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To the novice eye, the seemingly simple process of managing and developing a brand through the utilization of various social media platforms may seem simple. Besides interacting with followers and creating a post with a caption, what else is there to do? The fact remains that despite this so-called “1-way process”, there are several levels of intricacies that must be included in every brand’s social media platform(s) in order to take advantage of every resource presented to you. In spite of this, it may seem overwhelming to choose from the variety of tools given at your disposal that are prevalent everywhere on the Internet, from tools that boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to automatic hashtag creations that resonate to the mood of your post, it is challenging to find which tools and methods would work to produce the best content for your social media post.
I am a Freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and by no means am an expert in brand creation and content. However, I have supplied myself with knowledge and relevant experience that I feel is worthwhile to share with anyone who may have questions regarding the applications, and how to be familiarized with them when exploring the endless depth of social media branding. Below, you will find a list of my go-to sources for content creation, tools to make your content easily accessible, and reflecting upon the lessons I have learned in my journey thus far.
Content Tool: Canva- Canva is the tool with the most value available in the market, in my opinion. With the low, low price of free, Canva offers users a wide array of tools to create quality content, including professionally pre-made templates, hundreds of different emblems, and various fonts to choose from. The best feature about Canva is the ease of use. Canva is incredibly user-friendly, providing a tutorial for new users that gives basic knowledge on which tools are where and how to use them, etc. In retrospect to some other paid applications such as Photoshop, Canva is perfect for novice users looking for a free alternative that is also easy to use.
Content Accessibility: Linktree- Linktree is an extremely valuable tool for organizations or businesses that have multiple links they would like to share in a biography (“bio”) or post. If ever in need to post a few links to your business, perhaps you want a link to your website and a link to your other social media accounts, then Linktree is your go-to application. With Linktree you’re able to create a giant link that leads to a page with where you are able to choose what links you want to include, kinda like a link-ception. This tool has saved me the ease of not needing to update my biography and face potentially losing customers when I replace an important link with another.
Lesson: Hashtag- This tool is so simple yet extremely effective in raising brand awareness on your posts, it’s the very backbone of marketing your brand to the outside population. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way and was not incorporating hashtags into my posts for a few months, completely disregarding their sole use. After I started to use them in my posts, my number of comments, likes, and followers increased. They did not increase to an enormous amount, but to the extent where it was definitely a major mistake that I now regret not using hashtags earlier.
Before posting with hashtags, it’s imperative to understand your reason for placing hashtags. It’s important to consider: how does it relate to your post? For instance, you would want to incorporate words or phrases that are relevant to the post. If creating hashtags for a fitness post, I would consider words and phrases that are commonly used and widely known by those who are searching for fitness-related posts, who would be aware of them and most likely to use them. Also, formatting should be in consideration, in order to keep the caption neat and aesthetically pleasing to the reader I suggest separating different topics into barriers. A barrier, for example, can be a line or asterisks in your post that cut off your hashtags from the caption so it doesn’t intrude with your post. Additionally, make sure not to overcrowd your post with tags so it doesn’t look like you spent more time looking for applicable hashtags than captioning the post itself. To the viewer, it would seem as if you’re too busy worrying about how to market your content, which is good, but providing quality content should always be your number one priority.
All in all, there is still much more to be said in the journey of marketing your socially through the various social media applications available, and the tools that come with it. With that said, there is more to come in terms of articles. There will be multiple articles in the future for different topics, such as social media, account management, research, and design, and creative, so be sure to be on the lookout!