The Pros and Cons of Social Media Schedulers
In this week’s email, I’m going to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of using social media schedulers to post your content. I’ve used many different tools in the past and recently I ran a little experiment to test my assumptions of scheduling LinkedIn content. I’ll also discuss Publer - the new kid on the block - with an incredible lifetime plan offer that I picked up myself (Not sponsored).
One thought: Should we schedule our content? 💡
Like most of us, I upload all content natively to LinkedIn which means I log in on my laptop or phone and hit post. I plan all my content in advance, so usually, I just log into Notion to take the text or I have the text pre-saved on the notes app on my phone and I post it in a matter of seconds.
If this takes seconds, why would you want to schedule content? Good question. If you are posting content every single day, or you post content across platforms then the time spent does compound. I’m trying to preserve my mornings for 2-3 hours of deep focus on tasks that will move the needle. I know it sounds small, but jumping into LinkedIn to hit post can sometimes distract me entirely and then I’m on reactive mode for the rest of the day.
Additionally, posting content at the optimal times for your audience is really important, and scheduling your content can ensure you are always posting your content at the best time. It’s small factors like this which over the course of weeks, months and years will dramatically have an impact. Scheduling content can be a set-and-forget option that enables you to maintain your focus on high-leverage tasks.
The current climate of LinkedIn
So why do I still upload content manually? I have two main reasons:
1) LinkedIn’s algorithm takes into consideration early engagement, meaning you need to be replying to comments on your content in the first hour of it being posted. If I were to schedule content, I’d still log in any way to engage with my audience.
2) Content posted through a social media scheduler usually receives reduced reach, despite the management tools saying content is uploaded natively just like it would be if it were done manually.
I couldn’t find a clear answer anywhere if content is in fact impacted from posting through schedulers, so I thought I’d take one for the team and test this myself!
Here are two posts both posted on a Friday at the same time (1-week apart), the posts are similar in style and I would normally expect to see fairly similar engagement:
Posted without a scheduler
Posted with a scheduler
The Results
The first thing that was obvious to me, was that the scheduled post didn’t receive any likes or comments in the first 45 minutes of the content being posted! At this point, I nearly pulled the post and uploaded it again manually.
My typical metrics of success are normally how many comments a post receives (people stopping in their day to interact), the quality of comments (did it really help anyone) and how many direct messages I get (this doesn’t always happen, but when it does, I triple down on posting more content like it).
So after almost an hour of ZERO engagement, I did feel a bit nervous and I was wondering what was going on. The post went out at my desired time and it was formatted perfectly… weird. The engagement did eventually start to happen, thankfully, and here are the results (Manual vs. Scheduled):
59 vs. 23 likes (61% decrease)
35 vs. 19 comments (46% decrease)
5039 vs. 2558 views (49% decrease)
Wow. The scheduled post received half the views and the likes and comments were significantly hit too. As a result of this outcome - a very small experiment - I will continue to post my content manually onto LinkedIn. But this might not always be the case and I’ll test this again in a few months time.
When should we use schedulers?
PROS
Save time
Manage multiple profiles and pages in one place
Crossposting - post content easily across platforms
Easily collaborate in a team to publish content
Post content in your sleep - great for different timezones
CONS
Social media platforms appear to reduce the reach of content
Schedulers can be expensive the more profiles you need to manage
Only the most expensive plans allow you to reply to comments on your posts
Content schedulers can be limited by the APIs of social media platforms
Every social media platform is different and I would encourage you to consider your own situation when evaluating using a scheduler. For example, as Twitter has a chronological feed, you need to post several times a day for your business or personal content to be seen. If you’re creating content on Twitter I would say scheduling content is a no brainer. It can become too much to do manually.
I think the most important thing to remember is that social media platforms are businesses. They make money when you spend time on the platform as you are consuming adverts. It’s in their best interest for you to log on to the platform and to spend time there. It would make sense for the reach of content to be reduced.
As mentioned earlier, in some circumstances and on some platforms, using a scheduler makes the most sense and can provide the best results. Here’s one I’d recommend!
Publer
I’ve used Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social in my time as a social media marketer. Buffer and Hootsuite both have free plans, which are limited, but are a good starting point to try scheduling content for yourself.
I love Noah Kagan and his business AppSumo provides deals on software and tools. I hadn’t heard of Publer before, but I saw a Lifetime offer running on AppSumo where you can get Publer at the moment for a one-off price of $39 (£32).
Considering Hootsuite’s cheapest paid plan is £25/month, this sounded like a bargain. Whilst Publer is early in its roadmap, this Lifetime plan is a discount of their ‘Argentum’ plan, which includes 30 accounts and 3 team members that would usually cost $57/month.
Looking at Publer’s roadmap, they have big ambitions to rival Hootsuite and are adding new features regularly. Most schedulers are limited to what the platform allows you to do, for example, no third-party tool can currently schedule video content for LinkedIn as their API is limited. If Publer does become one of the best scheduling tools available, having Lifetime access would be pretty cool!
If you were considering a scheduler and Publer sounds good to you then:
Check out the Lifetime offer here: https://go.shr.lc/2Ci1diY (Referral Link)
Get a further $10 off Publer by signing up to AppSumo with this link: http://fbuy.me/v/joegannon1997_2 (Referral Link)
Content tip of the week 🚀
Post a variety of content! If you only post video content, you’ll start to see a decline in engagement towards the end of the week as your viewers have already spent minutes watching your content. I encourage keeping content fresh, personally I typically post 3 text posts and 2 videos every week and add a carousel in there every now and then!
Articles of the week ✍️
You Are Not Your Thoughts - Matthew Biggins, Medium
Psychologists Explain How to Stop Overthinking - Thomas Oppong, Medium
This Week’s YouTube Video - Subscribe here! 🎥
I’m Joe, a content marketer passionate about personal development and psychology. Every Sunday, I write an email newsletter with 1 thought, 1 content tip and 1 article I’d recommend. Usually, I go over-board and provide a little more 😁
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