9 SOCIAL MEDIA AUTOMATION TOOLS EVERY BLOGGER NEEDS TO KNOW +( IFTTT RECIPE CHEATSHEET)

Love it or hate it, you need social media more than social media needs you! But, let’s be honest, social media is a TOTAL TIME SUCK. I used to spend every single Sunday planning out my content for the week and it was beyond tiring. Real talk: I’d rather be spending time binge-watching Netflix or shooting hoops with my little one than scheduling redundant tasks on social media.

I would set up my prompts for my facebook group, load what seemed like a never-ending list of tweets and prep what I wanted to post on Instagram  – then I needed to make sure that I scheduled them so they would post at the right time each day. I would add other people’s content to my queue in Buffer and rinse and repeat the next week. But you know what? I knew that there had to be something better. Something that would save me more time!

You feel me?

Now over the years, I have tried lots and lots and lots (did I say lots?!) of different tools for social media scheduling (Buffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, SocialOopmh, CoSchedule to name a few) but I wanted to find an easy to use and reasonably priced tool that would allow me to loop and recycle my social media posts on autopilot.

We all know social media posts have a limited life cycle. It’s like you do all this work trying to come up with great content only to press publish and see it go poof into thin air.

One of the reasons why I love the automation tools I am going to share with you in this post is because they literally bring dead posts back to life. They are constantly recycling your content so you can focus on doing other things that are more important to your business instead of being smothered by scrolling social media feeds all day…

Now, before you say anything, I know, there are tons of social media tools out there with more and more options being made available to us each day. So I want to share with you 9 of what I think are the best social media automation tools to choose from to boost your traffic, email list and sales on autopilot.

1. AUTOMATE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA WITH SMARTERQUEUE

This social media automation tool is listed first for a reason. It is one of my hands-down favorite tools. One of the great things about building a business online is that you can automate much of your engagement. SmarterQueue allows you to pre-schedule your content so you are getting seen and heard without having to put in much effort and time.

SmarterQueue has just about everything you need! They have a ton of resources, customer service is super helpful and SmarterQueue supports these social accounts:

• Facebook Profiles, Pages + Groups
• Twitter
• Linkedin Profiles + Company Pages
• Instagram
• Google+ (Coming soon!)
• Pinterest (Coming soon!)

I am a firm believer in sharing other people’s content on social media. In fact, for every 10 posts you put out there 7 to 8 of those post should be content from brands other than your own! SmarterQueue has a ‘Find Content’ feature that allows you to easily find and share other people’s content. They have so many different ways to add content (even via twitter lists!) and I love that you can search within the platform too!

Because I love SmarterQueue so darn much, here’s a full blown tutorial on how I use all it’s amazing features!

2. SCHEDULE AND LOOP YOUR PINS USING BOARDBOOSTER

So, BoardBooster is a tool I use exclusively for Pinterest, but it is the bomb.com!!! So what’s BoardBooster? BoardBooster is a scheduling system that allows you to loop or automatically re-pin your old pins so that your account is always active and content is constantly running through your boards. OMG, it’s a genius way to grow your visibility and my traffic has exploded as a result. Click here to learn more about BoardBooster.

So, here’s the thing with Pinterest. Unless you are creating content every single day or multiple times a day, you need to be pinning other people’s content to keep your profile active and growing. In order to grow your Pinterest following, you need to pin relevant and niche specific content consistently.

If you are pinning niche specific content every single day using the looping feature in BoardBooster, then you are going to just automatically grow your following on Pinterest and you become what’s called a “power pinner” where Pinterest starts recommending your pins more. They start putting your pins in the feed more, sending notifications to users about your content and your account will start to grow.

I currently pin about 90-100 pins per day using BoardBooster. This, again, is entirely hands-off. I rarely spend any time on Pinterest anymore. I basically filled up all of my boards with a couple hundred pins and then I looped them on BoardBooster.

Occasionally, I will go into Pinterest and just pin something straight from my feed, or if I read a cool blog post or sharing a blog post I like from a Facebook group I’m in, I’ll just pin that onto Pinterest, but for the most part 90% of what I pin is automated and that’s why it takes me very little time to do. Boo-yah!!

3. IFTTT

I use IFTTT.com in a number of different ways over here at AndreaBolder.com, and there are tons of different options available through IFTTT for automating your social media marketing.

So, How Does IFTTT Work?

First of all, here’s what you really want to know: yes, it’s free.

The only money you’ll have to spend will be if you’re creating a recipe using a paid tool or some sort, because obviously, you need the paid account to successfully integrate it with IFTTT.

IFTTT is based on channels, recipes, triggers, and actions. They work together to perform “if this, then that.” So when something happens in one app, then it performs a specific action in another.

