Do you ever feel overwhelmed with creating a new post for each of your social media accounts every day? Perhaps you find that you don’t have the time because you need to finish a deadline-sensitive project or you have a case of writer’s block, and you ultimately end up posting something that you nor your readers care about.
These two tools can help you manage your social media posts days, weeks or months in advance so you can stay on top of your social media game.
- HootSuite: this scheduling tool allows you to upload posts from multiple networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare and Google+. You can post updates and reply directly from the platform—no more keeping 10 tabs open for all your social media pages! The software includes tracking and data analytics features to help you gauge post reach, engagement and other audience data. HootSuite also has a mobile app for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry to help you schedule and analyze posts on-the-go. HootSuite costs $14.99 per month to use or $9.99 per month if you pay yearly.
- Edgar: you can consider this your “social media recycling tool.” Edgar allows you to create a library of social media posts for Facebook and Twitter that can be randomly posted or recycled on a weekly, biweekly, monthly or annual basis. For example, let’s say you run a restaurant’s social media and have a “Friday Fish Fry” or “Tuesday Extended Happy Hour” every week. Instead of creating a new Facebook and Twitter post every week, you can simply write one post that Edgar will post for you every Friday or Tuesday. Edgar costs $49.00 per month for the starter plan, which allows you to connect 10 social media accounts and queue up to 1,000 posts. Although pricier than HootSuite, Edgar gives you two months free if you pay for an annual plan.
Which one is for me? Restaurants and other retailers that may have weekly, monthly or seasonal promotions that use the same (or very similar) Facebook/Twitter posts on a semi-regular basis will love Edgar, but for everyday unique posting, HootSuite will be your tool of choice.