Table of Contents
Right on top of my “to-do list” is design a social media marketing campaign. Because my current approach is very haphazard.
So to make it easier on myself, I’ve been on the hunt for a new social media marketing tool.
Updated May 2024 – it was a long time ago that I first published this article, and I STILL haven’t cracked this; mainly because I hate monthy subscriptions.
But now I have found an option with a one-time cost.
Manual or Automated Social Media Posting?
Yes, I know I probably ought to be doing it manually for optimum results, but juggling my offline and online businesses doesn’t leave a lot of time for social media, and I’m pretty fed up of some of the tactics other marketers use on social media. I call them Messenger Pests. Click here to see some of the tactics to beware of.
The bit I enjoy doing, and usually DO find time for, is “Liking, Commenting and Sharing everyone else’s content” – which apparently should be 80% of what you do, so that’s good. But making sure my own promotions go out (ideally no more than 20% of content on social media) tends to lag behind.
I’ve made some great friends on social media – most of whom I’ve never actually met – and I enjoy the social part of it but I have to confess I don’t spending as much time on the engagement side of social media, because I spend too long on the marketing side when doing it manually.
Perhaps YOU feel the same? You enjoy the fun side of social media, but need a way to automate the business side of it, which will leave more time to enjoy the actual interactions, which is really what the point of social media is about!
That’s why I’ve been looking into…..
Automating Social Media Posting
Over a couple of years I’ve tried several of the tools out there that are within the budget of a typical “work from home” entrepreneur. Some I’ve liked and some I’ve struggled with for one reason or another. I’m probably too picky.
Here are some of the methods / plans that I have tried:
- Using Facebook’s inbuilt scheduler – this is the completely free option, but I found it rather fiddly and tme-consuming
- Buffer – my favorite until they “pulled” their beta version of scheduling repeat / evergreen posts (adverts!)
- Hootsuite – many swear by this, but it just wasn’t the user interface for me
- MeetEdgar – honorable mention, but at $49 per month for the starter plan it was a bit steep for me
- Oktopost – I loved this platform when I wrote a review of Oktopost and could kick myself for not signing up at the time when it was affordable. Last time I looked it was outside my price budget.
- Calendy
- Agile
- Sociocaster
- Postcron – I had an account for a while but cancelled for reasons forgotten now!
- PostPlanner – comes recommended by a friend, may have a look at this
- SocialPilot (aff link) – which I’ve recently been testing. See below for how I came across SocialPilot
- ViralDashboard (aff link) – I like this as it was a one time cost. I don’t like subscriptions!
Hate Monthly Subscriptions?
So do I! check out this package, ViralDashboard, which I bought for a one-off cost a while ago, and am pleasantly surprised to find that I still have access to it, and it’s VERY affordable, especially when you compare it to the monthy subscriptions below. (I haven’t published the monthly subscriptions because they tend to change!)
How To Design A Social Media Marketing Campaign
To digress a little… regular readers know I like posting infographics, especially when I’m short of time for my next blog post, which happens all too often these days.
So it was while I was looking for material for this post that I came across SocialPilot, by means of the infographic below!
Checking out the features available in SocialPilot they ticked the box for most of my requirements and I liked the fact that there was a free trial. So I decided to open a trial account, and will be writing more about that in time.
Testing Social Pilot
So, having started out researching how to design a social media marketing campaign, I ended up yet again trialing social media marketing platforms.
Most of those from the list of programs above I have already tried and dismissed, for quirky (or cost) reasons of my own… many others love them.
My own current favorite, after a week of testing, is SocialPilot.
- The user interface is completely intuitive and I got started within minutes – some of those in the list above I still haven’t figured out
- Sharing random info you discover online to your connected accounts is the easiest I’ve ever come across
- Their analytics cover posts made outside of SocialPilot, as well as inside
- Very responsive support team has even been open to suggestions I’ve made for improvements
- There are pricing options to suit all budgets
Bad Points About SocialPilot
At the time of writing this was a very short section, and it may be that some of these features have changed now, but it was more important to me to take an option without a monthlyu subscription.
- The SocialPilot plan may contain fewer RSS feeds (for content discovery / sharing) than you’re used to. To address this problem the development team are looking into extending the list of Recommended Content.
- The content suggestion tool / RSS feed is currently offering up posts I have already shared. This isn’t insurmountable, I’ll just be more careful about dates in future.
- A monthly subscription
I had intended to write a more complete review of SocialPilot this week, but I need to check out a few more features before I give it a 100% recommendation. For the moment, it is my current favorite, so why not open a free account to see what you think? Click the image below or link here: https://joyhealey.com/SocialPilot
Please share in the comments below which is your preferred method of automating social media posts. (IF you automate social media – the best content marketers I know do it manually, which is what the social media providers want you to do!)
