If your business is large and established enough to appoint a person (or a social media team) to manage your Facebook page, that’s well and good. Still, you are the ‘big guy’ and they will still need your supervision. If you’re not at that level yet with your business, your most feasible option is to manage your Facebook page yourself.

This may seem like a lot of work to handle – especially with your already busy workload – but don’t worry. With these tips, Facebook management will seem like a breeze to a busy entrepreneur like you!

In this article, I’m going to share with you tips on improving social media skills – even while you’re busy in other areas of your business. Let’s take a look!

Tips on Improving Social Media Skills

1. Plan in chunks when free

Although you’re busy most of the time, there are those times where you’re sort of free for a considerable number of hours, say Sunday, or your weekly day off. Use this time to think of as many online strategies you can come up with and note them down in an easily accessible place.

Your mobile device can be a great option. For example, you can create a note in Evernote to jot down your ideas. If you’re more comfortable with a pen and pad, use that instead. Just make sure to brainstorm and use your time efficiently. You can then use these ideas and strategies when you have proper time and resources for Facebook page management. Remember to keep your device or pad, whichever you prefer, handy at all times and don’t hesitate to add more ideas whenever something good pops into your mind.

2. Schedule your posts

Posting your brilliant ideas immediately and all at once is definitely not the best option. Scheduling posts to get published is a much better strategy instead!

You could post them one by one at the desired time. Nevertheless, for a busy businessman/woman, this isn’t exactly recommended. Besides, scheduling your posts in advance is an effective use of time and leaves you more free time for more important business matters on your busy days.

To schedule your Facebook posts, you can use Facebook’s built-in scheduler. Alternatively, there are a multitude of other social media tools such as Postcron and Post Planner that can help you schedule your posts and manage your Facebook page with greater ease.

3. Use interstices to get in touch with your audience

‘Interstice’, to a layman, means ‘a small free space between objects’. Therefore, using interstices for social media means to use the little free time you get in between your busy schedule to check your Facebook account or other social media platforms.

For example, you can quickly log in and check your notifications while waiting in line for your coffee or while you’re taking a cab from one part of town to another. This way, you’ll utilize your spare time and have more free time to savor!

Do pay attention to what your audience has to say about your posts and products. This will give you a great deal of insight into what would be the best Facebook management strategy for your business.

If you’re not sure when you should be posting to Facebook, check out this optimal scheduling tool from Buffer to help identify the right times to post.

4. Allot a specific time for Facebook management

Facebook page management involves a lot more than just checking comments and posting statuses. In fact, it requires a great deal of insight and effort. Flipping through your page during free time is well and good, but if you want to build a successful Facebook Page for your business, you’ll need to have dedicated time.

About an hour per day is an ample time to manage your Facebook page. Usually the more relaxed hours of the day, such as early mornings or late nights, are the best times for Facebook page management and other social media work. Use this period for checking demographics and responses as well as effective market research on your audience. Facebook provides you a multitude of options and tools for page management; use this time to explore them as well.

5. Cross-promote your other social media platforms

As a modern entrepreneur, you probably have a lot other social media platforms for your business. When sharing content from your other social media channels such as Twitter or Instagram, if you’re sharing something on those channels you think your audience on Facebook might also find interesting, consider connecting your accounts together.

Not only does this give you additional content you can share with your other social media channels, this also means fewer new content you’ll have to come up with.

Over to You

Juggling sales, accounts, plans and social media may seem like too much, and in fact, it is really a lot for most business owners.

With the proper strategies, you can reduce the ‘burden’ of Facebook management and can help you focus on greater business challenges.

Do you have other tips on improving social media skills that you would like to share?

Share your ideas with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.

The post Improving Social Media Skills While Busy With Business Challenges appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

Maybe you’re managing social media for clients or constantly checking your own channels for new updates.

We’re all guilty of that.

The bottomline is that social media can be time-consuming and interrupt our focus if we let it.

This can lead to a loss in productivity and if you’re a business owner, lost revenue.

What if you could improve the time you spend on social media each day?

For example, spend 60 minutes a day instead of getting lost for hours in your newsfeed?

In this article I’ll show you some ways you can use Apple Watch for social media.

This way you can begin to improve your productivity and accomplish more in your business.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can use Apple Watch for social media.

This way you can stay on-top of conversations, capitalize on new content ideas, and get more done on your social media channels!

20+ Ways to Use Apple Watch for Social Media

1. Set reminders and keep track of your to-do list

How many times have you forgotten to post your latest blog post or send out your email newsletter?

Or maybe you needed to pick-up supplies for a meeting with a client?

Your Apple Watch can help you keep track of things.

There are are a few different apps you can use to remind you to complete your to-do list.

For me personally, I use Nozbe for iOS as well as the Nozbe desktop app for managing my to-do list.

With these apps, I’m able to create tasks on Apple Watch, get reminders about upcoming tasks, and sync them with my calendar app, Fantastical 2 for iPhone.

If you’re looking for other alternatives, I also like 2Do, Evernote and Up Next.

Here are some reminders you might want to set using your Apple Watch.

• Update your social media channels
• Send out your email newsletter
• Invoice a client
• Collaborate with your employees on your next project
• And so on

2. Keep up with your team

Do you need to communicate with your team about a project? Maybe you’re working on a social media campaign?

Instead of pulling out your phone and getting distracted, you can use your Apple Watch and Slack to view different message threads for important projects you’re working on, quickly reply to members of your team and stay on-top of your communications in just seconds.

