3 Social Media Tools That Grew Our Tribe

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Have you ever discovered an app or software that completely changed the way that you ran your business?  And you just wanted to shout about it from the rooftops?  Well, we have (pretty sure you saw that coming).  There are many tools that we use behind-the-scenes for Humble & Whole, but in this post, we’ll talk about the three social media tools that helped us grow our tribe and increase our organic reach online.  Keep reading to find out what we’re loving right now!

The App That Keeps Our #GridGame Strong

 So, we’ve mentioned this before, but while Instagram is our favorite social platform (besides our email list, Instagram is definitely our “home turf”), we couldn’t figure it out at first.  We had no idea how to grow a following or how to create the “perfect grid.”  We often dreaded posting on Instagram because although we had no issue brainstorming and drafting our captions, we were clueless about which images to post.  Lucky for us, we found Planoly.

Planoly is our secret weapon on Instagram.  We’re able to plan both our regular posts and even our stories so there are no more afternoon panic sessions of “Omg, what are we going to post on IG today?”  Also, if you’re like us (photography-challenged), it’s a lifesaver to curate images from other accounts (and giving credit of course) to supplement your own photos/graphics.  Seriously, this has been a game changer for us.  Trying to create every single photo/graphic yourself on Instagram (especially if you’re in the business of providing information, like us), can cause so much unnecessary stress.  Planoly makes it very easy to curate images from other awesome accounts.

(Notice how if we type in the hashtag, '#savvybusinessowner', the recent images that have been tagged with that hashtag are available for you to select and repost on your own feed.  You can search for images by hashtag or by user if you already know your favorite accounts to curate from.)

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Having an attractive grid has definitely helped us to grow our tribe on Instagram because we consistently provide a strong first impression.  In addition to visually planning our feed, Planoly provides powerful analytics for you to gauge your success.  You all know how we feel about vanity metrics, but analytics are very telling and can help you reach your goals if you use them the right way.  For example, with Planoly, we can see our top five liked photos for the month, along with our top five posts with the most comments.  We’re able to identify the content that truly resonates with our audience and produce more of that content so that we consistently get great engagement from our audience.

The Two Apps We Use to Conquer Pinterest

While Instagram is the social network that we spend the most time on, Pinterest has been absolutely critical in our efforts to grow our audience and expand our reach.  And we’re happy to share with you the tools we’ve used to make that happen.

The first tool that we used to establish a solid presence on Pinterest is Tailwind.  Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduler, and it helps you save time because you’re able to select your pins and Tailwind will publish them later (during the time slots that you designate).  Tailwind is perfect to start with because it allows you to build up your boards quickly.  Our favorite thing about Tailwind is the fact that it recommends the “exact” time slots that you should pin, which is based on the activity of your audience.  This feature alone is what allowed our pins to gain traction faster.

(Notice how Tailwind recommends the exact time slots that your pins should be pinned)

As we began to build up the pins on our boards, we also joined group boards so that our content would be visible on a wider scale.  Although you can totally manage pinning to group boards on Tailwind, we found staying active on the group boards was easier with Boardbooster.  Boardbooster, like Tailwind, is a Pinterest scheduler, but it has more advanced features such as campaigns (which is more robust scheduling) and looping (or repinning older pins on your boards so that you give them a “second chance” for attaining repins).  We’ve enabled looping on some of our boards that have well over a hundred pins so that we don’t have to find new pins as frequently, and we use Boardbooster to consistently pin to our group boards (and adhere to the rules).

At the time of this post, we still consistently use Tailwind and Boardbooster in our Pinterest strategy, and both tools have allowed us to continue to grow our blog readership each month, attract new clients, and grow our email list to almost 2,000 subscribers.

Planoly, Tailwind, and Boardbooster are the three tools that have made a huge impact on our social media presence, and the three that we find ourselves recommending the most to our clients.  We want to hear from you, what are the apps/tools that have helped you grow your following?  Let us know in the comments below!

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