Writers, designers, photographers, retailers. Everyone needs a social media presence in order to build an audience of loyal consumers. But there’s a reason why companies sell social media marketing services; it’s HARD! You have to maintain consistency with posting, have creative content that catches people’s eye, use all the right hashtags. The list keeps going, and it’s all in addition to the function of you or your company.
I’ve been working on mine for years and am still trying to figure it out. Luckily for me, and you, various platforms are making it easier to schedule ahead so you’re not staring at the clock with your finger poised on your mouse. Some websites do exist to interface with multiple platforms, so I’ll go over a few of these as well so you know what you’re getting into. Hopefully this dispells some anxiety about the world of social media marketing.
My Personal Experience…
Since writing an article about marketing on Instagram, I’ve learned a lot and expanded my reach in regards to my online presence. I post on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter under the same username every day of the week except Tuesday and Thursday. On a good day, I spend maybe four hours scheduling posts for the entire week. On most occasions I spend 30 minutes scheduling the next day’s post. I have collections of hashtags based on the day and post that I can copy and paste with the caption. I don’t pay for any social media marketing help and I ignore accounts that try to sell me on posting my content to their followers for a price. Don’t utilize ads either; I don’t have a book to sell yet.
Reason I give this inside scoop is so you have a framework of how I process the following options. For me, I like to post things on time. Scheduling is huge for me because I want to set it up and forget about it (I have better things to do than sit on social media all day). I’m working on getting a steady income, but social media accessories are low on my spending priorities, especially since the platforms themselves are free. An easy interface is vital so I can spend more time on the post content.
The less time I have to spend on social media, the better. Which is partly why I’m prioritizing my newsletter more now. For me, my newsletter is an opportunity to connect more directly with fans of my writing and share more about my life and opinions. Social media is a quick snapshot, but a weekly email opens the opportunity for conversation, collaboration, and general fun. All for free.
Ingrained Scheduling
Speaking of free, social media platforms have systematically added the ability to schedule posts within their system. No extra cost except your time. And perhaps a few extra tasks on your marketing checklist.
LinkedIn has recently added a delightful little clock to its post icons. This clock allows you to schedule the day and time of your post with the timezone determined by your location. The posts that can be scheduled vary. If you just type up a quirky message with some hashtags, you’re good. If you want a visual attached, you can only have one picture. No carousel or video yet. Clicking the clock will show you what posts can be scheduled as it will prevent you from changing the timing. Something else I discovered is that the clock only appears when I go to make a post while in the home page, not on my profile. If you want to see what’s been scheduled, clikc the clock and go to “view scheduled posts.” This feature is rather new, so hopefully more will get added.
Pinterest works similarly but it has more leeway. Within your business dashboard on Pinterest, there’s a tab that says “create.” Select “Create Pin” and you’ll find all the makings for a post. Videos and images can be scheduled up to 3 weeks in advance. Carousels aren’t available, but you can choose to do a collage. After selecting a board and adding a caption and URL, go to the very bottom of the post creator. Two radio buttons sit there, giving you the option to post immediately or schedule for later. When you hit “schedule for later,” you’ll have the opportunity to pick a day and time. If you need to delete a post or publish early, go to your profile and there’ll be a bar of scheduled posts under your name that you can click into and make adjustments.
Twitter, now X, has way more functionality. Carousels, text. I haven’t tried videos, but I’m sure it would work. After hitting “post” and creating your post, click on the calendar icon that has a little clock. You can pick the day and precise time you desire. And by precise, I mean 6:42pm. Hit schedule and you’re good. If you want to make changes, hit “post” and click on “Unsent Posts” at the top right. The only thing to watch out for is your character count; there’s a little progress bar at the bottom that goes red when you’ve used too many letters.
Meta Business Suite
Left Facebook and Instagram for last because scheduling these powerhouses requires a completely different site. Thanks to Meta owning both media platforms, you can easily schedule Facebook and Instagram posts simultaneously via their business suite.
The dashboard is very intuitive despite the amount of features such as analytics, comments, and so on. Free to Facebook and Instagram users, just log into your accounts via the site and you get access to all the data you could desire. When scheduling posts, you can sync the two accounts so the posts are exactly the same or unsync them so you can vary the caption for each platform. Posts, reels, and stories can be handled on the website.
