You can listen directly here. 

As a travel business owner, just booking travel has its complexities. Then you are also a Social Media content creator, Financial Controller, Administration Assistant and the list goes on. 

This year our goal for you and us as a collective, is to have efficiency, be prepared and take action in our business. Efficiency being key. Ensuring we do the things we need to to continue to move forward without getting continuously bogged down or attracted to bright shiny objects. 

In this episode, I will be sharing with you the TOP 3 favourite tools we use for creating social media posts. I don't want you to get stuck anywhere. These tools are purposely made to help you get organised, take out the guesswork and most importantly, allow you to focus on your zone of genius. These tools are designed to help you become efficient and put your best foot forward. 

Let's work together to grow your audience, get seen again and put together a plan for what your clients want to see.

Make sure you also download our FREE resource with Social Media Ideas and tracking sheets to track your progress and the results you get. FREE Social Media Ideas and Tracker

Resources Mentioned in this episode: 

Easy Graphic Design with Canva

Voice to text - Create content with Otter

FREE Social Media Ideas and Tracker

Facebook Creator Studio

Get first access to our latest episodes! Make sure you subscribe to the Travel Agent Achievers podcast and send us a review for a shoutout! 

Show Transcription: 

 Announcer: Welcome to travel agent achievers, the place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guest as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business.

Well, hello there, my friends, Travel Agent Achievers. Welcome back to the Travel Agent Achiever podcast. We are already in mid January, like really, where is this time going? 

Welcome to all of our new listeners, thank you for your information and feedback and joining our email list and getting the resources and the tools that you might need in order to move your business forward. So welcome to you all. 

And for those of you that this isn't your first podcast episode, thank you for hanging around, thank you for your reviews, and also just being there, you know, you guys are a light for me. And to know that you're putting the tools and the resources into place that I talked about, but also know how well they can work in a business, I just want you to know how proud of you I am. 

And as we come into a new era, a new time, a new year, this year, I want to talk about efficiency, I want you to be efficient in your business. Because as we move forward, things are going to look very different. And I want to ensure that you're spending your time building your business, getting the new clients in being efficient in your processes and your systems. 

So for 2021 efficiency is going to be a big thing for me. And I also hope for you. Another thing is preparation, being organised and prepared for, you know, prepare for the worst hope for the best. That's one of the things that I often talk about. And not only with you guys, but also with my team as well. And also looking at my own life, I make sure that things in my business are going to be here as we move forward. 

And we made that promise to our clients right at the beginning of 2020, that no matter what happened, we were going to be here for them. And I want you to know that we're going to be prepared, I want to be prepared for you here as part of the travel agent, achievers community, but also for our clients as well. 

And the third thing is action. It's all great to have a dream, it's all great to have a plan. But if you don't take action on it, you're gonna be stuck exactly where you are, where you were. So I want you to take action. It's one of the reasons why I love our achievers so much. And that is our small group mentoring and membership experience.  Because those guys are there, not just for the community, not just the learning, but they are there to take action. 

And I just want all of you to know anybody who's interested in joining that programme, then hit us up on Facebook, hit us up on our website, send us a message reach out to us. Because I want the programme, I want the experience to be something where as a collective, we come together, we support each other, we encourage each other and I'm here to empower you with the information to keep moving forward.

Because this year, we're going to be efficient, right? We're going to be prepared, and we're going to take action. So welcome back to this podcast episode. I'm so glad you're here.

And you know, let's kick off what we're talking about today. Today's episode is three of my favourite tools for creating social media. So social media is massive. And over the last few months, I'd say there's really been some big shifts and changes. We've seen new apps come out like clubhouse, anybody got some invitations for that, that they want to share with the community?

Awesome.

But that's created a bit of scarcity and FOMO. We spoke last year about social proof and being on social media, how it can create social proof, right, but that you're the expert.

And so we're seeing these apps come out like Tik Tok and Clubhouse that are really just bringing light to a new era that we hadn't seen before. Now, whether you're somebody who jumps on the bandwagon runs with a new social media tool. Awesome. If you're not, that's also okay. 

