Post Planner Puts the Fun Back in Social Media

Was fun ever in there? Who knows. In any case, I'll admit it: I enjoy social media but find it occasionally stressful managing OPSM (Other People's Social Media). What should I post? When? How often?

You know what I mean? And on my personal accounts it's often the same. If you know me at all, though, you know I really don't manage my personal accounts. I abuse them. 

The Abuse May Be Ending, However...

...at least on Facebook. Because I am falling in love with Post Planner. Before Post Planner, I very carefully scheduled Facebook posts manually within Facebook, keeping a paper-based (I know! Travesty in this digital age.) log of what kind of post and when it was posted. I carefully sized photos manually, too, making sure they were correct for optimum Facebook presentation. (Yes, this is a pain in the you-know-what.)

And the worst part was that after all that work, with the way Facebook can be nowadays, who knows who even saw anything I posted? 

Well. I'm not ready to ditch Hootsuite anytime soon for posting to Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. For ease of scheduling to multiple platforms, Hootsuite rocks. 

There's Something About Facebook

The Facebook News Feed is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. A recent article by Kevan Lee over on Buffer gives a comprehensive rundown of the nuances within the algorithm and great tips for how to best post to Facebook.

As mentioned by Kevan, over one billion videos are watched on Facebook daily. Most (76%) of people in the US say they "tend to discover videos on Facebook". Facebook is still relevant, and more-and-more, it's a place people go to do two things:

• Stay in touch with friends
• Keep up with the news

Facebook Pages can get lost in that mix. Usually, they're not "friends" of the people who like them, and usually they're not reporting news either. Finding that sweet spot of what to post, when and how often is where Post Planner comes in.

What to Post

The secret sauce in Post Planner answers the "What to Post?" question. A delightful article by Ileane Smith details some of the best things about Post Planner from about a year ago. One thing she added in was the dovetailing of finding content over on Buzzsumo to find great content and then schedule it in over on Post Planner.

Within Post Planner itself, though, is great content just waiting to be shared. You can actually look for viral photos, filter them in different useful ways, and then in one click, boom, schedule them into your different pages. You can even click a button that says "Queue" which adds that photo directly into the list of scheduled posts. Incredible.

Or how about this? You know how important trending articles are to the Facebook algorithm? Well, what if you could find trending content in your niche  filtered by time and then, in one click, add it to your scheduled posts?

And wouldn't it be great if you could find content that you have shared that has done well, and then reschedule it to post again at an appropriate time? You can do this, too! A quick 4-step process finds evergreen content and then requires it indefinitely until you stop it.

And, though this is not official, a little bird told me that there will be Feedly integration in the near future. And you all know how much I love Feedly, and apparently so do you since this post is fairly popular. An integration of Feedly plus Post Planner would be a match made in heaven. I can't wait.

When & How Often to Post

With Post Planner, that's easy. The whole thing is wrapped in this easy-to-use scheduling matrix that offers photo posts, link posts and status updates options at various pre-determined times for each day of the week including optional separate times for weekends. 

As far as how often to post, Scott Ayers helpfully said that you should see what works best for you. And I mean it when I say "helpfully". I noticed that there is a huge variation in how often one can post, and I think it is a wonderfully honest answer to say that you should just see what works best for you. Guy Kawasaki is a fan of posting often, but others have noticed a bit of a backlash when posting too frequently. Post Planner gives the ease of changing how often to post and that is a major plus.

What About EdgeRank?

There was some kerfuffle a while back about losing EdgeRank when posting from third party apps to Facebook. At the time, Post Planner, as an app within Facebook, had a major advantage over third party apps.

Recently, however, the consensus is that there is no impact on Facebook EdgeRank when posting from third party apps. In fact, what most people are saying is that the app isn't the problem. You are. In other words, don't post spammy crappy stuff whether you do it from a third party app or right there on Facebook itself. It's the spammy crappy content that Facebook doesn't like. And, humans that we are, third party apps and the slight distancing they provide give us more opportunity to post crap. Don't do it.

What About Twitter & Post Planner?

It's true that you can post to Twitter with Post Planner, and there is a good chance that I will begin to use it soon. However, for the time being, I am finding it easier to use HootSuite for Twitter. There are solid analytics-at-a-glance built in, it is easy to search for keywords and hashtags, and much easier to stay social within HootSuite - reply to people, message people, retweet and do all those things that keep Twitter activity tweeting.

Still, my feeling is that Post Planner is on a mission at the moment, and I am going to be watching them carefully for new innovations and upgrades. I may very well be posting to Twitter via Post Planner in a few months.

Other Features of Post Planner

There are quite a few little treats within Post Planner that make it fun and a huge time saver. At a glance, these include:

• Creating and posting to lists you create. If you manage several accounts and sometimes want to post to all of them, you can create lists and post to the list. Handy.
• Creating folders of content you want to post. You don't have to rely on Post Planner's content. You can create folders and populate them with URLs of content you would like to post from.
• Ideas for status updates. This will be less and less helpful, as posting photos and links are much better than simply posting a text-only status update to Facebook. However, if you've ever been at a loss for words and just could not think of another thing to say on your page...Post Planner offers some helpful ideas to get the juices flowing again.
• Access to Canva. This one is a bit clunkier than helpful, but I can see how it would come in handy sometimes. You can find a quote you like, for example, then quickly use Canva to brand it and then send it to your queue. All within Post Planner.
• Audience targeting. Wow. Yes. Post Planner allows you to target your posts to a certain demographic, for example. This is awesome for Facebook. (again, not as essential for Twitter.)
• Brand your link posts with their Sharebar. This feature is just brilliant. Add your branding to link posts, and you are being a mensch and you're being smart and spreading the word about your brand. (Being a mensch refers to Peg Fitzpatrick and Guy Kawasaki's book "The Art of Social Media"

What Do You Think?

Is Post Planner something you use? Do you use it for Twitter and Facebook or just for Facebook? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Filed in // Social Media Marketing