As a professional blogger who works from home, I have a limited amount of time to write, edit, publish, and promote content on my blog in addition to promoting content from my tribe, linky party participants, and other bloggers. One of my biggest struggles was promoting my content and other bloggers’ content. I need to have everything in one place to ensure I don’t drop the ball on social media.
CoSchedule, an editorial calendar and social media management plugin for WordPress, enables me to do writing and promotion all in one place. Instead of jumping to Hootsuite in Chrome and Viral Tag in Firefox and back to Facebook in Chrome, I can finish a post and schedule the promotion in the post editing screen. If I need to grab a few teasers from the post, I can scroll up and get what I need and scroll back down again without leaving the post.
CoSchedule is a WordPress Plugin, easily found in the Add Plugin menu in WordPress. You can install the plugin and try out the calendar for 14 days. You won’t be able to schedule any social media in the editorial calendar beyond the 14 days, however, I think you’ll be signing up for CoSchedule before your 14 day trial expires. The monthly cost is $10. If you write a review of CoSchedule and refer other bloggers to the company, you can reduce your monthly payment.
CoSchedule’s Backbone: The Drag and Drop Editorial Calendar
CoSchedule’s Editorial Calendar shows up in your WordPress side bar or as a web app. I use CoSchedule while in WordPress to facilitate switching between multiple screens while working on posts. Any content before the current day and time shows up as greyed in on the calendar. You can click on the older content to edit it or create new social media promotions.
On my editorial calendar, blog posts show up as white boxes and the social media messages as pink ones. You can choose other colors in the settings. Your blog posts will always appear as white boxes. Authors assigned to posts show up with their gravatar image next to the post, and your social media profile shows up as an image next to the message. Since my future plans include bringing on more contributors, I know I’ll love the visual identification of my contributors on the calendar.
Creating New Content
When you click on the pencil icon on a day, a message pops up offering the option to create a new blog post or new social message. If you choose blog post, the screen above appears. You have the option of scheduling the time and day and author, putting in a title for the post, and category. If you want to start writing the post, you click on Open in WordPress which opens up a new view.
Older Posts
While I have enjoyed creating new content within the CoSchedule calendar, I have come to appreciate using CoSchedule to breathe life into new posts. As I improve old posts for SEO, I can immediately schedule promotion of the posts for now or a later time.
For example, I’ve been working on back to school content as part of my upcoming Back to School series. As soon as each old post is updated, I schedule social messages for August and September. If I run across posts that I want to run for the holidays like my party planning posts, I can go into the post edit view and schedule them for October, November, and December.
Social Messages
CoSchedule can send social messages to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ pages, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Linkedin.
When you connect your Pinterest account, at this time, you will need to connect individual boards. Since I use 2 other ways to schedule pins from my blog and other blogs in addition to CoSchedule, I use CoSchedule to pin to my Best of A Life in Balance board and my linky party boards. Unfortunately, the social message sent to Pinterest uses a funky-looking url in the body of the message which shows up in the pin description. At this time, CoSchedule is working on improving this social integration.
The best way to send a social message to Pinterest is to use the “Link Post.”
CoSchedule will send social messages to a Facebook page, personal profile, or group (as long as you are the admin for the group).
Promoting Other Blog’s Content
As a linky party host, I’ve started using CoSchedule to promote features for my weekly party. Since the urls for the features are in the post, I can copy and paste the url into a social message while remaining in the post. It’s so easy to schedule these promotions for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ pages.
Social Media Shares Analytics
CoSchedule just recently added social media share information for each post. At a glance in the calendar, see how well each post is doing across the social media networks. On the My Activity page, see which posts are doing well.
How Often the Stats are Checked
- 24 hours: Rechecked every 2 hours
- 7 days: Rechecked every 6 hours
- 30 days: Rechecked once a day
- 3 months: Rechecked every 7 days
- Over 3 months: Rechecked every 30 days
More Tips for Co-Schedule
- Print out your calendar thanks to the Google integration and bring it with you.