What’s also great is if you’re working in an office and you leave your phone in your office, you’ll still be able to reply from your Apple Watch without missing a beat.

3. Listen to podcasts

As a business owner, it is important to keep up with what is going on in your industry. You can’t always be reading blog posts though – especially if you’re traveling in a car, on a plane, or working out.

An alternative is to listen to podcasts instead.

A number of blogs have recognized this growing trend and have started turning their blog posts into podcasts. This way you can choose to read their latest post or listen to their podcast depending on your situation.

Two of my favorite apps for listening to podcasts on Apple Watch are Overcast: Podcast Player and Downcast. They let you easily subscribe to and download your favorite podcasts to your Apple Watch.

This way you’ll be able to continue learning new tips to help grow your business regardless of where you are at.

4. Create new blog posts or social media updates

One of my go-to apps to help organize my thoughts and to-do lists is Drafts.

I write a lot about social media marketing – 400+ posts to-date.

One way I keep my thoughts organized is whenever I have a new idea for a blog post, video tutorial, or podcast, I create a new entry in Drafts from my Apple Watch.

If you have existing notes you want to add your thoughts to, you can also do that as well from your watch.

Once you have your ideas down, you can easily sync them with your main writing app. For me, I use Byword.

Besides creating text for blog posts, you can also use Drafts to post your notes to Facebook, Twitter or to other social media channels.

5. Follow your favorite blogs

Your Apple Watch isn’t just a tool to tell time. It can also be used to keep up with your favorite social media marketing blogs (or any blogs for that matter).

To do this, I use Feedly.

With the Feedly app, you can organize your favorite blogs in one convenient location and then quickly scan new articles, tag them, and save them for later from your Apple Watch.

I don’t know about you but my Inbox is constantly overflowing with too many email newsletters. By moving them to Feedly, I can safely unsubscribe from many of the newsletters because I can read all of their content in Feedly at anytime!

6. See who is talking about your business on Twitter

Another way to use Apple Watch for social media is to monitor your Twitter stream.

This way you can keep with your tweeps or other breaking news on Twitter.

With Apple Watch and the Twitter app, you can also:

• View your timeline
• View trending topics
• See what your Twitter followers are tweeting about
• Reply, retweet and favorite tweets from Apple Watch
• Follow new Twitter users

For the past month, I’ve been using the Twitter app on my Apple Watch. So far, I find that it is faster to retweet, reply and favorite tweets and to follow other Twitter users.

This is because you don’t need to get your phone out, unlock it, and launch the Twitter app.

Instead, you can quickly perform many of the normal Twitter actions right on Apple Watch.

Overall, I’m impressed with the experience of Twitter on Apple Watch.

It makes keeping up with tweets a lot easier because there aren’t a lot of distractions such as other recommended accounts to follow, trends and promoted tweets.

One feature I would love to see in a future update is the ability to add someone to Twitter lists from Apple Watch.

For now, it does a great job at helping you stay on-top of tweets from your Twitter account.

7. Connect with your Instagram followers

If you’re a heavy Instagram user, you’ll love that your Apple Watch can be used to interact and engage with your Instagram followers.

While you can’t take a photo from your Apple Watch and post it to Instagram yet, you can use the Instagram app on your watch to interact with the accounts.

Here are some of the things you can do using your Apple Watch and Instagram.

• See posts from Instagram accounts you follow
• See recent comments or likes
• View Instagram profiles
• Receive notifications when friends, family or favorite accounts post to Instagram
• Comment using emojis

Using Instagram on Apple Watch works pretty well. In fact, like Twitter on Apple Watch, I find it’s a lot easier to use Instagram on my wrist to like, comment and follow new users.

While you don’t get the full Instagram experience yet (Instagram videos have to be played on an iPhone), I like how using Instagram on Apple Watch can help save time and still allow you to connect and engage with your followers.

8. Take a great selfie without a selfie stick!

Another way your Apple Watch can help with your social media is when taking photos.

Maybe you want to take a photo for your Facebook Page? Or maybe you just met one of your mentors and want to share a photo-op with your followers on Instagram?

Your Apple Watch includes a built-in camera remote that can help.

To get started, all you need is your Apple Watch, iPhone, the camera app and the camera remote app.

This way if you’re at a conference and want to take a group photo, you can preview your image from your Apple Watch, set a timer, and snap the perfect selfie before sharing it on your social media channels.

In addition to the stock camera remote app, I regularly use the Camera+ app which also has a camera remote feature as well for Apple Watch.

If you need something to prop up your iPhone on, check out the versatile Shoulderpod S1.

It’s a tool I take with me everywhere.

9. Complete complex tasks with ease!

Another powerful app for Apple Watch is the Workflow app.

If you’ve never used Workflow, it’s an extremely powerful app that helps you perform complex tasks with the press of a button.

For example, you can create an audio recording on Apple Watch and save it to Evernote.

Some other ways you can use the Workflow app and Apple Watch are to:

• Tweet out latest photo
• Keep up with your team on Slack
• Listen to a saved article
• View your reminders
• And more

10. Get notified about new social media updates

One of my favorite ways to use Apple Watch for social media is for Hooks.

If you’re not familiar with this app, it allows you to setup alerts so that you are notified when your favorite social media channels post new updates.

For example, I can setup Hooks to notify me when a specific blog uploads a new post.