Because when you're assessing any social media, you really should be focused on where are your clients, because it's not just to be on a platform for the sake of being on a platform, right? It's not just about being an early adopter, or getting there and getting seen and getting the new things happening like Instagram rules for instance, unless it's where your clients are. 

So if you focus your efforts on working out who your ideal client is, but then focusing your efforts on the platforms that work for you, and are where your ideal audience hangs out, then you're already in a great position. 

So I'm talking today about the tools and three of my favourites that we use within our business. Because as we look at 2021, and being efficient, I want you just to have the things that you need to move your business forward. We can all suffer from bright shiny object syndrome and jumping out into new and different things, and exciting, you know, tools and all the rest of it. 

But I want to bring it back to the basics, I want to bring it in real and all of those extra bright shiny objects, because I want you to be efficient, and I want you to be prepared, and I want you to take action.

So these are three tools of as they help us with efficiency, they take out the guesswork, sometimes we don't even need to think because the tools and what is built into them will do it for us. Right. They also serve more than one purpose. But some of the biggest things that they allow us to focus on our zone of genius. 

For me, personally, I am not a graphic designer, like creatively, I am awesome at ideas and strategic thinking and looking at different opportunities and seeing where something might be lacking that we need to work on or helping any of our clients come up with ideas and solutions. But if you put me in front of a computer and say you need to match this brand with this colour, oh, and then make sure that it fits the audience that does my hitting. 

So we look for tools that take out the guesswork, and that allow us to focus on our own zone of genius. And that's what I'm thinking for you as well. We also look at tools that everybody in our team can use. We set up systems, of course, that's one of my big things, using systems in our business, we have videos on how to do everything, but allowing us to create things and then share them as well. 

So it's not just one person who is responsible for everything, but we can all have some input for our organisation. With our favourite tools, I want to make sure that price wise it's great for us as well. It fits with who we are, and what we do that we have very similar values and ethics to. 

And this all comes through from my whole business, I don't just look at who I work with and make sure that we're aligned. But I also want to make sure that any of the tools that I use, as well as something that I am also comfortable talking about encouraging others to use, showing other people how to use them, and making sure that it's the right thing for the business. And at the end of the day, I want to make sure that it is just all good that everyone is taking out any of the guesswork, which is what I've said before and finding that flow. 

Because flow for us in travel is really important. We all know how to book a flight, for instance, we all know how to get in contact with a supplier. But what I want you to think about is also the flow of every other aspect of things that you work on. Like even your invoicing system, what is the flow that works with that? 

Do you have an accounting system that it's very easy to reconcile things? Do you have your social media set up so that there is a particular flow. And when we look at all of these tools, I want to make sure that it is the right thing for our business, but also things that are going to help you as well. One of the other promises that I'm going to make to you right now is, you know whether we do it every month or every couple of months, I want to do a podcast episode specifically on tech tools. 

So tech tools that we use, why we use them what they are, and then how they work will prepare worksheets for you give you the links to everything because I am here for collaborating with you guys sharing my knowledge and resources to help you grow. It's really important to me that as a collective and as a community. travel agent achievers are there to support each other. I don't want to create something that is going to put people into a spiral. 

I want it to be uplifting. I wanted to be energetic. I want everybody that is part of the travel agent, achievers community to feel like they home. And to feel like they are part of a group that is supported, and encouraged and empowered to build the business of their dreams. Because we love travel. 

We love travel, we love what we do. And I want this whole community to be there to support one another, as we move forward, because we are the achievers, we are, who the world is going to come to who the clients are going to come to, at the end of the day to book their future travels. I know it, I believe it, I am in it. And I am there to help every single one of you take that next step and move forward. I've got you back. I'm here for you. 

And I am not giving up. And I don't want you to either. So let's bring it back. Let's bring you back. Okay, I'm getting off on a tangent, sorry. But my three favourite tools for creating social media posts. 

The first one, first and foremost is Canva. Right? If you don't have a Canva account, or Canva pro account, which is the one that I highly recommend, we'll have a link to it in the show notes as well. But go to travel agent achievers.com, forward slash Canva ca n VA, download it, grab it, pay the money to get a pro account. And the reason why I say pay the money to get the pro account is because it takes out the guesswork, it gives you extra images, you get so much more for very little cost, I think it works out like 10 bucks a month maybe. 