Hello Joy,
Great shout here 🙂
Indeed social media is one of the largest platform which ends the boundaries between the peoples. It could be used so effectively that it can boost up our business and establish good relation through out the globe.
Frankly speaking I have never ought to think about leading a social media campaign. I heard that this is so effective in making good relations with our clients and it can help us to turn others in our favor too.
Social pilot looks very promising, learning a lot of social media stratifies along with your post.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Thanks Shantanu,
With all that I have been learning about social media marketing campaigns it’s certainly the way forward and I’ll be getting much more involved in the future.
My review of Social Pilot looking very positive so far.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Hi Joy,
Awesome Post!
Imagine spending as little as 6 hours a week in order to increase your business’s recognition, traffic, and sales with little to no cost. That’s right! About 90% of marketers claimed that social media generated immense exposure for their company, and that’s only one of its many advantages.
Contests and campaigns are the fastest way to increase engagement on social media. While brands may decide to launch social media marketing campaigns for a variety of reasons (i.e., build a robust online community, celebrate a company milestone, launch a new product, etc.) they are ultimately looking to increase brand awareness, customer engagement and brand affinity.
Infographic shared by you clearly explains how to design a social media marketing campaign.
I will tweet your post.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Hi Manish,
Thanks for adding your experiences about contests and campaigns on social media. I must confess that’s a strategy I have yet to test, but what you say makes sense.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Hi,
Designing a social media marketing campaign is not a tough job if the person knows how to do it in a proper manner. I was not aware of Calendy, Agile, Sociocaster, Postcron etc. Thanks for sharing.
Sona Mathews
Hi Sona
Well, I know there are several excellent courses on social media, so perhaps I need to invest in one of those to learn how to do it better.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Hi Joy,
Me too. Love the camaraderie of social media sites but detest trying to cull out a reasonable marketing plan to run on them.
Social Pilot does sound interesting and I’ll check it. Thanks. Have a great week.
Edward
Hi Edward,
Know what you mean – I seem to alternate between feast and famine. It’s my current mission to tidy up my social media presence, and I’m still investigating ways to do this. Watch this space.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Great stuff there Joy,
I agree with your list, know most of them.
I really like Calendy – careful there is
another not as good with an extra l -Calendly
and I use Post Planner.
Great infographic! Looked at Social Media
Marketing with Social Pilot and signed up.
Looks pretty easy. Will tell you if I like it.
Thanks for the great info!
PS 404 error on the link to the infographic
Hi Kathryn
Glad you liked the list and thanks for giving Social Pilot a try. It came out for me as the best and most affordable at the time of my testing, so will be very interested to hear what you think too – especially how it compares to Post Planner because I still having got round to trying that!
Ooh, interesting about Calendy and Calendly!! I hadn’t come across that.
Thanks for the tip off on the 404…. always one that gets through the proof-read LOL
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Enjoyed your post! A detailed plan is always easier to get results!
Liking this approach to designing a campaign – so simple! Planning is essential.
Thank you
Hi Saurabh,
Glad you found my social media marketing tips useful. the actual implementation is quite time consuming – which is why I supplement my manual content with tools that help automate regular posts such as adverts.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
I currently use Buffer for one of my clients and have also used Hootsuite and a few others you mentioned. I need to decide which is my favorite so I can use it for myself.
Hi Elise,
I love the way Buffer lets me choose RSS feeds to make value based content posts. I did try and find something else that was as good, at such a reasonable price, but failed. So it looks as if Buffer is here to stay 🙂 Why fix it if it isn’t broken?
The others all have their pros and cons, and probably down to personal choice.
I’m actually testing yet another (SIGH) which comes with other SEO and promotional tools, so watch this space. But it won’t replace the job that Buffer is doing so well.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Hi Joy
I do like your review on Social Media automation . There are so many out there and it is great that you have tried them and given your opinion about them. Thanks for sharing. Take care
Hi Ikechi,
Glad you found the social media review useful. Whichever one is chosen finally, SocialPilot is my current favorite – and their infographic is excellent.
Thanks for dropping by.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Good Information, I would like to know about your YouTube promotion, Can you share some of your tips and can you please share the way you promote.
Hi Niraj,
I’m VERY bad and have completely ignored YouTube for two reasons (1) I don’t like watching videos myself (2) I dislike being in them even more!
That said, I realize I’m missing a great promotion opportunity by not using YouTube, and would welcome a guest author to submit a unique article for publication here.
Joy – Blogging After Dark
This article is full of great advice, like the concept that social media marketing plans should be constantly evolving.
I’d like to add that if you accept this idea, then trying new things becomes easier. They’re experiments, so what works keep, and what doesn’t toss. You’re not locked into bad decisions, yet always open to improvement.