CoSchedule to the Social Media Marketing Rescue!

When I first heard about CoSchedule, I wondered, “Is this the tool that will FINALLY save me some time (and my sanity?) in my social media work?” (and believe me, my husband was big on hope for the sanity part…). The short answer is: OH YEAH!

We have a number of clients whose social media accounts require the constant attention necessary to get them noticed by their customers. I do a heap of writing and a mountain of scheduling. I’ve long been using other platforms but when I realized that there were a few things that they just couldn’t quite do, I started looking for something not to replace them but to complement them. That something is CoSchedule. I initially signed up for the 30-day free trial and have been so in love with it since that I’ve been tweeting them my praises, attending their webinars, signed on for a full-year subscription, and decided to share my thoughts in this blog.

So what’s so awesome about CoSchedule that I’d dedicate a blog post to it? In a nutshell, the Big 3 Factors for me are:

• Intelligent timing
• Workplace efficiency
• Evergreen sustainability

But before I can define those, you might still be wondering, what is CoSchedule? Allow me (or this awesome video) to explain.

CoSchedule from Garrett Moon on Vimeo.

Simply put, it’s a social marketing calendar (but it’s so much more than that!). CoSchedule lets you plan and organize social media campaigns and blog posts, complete with WordPress (and myriad other) integration, all from one gloriously easy-to-use calendar at a glance. What this translates to is a massively efficient short- and long-term content calendar with stress-free workflow management that you can use personally or as an agency.

It’s so simple. Create or choose your campaign, create your social media or blog post, add links or images, and schedule. Voila! But now this is where it really gets good. Back to my Big 3. Let’s break it down!

Intelligent timing

CoSchedule hinges on science, math, data – yes! These things that appeal to the geek in me! The good people at CoSchedule have collated and analyzed data numerous studies to determine when and how many times a day/week you should be posting per platform. Did you know that the lifespan of a tweet is about 30 seconds? That’s why CoSchedule suggests you tweet about 15 times a day! Do you have any idea when to send those tweets vs. when to post a Facebook message? CoSchedule does. From their analysis, they have it down to a science but you don’t need to worry about the nitty gritty. Simply choose “Best Time” when you’re scheduling and CoSchedule intelligently sends your messages when your audience is most likely to be there, online, per platform, ready to see what you have to say. How brilliant is that?!

Workplace efficiency

Since I manage multiple accounts at once, CoSchedule lets me clearly and easily create campaigns that can be entirely set up in a matter of minutes for posts that can go out over the next month or longer. You can choose to repost something the next day, week, month, or at a custom setting. You can also go in and edit those reposts right then and there, so you can send slightly altered messages and not duplicate content (make one a quiz, make one a quote!), keeping your followers engaged in different ways. It’s like an email drip campaign for social. Plus, there’s a Chrome extension to grab content that matters to your or your followers! By being able to set up multiple campaigns for each client at one sitting, I have increased my efficiency while steadily gaining my clients new followers and increasing their brand awareness!

Evergreen sustainability

Perhaps the coolest thing about CoSchedule is ReQueue (btw, I love how queue is a word where the last four letters are completely unnecessary). Some posts are meant for a one-time only launch – a 24-hour special on t-shirt orders, for example. But items that have that evergreen content – fun facts about your team, tips that won’t become outdated anytime soon, or adorable panda bear gifs – these messages with staying power deserve to be shared again and again, just not too often. ReQueue does exactly that. When you’re initially setting up a message or campaign, you can simply click on the ReQueue button and CoSchedule will intelligently fill in any gaps in your social media calendar with previous favourites, while knowing how many times you want it reposted and making sure not to inundate your followers ad nauseum.

There’s much more I could say about CoSchedule and its amazing ReQueue feature. This is seriously my favourite tool in my toolbox. Suffice it to say, I can publish faster, easier, and more often. It’s making my workload more efficient with fantastic results for my clients! And that’s what we’re all about – getting the job done for our clients. So, if you don’t think you have time to tweet 15 times a day, check out CoSchedule or give us a shout!