But this has taken so much time and thinking out of our team and out of myself. So the reason why we use Canva is because we can upload all of our brand colours into it, we can have access to millions of images that fit with our brand, we can easily upload our own images, we can easily upload our own templates, we can easily upload our logo and you know all of the other things that go with just colours, right? 

We love it, you get access to a bunch of images, you can access gifts and videos. But it has all of these templates. So as I said earlier about taking the guesswork out of being, you know, creatively thinking, Oh, what am I going to post and how am I going to post it and how's it going to look, then it's already done for you. It is so good.

If you choose maybe four or five templates, even up to 10, for instance, and make those consistent across your brand colours, make them consistent with what you are choosing to post. So if it's got a colour around the outside, awesome, you might be able to use that same template with a different graphic in the middle of it and your logo at the top. 

And then the story goes with that. So the text goes with that. But Canva is great, because as a graphic design tool, it can be used by anyone. And I know big brands ease this right down to solopreneurs. So if you don't have a graphic design tool, or you get stuck, or you're even thinking about getting somebody to create these images or details for you go to Canva Pro, right, so travelagentachievers.com/canva and make sure you sign up for the pro account because you get so much more with it. If you're looking at even doing a content plan. So you're thinking about what am I going to post each week and how's that going to look.

You can have a content planner, now within Canva, which is awesome. Templates galore. Images galore, content planning. But if you're then thinking you need to create a lead magnet, a PDF, and ebook. All of those templates are also there. And if you're thinking of just posting on Facebook, or on stories, the different sizes, but you can also resize your image to make sure that it fits across the different platforms. 

Really Canva pro guys, it's a no brainer. Make sure you get it. That's that's one thing that I would highly recommend. I would love to have the owner of Canva on our podcast. It's one of my goals for this year. I already know staff that work for Canva. So if I can get back or a couple of other people that I know that work Canva to jump on and have a chat with you, I am all for it.

So number two, our second favourite tool. These are really in no particular order, but they are just three of my favourites. Facebook Creator Studio. So this is the business platform within Facebook, the majority of our posts, and our ideal audience really is on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. 

But I find with Facebook and Instagram, over the years, I have used a number of different platforms that will push the content through to those platforms. So if I was to use Hootsuite, for instance, and set up all the posts, but then it pushes it through to Facebook. Now, probably 12 months if not longer, maybe it was longer than that maybe it's been the last couple of years that I've been using Facebook Creator Studio pretty much when it first came out. 

The reason why I started to use it was because there were a number of rumblings about people's posts not getting seen. Now think about this, if you were a business, and you had your own platform and your own resources and your own tech tools, but there was also other companies that had tech tools that could put together posts as well and then post them onto you channels like who do you think would you would take priority and use? 

I know if it was me, anything that I build, of course, I'm going to promote that first. Like that just makes sense to me. So hopefully that makes sense to you. And you look into Facebook Creator Studio, because you can set up, you can draft all of your social media posts, you can put the images there, you can put the content there. 

And then from that, you can then set up your own schedule, and have things then ready to post a week in advance two weeks in advance, you might even look a month in advance. But the thing is, with Facebook Creator Studio, not only is it about putting your post together and having it there drafted and ready to go on the platform, but you can also check your insights really easily, you can check who your audience is, you can manage your inbox in there. 

So any messages that come in, everything is done native to the platform, you can cross it so that it's done on Instagram and Facebook. Like if you haven't checked out Facebook Creator Studio, guys, check it out, because the tool is so worthwhile to keep everything in the one spot, but remain mate native to the platform, which means that hopefully, you'll get more engagement because you are using the resources that are provided to you by that one platform. And I'm sure that you're posting on Facebook, or on Instagram, either of these, just check it out. 

So that's number three otter.ai and we'll have links to all of these in the show notes, but otter.ai. So what is otter? otter is a transcription tool. So if you're speaking to somebody or you want to write an email, or you want to prepare a blog post, or you've got some great ideas for social media posts, or text or anything like that, or a letter or an email that you want to write, you can use otter as a transcription tool. 

