Social Media Planning Made Easy With CoSchedule
Planning your social media promotion has become as important as your content. Learn how you can make things easier with CoSchedule.
There are things that only bloggers understand about blogging. One of them is how much time it takes to write one single post. Depending on your niche, even before you sit down in front of the computer, you have to at least:
- do research
- buy tools and ingredients
- cook/sew/knit/draw etc
- take or find pictures
- edit images
It all takes a lot of time. And then, the writing process begins with the outline and the content. After spending an equal amount of time editing, your post is ready to be published or scheduled.
Many may think that the work ends here, but they could not be further from the truth…
With the growth of Twitter and Facebook and the arrival of countless other social media platforms, blog promotion became an art itself. In fact, the whole “having at least one nice image on your post” came with Pinterest. Nowadays even if you write about technical subjects, without a pinable image your content is not going too far.
But how can you keep up with everything? Where do you find time to enjoy your blog hobby, keep up with the new platforms and have some life outside the blogosphere?
Plan
The day only has 24 hours and we all have countless things to do during it. Besides, we also need to get some sleep at night. So the only way to make things work is with some planning.
When it comes to blogging, maintaining an editorial calendar helps keeping things in perspective. By determining the subjects you will write about in advance, you know what you have to do and when. You do not need to waste time guessing your next action.
The same goes for promoting your content on the social media. On certain platforms like Instagram, you may feel more comfortable with spontaneous sharing. While for others, it is much more productive to schedule your content beforehand.
[Tweet “Social media planning made easy with @CoSchedule. #planning #blogging”]
Let CoSchedule help you
When it comes to sharing my blog on the social media, CoSchedule is my weapon of choice. Thanks to its built-in WordPress plugin, I can start planning my social media sharing right after scheduling my blog post. Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Tumblr are all available at once without me even leaving my content’s page.
Having it all in one place helps me stay in control of my social media promotion and save time. Once CoSchedule is planned for a new post as well as for evergreen content, all my main platforms have been covered.
How it works
You have a great idea and you write an awesome post. After installing the WordPress plugin, you will see the CoSchedule right below your content. From there you can start planning your social media sharing.
The plugin suggests a basic schedule that includes sharing your content on the same day, the day after, one week after and one month after the post’s publishing date. You have also the option to set up custom date(s).
You can pick one of the 3 time intervals available on a dropdown list or assign one of your preference. If you are using the Buffer integration, you can plan your promotion on it as well. Once it is planned, you do not need to worry about it anymore.
You can schedule as many updates as you want on different platforms. For example, you will probably want to schedule various Tweets throughout the day. For Facebook however, you may go for a less frequent approach.
Evergreen content
On CoSchedule calendar, you have the “Top Posts” tab. There you find your posts that have been shared on the social media the most. This feature helps deciding what evergreen content you want to share again and on which platform.
Resharing evergreen content allows your new readers get in content with your best posts. It is also great for entries related to specific holidays and events. For example, with The CrossFit Games starting today, I want to remind my readers that I have written about my experience discovering CrossFit. I am sure that my tribe will find it interesting since I also explain some basic CF terms among other things.
CoSchedule the Debbie in Shape style
Because it is a flexible tool, there are many ways you can use CoSchedule to plan your social media content sharing. The way I use it is very simple.
My favorite features
CoSchedule has been a key tool in the growth of Debbie in Shape. It has helped me free time to post more frequently and reach more readers. Aside the great content sharing, it has other features that I also love, such as:
- drag and drop
- post search
- social media and content sharing
[Tweet “Social media #planning can take time, but not if you use @CoSchedule. #blogging”]
Drag and Drop
As it says, you can rearrange your posts just by dragging and dropping them on another day.
I take into consideration how spread are my topics. I do want to to have too many “Geek” posts and too little “Fitness” on the same week, for instance. I do balanced through my editorial calendar. Still, I can also rearrange social sharing on a later date without having to open the original content.
Post Search
I will use again the example of my CrossFit post. I could have used the search on WordPress to retrieve. In this case, I would have to open it and planning the new promotion on the post’s page. Instead, I searched for it on CoSchedule calendar. Not only it was fast, but I did not need to open the post either. I went straight to what I needed: my social queue.
It may sound all simple, but remember that it is not the only thing you have to do for your blog. If you can save a couple of minutes with each evergreen content you want to reshare, it is a great deal.
Social Media and Content Sharing
It is easy to think only of posts when you think CoSchedule. However, you can also plan other kind of social media content that is not necessarily a blog entry.
If you manage a Facebook group, you may find this option useful. And if you choose for CoSchedule‘s marketing plans, you will also enjoy the Google Drive and Evernote integrations.
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The guys from CoSchedule are always working to improve their tool. One way to learn about its newest features is by following their blog. I also recommend that you participate in the #CoChat Twitter chat every Thursday.
How do you do the planning of your social media promotion?
Read also from the Planning Series:
- How You Can Make It Work For You
- What If Time Is Not On Your Side?
- How To Plan Your Life Without Losing Your Soul
Please check the list of link parties I join here.
Keep on planning!
#DebbieinShape
* You can also find me on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DebbieInShape
Instagram: http://instagram.com/debbieinshape
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DebbieInShape
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/debbieinshape/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+DebbieRodriguesPlus/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Debbieinshape/ (em português)
Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. However, when you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Thank you, in advance for your support!
