Got an online business? Does your work involve social media management? Going on holiday or want to focus on something else for a while? Or maybe you just want to spend less time on social media? Wouldn’t it be great if you could automate your social media management?

Well you can! I’m not just talking about linking your Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts so one post is automatically sent on all platforms. You can send 3 completely different messages if you want…Intrigued?

Welcome to the 21st century where you can automate pretty much everything.

What and how can you automate?

 

At the time you are reading this, I am nowhere near my laptop. In fact I’m nowhere near home. I’m in Wales visiting friends. No I’m not using my smartphone to post this either. In fact this post was written on Sunday 21st (and edited on Saturday the 26th).

The trick is that after I wrote it, I did not click ” Publish” but “Schedule” and I picked the scheduled date as today’s date, September 29th at 8 am GMT.

That’s the beauty of WordPress! But you can schedule on other platforms too.

You can schedule Facebook posts right on Facebook.

For Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIN, I have experimented with social management tools. The advantage with those is that you can manage several if not all your social media in one place.

You can use Social Oomph, Hootsuite or IFTTT

If you are looking to do this for free,Hootsuite  or IFTTTare the most comprehensive.

All it takes is to sign up for a free account, link your social media, take some time to create some posts and schedule them to go out at a date and time of your choosing.

 

Why automate?

 

The benefits of social media automation are that:

1. Your social media use becomes more intentional, therefore less time-consuming.
2. You can post at peak times for any country,  even during your sleep.
3. You can easily test which are the best times for you to post.

However, I have yet to find social management tools allowing to schedule Youtube or Instagram posts out. If you have, feel free to share!

 

To take things further, have a look at Brendon Burchard’s take on social automation and specifically on how to stop technology and social media take over our lives (and why)

Reflect,  Redefine,  Rise!

R.