MARKETING STRATEGY

The Best Social Media Schedulers for Sharing Evergreen Content

This post contains affiliate links for tools I use and recommend which means at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase.

I'm a big believer in scheduling (at least some of your) social media, not only because it saves time and helps to streamline your workflow but honestly – because I KNOW that when I don't schedule things in advance, sometimes they just don't get done at all! If you want to be active on social media on a regular basis (and at optimal times), sometimes it just doesn't make sense to be posting / pinning / tweeting / etc. while you could be working / sleeping / drinking too much wine / etc. – right?!

A while back I compared two popular social media scheduling platforms Hootsuite vs. Buffer, but as I noted at the end of that post, last year I switched to Edgar for social media scheduling – mainly for the ability to automatically recycle evergreen content. I love this feature! Recycling evergreen content saves a TON of time.

I had loaded up my Edgar queue with over 300 posts and things were humming along, but my one main issue with Edgar was pricing. Compared with the $10 plans I had previous paid for Hootsuite / Buffer, Edgar's pricing was $49/month which I was never really thrilled about spending. In theory, because Edgar automatically recycles content (something that we were doing manually with Buffer back in the day), it saves a lot of time (and time is $$$) so I justified that it was probably worth the premium – but since I also use Tailwind* for Pinterest scheduling, adding Edgar's fees on top of those was not really ideal.

At the end of 2016, I decided to look into some alternative options and came across Viraltag. I'm pretty sure I looked into Viraltag a couple years ago when I was comparing Pinterest schedulers, but since then Viraltag has added a number of new features including the ability to recycle posts (which is the feature I really loved about Edgar). So I decided to give Viraltag a try and around the same time came across SmarterQueue.

The Best Social Media Schedulers for Sharing Evergreen Content: Edgar vs. Viraltag vs. SmarterQueue

I thought I'd compare the platforms for anyone who is researching social media schedulers and is looking for a platform with a “post-recycling” feature.

PRICING

Viraltag and SmarterQueue* were the two best social media schedulers I found that had the evergreen content recycling tool I wanted AND were priced lower than Edgar.

Edgar is currently priced at $49/month or $539/year, Edgar can schedule posts for Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages, and groups) and LinkedIn (profiles and pages).

Viraltag plans start at $29/month or $288/year for up to 10 social profiles. There are additional plans for teams / agencies who need multiple users and/or more than 10 social profiles. Viraltag can schedule unlimited posts for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook (profile and pages), Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn (profiles and pages).

SmarterQueue* plans start at $19.99/month or $203/year for up to 4 social profiles. There are additional plans for people who need up to 25 profiles. You can schedule posts for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages and groups), and LinkedIn.

SIMILARITIES

All of these social media schedulers allow you to schedule evergreen content to multiple platforms. Why is this so amazing? Not everyone sees what you're posting. Recycling content is a no-brainer way to save time, and by sharing and re-sharing content, you'll get in front of new people.

With these schedulers you can also create categories of posts to share at different times. These can be posts from your own blog, other blogs, specific promotions or sales, inspirational quotes, etc. You can create various categories that are applicable to your business and share posts at different intervals.

All of these schedulers also feature a calendar view of your posts which is always nice. It makes it easy to visualize your content as well as edit and move things around.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Recycling content is a no-brainer way to save time, and by sharing and re-sharing content, you'll get in front of new people.” quote=”Recycling content is a no-brainer way to save time, and by sharing and re-sharing content, you'll get in front of new people.”]

DIFFERENCES

Curating content is one of the important parts of scheduling social media but Edgar doesn't really have a built-in tool to help you discover and share content. With Viraltag, you can connect your Pinterest, Instagram, or Flickr feed and share directly from there – so it makes is really easy to share visual content in particular. SmarterQueue is the best of best at curating content from anywhere in any feed whether it’s your Facebook feed, Pinterest feed, Twitter feed, or content from specific users or RSS feeds. Anything searchable can be created and saved in a feed and if you use Feedly to bookmark sites, you could even import your bookmarks.

When it comes to importing content, Edgar and Viraltag don't have the ability to bulk upload content. So if you have a spreadsheet where you keep track of social content, you won't be able to bulk upload. But luckily you can in SmarterQueue – and this will definitely save you time if you're moving from one social media scheduler to another.

In analyzing posts, Edgar and Viraltag both have basic analytics showing the number of times the post was shared and re-shared as well as your best times to post – but these analytics don't really compare to SmarterQueue‘s analytics. With this scheduler, you can see all the same stats on how many people clicked on your link or shared your post, but you can also see specific analytics around how much MORE engagement you received by recycling your evergreen posts. SmarterQueue integrates with bit.ly so you can see all of the stats on the links you've shared over time which can be more helpful that seeing stats on individual posts.

THE WINNER – SMARTERQUEUE

Of these three social media schedulers that I've used, SmarterQueue comes out on top. I don't think that Edgar is worth the price for what you get. Viraltag is great if you're looking for a tool to schedule visual content, but it feels like it's geared more toward Instagram and Pinterest users rather than other social media platforms. In my opinion, SmarterQueue is the best all around tool for scheduling evergreen content across all platforms AND it's more affordable!