You can also be notified when specific accounts you follow on Instagram share a new photo.

When they do, you receive a notification on Apple Watch.

Here are some other social media alerts available in the Hooks app:

• Tweet by Author
• YouTube channel new video
• Instagram by username
• Pinterest by user / board
• YouTube channel upload
• New Vine video
• RSS Feed
• And so on…

In a world where we’re constantly being bombarded by notifications, this app helps control which notifications make their way onto your wrist (and your phone).

This way you only get the updates you want on your Apple Watch and iPhone or iPad.

Right now, I have alerts setup in Hooks for just a handful of accounts I want to be notified about. This way I don’t miss any of their updates.

As your interests change and you want to change who you received updates from, you can quickly adjust the Hooks you’ve created.

11. Control your presentations

Do you give a lot of presentations on social media marketing?

Instead of buying a separate remote or having someone else advance your slides for you, you can use your Apple Watch instead.

All you need is the Microsoft PowerPoint app or Keynote.

You’ll now be able to control your presentation right from your wrist.

You can start your presentation, advance your slides or end your slideshow when you’re ready.

12. Track your time spent on social media activities

Anyone who spends time on social media knows you can’t just spend a few minutes checking Facebook.

Five minutes can quickly turn into an hour.

One way I manage the time I spend on social media more effectively is to use Apple Watch and Pomodoro Time Pro.

What this app does is it allows me to setup a list of specific tasks that I want to accomplish.

For example, you might want to setup call to action buttons on your Facebook Page.

Instead of just starting on this task, it sets a timer. At the end of 25 minutes, it reminds you that it is time to take a break. It also helps track your progress over time.

This way you can see if you’re giving yourself enough time to complete your social media related tasks.

In the time that I’ve used this tool, it has helped improve my productivity. I find that I am more aware of the time I spend checking Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram because I have a timer to remind me to stay on-task.

Overall, I’m surprised at how much more I can get accomplished in a short amount of time because of a timer.

13. Tame your Inbox

As a business owner, you probably receive a lot of emails from customers.

This could be questions on your blog, messages sent through your Facebook Page or notifications when you’re mentioned on Twitter.

In either case, your customers expect a response in a timely manner.

One app I’m currently using to help manage my emails on my iPhone as well as on my Apple Watch is Spark.

What is unique about Spark is that I can respond to an email – say a question about a Facebook training.

Alternatively, I can choose to snooze the message for later and batch all of my emails at once.

This way if I have a few extra minutes while I’m waiting for an appointment, I can respond to them from Apple Watch.

If you work in an office and you left your phone at your desk and something important comes in, you can respond to your emails from your watch.

Previously, emails would pile-up. With Apple Watch, you can address them quickly from your wrist to you stay in constant communication with your customers.

14. Connect with customers and employees anywhere!

One of the tools I use a lot in my business is Skype.

It is a big part of my Facebook coaching program. I also use it when I’m recording episodes for my podcast.

Therefore, I need to be available in case something comes up and a client or guest on the show needs to reschedule.

With the Skype app on my Apple Watch, clients and show guests can message me and I can respond right from my wrist.

15. Manage your calendar with ease

Managing a business takes dedication. There are a lot of things to keep track of – financials, product inventory, employees, and so on.

If you’re a solopreneur and you also handle your social media marketing and find you forget to post to your social media channels on a regular basis, it’s time to get organized!

One way to set your business up for success on social media is to use a strong calendar app.

This way you can stay organized.

I use Fantastical 2 for iPhone.

I chose this app because it allows me to view my calendar, and also combines any reminders I’ve created as well into one app.

When paired with Apple Watch, you get notified when it’s time for your next appointment – for example, creating posts for your social media channels.

By setting aside time to create content for your social media channels, you can start to apply good tactics to help you remember to create new content to post.

At first, you might find it difficult to post consistently to your social media channels. In no time though, you’ll be posting regularly to your channels, freeing up additional time to grow other aspects of your business.

16. Never forget a password again

How many times have you had an employee ask you for the password to your social media accounts?

Or maybe you need the password to access your Instagram account so that you can respond to a comment?

Having a password manager such as 1Password for iOS is a must, can save you a lot of time, and keep your accounts secure.

Considering how complicated passwords have gotten, why bother trying to remember them all.

With 1Password, you can manage all of your passwords right from your Apple Watch. This way you don’t have to go digging through emails or looking for a Google Doc.

Note: In addition to the iOS app, you will need a 1Password subscription. This subscription works on your desktop as well as your iPhone, iPad and of course your Apple Watch.

17. Copy and paste from anywhere

Do you find yourself constantly sifting through handwritten notes?

For example, maybe you wrote down a quote you saw that you wanted to share on Instagram.

Now you can’t find the note.

With the Clips app, you can copy any text you find. It gets stored in the cloud.

When you launch the Clips app, you’ll be able to access anything you’ve copied through their app on Apple Watch.

This way you can focus on creating beautiful images for social media rather than wasting time looking through your notes.

18. Give your brain a rest

If you want to keep your business in peak performance, you’ll need to make sure you get regular exercise.

I know how difficult it can be if you’re traveling to meet with clients, attending conferences, and constantly on-the-go.

Fortunately, you can get a workout in with the 7 Minute Workout app.

If you’re wondering if seven minutes is enough time to exercise, read this review from Women’s Health Mag.

All you’ll need is your workout clothes and the 7 Minute Workout app – which works on your Apple Watch.

