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Reade Milner | July 31, 2015 | 3 Comments

A Look Inside My Social Media Toolbox – Reade Milner

 

Ok, I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for a new app, plugin, or automation tool. I am constantly testing them out to see which ones I want to add to my arsenal. Some work and some really fail to impress, so I thought I could provide some value by sharing with you the ones that have been the most helpful. Consider me your social media productivity tool guinea pig.

Let’s start with the best. These tools are my “can’t live withouts”. I use these apps every single day as a part of my social media toolbox.

Evernote

social media toolbox, evernote

I’ve written extensively about Evernote and have said before that it is my external brain, because that is exactly how I use it. It helps me be a better writer because I never lose an idea or a useful piece of research material.

It is based in the cloud (aka – magical data land that no one fully understands), so I can access it from any machine that has an internet connection. It lives on my phone and my tablet. I can email to it, save images to it, and even publish to social media from it.

I save ideas there when they come to me, nurture them into useful content when I’m ready, and then publish my work using whatever device I have handy. It’s basically Uber for thoughts. Did that blow your mind?

Buffer

BufferApp

 

Yes, I’ve written about them before. Well, a few times, actually. It is because I haven’t found a better tool for social media management. I love that I can create a schedule ahead of time and then load up posts as I find them. This way, they get published at the ideal times, but I can do my “curation” in protected blocks of time.

Feedly

social media toolbox, feedly social media

This RSS reader is a simple, no-frills option for curating content to share on social media. I usually start my day here to see what is trending in my industry. It connects with Evernote and Buffer, making it especially valuable if I want to share directly from it, or save an article as research for a blog post I’m writing.

Pro tip for social media managers: Set up a separate “Collection” for each client or area of focus. This will make it even easier to find great content to share.

Now for the second tier – These are highly valuable apps that I wouldn’t want to live without.

Sidekick by HubSpot

social media toolbox, sidekick by buffer

This is my eye-in-the-sky, giving me a bird’s-eye view of my contacts in real time. It shows me valuable information about my contacts, right there in the sidebar of Gmail (works in Outlook and Apple Mail as well). I can see when my contacts and prospects open my emails and if they’ve downloaded any contained attachments. Also, I can see their social media feed in real time. This helps to frame the conversation and gives me that slight edge I need to close deals. I highly recommend it for anyone in a business development or client management role.

Day One

Dayone

I’m a big believer in the value of keeping a journal. While I can’t claim to be a daily journal-keeper, I’ve never been more consistent than when I’m using the Day One App. The design is what sets it apart from others like it. It’s simple, yet highly visually appealing. Its appearance has a social media vibe to it, like a network of one.

The one drawback is that it’s only compatible with Apple, but if you are an iPhone/Mac user like me, it is a fantastic way to chronicle your life.

Pro Tip: You can take posts public if you dare. It integrates with Twitter, Facebook, and many others.

Those are the tools in my social media toolbox that I use on a weekly basis to make my life and work easier, faster, and more productive. Let me know how they work for you!

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Filed Under: Social Media

Reade Milner

Reade is a social media and digital marketing consultant and owner of The Well Read Marketer, LLC, an Atlanta marketing agency. He helps small businesses grow their reach and make a bigger impact by increasing their authority online.

A graduate of Emory University, Reade lives just outside Atlanta, GA with his wife and son.

Sign up for his newsletter, or connect with him on Twitter, and Linkedin.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Adam Smith says

    July 31, 2015 at 9:29 am

    Great post, Reade. I use both Evernote and Feedly every day. The one thing I can’t seem to do is journal electronically. I do keep a paper journal – it is actually the only thing I do on paper repeatedly. I might have to check out the Day One app, though.

    Reply
    • Reade Milner says

      July 31, 2015 at 10:05 am

      Thanks Adam. Day One is the only thing that has helped me become somewhat consistent in my journeling.

      The difference-maker for me was creating a template using aText. That lets me basically just answer the questions each day.

      Reply
  2. Kirby Ingles says

    July 31, 2015 at 11:59 pm

    Reade,

    I love all these recommendations. Using all but sidekick. I’ll have to give that a look. I found text expander works really well with Day One and can create several scripts that work not only in Day One but other applications.

    Reply

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Hi, my name is Adam Smith and welcome to asmithblog.com. I am the author of the book, The Bravest You. Because of my work as an entrepreneur, consultant, writer, and speaker, I have been named a top industry influencer by American Genius. I live with my wife, Jasmine, and three children in Shenandoah, IA.

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