The Tools I Wish I'd Used When I Started My Business: PromoRepublic

My social media wasn’t very good when I started marketing my business. I still see social media newbies making the same mistakes to this day. A single piece of software isn’t going to make you a social media superstar overnight, but if you have trouble thinking of what to post about or making consistent graphics to share, then PromoRepublic is a tool that’s going to help you out a lot!

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This is Part 3 in the “Tools I Wish I’d Used” series. You can find Part 1 (Google Workspace) here and part 2 (Squarespace) here.

If I was restarting my business today with the same shoe-string budget I would make a beeline for PromoRepublic for my social media scheduling, content creation, and content calendar!

What To Post

My biggest issue with social media when I started my business was that I often didn’t know what to post. So I made one of the biggest mistakes that many new businesses do when it comes to social media (right behind too promotional or too absent) - 90% of my posts were curated from other sources. Instead of showcasing my skills and personality I was promoting other people and publications.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t share other people’s content, especially if it is complementary to the topics you talk about. But the purpose of your social media feeds are to get to know your audience, provide value to them, and get them to trust you as an expert. Kind of hard to be known as the expert when you are constantly directing them to other people!

Visual Content & Consistency

The other issue I had (and this wasn’t just with social media but that’s what we’ll focus on for now) is that my visual brand wasn’t consistent. I’d get a photo and put on whatever font and filter caught my eye that day. I would sometimes forget to add my logo. Or one day I’d add my logo, the next day I’d add my URL. Nothing was the same. I might as well have had 10 different people creating content for me with no guidelines.

These days I have so much evergreen content that I regularly retire posts and blogs, and I’ve got a long and strategic list of topics to post and blog about - but what I really needed back then was post prompts, ideas, and inspiration plus a way to keep my visuals consistent.

PromoRepublic can do both.*

How PromoRepublic Helps

Here’s the basics in a nutshell: take one of their suggested post ideas, customize the caption, customize the image, then save that image as a template for future use, schedule to post and BAM - done!

Below are some of my favourite features of PromoRepublic.

Post Ideas:

• They have 100,000+ pre-made post ideas across 17 industry categories that you can tweak for your own use

• The posts include content that’s sub-categorized into themes like Tips, Facts, Fun, etc.

• The posts include micro-holidays so you never miss out on #InternationalBeerDay or #SmallBusinessDay

• They even have posts geared toward specific social media platforms (which not only includes the topic but also the image dimensions so you don’t need to worry about any awkwardly cropped photos)

• When it comes to media for your posts, they have images, animations, and links for you to choose from

Image Editor:

• Functions very similar to Canva, with pre-built templates you can edit or create your own image from scratch

• You can save images as templates to re-use as needed

• You can download the images to your computer if you just want to use it as a graphic design tool, or you can add those images directly to your social media posts without downloading - no need to clutter up your hard drive if you’re low on space

• Has templates for different social media image sizes so you don’t need to worry if your image is the right dimension for the platform you’re posting to

• Has a built-in searchable stock photo library

It’s around $10/month to start, which is what I was paying for Hootsuite and then for Buffer back in the day. But neither of those tools gave me post ideas or had a built-in graphic designer (note: Buffer does have Pablo now, but it’s not built right in to Buffer, it’s a separate app).

There is a 14-day free trial so that you can log in and poke around to see if you like it before you buy :)

Try it out today!*

PromoRepublic Won’t Be Right For You If…

Just because I recommend a tool doesn’t mean that it’s going to be right for your business. Here are some things that could be important to know:

• The $9/month plan includes posting to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram but not Pinterest - if you want Pinterest you need to purchase a higher plan (but if Pinterest is your main platform, check out Tailwind instead)

• The $9/month plan only allows you to connect 3 profiles

• Instagram publishing is by notification through a PromoRepublic app, so if you must have direct publishing you’ll want to check out another tool

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