Now there’s no excuse not to hit the gym.

19. Complete actions with one-tap

Save time updating your social media channels.

With the app, Do Note by IFTTT, you can quickly post an update to your Facebook Page.

You can also use Apple Watch for social media updates to Twitter as well.

Here are a few more ways Apple Watch can help with your social media marketing using Do Note by IFTTT.

• Post a tweet
• Update your Twitter bio
• Add a post to Buffer
• Create events in Google Calendar
• Create notes in Evernote
• Update your Facebook status
• Update your Facebook Page
• And more

Be sure to check out their other app, Do Button by IFTT which can also complete other more complex actions.

20. Join an upcoming video broadcast on Periscope

Periscope is one of the newest social media channels on the block. If you haven’t yet joined Periscope, it’s a live video broadcasting app.

I highly recommend joining one. They’re a lot of fun.

If you struggle with creating new content for your social media channels, consider starting your own “scope” to connect with your fans and customers.

You can follow me @ckroks on Periscope.

Right now you can only get notified about new Periscopes; however, because they’re live videos, you can quickly join them on your phone or tablet.

Your Turn

Hopefully this has given you some ideas on some of the ways you can use Apple Watch for social media.

Do you currently own an Apple Watch or plan to purchase one to help you stay on-top of your social media marketing?

When it comes to social media, I see a lot of potential with Apple Watch.

It’s not just for checking updates. You can also use it to post new ones, engage with your customers, and help your business get more efficient at managing your social media channels.

While you’re probably wondering why I didn’t mention using Facebook, YouTube or some of the other major social networks with Apple Watch.

At the moment, they don’t offer very good support on Apple Watch.

For example, Facebook provides you with notifications that you received a new message or comment; however, you can’t view them. Instead, they require you to use handoff on your iPhone.

I wouldn’t let that deter you from finding ways to use Apple Watch for social media though.

In the time that I’ve been using it, I’ve started to be more selective about which apps go on Apple Watch.

Besides the ways I mentioned, can you think of other ways you would use Apple Watch for social media to help your business?

Share your ideas on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in the comments below.

The post 20+ Ways to Use Apple Watch for Social Media to Get More Done! appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

Are you getting regular traffic coming to your site to view your content?

Or maybe you’re creating lots of new content but your audience isn’t engaging with it – even if you’re promoting it to your email list and through your social media channels.

If you find you’re in this situation and you’re not seeing the results you would like, it’s time to look at spreading out your content to other channels to help you do some of the heavy lifting and drive more readers back to your site!

One way to do this is using Apple News Publisher.

If you’re not familiar with Apple News, it’s a news reader similar to Flipboard where you can easily view your favorite news sources, blogs and more from your iOS devices.

With more than 1 billion iOS devices sold, how would you like to bring some of those users over to your site to read your content?

In this article, you’ll learn how to publish to Apple News. This way you can start capitalizing on the large number of iOS users who will be using Apple News to read their favorite content.

Let’s take a look at how to add your blog to Apple News Publisher.

How to Publish to Apple News

To add your blog to Apple News, follow these steps.

1. Visit Apple News Publisher

2. Sign in with your Apple ID you want associated with your publication

3. Agree to Apple’s End User License Agreement for News

4. Fill-in your publication information.

This includes things like the name of your publication, address, phone number and so on.

5. Setup your channel

Here you’ll need to enter your blog name, website address, primary audience, languages, territory and so on.

6. Add your RSS feed

7. Publish your site to Apple News

After you publish to Apple News, Apple will review your application and get back with you.

Once your site has been approved, it should begin showing up in Apple News.

Promoting Your Blog

Once you’ve been approved to publish to Apple News, let your email newsletter subscribers know your blog is available on Apple News.

You may want to include instructions on how they can access it.

Also be sure to share this information on your social media channels too.

Over to You

It takes just a couple of minutes to publish to Apple News.

Not only can it lead to increased exposure for your blog, but also more traffic to your website.

With mobile adoption on the rise, you’ll also be setting yourself up to reach more of your target audience on any of the 1 billion iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch).

Question: Besides Apple News, what other places do you promote your new blog content on? 

Share your ideas with me on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post How to Publish to Apple News to Increase Your Blog Readership appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

Maybe you’re putting in the time but not seeing the results you would like?

Or you have big aspirations but you’re a solopreneur and don’t have a team to run ideas by?

What if you could get help launching your business and developing your personal platform?

Would that help you alleviate some of the stress you experience and propel you towards achieving your goals?

For the past few months, I’ve been using Platform University to help to build my platform.

In this article I wanted to provide a review of Platform University to help you decide it it’s right for you and your business.

What is Platform University?

Platform University is an online community from Michael Hyatt, author of the New York Times best-seller, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Instead of using Facebook Groups to answer questions and connect with their audience, Platform University takes a different route and goes much deeper. It is a structured online community you can go to for help on many different topics business owners often have questions about.

These include topics such as branding, finding a mentor, general business advice, and so on.

Areas inside Platform University:

• Members forum
• Master Classes
• Member Makeover
• Backstage Pass
• Live Q&A Calls
• And much more

If you’ve tried other online communities before and felt they were underwhelming, let’s put Platform University to the test to see if it earns a passing grade.

A Review of Platform University

Having been a member of Platform University since the beginning of 2015, I’m still learning new things about it everyday.

