Introduction
Welcome back to the Coaching Hive Podcast!
Social media. It brings about various thoughts, feelings, and actions when you say that word. You want to be consistent and focused on the right things in your business. You want to grow your audience, build trust, and explore different ways of talking with your potential customers.
If you are going to do that you need to make sure your message gets out there even if you have an unexpectedly ill child, you oversleep, or decide to take a day off.
This is where scheduling tools come in handy. The problem is that none of us are “on” all the time. We all have off days, times when we want to step away for a break, or just plain run out of time. Knowing that you still have social media to get out there can leave you feeling boxed in and worried that the load will never lighten.
Let’s talk about lightening the load today. If you are ready, grab a pen and paper and let’s jump in!
Social Media Scheduling Tools
I believe that entrepreneurs should not have to be tied to their computers every waking moment of the day, or even every day of the week. When you have all the experts telling you to be consistent with your social media presence, it feels like being untethered even part of the time is simply not doable.
I understand and have felt the same way. I mean, who wants to commit to posting at 8am and 7pm every single day of the year? At the very least, I want to take off my birthday!
So can we have our cake and eat it too?
Absolutely!
You can be consistent with your social media without being tied to your computer every single day of the year without fail. In fact, the easiest way to do this is to use a scheduling tool.
Now are scheduling tools the end all, be all?
Absolutely not!
What it means is that you have a little flexibility.
Before we jump into the different options for scheduling your social media posts, let’s talk about the flexibility piece.
The general rule of thumb is that when you post, you should stick around and interact with the platform, be it LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or some other platform. Take 15 minutes to comment on other posts, reply to comments on your posts and show the platform that you are present.
When you do this, the platform is going to choose to show your content more than people who simply use a scheduling tool and never login to comment and show they are active.
Ok, so that it my little spiel on being active. Now if you miss some days that is ok. All will be well, but you do want to make sure that you are getting in there and getting active.
I highly recommend that even if you plan to be in the platform at a specific time each day you still use a scheduling tool because it takes out the risk of something coming up or getting in the way. Plus it means that you can get to interacting that much faster!
Scheduling Tools
There are a variety of paid and free scheduling tools out there for social media. Some are platform specific and others will do everything for you. The most robust ones usually cost the most per month, but you can accomplish everything all in one place.
Let’s start with the most obvious option – Meta Business Suite
Meta Business Suite
Meta Business Suite is the free, native tool for scheduling Facebook and Instagram posts and stories. Having used Meta Business Suite for scheduling, I’ll be the first to admit that it takes getting used to. It takes patience to learn how to use it properly and more patience when the interface changes.
But, the calendar GUI makes scheduling posts quite nice. It can simplify the process if you are a visual person. I like to see when things are scheduled and what platform they are on. It just keeps things a little easier for me.
I will say that you have to pay attention and make sure you have checked the correct account to post to. I can’t tell you how many times I have been trying to schedule for one platform and just didn’t think to check what was marked.
Luckily it isn’t too hard to change little mixups. And the best part is that it is free.
Social Curator
Another option for scheduling social media posting is the membership platform Social Curator. We talked in depth about Social Curator’s features and benefits in last week’s episode, number 85. If you haven’t listened to it yet, be sure to catch up when you finish listening here.
If you were listening last week, I told you that you could create your posts – caption and picture right inside Social Curator. As of very recently you can now also schedule your posts as you write them. You can connect a Facebook and Instagram account to Social Curator. This is a great option if these are your main posting platforms. You won’t be able to respond to comments directly from Social Curator, but it does take out a step for you because you can schedule as you create. If you find that the hardest part is going between platforms, taking your carefully created posts and then pasting/uploading somewhere else, this is a great option. And if you are already using Social Curator, then it just makes sense to go ahead and post from there.
In addition, Social Curator has an app that you can post from your phone. This is a nice feature. If you create your drafts and want to be on live when you post so that you can interact right away. You can go ahead and post right from your phone and then plan to stick around on Facebook or Instagram for 15-20 minutes interacting with your hashtags and comments as they come in.
Canva
You may have noticed that that top two platforms I’ve just shared only allow you to post to Facebook and Instagram. So what happens if you want to post to LinkedIn?
