Hootsuite
Any social media manager knows that this tool is a blessing from heaven. It helps you schedule posts to go out on the social media channels you have connected it to. It is perfect for bloggers who have fans in different countries in different timezones so you do not have to wake up to post.
Yes Facebook now has a scheduling tool but some other channels still do not which is where hoot suite comes in. There is a free and paid version and as long as you are not connecting over 3 social media accounts, this would be a good tool to use.
Canva
I cannot draw to save my life. Growing up, I always felt like the outcast in my family because everyone else was good with their hands. My mum is also a passionate art lover so we went to art galleries a lot as kids with her. That has definitely helped me shape my experience with design coupled with the fact that I took a few design courses in school.
However, canva is for people like me who are struggling with this skill. It provides you with templates to help you design graphics for your blog post. If you are also great with design, they have blank templates.
The beauty of canva also is it provides size specifications for each social media channel you would like to use. It also provides free infographic templates. There are a lot of paid templates on the site but there are also some free ones so you can take advantage of them and edit as you please.
Google Keyword Planner
This is especially helpful in crafting out your keyword strategy for your blog. If you have just started blogging or have been blogging for a while, you should know by now that SEO is very important. SEO is search engine optimization which basically means you optimize your blog posts with the right content, keywords, images, and videos to get found easily by customers.
I may do a separate post on developing your keyword strategy however it is important to develop one. If for example; you want to write a post about “the cultural experience outside lagos,” the keyword tool would be great to check how many people are actually searching the terms. It also offers suggestions of other related keywords to your original search.
That way you can include more relevant keywords in your post. The actual tool is free but since it is tied to Google Adwords, you may need to just include your credit card information to the account. You however do not need to run ads to use the tool.
SEO BY YOAST PLUGIN
This is a tool I had heard about for a long time and eventually implemented it. I can say I have not looked back since then. This helps you optimize your blog posts with the right keywords. If you have a strong keyword strategy and know exactly what keywords work for you using the keyword planner, SEO by Yoast helps you optimize your whole post for those words.
This plugin is available in WordPress.org which simply means you are self-hosting. I am not certain if it is also available on wordpress.com but it is definitely worth checking it out if you are self-hosting.
If you would like me to share more tools, please leave a comment letting me know. What cool tools do you use to help improve your blogging experience?
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