorithm). If you can dedicate only a few minutes a day to content
discovery and sharing, Zite is the perfect app for your toolkit.
9. ContentGems.com—Monitors
200,000 RSS feeds and social media accounts and finds content that
matches your custom keywords. The nicest part of ContentGems is how
often it scans the Web for new content, which helps with real-time
curation. Freemium and premium options available.
10. Scoop.it—Users
of Scoop.it tout it because of the user experience and the continuous
stream of content it delivers. It automatically finds and features
comment from places like Twitter and Google blogs based on your target
keywords and interests. It is also customizable, allowing for additional
sources to be added to your stream(s).
Discover and deliver
11. Trap.it
(enterprise solution)—Trap.it positions itself as a “smart” curation
tool, increasing in intelligence and relevance the more you use it. It
features more than 100,000 vetted content sources and includes “hidden
gems” that have the potential to make your presence stand out.
12. PostPlanner.com
(enterprise solution)—Though there is some free access to PostPlanner,
you’ll have to upgrade to one of the premium packages to benefit from
the content engine feature. PostPlanner is housed within Facebook (as an
app) so if Facebook is your primary focus, this one might be worth
considering.
All-in-one solutions
These next tools are great if you have the resources (people and budget) to make them work.
13. Curata.com
(enterprise solution)—Curata bills itself as one of the only discovery,
organization, and sharing tools. It has a number of features that will
suit only big organizations that have high volumes of content to scan,
repurpose, and publish.
Content planning tools
14. Kapost.com
(enterprise solution)—If you’re a content planner or community manager,
you’ll love Kapost. It does away with those pesky Excel spreadsheets
and gives you a content calendar template that can be added to,
reviewed, revised, and scheduled in the one place. It also enables you
to categorize your posts by channel (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, blog).
15. Compendium.com
(enterprise solution)—Compendium is a content marketing platform that
helps organizations capture and create original content in a branded hub
for distribution to any marketing channel. It will make social media
marketers drool when they see the features and interface.
10 digital tools recommended by social media pros
I was one of those people who clung to Google Reader, holding out hope
until it smacked me with a breakup notification. I was forced to play
the field. I reluctantly gave Feedly a chance, and now I realize what I
had before: nothing. Feedly enables me to embrace my passion for
organization. I can create folders for various topics and then add
content to them, so everything is easily accessible. My inner journalism
major digs the clean “magazine” view, which displays large images with
articles.
2. Offerpop.
I’ve planned dozens of social media promotions for clients, so I’ve
tried out quite a few different apps. Offerpop offers a wide range of
products across social platforms—Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Instagram, even Tumblr and Vine—and it’s not lacking in options for
promotions, from Pinterest contests to Facebook and Twitter sweepstakes.
Maybe most important: It’s easy to get along with. We can draft
customized content for each promotion, and the text instructions and
image dimensions are out there for everyone to see. So, our graphic
designer can easily come up with visuals and drop them in, no coding
needed.
3. PromoJam. Though
it doesn’t have quite the number of promotion options as Offerpop,
PromoJam is significantly more affordable (about $30 each month for a
basic account), so it works well for one-off Facebook promotions and for
clients with limited budgets. The interface is user-friendly and
requires no coding, so customizable promotions can be set up quickly.
I’ll also give them kudos for customer service. I had an issue a couple
of weeks ago setting up a promotion on a client’s Facebook page, and
they were enthusiastic about helping to fix it.
4. GroupHigh. I
was not a fan of GroupHigh a couple of years ago, but since its
makeover it is growing on me again. I work closely with food bloggers on
behalf of clients almost every day, so a database of bloggers sounds
like it’d be a stellar fit for me. It is, to a point. GroupHigh is a
useful tool for identifying topic-specific bloggers in various
locations. It is also very helpful for quickly finding bloggers’ social
media stats and information, which I often include in proposals and in
reports for clients. What it isn’t is a substitute for creating genuine,
strong relationships with bloggers and for really getting to know them.
A food blogger does not want to know that you found them through a
search on GroupHigh. They want you to read their blog, connect on social
media, and get to know them before shooting off a blind invitation to
get together.
5. Followerwonk.
Just who are your Twitter followers? Scrolling through to find
information about followers—and search for new users to follow— quickly
becomes exhausting. Followerwonk enables you to see where Twitter
followers are located, analyze Twitter profiles, and search for keywords
in Twitter bios. It also has a simple display that organizes data into
basic graphs and charts that are easy to understand and use. One other
function I find useful for clients: Comparing the social graph of one
Twitter account to as many as two others, such as those of competitors,
friends, or industry leaders.