• Channels are the different tools and platforms it connects to, like Facebook, Buffer, SMS and Gmail.
• Recipes are full automations built from two channels, a trigger, and an action. For example, “if I publish a new post on Instagram, then post a new update to my Facebook page.”
• Triggers are actions that set off the rest of a recipe. For example, “When I favorite an email…”
• Actions are the actions performed in the second half of the recipe. For example, “…then add it to my calendar.”

A full IFTTT recipe would be something like “When the label “To-do” is added to a Gmail email, a new reminder will be created on my iPhone.”

I use a few different IFTTT recipes so that when I post to Instagram, that same post is automatically shared to my personal Facebook profile, my Facebook page, Twitter and Pinterest. One post, 4 times the exposure!

When you login to your free IFTTT account, you’ll see thousands of recipes to choose from. They are constantly adding to their lineup and if you can’t find an IFTTT task from the available recipes already created, you can set up your own combination.

Here are the major social media services that work with IFTTT:

• Facebook (profiles, pages, and groups)
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• Tumblr
• YouTube
• Pinterest

Once you set up your IFTTT recipes you can forget about it and the automation kicks in every time.

 4. BUFFER

Buffer is a great tool for bloggers, especially if you are just getting your feet wet with this whole social media automation thing. Buffer saves a lot of time by automatically handling all the scheduling of your posts. All you have to do is add your post to the queue and it will be posted for you. Buffer has a great price point starting at $10 but (and this is a big but) when you use Buffer you queue will run out and you have to keep going back in to top it off. With SmarterQueue, they will simply recycle the posts I’ve added so I never have to go back in and add more content unless I want to!

Also,Buffer is known for providing great analytics (even though SmarterQueue’s analytics reports is wayyyy more in-depth than Buffer’s – just saying!)

5. COSCHEDULE

I know a lot of bloggers that swear by CoSchedule. This management tool allows you to schedule blog posts, manage content, write your newsletters, schedule launch timelines as well as social media automation.

CoSchedule allows you to organize just about everything you need to run your biz and blog in one place, like your entire content marketing and social media promotion strategy. CoSchedule will suggest the best time to send out your posts. You can also collaborate with your team members. If you want an uber robust marketing management and social automation tool in one, CoSchedule is a great option!

7. ZAPIER

Similar to IFTTT, Zapier lets you set up what’s called Zaps (instead of recipes). A Zap is an individual automated task. For example I use Zapier to connect Teachable to Aweber. So whenever someone purchases one of my online courses on Teachable they are automatically added to a dedicated email list I’ve created in Aweber. Another example of a Zap could be a task that monitors Instagram and when it finds a new post, a tweet is automatically generated. There are hundreds of services supported as you can see below.

And just like IFTTT, you can choose from the Zaps that are available or you can build your own Zap. Zaps are pretty simple to set up and they walk you through each step.

8. AWEBER

I’ve used a number of email service providers, from ConvertKit to Mailchimp to Ontraport, but Aweber is my ride or die. Like most email marketing tools it comes with some essential automation tasks built in. When someone signs up to your email list from your blog or via social media you can automatically send them an automated email sequence. Your automated emails go out based on the frequency and times you set up and it’s a great way to create engagement for new subscribers.

The automated sequence of email helps nurture your email subscriber and eventually move them toward a point of sale. I use Aweber to create automated sales funnels, to send out my weekly newsletters, as well as update my students of new bonuses or surprise goodies. Email automation is an essential piece of your email marketing and it helps you stay top of mind with your subscribers.

9. POSTPLANNER

Postplanner is a Facebook page management tool that helps automate the sharing of content to your Facebook page and groups. They have a content discovery engine which helps you find popular content in your industry by keyword, hashtag, Facebook page or a Twitter handle. PostPlanner allows you to gather your favorite content in one place and then add it to your queue to be pushed out at a later date. You can also create a plan for your pages and accounts, then plug in your content streams, automatically recycling popular posts.  Post Planner will push out everything in the queue automatically based on the pre-configured times you set up.

Social media automation is not just an option but a requirement if you want to grow a wildly successful blog without losing your mind. Time is money and the more time you waste playing around with social media the more money you potentially stand to waste. Plus, the whole reason why we’re building an online business is so we can create passive income and have more freedom. Don’t get tied up doing things that you can literally outsource using an automated tool!

I’ve given you a ton of options and believe me, there are lots more, but take some time to explore the ones I’ve shared with you today to see how you can tighten up or further optimize your social media marketing strategy.

DO YOU HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA AUTOMATION TOOL YOU LOVE? SHARE IT WITH US BELOW!