How often have you sat down to write a social media post and thought “now what do I post?” or at other times has your head has been so full of ideas that you simply can’t post enough to keep up with them?

Do you have a social media plan or ideas bank? It can be great for alleviating those times of writers’ block, or for capturing the great ideas you don’t have time to share right now.

At a basic level it can be useful to create a simple list or spreadsheet of the content you’re creating along with details of when you’re planning to share it, but are you also aware of the variety of tools that are available to help you with scheduling your posts? Using scheduling tools, not only can you organise your ideas and spread out your content, but you can also look like you’re present, even when you’re tucked up having a snooze! (Note: Don’t forget the notes of caution from our previous post about being present on social media!)

Tools are available with various different functions and prices (according to the number of social accounts you wish to link to them and what you need them to do), but we have provided links to 5 current, popular social scheduling tools here:

5 Popular tools for social media scheduling

• Buffer – https://buffer.com/ = The Publish product is available for you to plan and publish content for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn from one dashboard. Other products available include analytics and a collaborative inbox  
• Hootsuite – https://hootsuite.com/en-gb/ = Enables scheduling of posts, curation of posts from multiple members of the team, filtering of conversations by finding and filtering social conversations,
• Content Cal – https://www.contentcal.io/ = A visual calendar for planning and auto-publishing your social media content, you can also check on performance with analytics and handle enquiries with the respond element.
• Meet Edgar – https://meetedgar.com/ = Upload your content and then assign categories to it. Edgar will post from the different categories on the day that you ask “him” to.  Post new content or repeat posts of things you’ve already shared
• Sprout Social – https://sproutsocial.com/ = Described as the all-in-one social media management platform built for connection, this tool covers the areas of analytics, engagement, publishing and listening

Which tools are you using to help you make a great impact on social media?  If you have a particular tool to recommend we’d love to hear from you – we (and others) might want to try it too!

There are lots of tools out there to help with your social media, but we’re also here too.  Whether you have a query about writing your strategy or developing an organic or paid advertising campaign our experts are here to help, just give us a call today to learn more about how we can ensure your voice is heard on social channels.

Acknowledgements

Photo by Ahmad Ossayli on Unsplash

Photo by Emma Matthews on Unsplash

Links for 5 popular social media tools are provided in the main article above (Please note: There are other tools available and it is important to select the correct one according to your individual budget and requirements)