Week 6:

This week we looked at various social media tools which are geared around helping people create and manage content on the Internet. Regarding which tools I think might be best for the audience of my blog, I feel that both Hootsuite and Canva would be beneficial. Hootsuite was mentioned in both lists of social media tools, although I noticed that Canva didn't make either list.

Hootsuite is a dashboard of sorts from which you can manage your various social media platforms like Twitter, Google +, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. This is helpful when you work in fashion, as having a unified brand across all fronts is important. We use pictures from our sponsored posts on fashion bloggers pages, then use a bitly link to shorten and customize our links, and share them across all platforms. This can be done easily by using a tool like Hootsuite to post all from one place. The downside is that you can't post pictures to show up as pictures on Twitter, but it's still a very valuable, helpful tool. I think Hootsuite is a tool that's becoming increasingly used, but I think as time goes on we will see a lot of much more user-friendly, streamlined tools that do the same thing but better. The tool does support group collaboration, as multiple people can sign in and use the same account of Hootsuite all at once, to interact with people, post content, like and share posts, etc.

Canva is another really great tool, it's a free site that lets you create content for presentations, emails, posters, Facebook posts, business cards, etc. It's like Photoshop for people who don't know how to use Photoshop. With a very user-friendly design and (mostly) free cost of using, it's an excellent tool to create customized content that looks professional and will look the same across all platforms. I've been using Canva to create content for a while now, mostly for my job as a copywriter/content creator, and for my internship at a publishing company. With either tool, it's helpful for interacting with people. With Hootsuite it's helpful for interacting directly with users, from one easy-to-see dashboard, and with Canva it's good for looking professional when you interact with customers, and present media for them to see.