I put together a list of some of the pros and cons I found in using Platform University. I hope they help answer questions you might have.

Pros and Cons of Platform University

Pros

Layout

Often when you join an online community it can be difficult knowing where to start.

Platform University helps you out by sending a well-crafted welcome email. Once you’re signed in, they provide instructional videos to help you learn about the layout of the site and about each area.

Think of it like orientation when you first attend a new school except you can get started in just a few minutes rather than weeks!

Active Forums

One area where Platform University really shines is their members forum area.

You can search the forum to find other threads about a specific topic or you can post your own.

When I first joined, I wanted to see how active the community was so I asked about how to go about finding a mentor. Within a few minutes of posting my question, I had a few people respond with sound advice.

Most of the forums that I’ve used outside of Platform University often fail in this area. I’m proud to report that Platform U exceeds these expectations.

Member Makeovers

One of the coolest areas of Platform University is the Member Makeovers area.

As a member of Platform University, you can submit your site to have it reviewed.

Once a month, Michael Hyatt and his team choose one platform to review. They look at your website along with your branding and online presence and offer recommendations on areas you may want to make adjustments to.

If your platform isn’t selected, no worries. They also provide a recording and transcript which you can download and use on your own platform to apply some of the tips and best practices they have recommended.

Member Makeovers reminded me of an episode of HGTV’s Fixer Upper except they showed you how to improve your website.

I’m looking forward to submitting my site for Member Makeovers to see what type of feedback they provide.

Cost

One thing that sets Platform University apart is its costs. They charge $30 per month and there is no contract. You also get 30 days to test out Platform University to see if it’s right for you.

That works out to $360 per year and you can cancel at any time.

This gives you access to the members forum, the ability to submit your site to be reviewed and also access to Master Classes (more on those below) and downloadable eBooks.

If you just use the members forum in Platform University just for help, you’ve basically paid for your membership and everything else is just gravy.

While these are some of the pros to using Platform University, there are a few areas I hope they work on updating. I’ve listed a few of the cons to Platform University.

Try Platform University

Cons

Master Classes

Platform University offers a number of Master Classes. These are video interviews with respective leaders in their field – think of them like lectures.

You can watch the video, download the MP3 or the transcript – great!

While I found this content a little useful, I felt a lot of the information being shared was already covered on that person’s website or in their book.

I would love to see a broader list of guests in the Master Classes.

Bonuses

Having read Michael’s blog for a few years now, I expected the bonuses section in Platform University to be more fleshed out.

When I first got started with Platform University, the last entry in this section was from 2013 – which in blogging years seems more like decades ago.

Fortunately, they have recently started to add more eBooks and video downloads to the bonuses section. Hopefully this was just a hiccup and they will update it regularly throughout 2015.

Overall, these are minor items that I think can be fixed very easily.

Wrap-up

I really hope you found this review of Platform University helpful.

In my opinion, Platform University is a valuable tool for business owners who are serious about building their platform and growing their business.

If I could assign a grade, they would earn an A-.

Platform University is like getting an MBA at a fraction of the cost. @MichaelHyatt
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They offer many different tools to help you overcome  the obstacles that are holding you back.

Like anything you spend money on, you get out of it what you put into it.

My recommendation is to start small and try and use it a little each day to help you build your platform. This way you don’t overwhelm yourself and you start to get the full value out of it.

If you have other questions that were not answered in my review of Platform University, feel free to leave a comment below or share your questions on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and I’ll help answer them.

The post My Review of Platform University Membership – Does It Make the Grade? appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

While there’s no shortage of social media sharing plugins to add sharing buttons to your blog or website, how do you know which one you should use?

Most of them are very basic, can cause your site to run slow, and offer limited functionality.

In this article, I’m going to review the Social Warfare Plugin.

You’ll learn why it’s different from other social plugins and how it can actually help you increase shares almost immediately on your site and so much more!

What is the Social Warfare Plugin?

The Social Warfare Plugin is a beautiful and feature-rich WordPress plugin that adds responsive share buttons and total share counts to your site in seconds all without needing to edit any code.

It was created by Dustin Stout, Jason Wiser, and Nicholas Cardot, three guy’s with a strong background in visual design which is reflected in the Social Warfare plugin’s design.

In addition to being able to quickly add sharing buttons to your site, the Social Warfare plugin is unique because they’ve also included other powerful features such as click-to-tweet and the ability to upload an image for use on Pinterest.

Typically, you have to pay for these two features separately. Social Warfare has included both of them in their plugin.

Example of click-to-tweet

Example of Pinterest image optimization

Let’s take a look at the Social Warfare plugin and see just how well it works.

A Review of the Social Warfare Plugin

Social Warfare Features

On the surface, the Social Warfare plugin doesn’t look like much.

That’s because you have to go into your WordPress dashboard to setup and configure the plugin.

Within your dashboard, you have a host of options you can customize.

Let’s take a look at each of the features in the Social Warfare plugin.

Social sharing icons

Social Warfare is primarily a plugin to add share buttons to your blog or website. They make it really easy to add and customize the share buttons to fit the overall look-and-feel of your site.

If you only want to display some of the social media icons, they’re also easy to disable.

You can also reorder them based on which social networks are most popular with your readers.

If you want to customize the buttons so that they match the colors on your website, you can also specify a hex code.

Overall, I found it very easy to setup social sharing using Social Warfare.

The only feature I would love to see is the ability to change the shape of the buttons like in Flare Pro.

