It can be challenging for startups, nonprofits, and freelancers to afford the tools and personnel necessary to develop professional and sophisticated social media content. Today's guest, Erika Mayor, shares many of the free tools and platforms she uses as a freelance public relations and marketing consultant to help organize, create, and deliver content for growth.

Erika was a journalist before her career as a freelance consultant.

• While working at a local TV station in Florida during the 2005 hurricanes, she realized working at the station was burning her out.
• Because the station worked closely with the Red Cross (because of the hurricane relief they offered), they offered her a job in their communications department. This started Erika's passion for nonprofit work.

Because nonprofits have so little funding, Erika had to wear many hats.

• In order to get everything done that she needed, Erika started to use tools that helped with different aspects of her job:
• Canva is a phenomenal free platform to create graphics and different content.
• A scheduling tool like Later lets you plan out posts in advance so you can focus on tracking and extrapolating data from those posts.
• When it comes to digital marketing, video gets many more views than still imagery.
• Lumen5 and Videoleap are free video editing tools that help anyone create well-edited videos. Luman5 even makes video based on keywords with their extensive library of high-quality b-roll.
• Snapseed is an app that edits photos, adds filters and is available on both Android and iOS.

Powerful project management tools you should use:

• Meistertask and asana keep tasks organized and help keep your team accountable as you work to complete different projects.
• Slack is an internal messenger app that leaves your email inbox free of clutter and less bogged down.
• For internal communication, relying on Gmail and outlook accounts will inevitably lead to things falling through the cracks.

Erika uses these platforms to a high degree of success:

• She had a client in the transportation industry, and she was working with an agency to support this client.
• The topics were heavy, complicated, and difficult to understand.
• Erika realized videos would be the best solution, so she and her team created videos with Lumen5 based on existing blogs (utilizing the platform's b-roll) to generate content with better traction.

How has she stayed in business?

• She spent five years working exclusively on referrals, so she didn't have a website or anything. Then she realized she needed to legitimize herself,
• She believes in paying it forward. So, if you meet someone who could benefit from using these tools, please share them with them. (You never know how much easier it could make someone's day.)

Erika's book and podcast recommendations:

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (she found out about these on Tik Tok, but we won't judge.)
• You're Wrong About
• Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend

To get in contact with Erika, connect with her on LinkedIn.