Tools of the Trade

When I was in middle school I began writing poems because I liked putting words together. Plus I knew without a doubt that it wasn’t my smile that was going to impress a young lady (just trust me). Once in high school, I decided to switch from poetry to writing rhymes. Rhymes eventually turned into songs, etc. The obvious next step was to start recording all of this material but I couldn’t accomplish that without equipment and software. A good friend of mine had recording equipment and offered to, not only record me, but also show me how to use it (IG: @bang_the_box – follow him). Later I was able to start recording in the comfort of my own home. There was one problem…I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! My expectation was very simple:

1.     Open the program

2.     Load instrumental

3.     Press record

4.     Say my rhyme(s)

5.     Press the stop button

6.     Show/impress girls

7.     (Don’t worry about this part)

In retrospect, I know now that my logic was extremely flawed. Of course there was SO much more involved in the process of making a song. I failed to recognize this until the responsibilities of a recording engineer became my own. So many options that my untrained ear and mind weren’t ready for; I immediately became overwhelmed. Thankfully I never gave up. Over time, with practice and patience, my skills grew and it showed in the music. 20 years later I’ve written, arranged, recorded, and mixed several songs not only for myself but other artists as well.

Today I find myself in a situation similar to that of 20 years ago. Digital Analytics, Social Media Management, Web Development (and so much more) has proven itself to be very hard work. However, my expectations were much more realistic this time around. I knew from the beginning that I’d have to start from the bottom, put the work in, engulf myself in the grind, and trust the process. The learning curve is steep but along the way I’ve picked up some very cool tips and tricks. Additionally, I’ve met some very inspirational people and even had the chance to do some traveling. Most importantly, though, I’ve learned which tools of the trade provide the most value, measure conversations, and track traffic and behavior.

Below I will list my top 5 tools of the trade with a brief explanation of what they do specifically for digital marketing and social media management. These are the tools that I use on a regular basis and help make what I do much easier and enjoyable.

1.     Buffer – An application that will schedule your social media posts across multiple accounts. Add content into your queue and schedule the time and dates for posting. Otherwise the app will share all content at their defaulted time schedule. Most recently they’ve added Buffer for video. “The first product to allow native video scheduling to all the big social media networks. Upload once, share everywhere.”

2.     Pocket – Save, discover, and recommend news articles, stories, and much more with this app. Stash articles and read them later whether you are on or offline. I use this a lot for content sharing purposes.

3.     Feedly – A single place to organize, read, and share all the content you need for your social media sites.

4.     Anchor – Podcasting and Radio application that lets you record and capture any audio from your phone. Broadcast your voice, music, and conversations for free with just one tap.

5.     MailChimp – A web-based email-marketing platform that provides the ability to create and manage mailing lists, newsletters, automated campaigns, etc.

What are your favorite tools of the trade? Regardless of your industry I’d love to hear from you! If you enjoyed this post in any way feel free to share on your social media sites. Be sure to use #toolsofthetrade when sharing! Thanks for reading! Speak to you on the next post!