Tools of the Trade

Each year we learn so many tips and tools during the Southern C Summit it is sometimes an overload, in a good way. I picked up quite a few tools from this year’s Summit and I wanted to share three tools I’ve found really helpful after implementing them into my content creation routine.

CoSchedule

This is a bloggers dream tool. I’d signed up for a free trial a while ago and just forgot about it. Mandy Rye, of Waiting on Martha, shared how WOM uses CoSchedule to help keep their archived blog posts circulating. This is genius because most blog posts will still be relevant to someone a few weeks, months, or even years later. It’s alI’ve never been good at sticking to a calendar and this tool makes it incredibly easy. It integrates with WordPress so you can work on your calendar within your site. The top post function is also incredibly brilliant. You can focus on different categories such as the top posts for the past 30 days or all time and schedule out messages on your social media channels.

A free tool CoSchedule offers is the Headline Analyzer. This helps determine the quality of your title based on the overall structure, grammar, and readability of your headline as well as the types of words you choose,i.e. common, emotional, or powerful words.

If you use CoSchedule, I’m convinced your social feeds will never be idle again.

Tailwind

Tailwind allows you to master the power of the pin by helping you schedule pins, explore Pinterest insights, track your progress, manage multiple accounts, and more. I’m still exploring this one with a free trial but being able to schedule pins has been really helpful. You can even schedule pins from your Instagram pics. 

Videoshop

I began to dabble in video creation in 2014 without a lot of confidence. I find Editing is extremely tedious and by far my least favorite part of the process. Before the Summit this year, I attended Libbie Summer’s Video Workshop and was blown away with how much information and guidance we received from Libbie and her assistant Candace. We learned how to create a video step by step from the story boards to shooting from the best angles. One of the tools they recommended was the app Videoshop. It’s quite user friendly with drag and drop features making editing a snap and only costs $1.99. If you’re intimidated by video editing software but want to start making videos for your brand, then this app is worth a shot. 

This is the video I created right after the Summit using Videoshop. It’s by no means perfect but this app simplifies video editing and makes the process much more approachable.

Have you used any of these tools? How have they worked for you?