Editor

Monday Morning Cool Tool: Hotjar

Posted on May 19, 2025 by Editor

This week I’m recommending Hotjar, a website optimization tool.

Imagine being able to see your website through your visitors’ eyes. Tools like heatmaps, scroll maps, and click maps make this a reality. Heatmaps highlight the most engaged areas of your pages, showing you where visitors instinctively click or tap. Scroll maps show how far down the page visitors typically venture, indicating if crucial content is being missed. Click maps pinpoint exactly where users are trying (and sometimes failing) to interact. This visual feedback provides an immediate understanding of user attention and potential points of confusion.

Going beyond static snapshots, visitor recordings offer a dynamic view of individual user sessions. By watching recordings of clicks, taps, and mouse movements, you can witness firsthand the user experience. This allows you to identify usability issues that might not be apparent from aggregated data. Perhaps a button is unclear, a form field is causing hesitation, or a navigation element is proving difficult to locate. These real-time journeys can uncover hidden frustrations and highlight areas needing immediate attention.

Platforms like Hotjar cleverly combine these powerful Analysis tools with Feedback tools, offering a holistic view of the user experience. This synergy provides the “big picture” – not just what users are doing, but also their direct opinions and frustrations. By understanding both the “what” and the “why,” you gain the knowledge necessary to make data-driven decisions that enhance your site’s usability, improve performance, and ultimately drive higher conversion rates.

Price: Hotjar offers a tiered pricing structure (including a free tier with limitations) with different plans based on your needs and the volume of website traffic and usage.

Monday Morning Cool Tool: Snappa

Posted on April 28, 2025April 28, 2025 by Editor

This week’s cool tool recommendation is Snappa – a cloud-based graphic design tool.

Snappa is a user-friendly graphic design tool, particularly well-suited for those who need to quickly create visuals without a steep learning curve or expensive software.

Key Features

Extensive Library of Templates: Offers thousands of pre-designed templates for various purposes (social media posts, blog graphics, ads, etc.) that are customizable.
Vast Stock Photo & Graphics Library: Provides access to millions of royalty-free, high-definition photos and a wide selection of graphics, icons, and vectors.
Text Editor: Allows users to add and customize text with a variety of fonts, sizes, colors, and effects.
Image Editor: Includes basic image editing tools like cropping, resizing, flipping, rotating, and adjusting brightness/contrast.
Background Remover: A one-click tool to remove backgrounds from images.
Image Resizer: Makes it easy to resize graphics for different social media platforms with pre-set dimensions.
Custom Font Uploads: Paid plans allow users to upload their own brand fonts for consistency.
Social Media Integrations: Offers direct integration with platforms like Buffer for easy scheduling and publishing (on paid plans).
Team Collaboration: Team plans allow multiple users to collaborate on designs.
Brand Kit: Enables users to save brand colors and logos for easy access.

Pricing:

Snappa offers different pricing tiers, including a free plan with limitations:

Free Plan: Typically includes access to all templates and the stock photo library but limits the number of downloads per month (usually 3) and the number of connected social accounts. It’s generally for single users.
Pro Plan: A paid plan for individuals, usually offered at a monthly or annual fee, that unlocks unlimited downloads, social media integrations, custom font uploads, background removal, and more.
Team Plan: Aimed at teams, offering the same features as the Pro plan but for multiple users (typically up to 5 on the standard team plan), often with collaboration features.

#HCSM

Still Overlooking YouTube for Patient Education? It’s Time to Rethink

Posted on April 26, 2025April 26, 2025 by Editor

As YouTube celebrates 20 years, healthcare communicators have a golden opportunity to meet patients where they already are—on video.

In my latest Substack article, I share:

🎥Why YouTube matters for patient education

🎥How to use videos, Shorts, and podcasts to educate and connect

🎥3 simple videos you can start creating today

Your next breakthrough in patient education might just start with a simple video!

Click here to read

Cool Tool

Monday Morning Cool Tool: Filmora

Posted on April 14, 2025April 14, 2025 by Editor

This week’s cool tool recommendation is Filmora a user-friendly video editing tool.

Filmora offers a balance of powerful features and an intuitive interface, making it accessible for those new to video editing while still providing tools for more creative projects.

Key Features

Filmora boasts a wide array of features, including:

Basic Editing: Trimming, cutting, splitting, merging, rotating, and adjusting video speed.
Visual Effects: A large library of filters, transitions, titles, and motion elements.
Audio Editing: Tools for adjusting audio levels, adding background music, recording voiceovers, and noise reduction.
Colour Correction and Grading: Options for adjusting colour balance, applying LUTs, and enhancing the visual look of videos.
Text and Titles: Customisable text and title templates, including animated options.
Motion Tracking: The ability to track objects within a video and apply effects or elements that follow their movement.
Green Screen (Chroma Key): Tools for removing and replacing backgrounds.
Screen Recording: The ability to record your computer screen.
AI-Powered Features: Recent versions include AI tools like:
- AI Text-Based Editing: Editing video by manipulating its transcription.
- AI Music Generator: Creating royalty-free background music.
- AI Portrait Cutout: Removing video backgrounds.
- AI Smart Masking: Automatically creating masks around objects.
- AI Audio Denoise: Reducing background noise in audio.
- AI Voice Enhancer: Improving vocal clarity.
- AI Smart Cut: Identifying and clipping interesting moments.
- AI Smart Short Clips: Creating short clips for social media.
- AI Image to Video: Turning still images into moving videos.
- AI Sound Effect Generator: Creating custom sound effects from text prompts.
- AI Voice Cloning: Creating an AI voice clone.
- AI Translation & Lip Sync: Translating speech and syncing it to lip movements.
Templates and Assets: Built-in templates, royalty-free music, sound effects, and the ability to access more through the Filmora Effects Store.
Social Media Integration: Features designed for creating content for platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, including auto-reframe tools.

Pricing

Filmora offers a free version that gives you access to basic editing tasks and access to a selection of built-in filters, transitions, titles, and motion elements. It’s a great way to try out the software, learn its interface; however, the watermark on exported videos makes it unsuitable for projects where a professional, unbranded output is necessary. To remove the watermark and access the full range of features and assets, you would need to purchase a paid subscription or a perpetual license.

Cool Tool

Monday Morning Cool Tool: Flux AI

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Editor

This week’s cool tool recommendation is Flux AI, a web-based image and video tool.

Key Features and Capabilities

Flux AI Image Generator
- This tool allows users to generate images from textual descriptions. Users can input a prompt, and the AI will produce corresponding visuals, offering a powerful way to bring creative ideas to life.
- It also supports image-to-image generation, enabling users to modify and transform existing images.
Flux AI Video Generator
- Moving beyond static images, Flux AI extends its capabilities to video creation. Users can generate dynamic videos from text prompts or images, opening up new possibilities for video content production.
Free Tools
- Flux AI provides a suite of free tools that enhance the content creation process:
  - Image-to-Prompt Generator: This tool helps users refine their prompts by analyzing existing images and suggesting relevant keywords.
  - Image Upscaler: Users can improve the resolution and quality of their images with the upscaler tool.
  - Image Converter: The platform facilitates seamless image format conversions.

Free: New users get 40 credits, and daily check-ins provide 20 credits. This plan includes 5 daily prompt generations and 5 daily image-to-prompt conversions.