Click to tweet

One of my favorite features of the Social Warfare plugin is the ability to include customizable tweets in your blog content.

This allows you to quickly add a call-to-action within your articles to better engage with your readers.

The Social Warfare Plugin provides you with four types of click to tweet styles to choose from.

You can also create your own by adding CSS to your theme.

Once you’ve selected the style you want to use, it’s time to build your tweet.

You can add a tweet (or multiple tweets) to your blog post from your Wordpress dashboard.

Insert the quote you want displayed in your article. You can then create a separate custom tweet with all of the mentions and hashtags you want to include.

This is a nice feature because sometimes having Twitter mentions and hashtags in the middle of your post can interrupt the flow of the content for readers.

Having used other click-to-tweet options such as click-to-tweet from CoSchedule, I found the Social Warfare version easier to setup and use.

They have also removed their branding from the click-to-tweet feature where CoSchedule hasn’t.

Optimize your post for Pinterest

The last feature included in the Social Warfare plugin is the ability to set specific images to use for Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest.

I currently use the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin to specify which images I want used when my content is shared across social media channels.

One thing that has been missing is the ability to set an image to use for Pinterest.

I used to have to include an image within my post (even if it didn’t flow with the content).

The Social Warfare plugin now provides this feature along with the recommended sizes you should use for each social network (a bonus).

Because they make it so easy to specify which image you want to use when your content is shared, there is no excuse for your content not to include one.

Overall, I really don’t have any complaints about this feature. It just works.

Benefits of Social Warfare

In addition to the features included with the Social Warfare plugin, it does a lot of other things too.

• Social Warfare caches share counts. This means it loads faster than any other social sharing plugin
• Sorts your blog posts by popularity (social shares)
• Mobile responsive design
• Exceptional customer support

One other benefit that a lot of business owners will appreciate is that by using the Social Warfare plugin, you can remove other plugins that provide duplicate functionality on your site.

For example, I can eliminate other click-to-tweet plugins that I no longer need because the Social Warfare plugin includes those features.

Social Warfare Pricing

If you’re interested in adding the Social Warfare Plugin to your site, you can get a single site license for $24.

They also offer other packages as well.

Social Warfare Packages

 
And you also get a 60-day ‘love-it or your money back’ guarantee.

Wrap-up

I hope you found this review of the Social Warfare plugin helpful.

For those of you looking to boost your social shares on your content, it’s a no-brainer.

Not only can you add beautiful sharing buttons to your site in just a few clicks, they also included click-to-tweet and Pinterest optimization.

I’m looking forward to seeing where they take the Social Warfare plugin because it’s already packed with many useful features.

Question: If you aren’t using Social Warfare on your blog, what other tools are you using? Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post How to Boost Your Social Shares Immediately With the Social Warfare Plugin appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

Or maybe you want to raise money for a project you’re working on?

YouTube Video Cards can be a great tool to build engagement and grow your online presence using your YouTube videos.

In this article, you’ll learn how to add YouTube Video Cards to your YouTube videos.

What are YouTube Video Cards?

YouTube Video Cards are a way to make your YouTube videos more interactive.

You do this by adding cards to your videos.

Here’s an example of YouTube Video Cards in a video.

YouTube Video Cards are similar to annotations.

Right now, cards are not replacing annotations (yet). I would think of them as an evolution of annotations.

Unlike annotations that didn’t work on mobile devices, video cards will!

One other nice feature about video cards is that you can add up to five cards to each of your YouTube videos at a time.

This way you can include a different call-to-action based on the part of the video someone is viewing.

Types of YouTube Video Cards

There are six types of YouTube Video Cards you can use with your videos.

1. Associated website

If you have your website setup in your YouTube account, you can use this card to link off to it.

If you need to setup your website on your channel, you can do that here.

2. Fundraising

Encourage users to contribute to your projects or supported fundraising sites.

In order to use the fundraising card, your project needs to be on a white-listed fundraising site.

Approved fundraising sites for YouTube Video Cards include:

• Indiegogo
• Patreon
• Subbable
• Kickstarter

3. Merchandise

Feature a licensed product on supported merchandise sites from a YouTube Video Card.

Examples of approved merchandising sites include:

• Google Play
• iTunes
• Spreadshirt
• District Lines
• Topspin
• Cafepress
• Jinx
• Shopify
• Songkick

4. Video

If you want to promote another YouTube video, you can use the video card option.

In order to link to a video, it has to be a public YouTube video.

If you link to an individual video in a playlist, your YouTube Video Card will default to the playlist.

5. Playlist

If you want to promote a specific playlist using video cards, you can do that as well.

To do that, go to your playlists on YouTube and copy the URL.

5. Fan Funding

Allow fans to show their appreciation for the videos you create my making a monetary contribution.

In order to use the fan funding card, you need to enable this option in the YouTube status and features section.

To learn more about approved retailers and fundraisers on the whitelisted external URLs page.

Now that you know about the types of cards, let’s take a look at how to add YouTube Video Cards to your own videos.

How to Add YouTube Video Cards to Your Videos

Click here to view the embedded video.

 Transcription Services by GMR Transcription

1. Login to your YouTube account
2. Go to the video manager page
3. Click “edit” on a video you want to add cards to
4. At the top of your video, click on the “cards” tab
5. Click on the “add card” button
6. Choose the type of YouTube Video Card you want to add – click the “create” button
7. Enter the URL for the site you want to point viewers to
8. Click the “create card” button

If you want to, you can also upload your own card image. The dimensions for that image are 300×300 px.