Want to give it a try? Normally you get a 14 day free trial, but if you CLICK THIS LINK you'll get 30 days free to try out my favorite social media scheduler for yourself!

How To Repurpose Old Blog Posts Into More Useful Content

A guest post by Natalie Greagor of Strategist Cafe

The value of a blog is very important as it impacts the lives of others. As a new or seasoned blogger, it is important to consistently keep an updated blog and an engaged audience. Some days are harder than others when it's time to create new content. That's why it's important to have an effective content and blog strategy.

Over the past year, I’ve been able to blog a minimum of 100 blog posts due to this simple strategy: re-purposing my blog content.

Repurposing blog content means taking your most engaged posts and turning them into new pieces of useful content for your audience, plus new products and services that your audience wants and needs. Repurposing your blog content is the ultimate hack to creating more time and money for your business. There are 5 easy ways to transition your blog posts into viable resources that your audience can use today:

Turn them into paid products

Popular blog views help you understand what your audience likes to read and consume. The blog posts that get the highest page views should be repurposed into a product that will help you earn on autopilot.

You can either combine all of your popular blog posts into an e-book or an online course to help your audience apply your information more strategically. Or, you can convert each individual blog post into a practical priced product such as a workbook or guide.

Actionable step: Combine your top 5 to 10 blog posts. Elaborate on each topic, if there is more than one, to create a viable paid product to offer your audience. Or, create 3 to 5 paid products that you can create using the content from each post.

Turn them into opt-in incentives

Another way that you can repurpose your popular blog posts is to create an email opt-in incentive for each post. You can create a simple checklist or a small 10-page guide or workbook to give away for free in exchange for an email to build your email list. Simple opt-ins like these will attract leads so you can eventually turn them into paying customers.

Actionable step: If you have popular blog posts that gain a lot of comments, review all of your comments to find out what people had to say about your blog content for that particular blog post. Create a checklist or several checklists to complement your blog post for your audience to download in exchange for their email to build your email list.

Pro tip: You can promote the checklist(s) that you creates individually on social media by announcing their availability and collecting emails from your comments or inbox to also build your email list.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Repurposing blog content means taking your most engaged posts and turning them into new pieces of useful content for your audience, plus new products and services that your audience wants and needs.” quote=”Repurposing blog content means taking your most engaged posts and turning them into new pieces of useful content for your audience, plus new products and services that your audience wants and needs.”]

Turn them into fun quizzes

Use your most popular blog posts and turn it into a fun quiz with a tool like Qzzr. Ask your audience fun things related to your most popular blog posts and insert a quiz to collect leads. Or, create a quiz to send to your email to collect data from subscribers to understand more about their needs.

For example, one of my most popular blog posts is about earning passive income using Canva. I could repurpose the content in this blog post and create a quiz that asks my audience questions to determine which products are the best fit for them to create or earn from according to their lifestyle and business structure. Of course the title wouldn’t be that long, but the purpose of my quiz will be clear. As an added bonus, creating quizzes will help with research for your business.

Please note: This is an triple re-purpose strategy! It allows you to turn one blog post into a quiz and use that quiz to collect information, plus build your email list!

Actionable step: Use Qzzr to create a quiz for your audience to help you maintain high engagement while learning more about them at the same time.

FREE DOWNLOAD: 10 MORE WAYS TO RE-PURPOSE YOUR BLOG POSTS

Turn them into live stories

Video marketing works well for high engagement and conversion rates for online businesses. You can create 3 tips to help your audience accomplish or complete a task based off of your blog posts. You can also create Instagram story templates to describe the same 3 tips if you aren't a camera person. Remember, people who know nothing about you or your brand will find you online, so sharing tips from your blog posts will help you convert new audience members into new blog subscribers, new fans of your brand, and more!

Actionable step: Take 3 tips from one of your most popular blogs and present them to your social media audience on Instagram or Facebook to build the like-know-trust factor.

Turn them into new blog posts

Turn your most popular blog posts into a new blog posts by scanning your blogs and choosing profound statements and key concepts to create new topics that teach, inform, entertain, or entice your audience.

Actionable step: Revisit your top 5 popular blog posts and choose key points from each post. Create a blog list archive so that you have ideas of new blog post topics to write in the future. It's the perfect way to repurpose old blog content and create new content to serve your audience.

Never let old blog content go to waste. You can even repurpose old blog posts that don't get any traction. Simply re-purpose and/or revamp your old blog posts by following these steps. There are a ton of re-purpose strategies for your blogs. It truly is the best strategy for consistency online. Before you go, here’s 10 more ways you can re-purpose your blog content to not only get the most out of your blog content, but to get your brand in front of new audiences.

FREE DOWNLOAD: 10 MORE WAYS TO RE-PURPOSE YOUR BLOG POSTS

Do you repurpose your blog posts? If so, how have you repurposed your blogs in the past?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Natalie Greagor, creator at strategistcafe.com, is a personal brand and online business strategist who teaches creative entrepreneurs how to build influence in their niche, grow their brand online, and get paid on autopilot.

