This got me to thinking about scheduling and automation and how many social media users may be unaware of the different tools available to them for helping them schedule out their social media content. This week what I decided to do, was share with you a few of my favourite tools that I use to schedule my content for sharing.
My hope is that one of the tools on this list is able to help you save some time each day when working on your social media marketing.
Before I proceed in sharing some of these scheduling tools with you, I would first like to say automation and scheduling does not take the place of actual social interaction. While scheduling content can definitely be helpful and save you time, you still need to get down and dirty in the trenches and be social with your audience. You have to communicate with them, engage with them and act like a human.
The second thing I want to mention is be careful of automation and scheduling during times of crisis as many brands have been burned by a scheduled tweet that came out during a bad time and did serious harm to the brand. If you notice that a massive worldwide crisis or news of importance is taking place, quickly turn off all your scheduled content updates or face the wrath of the internet.
Now with that out of the way let’s talk about some of my favourite scheduling tools.
I have been using Hootsuite for as long as I can remember and while this wise owl is my personal favourite social media management tool it is also so much more than that. You can use Hootsuite to post to many of your social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Linked in and your Google+ pages from within the app itself but you can also take advantage of its scheduling and auto-scheduling features which allow you to queue up multiple posts, set a time (or let Hootsuite take care of that) and then Hootsuite will deliver it as scheduled.
If your site has an RSS feed you can also plug that into Hootsuite, configure a few options and Hootsuite will deliver the content of your RSS feed to your selected social networks. If you pay for a pro account you also have the option of using an CSV file to bulk upload your shares which can save you a lot of time.
Hootsuite even allows for the + mention of users and pages when sharing to Google+ something only one other scheduling tool that I am aware of can do right now. Mike Allton of the Social Media Hat has a write up on how to accomplish this here.
One other feature that I enjoy is the option to install the Chrome extension and with the click of a button you can now share the page you are on, to your social networks including using the auto-schedule or scheduling features.
I’m a huge fan of Hootsuite and even with how long I’ve been using the tool I still only use a fraction of its features on a daily basis. If I had one knock against Hootsuite it’s that its auto-scheduling feature is a little weak and has never been effective for me. I would prefer they implemented a Buffer style scheduling option and if they did and with how much I love Buffer as an app and even more as a company I would probably drop Buffer from my social media tools.
In my opinion Buffer does scheduling right. Even as a free user you have the option to connect multiple social accounts to Buffer for sharing (but only one Twitter account), you then you create a schedule for each connected account. A free account is limited to creating only one schedule for each network meaning that your Twitter account has one schedule used for each day of the week including weekends and this goes for each other network you have connected. If you subscribe to the awesome plan for only ten bucks a month this limit is removed and you can create a new schedule for each day of the week for each and every one of your social networks.
Buffer also offers a Chrome extension for one button sharing and recently they have started offering content discovery as well. When you visit your Buffer account you will receive a few suggestions of content that your audience may appreciate. It’s often good stuff and adds even more value to an already great service.
While many tools offer the ability to schedule posts to your Google+ business page, Do Share is the only tool that I am aware of that offers the ability to post to your Google+ personal profile. This is a really easy to use extension and once you have it installed and open it functions and looks similar to the Google+ posting window you are probably already comfortable with. You have the ability to format your posts, include an image, a link and even a poll and then you have the option to share the post now or schedule it for later.Â
Do share is free to use and extremely awesome but it does have a few draw backs. The first being as it’s free to use and only maintained by one person, sometimes there are bugs that aren’t fixed as quickly as some would like. The second being that you have to keep Chrome running in order for your posts to be delivered and if something goes wrong with a post you do not receive an alert to the problem and are only made aware once you return to Do Share.
But, for the low low price of free you really can’t complain, especially since it is the only tool that can do what it does.
If you run a Facebook page you know the importance of keeping your fans engaged by delivering them high quality content on a consistent basis. The problem is that sometimes, especially if you’re a small business and you run your social media and business alone it can be difficult to get back to your page to post on a consistent basis. If you suffer from this problem, then you may want to look at the free to use Facebook Scheduling tool. This tool has come a long ways and is new fairly intuitive and easy to use and gives you the freedom to schedule your posts far in advance.
When the tool first became available it was very basic and even choosing the date and time to publish was a bit cumbersome. Facebook has streamlined the process and you even have the ability to edit your posts once they have been scheduled. You can view and edit your scheduled posts by visiting the activity log.
One thing I should mention about Facebook scheduling tools is that if you use a third party tool to schedule posts to Facebook you cannot use the tagging feature which means that you lose the ability to mention other pages and people in your posts. You can only use the tagging features if you post from within Facebook using the share box or by scheduling a post using Facebooks own scheduling tool.
Another Facebook only scheduling tool and one that I have been experimenting with lately is Post Planner. They claim that you can save up to two hours per day on your Facebook activities and I can’t substantiate that claim yet but it definitely is possible as Post Planner works as a content discovery tool and planning tool at the same time.
Post Planner allows you to quickly find new content to share to your network and even has a feature that helps in coming up with questions you can ask your fans to increase engagement on your page.
Like I mentioned, I don’t have a lot of experience with this tool as I have just recently begun experimenting with it but it seems like a tool that could be very useful for those who are just focusing on Facebook marketing.
Pricing for Post Planner starts at 19 bucks a month and goes up from there depending on features.
I’m a little hesitant to mention Klout as it’s definitely not my favourite tool in the world. If you want free Klout does now have the ability for users to schedule content to Twitter and similar to Post Planner and Buffer they also have a content discovery tool that you can adjust and tweak to surface content that your audience may be interested in.
If you’re not using Hootsuite or Buffer or want an alternative to those tools, Klout is something you could look at using to schedule content but the scheduling features are minimal at best and I would recommend looking at something else first.
As you can see there are numerous scheduling options available to use and this list doesn’t even scratch the surface. There are many other alternatives includeing: Sprout Social, Social Oomph and even Triberr exist and while some only post to Twitter others can be used for multi-platform scheduling.
If you want to get serious about using social media as a marketing channel for your business I would start investigating the use of scheduling tools.
Many of these tools can be used for free and some like Hootsuite offer functionality outside being used just to schedule content.
My suggestion? If you want to start using a scheduling tool to help in your daily social media routine for my money I would begin with either Hootsuite or Buffer as they offer the most value for the money and I can firmly say that the support offered by both is rock solid.
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The post Episode #006 – Social Media Scheduling Tools appeared first on Social 360.