 You can also adjust the start time of your YouTube cards at the bottom of the screen.

If you need to edit or delete a card, click on the pencil icon next to a card in the cards tab.

YouTube Video Card Features

One other nice feature about YouTube cards is that you’ll be able to view a cards report inside your YouTube Analytics.

This way you can see which types of cards are generating the most clicks and make adjustments.

If you have questions about your card analytics, check out the cards report.

If you want to need help setting up video cards or want me to review your YouTube marketing strategy, schedule an appointment.

Over to you

YouTube Videos Cards can be a valuable asset to grow your online presence using your YouTube videos.

Now that you know how to add YouTube Video Cards to your YouTube videos, what are some ways you plan on using cards?

Share your ideas on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

The post How to Add YouTube Video Cards to Your YouTube Videos appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

Studies have shown that we favor visual learning.

Even Facebook posts with a photo accounted for 87% of total interactions.

But what do you do if you’re not a graphic designer and you want to create visually stunning images for your social media posts?

This article is going to teach you about tools you can use to create images for social media.

Not only will they be high quality and look professional, you can do them yourself!

Why is it so difficult to create images?

In order to create great visuals to go along with your content, you used to have a background in graphic design.

This meant knowing how to use a complex program such as Adobe Photoshop or another graphics program.

Today, modern marketing has evolved.

You no longer need to rely on a designer.

But you’re now expected to be able to create these visuals yourself.

In most cases, most most social media managers are given dimensions to use on social media or a Facebook image size cheat sheet to work with.

But how do you create images that look great without a background in graphic design?    

Fortunately, there are a lot of great tools available to help you create images for social media.

In no particular order, here are five of my favorite tools for creating graphics.

Tool to create images for social media

1. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an easy to use photo editing tool that works in your browser.

You can upload your own images, add text to your image, or perform touch-ups.

If you would like access to additional effects, fonts, and touch-up tools, they offer a Royale Membership.

They also have a number of tools available that make it easy to work with Facebook photos and to edit photos from within your browser.

Use PicMonkey

2. Canva

Canva is the tool I use most to create my images for social media.

They provide templates for creating images for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more.

You also get access to free and paid stock photos to use in your own design or you can choose from hundreds of pre-built templates.

They even include handy keyboard shortcuts along with a free mobile app so that you can design your images for social media from your tablet.

The great thing is that there isn’t a learning curve unlike with complex graphics programs.

Use Canva

3. Pablo by Buffer

Pablo by Buffer is a new tool for creating images for social media.

Right now you’re limited to creating basic images with Pablo.

I expect Pablo by Buffer to expand their offering over time.

It’s a great free tool for creating images with quotes to use on your social media channels.

Use Pablo

4. Fotor

Fotor provides a great set of advanced image editing features. They also let you create a card, cover or photo collage.

One thing I really like is that there is a free mobile app for Fotor for Android and iOS. This way you can edit your images for social media from anywhere!

Try Fotor

5. Infogr.am

If you’re strictly looking to create infographics and charts to share on your social media channels, check out Infogr.am.

They make it very easy to create data-driven images in minutes!

Use Infogr.am

Summary

It used to be difficult to create images.

Today, you have no excuse not to create great-looking images for social media.

The tools are more powerful and easier to use.

Question: Have you used any of these tools to create images for social media? If so, which ones? Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post 5 Tools to Create Images for Social Media People Love appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

This way you can spend less time managing your channels and more time creating content to grow your business.

One of the fastest ways is to learn social media keyboard shortcuts.

What are keyboard shortcuts?

For those of you not familiar with keyboard shortcuts, they’re a faster way to access features within a program without the need to access a menu.

Instead, you can press a combination of keys to perform the same function.

My favorite keyboard shortcut is Command + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot.

This particular shortcut has saved me lots of time when creating blog posts or writing articles because I can quickly take a screenshot using just my keyboard.

Why are social media shortcuts important?

Today, we aren’t just using keyboard shortcuts on the computer.

We’re also spending more of our time on social networks.

Because we don’t have a lot of time to waste, we need to be aware of the many social media shortcuts that are available.

This way we can work faster because of the demands on our time.

This article is going to take a look at social media keyboard shortcuts for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus and Tumblr.

Social media keyboard shortcuts

Additional social media keyboard shortcuts

Besides the shortcuts that I shared, here are some more in-depth keyboard shortcuts you will also want to learn.

• 10+ Canva keyboard shortcuts
• 22 Facebook keyboard shortcuts
• 20+ Twitter keyboard shortcuts

Wrap-up

In order to learn these social media keyboard shortcuts, it will take some practice.

Once you start using them regularly, you’ll start to save yourself a lot of time on the different social networks.

Question: Which of these social media keyboard shortcuts do you find most useful? Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post 85+ Time-Saving Social Media Keyboard Shortcuts – Infographic appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

While you can try and figure out how Google works, that’s a bit of a mystery.

You can also find many SEO tips that can teach you how to improve your writing and boost your search ranking to bring people back to your site.

But not all of us are SEO experts nor do we have the time to optimize our content properly.

An easier way is to use social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help amplify your content, reach more people, and drive them back to your site.

A quick way to add these social networks to your site is to use social media sharing plugins.