If you’re waiting for the downside, here it is: you can’t schedule Instagram reels. Within the phone app, you can save reel drafts and then post them around the time you want. If you make the video in the business suite though, you’ll have to post immediately.
RECENT UPDATE: You can now schedule reels on Instagram!! Within the Meta Suite, you can schedule Facebook and Instagram reels. I suggest uploading a thumbnail image as you can’t adjust what the Instagram feed grabs as a thumbnail.
Jetpack
Quickly mentioning Jetpack because it’s a predownloaded feature in WordPress that actually allows you to post to social media. The plugin has multiple features available for free, but you only get 30-50 social posts as a trial.
The way it works is you connect your social media accounts to Jetpack. Once complete, write a post in WordPress and either publish immediately or schedule. Before your post actually goes into the world, a final check will appear on your dashboard. Social posting will be an option with a small preview and area for adding a personal caption/hashtags. Every time I did it, the image was my logo rather than the feature image on my site.
More options could be provided with the premium version. Still, the only real bonus to Jetpack is scheduling social and blog at once and not designing a completely separate post. A post through Jetpack also has a link to your site so you don’t have to remember to add it in a comment or what not. The downside would be having less control of what content Jetpack pulls automatically from your site. The image dimensions might not work for Instagram or be enticing enough on Pinterest.
For $10/month, it might be worth it. It depends on what your business/blog is and what you want to accomplish on social media.
Hootsuite
In the days when Pinterest didn’t have a scheduling feature and Meta Business Suite was still being developed, I used Hootsuite. The cartoony owl and his well-formatted planner made it easy to schedule posts across all three platforms well in advance. Again, simply connect your accounts and you have access to basic statistics and the ability to create posts.
Not the prettiest platform in the bunch, but it worked for what I needed. Hootsuite only allowed a single photo to be posted on Pinterest, and at that time Reels didn’t exist yet. The capabilities for Pinterest are still very limited, but I know the program has been updating for all the changes.
Number one downside is their free version is kaput. Guess the influx of scehduling programs and marketers was cutting into their bottom line, so they decided to have paid subscriptions only with free trials. The upside has to be the ability to post far into the future on sites that don’t have the capability on their own. I personally think the site had issues as its analytics feeds never seemed to work for Instagram and FaceBook. The editing tab also irritated me from a formatting perspective. Still, I’m sure there are those who love Hootsuite.
I just don’t know why anyone would spend $99/month for it.
Planable.io
I recently discovered Planable while trying to find a replacement for Hootsuite. If I had money, I’d definitely pay for it because their simplistic system was easy to use and very versatile. I primarily used it for Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter, though I considered pulling in Instagram and Facebook as well.
Reason why? You can schedule reels.
Less precision than if you created a reel in Instagram and could choose how it looked in your feed, but still an ability I didn’t have before. Carousels are easily scheduled on Pinterest and LinkedIn. While designing your post, you can unsync the platforms in order to throw hashtags in one and a URL in another. Seamless operation, easy interface.
I thought I hit the jackpot until I realized my free account only allowed me 50 posts in all. Not per month, in all. Basically a free trial, but it won’t ask for payment when your time’s up. I’d say it’s worth the money, though I’d rather post individually and keep track with an excel sheet. Still, the days of Planable were wonderful. Perfect for a coordinated team of marketers or a one-man team wanting to make life easier.
Rather cheap too since it’s $11/month for each user. Obviously it adds up, but for a one-man band… Not too shabby.
Final Thoughts: You CAN Market Yourself on Social Media
It seems impossible, but it isn’t. Marketing yourself just requires a little effort and brain power. I’m currently jumping from platform to platform, scheduling posts and checking off boxes with a green highlighter. It’s not ideal and definitely not pretty, but it works for me. For now.
Whether it’s Planable, Jetpack, or even Canva (I haven’t tried it), there is a way for you to take control of your social media presence. Passing a couple bucks to a marketer isn’t bad, but I don’t want you to give up because it’s hard. Push through the uncertainty and complications and you’ll find practices and programs that work for you.