6. Sprout Social. People
at the roundtable were raving about Sprout Social. I like that it
focuses on a team approach, as there are usually multiple people
managing social media within an agency. Also, all the functions to
manage and monitor engagement across platforms are quite attractive.
7. Canva. Looks
really do matter. Visual social media content has been on the rise
since 2012, when Pinterest and Instagram saw a huge surge in popularity.
Some predicted
2014 would be the year visual content truly takes over in social media,
and that seems accurate. Think of Canva as an affordable personal
stylist to help you stand out at the overcrowded social media party.
This free app enables users to create basic design pieces in a snap,
such as graphics for blogs and social media. It clearly makes the
distinction between itself and pro tools such as Photoshop or InDesign.
Instead, Canva simply helps with content layout, and it may be helpful
to those who don’t always have access to a graphic designer and just
need to create simple, attractive graphic content.
8. Pulse. This
app aims to simplify our news experience by delivering news direct from
influencers (identified through LinkedIn) that interests us most, all
in one place. Basically, it’s a personalized newsfeed.
9. Camtasia.
Shorter is better when it comes to video these days, and this tool
makes it a snap to edit or combine short videos. I’d like to try this
out for projects that don’t require—or don’t have the budget
for—professional video but still have to look somewhat polished.
10. LinkedIn tags.
Did you know you could tag your LinkedIn contacts? Similar to Twitter
lists (another one of my go-to tools), you can assign tags to your
LinkedIn connections, such as “Clients” or “Social Media Roundtable
Participants,” for easy access.
How to get your own Email Newsletter off the ground
Email is an easy, fast, and affordable way to send monthly newsletters, special offers and invitations to keep customers coming back again and again. Keep your readers or customers coming back again and again with emails that take only minutes to make.
- VerticalResponse email marketing it’s completely free if you have 1,000 contacts or less. This isn't a time-limited trial – you can use it until your needs grow. Build your list with web signup forms and integrations. Reach your email and social audiences with beautiful messages on any device. Send up to 4,000 emails per month.
- Create a beautiful email in minutes: Just drag image and text blocks right into your email and move ’em around with the click of a mouse. Get the look you want with cool image tools including crop, resize and flip. Be creative with filters, frames, stickers, and custom text.
- Build sign up forms to grow your list.
- Welcome new members automatically: Autoresponder – welcome emails (included for a limited time)
- Reach people across phones and tablets. reports make it easy not only to see what’s working but also make it clear what to do next.
- Easy-to-read charts give you key stats, and show who opened your email and what links they clicked on. Quickly create a list of people who may have missed your message, or those who clicked, to make follow-up campaigns a breeze.
- Contact Upload:Just drag your list onto the target. Done. Don’t know what a .csv file is? No problem - upload your lists in an Excel file, or type them right in.
- HTML Editor: Sporting some coding mojo? Unleash your skills and create your very own custom template.
- Scheduling: Send your emails and social posts immediately, or schedule for later. Create them whenever it’s convenient for you.
- Connect one & one account
- Unlimited signup forms
- Unlimited social followers & posts
Mailchimp
it’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers and you have control over how everything from the landing page to the email newsletter itself looks.
Those with developer inclinations can build their entire email newsletter template if they choose, otherwise Mailchimp has a drag-and-drop editor along with built-in themes for those that don’t want to deal with coding to get the look they want for their own newsletter.
Mailchimp offers some smarter ways to send the email itself, too, like automatic delivery based on subscriber timezones.
Tinyletter
The no-frills place to go if you want to get your newsletter off the ground with minimal effort. Tinyletter is perfect for just writing whatever you like and hitting send to a group of people. It offers the things you need, like subscription landing pages and subscriber tracking, but not much more.
Tinyletter is a great place to start when you’re unsure about your newsletter or when you just want to write and see what happens. Since it’s free, there’s no risk in just trying it and seeing what happens. This is my favorite way to send a random, off-the-cuff email newsletter out to people to just test how it’ll go.
Campaign Monitor
In the same vein as Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor gives you control over your emails and landing pages. It features an easy to use drag-and-drop email interface and templates to get you started.
For developers, Campaign Monitor offers lots of awesome features and doesn’t force branding on you along with helping to make it easy to design for mobile phones and more.
My favorite feature is Campaign Monitor’s analytics, which are incredibly in-depth and offer the ability to watch real-time email open tracking visualized on a map. Just like Mailchimp, you can test your email’s appearance easily and if it’ll make it through spam filters in a cinch.
The difference with Campaign Monitor is that there’s no free plan.
