Why Evernote is More than my Digital BFF
When I first wrote the post Evernote: My New Social Media Management Tool, I knew I had discovered a tool that could help me get more done with my business.
Since that post, I’ve found even more cool things that my online digital assistant can do that helps me grow my business. It helps me stay on track with my marketing plans, gives me a place to communicate with people and takes my project checklists to a whole new level.
OK, I admit it – I think I’ve fallen in love with Evernote. We’ve gone way beyond that awkward dating stage. From the way things are going, I think that we’ll be very happy together!
When we first started hanging out, I was all about that Evernote Web Clipper. I was saving articles, highlighting parts of the post I wanted to keep on file and using this tool as a way to bookmark sites for my research.
From there, Evernote turned into my social media management tool. I’ve created a different notebook for each of my social sites and then set up several notes to keep all the details of my marketing plans for my monthly tracking reports.
Here are just a few of the things I post in Evernote to help me with my social media marketing:
- Created a master list of topics and posts to share in the Facebook Groups that I manage.
- Save image ideas for my new coaching programs or any promotion that I want to launch.
- A checklist of Instagram post ideas so I’m not just sitting on Instagram thinking, “I’m stuck, what should I post?”
- Copy ideas to help me create my time management tip images for my Facebook fan page.
I am the Maker of Lists
Even though we can create up to 250 notebooks, I don’t use any where near that maximum Evernote notebook number. I’m consistently working from 10 – 15 notebooks every week.
My top notebooks cover everything from links to use in my Social Media Conversations newsletter to tracking my pins in the Pinterest strategy I do every day to grow my Pinterest followers.
And to make finding my stuff even easier, I stack similar notebooks together so that all the information on one specific topic is in one place. It’s like an online filing cabinet where I can easily see all the folders from one project and click on a notebook to pull out all the links, notes and planning checklists.
How much do I love Evernote? Let me count the ways.
I can honestly say that I use Evernote every day to help me work on my business. Take a look at some of the ways I use this digital tool:
What I Saved into Evernote:
1. My post for my bi-monthly newsletter Social Media Conversations – I capture the links I want to share and save information for the small business free stuff that I share with the readers of my newsletter.
2. I developed a 10 Day Pinterest Challenge and turned the content into a free Pinterest strategy ebook – I used Evernote as a place for my braindump about what to cover in the Pinterest Challenge.
Then I took all those notes to help me create a checklist of the things I needed to do to share the Pinterest Challenge and later, I stacked in new notebooks to help me launch the Pinterest strategy ebook.
3. Tracking my online course – I launched my first online course Social Media Images that Convert earlier this year. It was a month of firsts for my business -my first ecourse, my first time using video, the first time I got those visual design ideas out of my head and coached others how to create their own branded social images.
And I used Evernote to track the whole process!
I created notebooks for each module and included what resources/videos would be taught during that week. I set up an Evernote timeline to remind me when to release each new piece of content. And when the Images that Convert ecourse was in full swing, I set up an ongoing note to track what was working with their learning process and what got them stuck.
As I move through the steps to re-work the Images that Convert online program, I now have real-time notes to help me make this ecourse even better for future launches.
4. Helping me develop new coaching programs – Each coaching program has it’s own notebook that includes a master list of the resources I need to create, ideas for content for the launch and I even saved welcome letters that I can personalize for people signing up for my programs.
What I’m Sharing on Evernote:
1. Evernote has the ability to share a note – which means, you can send an Evernote note as an email! – so when someone pays for one of my coaching programs, I can instantly email them a personalized message from where ever I am.
2. Shared Notebooks – The ability to share notebooks is a feature only available when you upgrade to the Premium package. You can view a shared notebook from someone else in Evernote but to share the contents of a notebook with another user, you’ll have to pay the $49.99 upgrade fee.
Quite honestly, that amount is more than worth it! You’ll double your storage space you can access in the program, upload and make notes on pdf files and my favorite, share notebooks with anyone you want (whether they have a premium account or not).
When I brought on my new assistant last month, one of the first things I did was set up a shared notebook for us to use. I post notes for her about what to work on as well as send her feedback on the projects she’s handling for me.
And because it’s a shared notebook, not only can she read my messages, she can respond to my questions or comments right there in the same document.
No more of that crazy back and forth with emails. It’s all in one place – my notes, all the information for the project and our conversations.
3. Work chat – I totally love Evernote work chat! This is the first place I go to message someone I’m working with on a project. I’ve even used this with a client while we were working through her coaching program.
You can include anyone in your conversation, even if they’re not using Evernote (you just type in their email address). Its clean dashboard makes work chat one of the easiest messaging programs I’ve ever used.
The Green Elephant
The more I use Evernote, the more useful it gets to help me run my business. The programs and projects I listed above are just a few of the ways Evernote has helped me stay on track of all the bits and pieces that come across my desk.
I love the fact that the program syncs with my laptop, phone and tablet. I have access to my notes where ever I go. Seriously, I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve pulled up my Evernote app when I’m at a meeting to show someone what I’m working on or pull up a link to review.
Please know that I’m in no way being compensated by Evernote for this post or have added in affiliate links. I’m sharing this information with you for the pure sense of giving you some ideas to help you get more organized with your business.
I must admit though, ever since that green elephant app came into my life, I’ve become less stressed about all the stuff I need to do every week.
Evernote, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Image credit: Taiwan Meetup
PS If you’re looking for more tips to help you manage the marketing for your small business, download your FREE copy of my 10 Social Media Time Management Strategies ebook. You’ll learn some easy to follow strategies to help you create a social media routine that works with your crazy busy world.
I had been thinking I need to use Evernote for more than simple bookmarking when I found your post. Wow! I can’t even begin to tell you how helpful these tips are. I’m launching my second ecourse and the way you track your content and process is so cool. I never considered using Evernote like this. Thanks!
You’re very welcome Kemya! I swear, the more I use this program, the more I find reasons to use it to help me with my business.
If you have any questions about how I used Evernote for your ecourse, let me know and we’ll chat about what I do and I’ll give you some ideas to help you with your launch process.