My Tools: Viraltag

I’m a huge fan of using social media to make my gaming life better (and easier). But like all things, success or failure at any given task, is often down to the tools you use. After all, hammering in a nail with a screwdriver is surely doomed to failure!

 

Social media is great for hobbyists like me. Its easy to find and connect with like-minded people all over the world. It’s also great for broadcasting your message. I’m passionate about making GMing as easy—and fun—as possible. GMs are the lifeblood of the hobby, but these days the hobby seems all but obsessed with shiny new rules options. No one thinks of the poor GMs!

The huge challenge these days is getting noticed. Social media is so busy—and we are so busy—it’s easy to overlook interesting articles, pictures and posts. How many times have you mindless scrolled through your newsfeed, not even really looking at all the status updates and whatnot? Only the really eye-catching stuff grabs your attention.

A couple of months ago, I was invited to start using a new tool—Viraltag—to schedule and post all my articles as well as Raging Swan Press’s20 Things articles.

As I’m a fan of anything that makes my life easier, and a huge proponent of the 20/80 rule, I jumped at the chance. (The 20/80 rule: 20% of your work generates 80% of your result so don’t do the other 80% of the work—it’s not worth it.)

Viraltag lets me schedule and post my articles with virtually no effort. It supports all major social networks including Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr & Linkedin (although I only use it for Facebook as no matter how hard I try, I cannot get on with Twitter).

Viraltag enables me to create a weekly posting schedule. Here’s an example:

Then Viraltag populates each category with my uploaded content, and posts it out automatically. I can even designate some posts as “Evergreen” and Viraltag will re-post them when there is space in my schedule.

This way, if readers missed a post when I first posted it, they might see it the next time it pops up in their newsfeed. That’s a win/win in my book. The effort I put into writing a post isn’t wasted—it doesn’t just sink into the ebon depths of my archives—and the GM reading the article gets a cool free resource for his game.

Viraltag’s killer feature, though, is its ability to handle graphics. I’ve used other posting tools in the past, but they mainly deal with text. We live in an increasingly visual age—graphics and video are better at attracting attention that mere text—and Viraltag handles them with aplomb. Using Viraltag has increased my malign influnce because each individual post is more visually arresting. Even better, Viraltag lets me link the actual image in the post. This means the reader only has to click the image to read the full article!

So, if you are a blogger and business owner like me, or you just want to get your message out there, I’d highly recommend giving Viraltag a go. They offer a very generous free trial and the team are super responsive to questions and suggestions.

A Final Note

None of the links to Viraltag in this article are affiliate links.

Published by

Creighton

Creighton is the publisher at Raging Swan Press and the designer of the award winning adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey. He has designed many critically acclaimed modules such as Retribution and Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands and worked with Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Expeditious Retreat Press, Rite Publishing and Kobold Press.