- If your social message doesn’t publish, you’ll receive an email notification and the social message will show up on the calendar with a darker red indication behind the time and lighter red indication behind the message.
- You can filter what you see on the calendar according to status of post, author, and categories.
Wow! What a great resource Barb. I will definitely have to look into this plug-in. It keeps everything so organized. Thanks!
Melissa
It’s made a huge difference in how I work, especially now that I’m digging into keywords in a deliberate way.
This is an awesome resource and another reason why I need to be on wordpress.
Julia recently posted..9 Ways I’m Preparing for a Blog Conference
I heart WordPress so much!
Wow, great review Barb – thank you for sharing your workflow with your audience! I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying CoSchedule
What a fabulous reference! Thanks so much for sharing! I need to get organized
Stephanie recently posted..Kellogg’s: A Good Night Snack #goodnightsnack #cbias
I will have to save this for when I finally make the wordpress switch
Caitlin recently posted..Groovin’ and Grubbin’
Barb, this is the neatest thing since the shirt pocket, I hope that I can get my webmaster to install it for me. I can see now how “you” stay organized not to mention how fun it looks to use. I am so excited, thanks for sharing. Hope you can stop by and share on my #WW this week. have a great day!!
WW Oh My Heartsie Girl (Linky) recently posted..What I Made Wordless Wednesday #Linkyparties
It’s easy peasy to install and use which is part of its beauty.
This sounds awesome Barb. I will have to try this out! Thanks!
Elizabeth recently posted..Watermelon Mint Salad
I can’t wait to look into these tips! Thanks for sharing your tips!
Anne recently posted..Setting Marriage Priorities: A glimpse at my personal life
I recieved a trial of this, didn’t use it. They extended my trial, still didn’t use it. I am terrible about taking the time to use something new. I just recently found out about the reduced rate for a review. Your post helped answer a few questions I had. This might actually be what I need to get myself better organized.
Chrystal @ YUM eating recently posted..Pumpkin and Oats Smoothie
I am so pleased and happy and whatever about using Coschedule. I’m a slow learner but when I see the value in something, WATCH OUT!
thanks, as always, for sharing the good stuff.
PammyPam recently posted..Tea Parties + Crafts = FUN!
Great! And, you know I’ll always answer your questions if I can. Garrett of CoSchedule is a great help, too. Very fast with support.
Hi Barb,
Awesome! Thank you for turning me on to another wonderful social media automation tool that integrates with WordPress. After reading your post and checking out the CoSchedule video I understand how convenient this can become for my blogging and social media sharing efforts which take up quite a bit of time each day.
Deborah Davis recently posted..Drink Up! The Importance of Hydration for the Skin When Working Out
This sounds like such a fantastic tool!
Heidi @ One Creative Mommy recently posted..How to Get Kids to Clean Up!
I haven’t used Coschedule, but now I’ve got to give it a try- thanks for such a great review of the details
Mitzi recently posted..5 Ways to Motivate Kids Every Morning
I love CoSchedule – I’m not quite sure how I’d run my blog without it!
Clare recently posted..Back to school routines for kids – with free printables
You turned me on to it! A big thank you!
Thanks for sharing on the Turn it Up Tuesday linky. I’ve been hearing a lot about co-schedule lately. I need to check this out.
Cindy @MomMaven recently posted..HydroChic Active Wear Review and Giveaway
Hi! I finally bit the bullet and got coschedule today, so i’m trying to figure out its different features. I came across your post on pinterest, actually! I’m totally intrigued by possibly connecting it to my Pinterest account, but I can’t find that feature anywhere. I’d love any help you can give!
jessica lynn recently posted..Blueberry Mint Italian Cream Soda
Oh, I need to update that post. CoSchedule had to drop the Pinterest integration. They were having issues, and Pinterest wouldn’t help them out.
Since then, CS has added some great features I’ve grown to love like the tasks and notes. I use them to remind myself to repin posts and post stuff on FB and my G+ profile.