Last week I showed you how to schedule posts with PostPlanner, this week I’m going to show you some of the apps other features. You might not use them all out of the box but they are great for inspiration.
We are constantly being told that interaction is of ultimate importance on Facebook but it can be hard to be inspired to create interactional posts on a regular basis. Luckily there’s a pretty cool feature in PostPlanner, ‘Status Ideas’ that will help you come up with posts that get your Likers talking. I’m not a big fan of taking these suggestions as they are but they will give you ideas and you can easily customise the format and layout for your own questions.
Here’s how it works
Add the PostPlanner (affiliate link) app to your Facebook account, here’s how.
Click on ‘Status Ideas’ on the top right hand side of the page
A drop down menu will appear with lots of different types of posts to choose from. I note that PostPlanner have been quick off the mark and included ‘contests’ as an option so it’s a great way to come up with a new timeline competition idea as well.
PostPlanner will offer you three suggestions of posts based on your selection click on ‘see more’ for more suggestions.
Once you have found a post you like click on it and it will appear in your status update box on the left hand side. Here you can edit and schedule it.
If you sign up to the premium account with PostPlanner you also have access to their content engine. This is a fantastic way to bring all the content, the blogs, the Facebook pages that you get information from into one place. Once you have added them you can share relevant posts with the click of a button. It’s much easier than copying and pasting or even sharing from an RSS reader and can save you loads of time.
Here’s how it works
Type a keyword related to your business in the box on the right hand side just under ‘Content engine’. For me this is Facebook or Twitter, for you it could be Cat, Business, Ice Cream, anything that you would like to share content about on a regular basis.
PostPlanner will automatically add a top stories tab to your account for that search term. Click on it and you will see the latest and trending stories relating to your keyword.
To add specific blogs or feeds to your content engine scroll down and add a folder, or a feed from the menu at the bottom right hand side. This is where you could add a folder of all your favourite blogs, Facebook pages etc.
Once you have added some sources and folders you are just one click away from finding great content to curate and share on Facebook, if you click on a specific link PostPlanner will create your post and you can edit and schedule it to go out when your Likers are online.
Both of these features are massive time-savers but I would proceed with caution. With this content at your fingertips the temptation could be to post too frequently and to post off message. I’d recommend creating a Facebook schedule and using PostPlanner to fill relevant sections. For example on a Monday you may choose to share a link from a blog you subscribe to, on Tuesday a post from a Facebook page you follow on a Wednesday you might ask a question. If you use PostPlanner to enhance your strategy it could be hugely effective.
Give it a shot and let me know how you get on.
Even it two blog posts I haven’t covered all of PostPlanner’s features, it’s a very useful tool and one I can see myself using more and more in the future.
If you would like to find out more about creating a Facebook strategy for your business check out the ‘Facebook Advanced’ course from We Teach Social that I will be teaching starting 4th November.