Curate
Curate interesting content and build a relationship of expertise and trust with your customers.
Until now, putting together a digest newsletter was time consuming. Curated lets you focus on the links and add your voice. You'll find the entire process effortless. No free accounts.
This newsletter platform is relatively new, but offers a unique angle on managing the process of building a weekly newsletter that’s made up of a bunch of links. As you find articles you like, you can add them as items in Curated for a future edition, then quickly add each one with a blurb to your newsletter.
The idea behind Curated is that it removes all the work of actually designing and laying out the newsletter. There are few options when it comes to the look and feel of the design, outside of colors, icons and titles, but it also saves you a significant amount of time by gathering them all in one place for you.
Email Excellence
This tool is free and will provide you with templates for different types of messages, so it will be simpler for you to construct a proper email by following the basic outline.
Cf.
- Writing tips, building an audience and measuring success.
- 12 of the Best Email Marketing Examples You've Ever Seen
- The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing Apps
- 25 best apps to send email newsletters
- 25 best apps to send drip emails
- 7 best apps to send transactional emails
- One place to get inspiration with examples of templates: here and here.
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| App | Best for | Free features |
|---|---|---|
| TinyLetter | simple, free newsletters | Unlimited emails to 5k people |
| Mad Mimi | just the features you need | 5 emails/month to 2.5k people |
| Campayn | upgrading from basic email apps | 10 emails/month to 2k people |
| Benchmark Email | international support | 7 emails/month to 2k people |
| MailChimp | a suite of mobile apps | 6 emails/month to 2k people |
| Sendloop | automated email marketing | 5 emails/month to 2k people |
| SendinBlue | SMS and transactional email marketing | 4 emails/month to 2k people |
| Mailjet | data-driven newsletters and transactional emails | 3 emails/month to 2k people |
| SendWithUs | code-driven email marketing | Unlimited emails to 1k people |
| VerticalResponse | social media and email marketing | 4 emails/month to 1k people |
| FreshMail | advanced email templates | 4 emails/month to 500 people |
| Sendicate | simple, elegant emails | 2 emails/month to 500 people |
| Django Drip | self-hosted email marketing | Unlimited emails |
Cf.
crash-course on email marketing - Zapier gathered the best apps for each type of email marketing—newsletters, drip emails, and transactional messages (The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing Apps). Plus, it pulled together tips on building email lists, segmenting those lists, testing your email copy, and saving your emails from the spam filter.
If you haven't read them already, these are the posts are your master class in email marketing:
- What is Drip Marketing?
- The 25 Best Email Marketing Apps to Send Drip Campaigns
- Successful Drip Email Campaigns: How to Pick the Best App, Add Advanced Automation and More
- The 25 Best Email Marketing and Newsletter Apps
- A/B Test Your Email Marketing
- Transactional Email: The 7 Best Services to Send 1000s of Emails Daily
- How to Segment Email Lists for More Opens, Click-Throughs and Conversions
- Grow Your Email List: How to Get Subscribers, Organize Lists and Follow Spam Laws
- Email Marketing List Hacks, with tips on how to automatically build and organize your email lists.
Create your personal homepage
About.me
The Big Picture of You: make a personal page and inspire people to connect with you. About.me makes it easy for people to learn about you and find your content on the web.
Turn your about.me page into a shareable digital business card with Intro.
is about giving people an opportunity to build their brand online in a streamlined and easy fashion.
Backstory connects your resume and about.me page to showcase your skills, aspirations, and individuality and tell the world your story.
Connecting your resume to your about.me page through Backstory helps tell the world who you are, what you have achieved, what you do, and who you strive to be.
Many professionals and students have portfolios or examples of work posted on the web. Enter these links at the bottom of your Backstory, so people can discover your professional work.
Share your activity right from the stats page!
Canva and Pablo - This tools allows users to search for the best graphics, photos, and fonts (or upload your own) then use Canva’s drag-and-drop tool to create a new design.
For plenty more options for making original art, quote images and even infographics, check out Buffer’s 14 Great Tools to Create Engaging Infographics and Images for your Social Media Posts.
53+ Free Image Sources For Your Blog and Social Media Posts
74 Best Sites To Find Awesome Free Images
Cf.
- Create Social Media Images in 30 Seconds Flat: meet Pablo by Buffer
- 10 Ways to Use Pablo to Create engaging images for your social media posts
- Canva offers brilliant training resources and tutorials. Just explore the “Design School” tab
- Pablo by Buffer – Cool Tool of the Week
- Canva – Blogging Cool Tool of the Week
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