I admit, I haven’t been good at scheduling social media posts lately. But, in my defense, the tools I’d been using (Planable, Fedica) didn’t connect to all my networks or had issues, and frankly it just took way too much brain power between trying to figure out what to post, making images, and then managing the tech. Now before I go into the platform I use, I want to talk a bit about why you need a scheduler.
Good Reasons Why You Need to Schedule Social media
- It saves time. If you schedule it (I currently schedule in 4 day blocks) it saves time because you do it at once and then it’s done. Also, it helps you plan for the various marketing points that come up with your books.
- It creates a consistent online presence. We all know algorithms suck, but if you post consistently, even if it’s just once or twice a day, then you start to feed the algorithm.
- I’ve already mentioned the algorithm sucks, but it gives you content to boost. There’s no shame in boosting your own content (resharing, especially on platforms like bluesky or the fediverse).
- You can experiment with times to post. (I don’t do this much, but if you’re really into it, go for it!)
- It works while you do other things. Yes, I’ve talked about it saving time, but it’s reassuring to know content is being posted even when you’re doing other stuff.
What I’m using now
I saw a Facebook ad. I know. I get it. We don’t buy things from Facebook ad, but when I asked if they were doing Bluesky integration (It’s coming within a few months I’m told.) and the support has been really good. It was $47 lifetime and you could put up to 8 accounts (and it didn’t matter how many pages on what platform, so since I am no longer using Threads, etc.,) and for an additional $67, up to 15. I admit, I’m pushing that, but it is so nice to have all my social media in one place.
Their website is paddypost.com (and no that’s not an affiliate link), and I encourage authors to check it out. It’s been a game changer for me and has made scheduling social media so much easier.
How does this help multiple pen names?
So I get it, when you write two genres that shouldn’t be connected, you may not want everything all in one place. But as long as you’re careful where you send your posts for scheduling, I think it simplifies things because I don’t have to keep multiple different social media schedulers and try to remember what goes where. It just takes the guess work out of things.
Obviously you’ll have to choose what works for you, and for some authors, I am sure that keeping things separate will help. But I also think that a lot of social media schedulers charge way too much or don’t go to all the platforms, so wanted to mention one that seems to be able to do what needs to be done and does so reasonably.
Because let’s face it, the world may be on fire, but we still have to market our books.
