How to use G Suite as a Blogger

I remember when I signed up for my first Gmail account.  I was fascinated with them because they rolled email threads into one message rather than having multiple emails with the same subject on separate lines (hello organization!!).  Little did I know, Google was going to have a huge impact in my life over the coming years.

Fast forward to present day and you will find me using so many Google apps for so many different things.  The G Suite, as it’s so lovingly called, can be a bloggers dream. There are various apps that make up the G Suite, most that I use on the regular.  Today I will be discussing the G Suite and how a blogger can use the products in their blogging processes.

First a little 101.  The G Suite is comprised of Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites and Hangouts and they are designed to integrate with each other.  For example, if you want to insert a graph from Sheets into a Doc, you can easily do that. Docs and Sheets are similar and compatible with MS Word and MS Excel, so if you know these programs, the Google versions will be a breeze.

The other apps in G Suite may sound familiar and you may even use them currently.  The difference in G Suite from Google’s free apps is that you receive double the storage space in Google Drive than the free accounts, 24/7 tech support and you receive a business email account (you@yourwebsite.com - golden & professional!) with 99.9% guaranteed uptime.  Quite honestly, the business email is the best thing of all to me, so the accompanying G Suite products are an added bonus!

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Now that you know a little background, here is how you can use the G Suite successfully as a blogger:

Google Sheets

1. Organize your tweets to post for the week (bonus points for automatically adding them to Google Calendar so that they post to Twitter based on a scheduled time!).

2. Store market research results (an automated task can add market research results from Twitter into a Google Sheet. Here’s more info on how to do it)

3. Store new email subscriber details to automatically add to a ConvertKit email list - I use the Squarespace platform for my website, but there is no direct connection from Squarespace to my email marketing provider, ConvertKit.  As a result, if you use Squarespace’s newsletter or form blocks to collect email addresses, to get them to flow to ConvertKit automatically, a Google Sheet would need to be the bridge between the two.

4. Social stat tracking- Sheets is a good place to keep a record of your social media numbers so that you can see trends over time.

5. Graphs- if you are tracking social stats, create a graph so that you can visually understand the trends and know which platforms outperform each other for you.

Google Docs

1. Compose blog posts- I always create my blog posts is Google Docs before moving them into my blog editor.  It’s one of the best things that I do to increase productivity. Here’s a post all about using Google Docs for blog posts.

2. Blogging collaboration- if you are working on a collaboration with another blogger, you can create and share Google Docs so that both parties can view and edit the doc.  My friend and fellow blogger Katrina of Katrina Blair always use Google Docs for our collaboration blog posts and it works so well!

3. Outline and plan email and online course content- if you create educational material, you can do your planning/brain dumping in a Google Doc.  For example, when I created one of my free email courses, I planned all of the content out and edited it in Docs.

4. Design free download content- if you offer digital freebies on your website, you can create the freebies in docs.  For example, checklists, worksheets, bulleted tip lists, etc.

Gmail (business email)

1. Professional email is golden and more...professional.  If you want to work with brands, you need to have a business email address to be taken seriously.

2. I mean, there’s really nothing else to say about this because that’s the most important reason to use a Gmail business email account.  In fact, here’s a link to try a free 14 day trial of G Suite (just $6 a month after the trial period!  Business email is the main feature of G Suite, but the other apps come along with it for no extra charge!).

Google Calendar

1. Schedule tweets to post to your social media accounts - if you store your tweets in Google Sheets, you can add them to your calendar to post on auto pilot.

2. Keep a blogging schedule/editorial calendar- Schedule blogging tasks so you will always know what needs to be done and when.  When scheduling, don’t just list the day that a task should be completed, also schedule the steps that it will take to get there.

3. Appointments- if Google Calendar is your main calendar app, you can use it for scheduling appointments.  Plenty of programs integrate with Calendar so when you schedule an appointment from a 3rd party source, the event can be automatically added to your calendar.

Google Hangouts

1. Webinars- if you want to host an informational webinar, you can do this using Google Hangouts.

2. Private masterclass- You may be selling seats for a live video training, so you can host these with Google as well.

3. Video calls- this can be a call with a business partner, vendor, brand, etc.  If you want to have a meeting but live in completely different time zones or even just another state, video calls are awesome.  My friend and I try to do a video call (virtual coffee date) monthly to plan out blogging things together.

4. Coaching calls- if you are a coach, you can have one-on-one coaching calls with your clients. Again, this is great for working across state lines.

5. Group calls- you can also have group calls in a Google Hangout.  If you offer group coaching, this would be the way to do it.

Google Photos

1. Brand images- you can access all of your brand images if it’s stored in your Google Photo account.  This makes it easy to access images on the go or when you need them on a whim.

