How We Automate and Schedule Social Media at CCG
There are many social media platforms to be consistent on and if you aren’t careful, it can get very overwhelming. If you have read any of my other social media posts here at CCG, you know that I am a huge fan of batching. I want to knock out all of my social media for the week in one afternoon rather than doing my social media all throughout the week. Since bringing on a virtual assistant and a social media intern, this became even more important to get organized, efficient and streamlined in our social media posting.
Unfortunately, when we first started, it wasn’t streamlined. My team was using Buffer, Hootsuite, Post Planner and Later.com. They were great but I have been on the hunt for an affordable social media scheduling service that is an all-in-one.
Well…I found it. Introducing ViralTag. It has won me over because I can do all of my scheduling from one site. Last night, I went in and scheduled posts for the next week on Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all in one post. Yes, really. With just one click.
How We Automate and Schedule Social Media at CCG
Obviously, there’s more manual work scheduling Instagram posts because you have to manually publish it on your phone but we had to do the same thing with Later.com so this is nothing new for us. It’s also taking extra time to switch, re-train my team and get set-up but I know in the long run, this is a much better scheduling system for CCG.
As defined on its website, ViralTag (previously called Pingraphy) is ideally for Pinterest and Instagram. It has features that allow users to create great images and share them on these two social media platforms. But like Buffer, ViralTag can also be used to manage and schedule social media posts in other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. They also have an evergreen option which I am excited to check out as well.
Here’s how to start using ViralTag:
1. Visit the ViralTag website and click on the login button at the top right-hand corner of the homepage.
2. You will now be redirected to the login page where you can either enter your login credentials or register if you have no account yet. In this case, click “Register” to create your account.
3. Enter your email address, create a password, and then optionally enter your company name and phone number.
4. Click “Create An Account”.
5. You will be presented with six social media platforms you can connect to your ViralTag account. These are Twitter, Facebook (with options to connect your page or profile), Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. Connect the platforms you want to add to your dashboard.
6. Follow the prompts to allowing access to your chosen platforms.
7. Click “Done” and you’re ready to explore the app further.
Here’s how to manage and schedule social media posts:
1. Log in to your ViralTag account. From the Dashboard, click “Post” from the left sidebar. Here’s how the next page will look like:
2. Select the image you wanted to post either from your computer (as defaulted), from Facebook, Dropbox, Flickr, Google Drive, or Instagram.
3. Once you’ve chosen your image, you can now enter a description and a source URL for what you wanted to post. Click on the “Schedule” link and select the appropriate day and time for your post to go live. Make sure to select which social media pages you want your post to appear on. You can select multiple platforms. Remember, though, that Twitter can only handle 140 characters. Don’t worry, you can post separately on Twitter.
4. If you do not want to have to manage and schedule social media posts by manually uploading images, you can download the ViralTag browser extension. This will make your posting a lot easier.
5. To use the extension, simply open the post you wanted to share. Click on the ViralTag browser extension icon (usually placed at the top of your browser, next to the address bar). Select the image of your intended post, then click “Schedule” at the bottom right-hand corner as shown on the screenshot:
6. Your post will automatically generate a description/caption and the source URL. You can change the caption if you want. Select the social media platforms you want to post on. In this case, I selected all platforms connected to our ViralTag account – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. Schedule the post and you’re done!
If you want to know how to use ViralTag before committing to it, use the trial version for 15 days. That should be enough time to learn how to navigate around it and make it work for your business and your social media pages.
When you’re ready to upgrade, just log in to your account and click on the drop-down arrow beside “My Account” on the top right-hand side and select “Payment Info”. Once there, you will see two options in signing up for a premium account – monthly or annually. The Pro version’s monthly fee is at $29 and its annual fee is at $278. The Business version is at $99 per month and $950 if you choose to pay per year. BUT, if you are a blogger, definitely check out their option to get 6 months free if you write a blog post about it. Otherwise, for bloggers it is only $12 per month. Yes, really.
What service do you use to help you automate your social media posts?
Related Post: 5 Ways to Promote Yourself Using Pinterest
CEO and Founder at ClassyCareerGirl.com
Anna is the founder of Classy Career Girl, named by Forbes as one of the top 35 most influential career sites of 2014. She helps millions of women design and launch their dream careers, businesses and lives through her website, online courses and social media channels.
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