What I Wish I Had Known About Social Media When I Started

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of comments from friends and followers on social media that it looks like I’m at Disneyland every single day. As fun as that could be – the truth is that I’ve done a major overhaul on my social media. Many of you may not know that I work a traditional 8-5 type of job but while I’m at work my social media accounts are doing the heavy lifting and posting for me! In fact, many of you may know me from Instagram but now that I have a better process in place for managing my accounts I am more active on Pinterest and Facebook as well!

So what did I wish I knew – I wish I knew that managing social media could be so much easier.

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your support to this blog is greatly appreciated and commissions go towards bringing you the best content possible!

I typically like to keep my posts within the Disney realm but wanted to share how I’ve been managing my social media since I tend to get a lot of questions and give out a lot of advice. I’ve learned so much about managing my own social media accounts in the past few months (and plenty of mistakes along the way too) so I’m excited to finally be in a place to share how I’ve gained some of my success.

About a month or so ago I started using Tailwind – a program that helps you plan your social media and will even post on your behalf! They’ve partnered with Instagram and Pinterest so their integration with both platforms is seamless. Currently I use Tailwind for Instagram and Pinterest. Here’s a few of my favorite features:

Tailwind for Instagram

•  Suggested times to post with Smart Schedule – This is the feature I was initially most excited about when I signed up. I may be a hobbyist magician (yes- that’s a fact!) but I don’t have the ability to figure out what the absolute best times to post are on my own without a lot of trial and error. Tailwind makes it easy by giving you a “Smart Schedule” you can schedule posts in. I have my set a 3 times per day to post but it also gives suggested additional times (the dotted lines in the photo below) all of which are  determined by Tailwind analyzing your Instagram data.

• Automated posting for Business Accounts or notifications to post for Personal Accounts – The primary purpose of my Instagram is to promote my Etsy shop and for that reason I made my Instagram a business account. Since Tailwind is partnered with Instagram they are allowed to do automated posting. This has been a lifesaver for me! On days that I’m stuck in all day meetings (or out at night) Tailwind is posting on my behalf. I typically sit down and plan out a few days’ worth of posts at a time and let them do all the posting for me! If you have a personal account, Tailwind won’t do the automated posting for you yet but their notification system reminding you to post at your scheduled times is awesome!
• Hashtag Finder (yes – this is AMAZING) – I don’t know how I survived before the Hashtag Finder from Tailwind. I cringe looking back at my older posts that all had the exact same hashtags. (Honestly, it was lazy of me and I’m not surprised that my Instagram growth was a bit static for a period.) Essentially, they’ll suggest hashtags that may be relevant to your post and then color code them based on how competitive they are. This one feature has done wonders for my account because it has given me so many hashtags which allow me to reach a broader audience. As a result my Etsy store has been getting about 50% more sales since I started using Tailwind!

Tailwind for Pinterest

•  Pin Inspector – Tailwind’s Pin Inspector allows you to see which pins are performing the best. You can filter and sort to see performance metrics in a few different ways. Below is a pin from my blog post about Mouse Ears For Your Next Disney Vacation which is an example of the stats you’ll see. You can even schedule a repin from this page or add it to Tailwind Tribes. Which brings me to my next point…

• Tailwind Tribes – Essentially these are engagement groups where you can have people repin your pins and you can repin others. I’ve found a ton of interesting information so I find myself reading a lot of other people’s blog posts. The great thing about the Tribes is that it will get your pin in front of more people and ultimately drive more traffic to your blog or website! I’m still learning how to best optimize my use of the tribes so I’ll have to do a follow up post in the future.
• Automated posting to Pinterest – And my favorite part is of course the automated posting for everyone. I was not a Pinterest user before Tailwind. I honestly didn’t understand how to use it or why anyone bothered with it unless they were looking for recipes or wedding planning. I still can’t believe how wrong I was about all of it! Every time I peek at Google Analytics for my website I see the number of users referred by Pinterest drastically increasing. Tailwind will generate a Smart Schedule and post on your behalf.

Overall, Tailwind has been a huge help to helping me manage my social media accounts. I can’t stress how much I wish I had known about it sooner! If you try it out be sure to leave a comment and let me know how it works out for you.

So what’s next?

Now that I have some capacity to focus in on my blog, I’ve started to venture into a little bit of Affiliate Marketing. I have so many products and services that I love and use and with the extra time I’ve been able to start blogging about them and even making a small commission. I won’t get into too much detail in this post but if you’re looking to start out in Affiliate Marketing check out Awin and ShareASale to start!