The silicon valley tech company that I worked for (rhymes with goober) got hit hard by COVID, so by the summer of 2020, I found myself working as a freelance copywriter and content strategist out of my 198 sq. ft. apartment in Oakland, California. The phrase “social media marketer” evokes eye-rolls for many people, and for me, that specific combination of words brings to mind obnoxious buzz word use and cringe-y hashtags.
Maybe for you, it’s that one guy we all know from high school who exclusively posts a combination of cryptic relationship updates—motivational quotes, and whatever pyramid scheme he’s pitching to his timeline that week. But I learned it doesn’t have to be that way.
I got into social media marketing out of necessity. I had already started networking with advertising and influencer types in the Bay Area. I had amassed a decent number of Twitter followers during college by sharing relatable, teenage girl-type material. I also had experience ghostwriting jokes for comics in the Boston stand-up comedy scene.
My background, coupled with a streak of raw creative passion and my previous employer described as a “natural knack” for social writing, made social media marketing the shortest path between me and monies. And so it began.
The reality of social marketing today is that although the bad content can be bad—and by bad, I mean bad—there’s a heck of a lot of great stuff too. By all accounts, its role in agencies’ and brands’ digital strategy is increasing and will only continue to grow more essential.
During my first few gigs, I worked with professional athletes with large followings. Excitement quickly turned to intimidation as the first hurdle I faced was having absolutely no visual editing experience. My technical skills and familiarity with the tools that it takes to convert passion to performance were lacking.
Putting together a compelling video ad for a Twitter feed or editing a product placement image for a client’s Instagram story was a little beyond my reach. After watching quite a few YouTube videos, I buckled down with some popular creative software and photo-editing tools.
After that, I had no issue coming up with the ideas for posts or partnerships, but I would struggle to communicate my full vision to the team. Working remotely, I felt like a Zoom call could only go so far. I struggled to make our schedules work with different time zones.
A bunch of my meetings was perpetually rescheduled, defaulting to a follow-up email and/or Slack threads to send content and feedback back and forth. I needed to bridge the gap with an efficient collaboration tool that worked for teams.
CloudApp allowed me to quickly share image and video content from my screen. This may not sound like that big of a deal, but I’ve saved a crazy amount of time showing instead of telling. It’s been nice to be able to instantly share screenshots or talk through a screen recorded video. Let me break down the specifics for you.
First off, it’s free to download. If you’re broke and 22, like I was, free is good. Even if you’re not, who doesn’t like free? I’m a big fan of options with no downsides. All I had to do was create an account with my email and install the software locally using a setup wizard (I have a PC, but it’s just as easy for Mac).
If you do decide to upgrade to paid, there are a bunch of fancy bells and whistles geared towards companies, but there’s no “gotcha” moment. CloudApp comes complete with a quick onboarding for using the basics, and then you’re good to go. The whole process was super straightforward, didn’t ask for anything invasive or annoying, and took all 2 minutes from start to finish.
My first impression was that the user interface was a big upside and about as easy as it could be. As someone with no history of using visual communication software, I found CloudApp’s dashboard intuitive with no learning curve..
As a content creator and social media manager, I personally get the most use of the snipping tool. I’m sure you already know how to screenshot on your respective devices, but CloudApp is a game-changer when it comes to sharing. Screenshots are automatically uploaded to your account and present you with the options of copying the link to share, copying the image itself to share, and backing up your media locally. This tool makes sharing wildly efficient, and I use it daily. Another feature I’m super into is the screen recording tool.
It’s something I really had never done in any capacity. Still, now that I use screen recording software—especially while we’re all, ya know, working from home for the foreseeable future—I can’t imagine not using it even in a post-COVID era. It’s wildly easy to record, edit, and share videos.
And to make it extra squishy, the mac client can annotate video messages in real-time, if that’s your thing. So, to paint a little bit clearer of a picture of what this really means to me as a professional in social marketing: imagine that instead of painstakingly composing an email every time you’re working through client feedback on a pitch or detailing the specifics of a creative campaign, you can talk through an idea as if you were sitting next to that person in your office.
Did I mention that CloudApp supports screen-in-screen webcam recording? For me, this cuts down the number of meetings I take and has saved me hours while at the same time eliminating a heck of a lot of the miscommunication that occurs in long-form email.
CloudApp is all of the cool things about having a face-to-face meeting without annoying or inefficient parts. Sign me up. Especially with the current work from the home situation we’re all experiencing, CloudApp could play an integral role in the trend to shift to asynchronous remote cross-team collaboration.
CloudApp integrates with many other communication and task management platforms I use in my day-to-day, like Slack and Asana. CloudApp was a seamless transition and a no-brainer for me.
Now the downsides: I’ve had the occasional hiccup when recording videos longer than 10 minutes. CloudApp replaces the back and forth communication you would normally do through email or Slack. I don’t use it for recording long-form video presentations.
I also would love to see a purely cloud-based software option, but I haven’t found a screen recording software option that does. If the saying goes that a picture’s worth a thousand words, then I’m guessing it’s still worth the hours of your time you’ll save.
If you made it through this post, I hope you hear me cloud and clear (sorry) when I say that this product has pretty much revolutionized the way I communicate with my team on creative content. I really encourage content marketers or people who are currently working in the social space to give CloudApp a (screen)shot (sorry, last one). As someone just getting into this field, it’s given me a lot of confidence in my ability to present my ideas to brands and influencers effectively.
With the help of CloudApp, I’ve personally accomplished everything from putting together the creative for Instagram ads for NFL merch drops to coordinating pitches for brand partnerships for sports drinks on Twitter. Applying to virtually all industries, the possibilities for what can be created with the help of CloudApp are seemingly endless, and I don’t plan on ever going back. Go check it out.
If you are interested in even more social media-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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