I have this on my phone. So if I'm driving somewhere, I can just click on order, and it will automatically take my voice and turn it into text. Now it'll just like everything else. It's not 100% perfect every single time. I mean, have you ever put on the the transcription for the captions on Facebook, right? 

If you put the captions on Facebook, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's not always perfect. And my team, thank you Diana, shout out to you. She will go through every single one of my videos and put the captions on there or she'll edit the captions to make sure that it actually says what I'm speaking. 

So otter.ai is a transcription tool that you can also add captions to your videos from. It's great for content repurposing, because if you want to so let's take this podcast, for instance. And if I speak which is the podcasting platform that I'm speaking, that's the platform. But then I want to run a blog post as well. Or I want to put together some show notes, or I want to send an email out to the community about the podcast episode, I can transcribe this podcast, I can then use the transcription. 

So all of the words that are written down, I can then use those words to come up with a blog post or come up with show notes. Or I can have the transcription as well on my website. So for those people that don't want to necessarily listen to a podcast, but they would rather read the words, right. 

So it's repurposing the content in many different ways. And this helps with SEO. So the optimization of content on your website, but it also just gives that extra layer to something. And there are times where we might have to cut a corner on putting together a podcast and we forget to send out an email. 

Hopefully this year, that won't happen. But occasionally it does. So if we have a system in place that says, record the podcast, get the transcription, put together your email, write your blog post, come up with this show notes, which is our system, then steps like this should not be missed. So otter.ai check it out. 

It's really cool for you to be able to speak and have the words transcribed and written for you great for content creation. So those are my three favourite tools. Canva, making sure it's pro Facebook Creator Studio and otter.ai as an app to transcribe things. So those are the three things, I hope you're able to check them out if you use them already. Let me know. I would love to know what you're using right now. 

What do you find works for you because we all have different ways of doing things. I am sharing with you what works for me and in our business, but also what I recommend for you as you grow yours as well. A little fun tool, an app that we have is also boomerang. And if you have Boomerang on your phone, you'll know what I mean. But it creates a very short video, like a GIF that runs for a couple of seconds and it loops it. It's a lot of fun if you're jumping up in the air, or you're throwing confetti or throwing snow or doing little different things. Super cool. 

Boomerang is something that we have a bit of fun with as well. Don't use it all the time. But there are times that it makes sense to put together a boomerang little activities that we do. So as you put together your social media posts, there's a few things that I have for you today that I'm super excited about. So we have our social media engagement challenge coming up again, starting on the first of February. I really want you to check it out, I'd love for you to join in it is completely free. 

And it's about bringing together a Travel Agent Achiever community to get you seen again on social media to get you visible, to come up with a plan of what to post, why you should be posting certain things. And then what you need to do moving forward, right, so our five day free challenge, it'll be on our website, travelagentachievers.com/5daysocialchallenge, that's where you'll also find it, we'll add it to the show notes, make sure that you sign up because it is a lot of fun. 

And it is really good to bring together the community and connect, we connect daily, once a day for five days. That's starting at the beginning of February. Now if you haven't also downloaded our free social media ideas and tracker, because I want you to make sure you're checking in numbers all the time and staying on top of things will also add a link to that in the show notes so that you can grab that free resource as well. It's a brand new free resource called the social media IDs and also track. 

So those are the things for you today. Couple of free resources that for you. I want you to join into the community. I want you to connect with everybody else. have a bit of fun, because 2021 is here. We are going to be getting efficient, we're going to be prepared, and we are going to take action. 

Guys, I'm so glad that you joined me today for the podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being here. 

Don't forget to subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to this on. And also make sure you send me a review. I would love to hear What you think about the podcast, I love receiving your emails. 

So thank you for doing that. But don't forget to pop us a review on iTunes or wherever you are listening to the podcast. jump onto the website, travelagentachievers.com. Check it out, find all of our resources. And Tune in next week because we've got some really cool stuff happening. 

Thanks so much, guys. So good to talk to you. I can't wait to hear from you and speak to you next week. Bye for now.