Everyone deserves a break once in a while, right? But what happens when you want to take a break from Social Media but your marketing can’t? You automate!
By automating I don’t mean “set-it and forget-it.” What I do mean is taking advantage of some of the wildly useful and easy tools that are designed specifically to make your Social Media efforts a little easier. And, most of them are free!
For Twitter I love Hootsuite. Hootsuite is free if you have only one account per platform, which is the case unless you are managing numerous accounts. Even then, the cost is negligible. You can also use Hootsuite for Facebook and LinkedIn (Linkedin doesn’t have it’s own scheduling function, which is a bit weird, right?).
A runner-up to Hootsuite (and many people’s favorite) is TweetDeck. Both Hootsuite and TweetDeck lay our your newsfeeds in a well-organized way that makes it uber easy to manage them. I stopped using TweetDeck a few years ago because I had to manually switch from one profile to another, and that made it too easy for me to accidentally post on the wrong account (careers have been ruined by that kind of error).
Buffer is worth checking out, too. Buffer posts your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn updates at the most optimal times based upon an algorithm to get you the best visibility. I know a lot of folks who use Hootsuite to manage their profiles and pages, and Buffer for scheduling.
For Facebook, I use Facebook’s own scheduling tool. It’s super easy and the best part is that you can actually see what your post will look like before it’s published (I’m a bit obsessive about that, and that’s why I don’t schedule my Facebook updates on Hootsuite).
Pinterest doesn’t have it’s own scheduling tool, but many pinners use PinGraphy. On Instagram, there doesn’t seem to be a scheduler, either (if I’m wrong about that let me know), but there are two tools that look pretty good: Schedugram and Latergram that let you schedule your images.
A newcomer to the automation world is a platform that I’m experimenting with called Edgar. Edgar’s not your ordinary scheduling tool in that it enables you to keep a library of your posts (for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) and then queue them up, as you like. So far, I’m liking it!
Of course, if you want to go the fully automated route with your website, blog, email and Social Media content you can do that, too. Hubspot’s the clear leader here with a robust platform that enables you to nurture your leads. Hubspot requires you to host your website on their platform and a full commitment from your entire team is necessary in order to get the most out of it.
Pre-scheduling and automation lets you breathe easy knowing that your fans and followers are still getting your valuable content while you’re partying away with your family or just taking a rest for a few days. You’ll still need to check-in at least once a day to stay engaged and respond to comments and questions, though.
Are you using an automation tool, and would you suggest it?