Follow Natalie: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

5 Reasons Your Marketing Isn’t Working

A lot of business of owners “hate” marketing, but if you want customers / clients who are not your mom – it's pretty much required. While marketing isn't exactly rocket science, it's more than just pretty pictures and strategically placed fonts – it's how you communicate your value and build relationships with potential buyers. There's not a single “right” way to go about your marketing, but there are a few things you should definitely avoid!

5 REASONS YOUR MARKETING ISN'T WORKING

1) You don't have a target audience

Marketing to “anyone with money” is not a thing. I've shared my thoughts on defining your target audience before, but I promise you – having a target audience will help you tremendously when it comes to your branding, your marketing strategy, your copy, and the products / services you offer. If you're trying to appeal to everyone, you're probably appealing to no one – so the more specific you can be in terms of who your product/service is for, the better!

Marketing without a target audience is really just putting stuff out into the world and hoping someone will buy it. I'm pretty sure that NO ONE would agree that's the best marketing strategy – or is that even a strategy at all???

FIX THIS: Define your target audience. Figure out what makes them tick. Figure out where they hang out online – What social media platforms are they active on? What communities do they belong to? What blogs do they read? What problems do they have? If you're just getting started, there's a handy worksheet to help you define your target audience linked in this post!

2) You don't have a strategic plan

You can spend hours and hours on “marketing” but if you don't have a strategic plan, you could be wasting a ton of precious time! You can't just post whatever you feel like on social media or spend hours taking pretty flatlays or writing blog posts or creating free downloads without a goal in mind. Your marketing actions should always have a purpose, and you should be leading your customers down an intentional path.

FIX THIS: Think about your client / customer journey – for example, most of my clients find me on social media. Either they come across my Instagram and click through to an opt-in form or they come across a pin that leads to one of my blog posts. From there, most people read a blog post or two and then may opt-in to my email list via a content upgrade or some other free offer. Once people are on my email list, they get a series of emails (depending on how they opted in) and eventually get pitched my paid products / services.

I find it easier to work backwards from your end goal (whatever you are selling) and reverse engineer your content paths. Mapping out a strategic plan will not only help you figure out what content you need to create and share, but it will also keep you on track to actually accomplish your goals.

3) You plan but don't take action

What's worse than not having a strategic plan? Actually taking time to make a plan and then not taking action. You can research and strategize and plan for months, but if you don't take action – you fail before you even get started. It's easy to get caught up in doing everything “just right” – trust me, as a recovering perfectionist (and former financial planner), I've spent wayyyyy too much time on “perfecting” plans – but in reality there's no such thing as a perfect plan.

FACT: Some things will not go as planned. FACT: You need to learn to adapt. FACT: It will all be ok.

FIX THIS: Set aside time each week specifically for marketing activities. Put it on your calendar. Find an accountability buddy. Do whatever you need to do to make sure you're dedicating time to taking ACTION rather than just making to-do lists. If taking action is holding you back, I recommend setting specific goals to help move the needle forward – for example, instead of putting “do guest blog posts” on your to-do list, set a goal to pitch 5 different websites with specific guest blog post ideas. Instead of scrolling through Instagram and liking pretty photos, set a goal to connect with 10 potential clients and actively engage with their content leaving meaningful (not spammy!) comments.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Marketing isn't something you can do for a hot minute until you get busy + forget about it…” quote=”Marketing isn't something you can do for a hot minute until you get busy + forget about it…”]

4) You aren't consistent

For 99.9999% of people, success doesn't happen overnight. If you're not showing up consistently to connect with your audience, to build brand awareness, and to promote your products / services – then you're doing yourself and your business a disservice. Consistency breeds credibility. Marketing isn't something that you can do for a hot minute until you get busy and forget about it. Only a fraction of your audience is seeing your social media posts or reading your blog posts or opening your emails – so if you're not being consistent, you're not maximizing your reach.

FIX THIS: Scheduling + automation are your BFFs. When it comes to social media marketing, I definitely recommend scheduling your posts in advance. Create an editorial calendar for your blog/vlog/etc. and post as frequently as you can be consistent – quality above quantity, always. Here's a helpful post to help you plan out your blog content! You should also have a regular schedule for email marketing and if possible, using automation can help save a ton of time and ensure that you're communicating consistently (here are a few ways I use email automation)!

5) You aren't paying attention to your analytics

If you “know” me at all, you should have seen this one coming (I'm an analytics NERD) – the only way to really know if you marketing is “working” is to track your results.

FIX THIS: Use the available tools to track your marketing activities – each social media platform or scheduler has it's own analytics, you should set up google analytics for your website / blog, and your email marketing service probably has it's own built in analytics as well. And for your analytics to be relevant, you need to establish specific goals – so for example, if one of your goals is to use Pinterest to drive more traffic to your website, then you should be tracking your referral traffic from Pinterest and identifying which pins / boards / etc. are driving the most traffic to your website so you can do more of what works and less of what doesn't.