In this article, I’m going to share with you five of my favorite social media sharing plugins that you can add to your site right now.

What are social media sharing plugins?

If you’re not a coder, you’ll appreciate using social media sharing plugins.

They let you add a list of social media channels to your blog or website without touching a line of code.

This way your readers can easily share your content on their favorite social networks.

What’s great is that you can add them to your site in just a few minutes and start to generate leads using social media.

Why do I need social media buttons on my site?

Not making it easy for readers to share your content is a missed opportunity. Here’s why.
Click To Tweet

You can have them copy the URL and then go to their favorite site to share your content, but that takes too many steps.

It is important to make it as easy as possible for them to share your content.

This can save them time and help amplify your content to their audience, leading to more traffic back to your site!

While there are lots of ways to add social media buttons, you could spend hours deciding which one you should add.

Having tried many of the social sharing plugins, I put together a list of my favorite ones.

Let’s take a look at my favorite plugins for sharing your content on social media channels.

5 Social Media Sharing Plugins For Easier Sharing

1. Flare Pro – $89 per year

Flare Pro is what I currently run on this website.

What I like about Flare Pro is that it is very customizable.

You can turn on and off social media channels in seconds.

You can also change the shape and color to match the design of your site – all without touching any code.

Flare Pro also works on mobile so that your readers can share your content wherever they are.

One added bonus is that Flare Pro is also working on adding analytics into their plugin.

This way you can see how many shares your content is getting and also which content is the most engaging with your fans.

Download Flare

2. Social Warfare – $24 per year

Another one of my favorite social media sharing plugins is Social Warfare.

Social Warfare is unique.

Not only can you display social media buttons on your site, they’ve also added in two really helpful features.

• Sort posts by popularity
• Add customized tweets to posts
• Optimize images for Pinterest

No other tool adds all of this functionality into one package.

Download Social Warfare

3. Genesis Simple Share – FREE

A third way to add social media sharing to your site is using Genesis Simple Share.

This is a free download; however, you need to be running Genesis in order to use it.

What I like about this plugin is that it’s built by Copyblogger, a company that specializes in content marketing.

They build great products that just work.   

Download Genesis Simple Share

4. ShareThis – FREE

For the fastest way to add social media sharing to your site, try ShareThis.

ShareThis integrates with multiple platforms and let you quickly customize the look of your share buttons.

Download ShareThis

5. AddThis – FREE / $12 per month

If you’re looking for social media sharing plugins with lots of options, consider AddThis.

AddThis offers a free option or you can upgrade to their Pro plan for $12 per month for added functionality and different ways to display social media sharing on your site.

Their free option is a good way to get started, but you can get better plugins for less money that do more such as Social Warfare.

Download AddThis

Not all social sharing plugins are created equal

I’m not recommending that you add all of these to your site. You really only need one of the social media sharing plugins.

In some cases, you can run two of them.

For example, I would consider running Flare Pro because of its social media sharing and analytics capabilities.

I would also run Social Warfare for the Pinterest and Twitter functionality because they are useful.

Over to you

There are lots of ways to add social media sharing to your site.

In my experience, these are the quickest and most efficient ways to make it easy to share your content across social media channels.

By using social media sharing plugins, you can quickly and easily set your site up for success in minutes and get more of your readers sharing your content with the people in their network.

If you need help deciding which social media sharing plugins to use on your site, contact me for help!

The post 5 Ways to Add Social Media Sharing Plugins For Easier Sharing appeared first on Christiankonline.com.

One way that you can save a copy of the video on Facebook is to use the save on Facebook feature.

But that only let’s you bookmark the video to view later on.

What if you lost your original video file and you want to upload it to another social network such as Instagram or YouTube?

Instead of spending hours re-creating your video, you can download a copy from Facebook.

This article is going to teach you how to download Facebook videos in just a few steps.

How to download Facebook videos

Step 1: Go to your Facebook Page

Step 2: Click on the videos tab

You can find videos posted by a Facebook Page under the “more” section.

Next, click on the video you want to download.

Step 3: Edit the URL

In your browser, copy the URL.

It should look something like this.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=887262314619788&set=vb.201285623217464&type=2&theater

Change the “www” to “m”.

Your URL should now look like this.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=887262314619788&id=201285623217464&_rdr

Step 4: Saving the video file

You’ll now see the mobile version of the Facebook Page and the video you want to download.

Play the video for a few seconds.

Pause the video.

Now right-click on the video and select “save video as…”

This will save the Facebook video in an MP4 format to your hard drive.

Now you have a video that you can upload to other social networks!

Alternate methods

Besides this method I mentioned on how to download Facebook videos directly from Facebook, there are other alternatives you can use.

• Video downloader professional
• Ant
• Savefrom.net
• Video DownloadHelper

Respecting copyright laws

As with any of these methods, be sure to respect copyright laws in your area.

In most cases, you should only download Facebook videos that you own the rights to.

If there is a video you want to post on your Facebook Page, I always recommend using the share option or embedding the Facebook post on your site.

This way the owner gets credit for their video.

Here’s an example of the same video from Facebook embedded on my site.

Wrap-up

In just a few steps, you’ve learned how to download Facebook videos.

This is a great way to save a copy of your video files in case you can’t find the original.

Question: Besides making a backup and sharing videos you own on other social networks, what are some other reasons why you would need to know how to download Facebook videos? Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post How to Download Facebook Videos In Four Easy Steps! appeared first on Christiankonline.com.