We love to offer the very best in tips for marketing, because in addition to being the leading faith-based web network and marketing service, we are also on the cutting edge of fresh ideas. If you haven’t heard to these three programs, you’re missing out on some great ways to reach your clients and streamline your process. We have broken them down for you with the list of pros and cons:
Buffer
The newer, more sleek cousin of Hootsuite, this site offers everything from Facebook to Twitter postings, as well as Pinterest. The pros: This slick content scheduling system is super smart, equipped with a scheduling feature where it analyzes your social media posts and decides when to post it! All you do is choose a day, and it selects the time for you. The ease of use is amazing. You simply link all your social accounts, then click the ones you want to post to. It’s easy to alternate between brands or sites with just one click to “deselect” that channel. It offers easy-to-read analytics, complete with reach, clicks, and lists of your popular and unpopular posts. The cons: While this program is a dream to use, it has the same issue that Hootsuite does: if you’re trying to schedule content via WordPress, if your content isn’t live when you make the Buffer post, the link will not work. Though that’s a drawback, it’s a great option for scheduling content that is already live. Examples of things that are performing well in the faith-based market include graphics with scripture overlays, pro-life and Christian posts about current events, and pro-family posts (Source: Pew Research Center, 2014).
Slack:
This startup company has exploded (read about it here), offering an in-house private chatroom for your brand or 
business. It is amazingly easy to use and has a beautiful interface and layout. The pros: The layout is easy to read and nice to look at. It offers real-time messaging and communication for your employees, and has archive features to allow you to search through the messages, which means less emails to dig through. You can also search using hashtags, much like Twitter. Their tagline is “Imagine all your team communication in one place, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. That’s Slack.” It’s true! It’s a dream come true for larger teams or projects, and is far more advanced and smooth than previous types of programs like the much older Basecamp. You can also add an unlimited amount of people, and it’s free to use! Cons: None that we found, though employees who are not comfortable with computers may be reticent to swap from their email inboxes.
Trello:
If you’ve ever admired the tidy rows and “boards” on a Pinterest site (c’mon, we all use it now!), you’ll absolutely love Trello. If you function off of to-do lists, it is the ultimate app. Pros: You create ‘cards’ for each project. Within each card, you can also add checklists, and share the project with co-workers to keep everyone up to date. It is available on your smartphone, so you can add or move ‘cards’ on the go. A great way to use it is to create boards such as ‘To do”, ‘Done”, and “Invoiced”, etc., and then to move the cards between boards. You can also add notes to each card for other involved parties, which will eliminate even more emails (and who wouldn’t like to have less email these days?). Cons: It is a bit clunkier than Slack, but overall it is a smooth program, particularly for smaller businesses and brands who just want to keep track of the projects they are working on.
Has your social media or marketing become too much for you to handle by yourself? We would love to come alongside you to help you streamline the process, achieve tangible results, and promote your faith-based brand or product as far as it can reach! Call us today at 949-429-1000 or request a contact via our web site.
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