So here we go with my 4 great tools for scheduling social media
When it comes to social media scheduling I have found that the following four tools have been the most useful for me; Buffer, Latergramme, Hootsuite and Meet Edgar. So lets meet them.
1. Buffer – Scheduling tool with a great mobile app.
The main advantage of Buffer is that it is simple- it doesn’t have the serious complex nature of other scheduling tools. You don’t have the ability to see/respond to interactions (although no Buffer has release Respond, so you actually can) and I like this about Buffer. The fact that it is used to schedule your content and nothing more!
That is not to say that it is not a powerful tool;
- You can customise posting schedules for each day/week, giving specific times to post
- Add content from RSS feeds
- Schedule posts to:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Facebook Pages (that you are an admin of)
- Facebook Groups (that you are an admin of)
- LinkedIn Profiles
- LinkedIn Pages
- Pinterest
- Take images from URL’s (so you don’t need to upload them yourself)
- Connect your Bit.ly, j.amp, or use Buffers built in shortening (or no shortening).
Buffer also comes with a chrome extension that can be used to set up posts directly to the specific channels straight from your browser!
2. Latergram.me – Pre-load Instagram posts
Latergramme is a pre-loading app which allows you to select a time and date for an Instagram post. You can load the picture, the text and the #’s into the main body of the gram. Latergramme will then notify you when the post is due to go out. It will then open Instagram with the image and you will be able to paste the text.
You can use Latergramme to pre-load grams on both a mobile App and on a desktop- the notifications still come through to your mobile and are posted through it.
3. Hootsuite – Scheduling, tracking and replying
Hootsuite, like Buffer is used to schedule messages onto social media platforms. Unlike Buffer Hootsuite also offers you a host of added benefits, such as hashtag/keyword tracking and you can even reply from within Hootsuite.
You can schedule into the following channels:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Google+ (profiles only)
- LinkedIn
- YouTube
- Instagram
- Foursquare
- WordPress
Some work better than others (in my opinion), however the ‘core’ platforms; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn all work really well. Hootsuite also works as pre-loading tool for Instagram (in the same fashion as Latergramme).
Hootsuite also carries an impressive score of analytics (although this man’s opinion is that the built in analytics are good enough for most).
The only downside of Hootsuite (again my opinion) is that it tries to be too many things, whereas Buffer is designed to be a scheduling tool.
4. Meet Edgar – content reposting and scheduling of content: Twitter and Facebook
This is a new one for me, but Meet Edgar basically allows you to re-purpose existing content. So if you have a new blog post- you don’t just post about it once, you post about it multiple times. This is the power of Meet Edgar. You create a library of posts, which you categorise. For example:
- Blog Posts
- Inspirational Quotes
- Industry Information
- Sales Posts
Within the schedule of Meet Edgar you then choose your day and time, then you select what type of post to be posted. For example:
- Monday 9am- Blog Post
- Monday 12pm – Sales Post
- Monday 5pm – Blog Post
- Tuesday 11am – Industry Information
- Wednesday 1pm – Blog Post
- Wednesday 7pm- Inspirational Quote
Edgar will select a post from each category selected- so in the example of Monday it will post two different library blog posts and a sales post. Edgar also cycles through the blog post category (from the libarary) and would only post the same post once ALL over blog posts type posts have been posted.
This means that you can use Edgar to constantly cycle through a massive library of pre-made posts for Facebook and Twitter.