2. Save a stockpile of photos- these photos can be used for Instagram/social media posting or to create blog post graphics.  They can also be used on slideshows that you create with Google Slides.

Google Forms

1. Send surveys to your customers- surveys are an important piece of your blog because they give you insight directly from your customers and audience.

2. Send surveys to your email list- surveys can also be sent to your email list for insight that will help you determine the type of content that they want to keep receiving from you.

3. Create quizzes- quizzes are a fun tool that are also helpful for marketing because the results can tell you more about your audience and hep you tag them accordingly in your email marketing program.

Google Slides

1. Webinar slides- if you host webinars, you can create the slides using G Suite.

2. Pitch deck- if you pitch ideas to brands for collaboration, you can create a pitch deck using Slides.

3. In-person training/presentation- when meeting with potential clients in person or for in person presentations, Slides can be used to make a professional presentation.

Google Drive (cloud storage)

1. More of it- G Suite provides 30G of storage opposed to the 15G that are standard on the free version.

2. Folder for blog/business documents- you can create a folder to store your media kit, contracts and any other documents that you use.

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Now that you know various ways that you can use G Suite, I hope that you start using it more often!  Here’s that link again that will give you 14 days free.  After the trial, G Suite is only $6 per month and SOOOO worth it (especially for that business email account).

So tell me, do you currently use G Suite? If so, how do you use it? Leave a comment below.

Automation vs. Being a Human (aka what you can and can't automate)

Automation is one of the main topics that I blog about and it has been the biggest thing that has helped to keep me on track.  It’s mostly because of the trickle down effect- automate things to free up time to do things that you can’t automate. I try to automate as much as I can, but I still stumble upon things that I need to touch.  You may wonder what you can and can’t automate, so here is the tea.

Things to Automate

1 / Social media posts

Social media is something that is necessary when you have a blog or business.  You need to have different ways to reach your audience, and social media is an easy, free way to do so.  Unfortunately there are so many different platforms out that you can get confused on which to focus on and how to stay active on them consistently.  This is where automation comes in. There are plenty of platforms that focus on social media automation (posting for you on the schedule that you choose), or you can create your own automated task using Google Sheets and Google Calendar (this is the method I use when scheduling my twitter posts).  You can schedule posts for Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and so much more. You can even schedule Instagram posts now through Hootsuite (Instagram was the only platform that didn’t allow automatic posting until now).

This doesn’t have to stop with blog content, you can also schedule social media for new podcast episodes, vlogs, soundcloud playlists, etc.

2 / Email list segmentation and tagging

Email lists are important for many reasons, but one of the most important is that you can tag and segment subscribers based on their actions, engagement and other criteria.  For example, in ConvertKit, you can tag a user if they click a specific link in an email that you sent. You can also segment members based on interest, date added to your list, location, etc.  The beauty in this is that you no longer have to send blanket emails to everyone on your list- you can just send focused content to people that have already expressed an interest in a topic in the past. This in turn tends to increase your open and engagement rate.  Tagging and segmenting can be done through automated tasks, so you don't have to keep track of this or try to remember to do it yourself. So as an example, when someone purchases a product from me, they are automatically tagged as a customer for the product purchased and tagged as interested in the topic related to the product.  This way, if I create a new product related to their previous purchase, I can email them directly to let them know about it because they have already shown an interest in the subject.

3 / Selling products

A product is going to be either tangible (something that you can touch) or intangible such as a digital product that will be downloaded or a service (coaching, graphic design, etc.).  You can automate certain tasks for each:

1. Digital products + services/coaching: Create email funnels that ultimately sell your digital products or services, run Facebook ads, run a sponsored Instagram post or promote a Pinterest pin. All of these strategies run behind the scenes and are your cheerleader when you don't have time to be a cheerleader for yourself.

2. Physical: Yes! You can even automate the process of selling tangible products.  Dropshipping is the way to go. Dropshipping is when you create a design and submit the file to a printing company that will print your design onto a blank product. For example, you may want to sell t-shirts but may not want to carry the inventory or know how to print the shirts yourself.  You also may not want to deal with shipping.  By using a drop shipper, they will take care of the printing and fulfillment (shipping), so you just create designs and they do the rest. Of course they get a cut of your sales, but it’s more economical because you don’t have inventory, printing supplies or shipping to worry about.

4 / Blog post, product and email content ideas

One large thing that bloggers and entrepreneurs find difficult is coming up with ideas for blog posts, emails and products.  In order to find out what your audience struggles with, you need to do some market research...but I quickly discovered that research takes time. As a result, I found a way to automate market research, so my search results are all saved into a spreadsheet and I can look for content ideas at my leisure. Here’s a post about that and how to set it up.

