article by Corey Hinde | SEO NZ
“Publer is something we are really enjoying using – it’s helping us become more consistent with our content marketing, engage more with potential clients, and most of all… grow our business!” Corey Hinde – Good Oil Marketing
For a while, we thought that picking the right social media platform management tool was vital.
We were kinda right, but now as I get used to using Publer.io, I realise that the real game is making your choice, and then getting into the work.
The work is WAY more important than the actual tool in my opinion.
You’ll see people ponder about which tool to use for weeks, while their competition simply gets on with the work, and grows their business.
So – our suggestion is this – just pick Publer.io – and then spend time using it, improving with it, and more importantly communicating with your tribe, so you can do the important stuff like grow your business, and impact on people in the right way.
We’ll run you through how to set up a basic, free Publer.io account, quickly, and then give you some tips on how to start using it today.
Let’s go.
(btw – we are an affiliate for Publer, simply because we love it, use it ourselves, and might as well get a small fee if you do move onto one of their paid plans, all at no extra cost to you)
1️⃣ Visit Publer.io and click on “Sign up for Free”
We like the spiel there too. “Schedule, collaborate, and analyze” is very apt – the bottom line is that you are looking to enhance your marketing, and this will help you.
So that’s step 1 – click the link above in that button – or CLICK HERE.
2️⃣ Get started by completing this 1 click page
Chances are that you are already signed in to Google or Facebook, so it’s a one step sign up.
3️⃣ Add Some accounts to Publer that you use
Just click on the accounts you use, and you’ll easily be able to follow the steps – for most of the accounts it will simply ask for a click to say Yes, allowed to gain access.
It’s really easy!
Note – the free plan will allow you to connect up 3 accounts, so use the ones that are most suitable.
We find in our agency that most small businesses don’t need more than 3 social accounts – HOWEVER the option of adding Google Business Profile in as well is very slick – because this will help you across the entire Google ecosystem.
So, don’t hesitate to upgrade to a paid plan straight away if you are after 4+ connections.
Once you have some accounts set up, you’ll have a screen / dashboard that looks like this:
4️⃣ To create a post:
- Ensure you are on the “Create” section of the dashboard as shown above.
- Click on the accounts you want to share your post to.
- Create the post in the middle of the page as shown by the red box above.
- Click on “Post” at the bottom of the page.
It’s that easy!
I really like it because:
- Its super easy and intuitive
- You can easily select which accounts to send the post to.
- You can add bold and italics into posts, which can be difficult or impossible on some social media platforms.
- Adding images is easy.
5️⃣ Customize the messages for each platform
I LOVE this feature!
If you click the accounts you want to share a post to, you can then click the button as shown above in the red box.
This will make your post creation area look different – you’ll see I’ve picked Facebook, Twitter, and Google Business Profile for this post.
You can now write or create different versions of your post, at the same time. Handy if you want a slightly different tone etc based on your various social platforms.
6️⃣ Next Steps
There is so much power in this tool – however I’m going to suggest you stop now – and start using it.
Get into learning by doing.
Become consistent, get posting, get connecting with your tribe.
Yes, there are some super cool features like the calendar and analytics to learn about.
I think though that if you simply set up, and start, you’ll be benefitting straight away as you become more consistent and better at connecting with your tribe.
7️⃣ Free or Paid version?
I’m going to suggest you move to the mid tier “professional” plan straight away.
Yes, there is Free, Professional, and Business – so why go professional straight away?
For most small businesses, you’ll realistically only be using 2-3 social media platforms consistently – so in theory the free plan with up to 3 accounts linked can suffice – but:
- The Professional unlocks extra analytics and features straight away.
- You can add a 4th or more account (social platform) straight away.
- It’s super value at around 5 or 6 coffees per month ($25 NZD)
- For some reason, when you pay for something versus use the free version, you use it MORE and more effectively, which in the long run means you’ll get more business results from it.
So yes, while I did have the free version for my first month, I’ve upgraded to Professional and recommend you do too.
8️⃣ How to get maximal value – and actually grow your business using Publer
If I had to map out an easy “recipe for success” for someone new to social media posting, that will work on almost any platform – this would be my “steps to success”:
- Always aim for engagement and conversation. It’s social media not selling media, so the goal is to get people talking.
- Don’t post links. Putting links on any platform will result in poor performance. We could talk about this in length but please just trust us – links in posts will not help you.
- No selling – if people are interested they’ll reach out. If you use social posts as “sales” posts, the various social platforms just won’t push your post out to as many people as possible.
- Text only posts do work – try asking questions or other ways to get people talking / engaging.
- Always be thinking – will people share this post? Will people comment on this post?
- Unique images work well. So do tools, infographics, or unique content not seen elsewhere.
More Resources:
► How to get a QR code for your business to enhance Google Reviews
► YouTube Video “How to use links to improve your ranking on Google”
► How to get more Google Reviews – 13 tactics that work
► Let us manage your Google Business Profile so you rank up the top of Google