LinkedIn much prefers that you post in real time, but Canva is a solid option for scheduling your posts. And again, if you already have a paid Canva account, are creating your graphics right there, why not go ahead and schedule your posts?
I like that the Canva interface has a calendar so that you can see when posts will appear. One of the downsides that I’ve struggled with in posting to LinkedIn is the lack of links. When you schedule in Canva, the hyperlink won’t appear in your post, but I do enjoy that I can get it done right there in Canva when I make a graphic.
SmarterQueue
This is a platform that I haven’t had much time to explore, but it was recommended to me by a colleague. They are really responsive with their customer service and you can basically link all of your social profiles here. The downside is that this service is not cheap. The base price, when you pay monthly is $29.99. When you commit to the annual plan, you end up paying about $24.99 per month.
So, not your cheapest solution. This is particularly true if you have more than 4 social profiles that you’d like to post to. Say you have a Facebook profile, a Facebook Group, an Instagram profile, a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter account, and a Pinterest board. You are already at 6 profiles and that will take your price up to $45.99 per month.
I really like the functionality of SmarterQueue as you can evergreen high performing posts, you can create your calendar based on different categories and as the name would suggest you can create an entire queue of posts set to go out. This means that you can batch your content and forget it, if we ignore the fact that each platform algorithm does want you to show up live and interact with the platform when you are posting.
Hypefury
And finally, I want to share just one more option with you and that is HypeFury. Hypefury is something that I’ve just started using. It is one that Justin Welsh recommends. If you didn’t listen to Episode 84 where I review Justin Welsh’s courses, you’ll want to do that soon. The more I dig into those courses, the more I learn!
Back to Hypefury. It also comes with a price tag BUT it also has a free tier that gives you a great opportunity to really test it out. You can link to Gumroad, LinkedIn, Facebook, OnlyFans, and Instagram in Hypefury. One of the things that intrigues me about Hypefury is the ability to set up retweets. Those retweets will then be pulled off of your profile so that you don’t have a lot of duplicate posts. The retweet feature makes sure that you are getting maximum exposure for your posts. We all know how fast Twitter moves!
You can also set up your Tweets to auto post additional content when your post gets to a certain number of views.
This is a platform that really looks good plus their top tier pricing is $49/month or if you choose an annual plan, $40.83/month. With the capabilities of Hypefury and the capped pricing that is much lower than SmarterQueue I’m going to spend some more time checking out this tool throughout Quarter 4 of the year.
Action Item
This week your action item is to explore social media scheduling tools. With so many free options out there, budget should not be a limitation.
Think about the platforms that you would like to schedule, what your budget might be, and then start exploring. Most paid platforms have free trials. Just remember to be prepared to make the most of the free trial before you sign up! You don’t want to waste those precious days.
I have provided links to all platforms that I talked about in today’s episode in the show notes to make your exploration even easier.
Conclusions
Before we wrap up for today, let’s take a step back and think about this month’s episodes to date. This month we have been talking about social media and the process of getting your posts created and out there. We all know that daily posting can be a time drag, but with a good scheduling tool you can easily get those posts out there and set your phone alarm to go interact without the hassle of tracking down captions and pictures each day.
Next week we are going to take one final look at social media and explore the truth about social media and business. Have you ever asked yourself if social media is even necessary? We will dive into that and more in the next episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast.
If you learned something from this episode, I’d love to see your review so that we can reach more entrepreneurs like you who are trying to grow their business!
That’s all I have for you today. I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful and profitable business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week!
Ready to try out a Scheduling Tool? Use the links* below:
- Meta: https://business.facebook.com
- Social Curator: https://hello.socialcurator.com/a/jP62epj1D6a5i4chLV06
- Canva: https://partner.canva.com/oeM6ym
- SmarterQueue: https://smarterqueue.com/queue
- HypeFury: https://hypefury.com?fpr=moira46
*Links provided may be affiliate links. If you choose to purchase using a link provided above, I may receive a commission that helps me continue offering reviews like this, creating the Coaching Hive Podcast, and supporting entrepreneurs like you who are working to be the Go-To Resource in their industry.