5 / Idea organization

Ideas are always floating around our heads and it can seem impossible to organize them on the go...especially if you're driving and can’t stop to jot it down.  Your Notes app can only take you so far, but Evernote is where it’s at! You can automate the process of organizing your thoughts and ideas with the click of one button. Here’s a post about it and how to do it.

6 / On boarding

This is when you familiarize someone new with your processes, products, services, etc.  Onboarding isn’t just for new employees at an organization, it can also be used in blogging and solopreneurship.

1. Email list welcome sequence- this type of onboarding is when you welcome a new email subscriber to your crew and provide more information about you, your blog and what they can expect from being on your list.  You can also send a few emails over time (a sequence) with helpful tips or blog posts to get them more familiar with you and your blog/biz.

2. New client/customer welcome sequence- this type of onboarding is when you have a new coaching client and email them a welcome packet including what their next steps are and what they can expect for the duration of your coaching program.  For new customers, your welcome sequence can tell them the best ways to use your product, share how others have used the product and tell them a social hashtag that they can use to share with their followers. You can also encourage them to purchase again by sharing coupon codes for future purchases.

7 / Tracking business expenses

If you have a separate account used for blogging/business, you can easily link that debit/credit card to your accounting software so that all business purchases are automatically tracked and placed in the correct category for business tax purposes. This takes the guesswork out of filing taxes and keeps your accounting process streamlined and organized.

8 / Typing

You can automate typing my friend! Have a long blog post to create and just no time to sit there and type it all out? Utilize your voice-to-text features on you phone instead! If I’m really strapped for time and need to work on a post, I use the Google Docs voice-to-text dictation feature to talk my blog post out.  It works wonders!

9 / Website analytics

Analytics are important to view for your website because they tell you so much (who’s visiting from where, when, how long they stayed, how they found you, are they a returning visitor, etc.). Rather than stalking your analytics manually, create a scheduled report to be emailed to you with Google analytics info.  I have a weekly and monthly report emailed to me and it has really helped me see what’s happening on my site and the areas that need improvement.

10 / Important notifications

If you can't (or don't want to) stay in your email all day but want to be notified every time someone purchases one of your products or sends a message to you through a web form (or any other important email), you can be notified when these things happen rather than having to stalk your email. Either push notifications or text notifications can be sent.  The great thing about this is that you don’t have to constantly check your email which tends to take people away from the task that they were trying to complete in the first place.

11 / Responding to emails

If you use a Gmail account for your blog, you can create email response templates (Canned Responses) for questions that you receive frequently.  Rather than typing the same thing each time, you can insert your canned response into the email body and send it off!

 

Things You Can’t (or at least shouldn't) Automate

1 / Genuine social media engagement (follows, comments + likes)

Being genuine requires a human...people don't want to engage with a robot and it’s easy to sniff out a disingenuous comment.  You post an image of your breakfast and the comment says “I love your outfit!” or someone just comments with random emoji's.  Nicole Walters quoted, and I love it so much, “We are in the business of people. And we automate our systems, not our relationships”.  With the constant algorithm changes on social media, they are forcing us to be more human and interact with one another again...and that's not a bad thing.

2 / Product Creation (digital, physical)

You can search automatically for ideas of what to make, but you have to create the content yourself.  Whether you are designing logos, coding websites, offering styling services or are a beautician, you have to be present to create.  This is the fun part anyway!  This is what you are making room in your schedule to do by automating what you can elsewhere.

3 / Shooting photos

Someone has to be there behind the lens to capture images.  You can't automate a photographic eye.  Someone also has to choose the best photos to post, edit them and place them on your website or blog posts.

4 / Planning content (editorial calendar, Instagram feed, etc.)

Again, you can automatically find content ideas, but you have to organize/plan things so it all comes together.  You can plan your Instagram feed using the UNUM app and plan blog/biz contents in Asana, Trello, or any other project management tool.

5 / Customer Service Issues

If a customer has a problem the last thing they want to do is talk to a bot.  Human interaction is a necessity when dealing with customer service issues.  This can be through email or on the phone, but either way, it needs to come from a human and not use canned responses.

6 / Responding to emails

I realize this is also something that I mentioned earlier that you can automate, but some responses cannot be handled by a bot.  You need to be present to respond to emails from people wanting to collaborate, commenting on your blog posts, asking about something you sent in an email to your email list, etc.  Canned responses can only take you so far.  When someone receives a response to an email that they sent to you, especially one that they KNOW is genuine, it makes a huge difference and can make them LIKE and TRUST you more (yep, that whole know, like, trust factor).

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Now that you know what you can and can't (i.e. shouldn't) automate, where do you see yourself shaving time off of your day?