Learn how to put the computer to work for you, while you can focus to improve your strategy and reach even more customers for your business. Mass Planner is a Social Media Automation tool, designed to help marketing managers to broadcast their company killer value proposition to prospect users. Mass Planner can address different types of marketing issues, because we all know that not all the marketing strategies are created equal.
As a computer science geek student, I always tried to find ways to automate small repetitive tasks, anything that could shave some extra few minutes off my day. I soon became to see automation opportunities all the time. It’s a fun and useful game, that if is done right, can help you improve your work.
You might think that automation is not for everybody though, it’s a really difficult thing do to, something that should be done only by programmers. But, these days there are lots of great tools created to make automation easy even for those without programming skills.
The evolution of technology has forced many companies to become human and to reach their clients through social channels, thanks to the social business tools like Facebook. Soon enough, we found ways to automate our “humanity”. But, despite of this movement to empower organization to be human and the importance of the personal approach to business, not all automation is bad. In fact, you can create a social media strategy without losing the personal element that can increase your productivity and offer more value to your clients.
Let’s see how to create a healthy social media automation strategy which your business could benefit of.
What is Mass Planner?
There are some great tools to automate your marketing efforts and Mass Planner is one of them. You can schedule your Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest content and have it published at the right times, when your users are most engaged in social media activities.
My mom used to make some delicious cookies that was so easy to cook: you would just have to put all the ingredients in the pan and put it in the oven. They would simple rearrange in nice layers of soft crème, without any effort from your part. She used to call it The Smart Cookie: you’d just set it and forget it. That kind of automation is nice (and delicious), but you can’t have it in your social media. When your cookies go into the oven, your work shouldn’t be over. You need to check on the progress, you need to prepare the next batch. You remain engaged from beginning to end.
How to automate your Facebook Marketing with Mass Planner?
With Mass Planner there are many ways to automate your Facebook Marketing. First, you can schedule your posts in advance, and have them be published at the exact times your audience is on Facebook to have a maximum reach. Then you can set up RSS feeds to be shared to your users.
If you are a beginner, you need to start small. Schedule your Facebook updates for a few days at a time, to test your methods. Don’t just jump right in and schedule your work for an entire month! You can make mistakes and look foolish, or even worse: fake. You need to keep your human touch. Your customers need to feel your presence.
Your goal is not to remove the work entirely, but to use your time wisely.
How to schedule your Facebook updates, step by step:
After you sign up for a Mass Planner account here: http://www.massplanner.com/ , install the application on your Windows PC or laptop and login with your account. After you login with your Mass Planner account, you need to add your Facebook account in the Profile tab.
Step 1: Create a campaign
If you are a beginner, you should start with a standard campaign. This is for posting on a limited number of Facebook pages or groups. This type of campaign will publish your content at specified times throughout the day.
Step 2: Choose a name for you campaign
This may be silly, but a suggestive name could be very useful to organize your marketing strategies.
Step 3: Set up the timers for your Facebook updates
If you are new to this, you can choose the “Simplified Publishing” and just specify how many unique posts you want to have per day. Mass Planner will choose appropriate times based on the number you specify.
If you want to be more specific, you can choose the time zone and the exact hours for your publishing. This can be very helpful when you know your users and their habits.
How to find the optimal posting schedule?
This depends on the data you have about your users. Where are your fans located? On which time zone? When are your posts most engaging? You can learn to answer these questions by following the analytics data you set up for your social media. Based on these answers and a lot of A/B testing, you can create the ideal posting schedule for you and your clients.
Step 4: Choose a destination list
A destination list is created by selecting the Facebook Pages and Groups where you want to publish your content and engage with your customers.
You can also choose to publish on your Timeline, if it’s your business Facebook account. (For example, if you are a blogger, you may want to publish your updated on your Facebook Timeline too, for your friends and family.)
Step 5: You can choose to add a signature to your posts.
You can have a call to action in your signature, or just your website link for more information. However, this is optional, but can be helpful if used accordingly.
Step 6: Add your posts
This is the important and tricky part. Adding your actual content to the Mass Planner posts list.
If you are a beginner start by adding only the content for the next few days. This way you will see how to improve your methods. You need to be sure you’re sending the right message, before starting to add posts in bulk.
Don’t forget to start your campaign using “Start Publishing” button in the Campaign tab!
Automate your RSS
If you are a blogger you are definitely in need for this feature. You can automate the sharing of your latest blog posts to as many social places as possible – automation is very helpful here. You can create a Feed Campaign, which is exactly like a standard campaign but instead of adding posts to your queue, you need to add a Feed URL. Mass Planner will do the job for you and post all your updates on your destination lists. You’ll just have to keep an eye on your posts, and check the feedback from your users.
Facebook Automation Best Practices
Here are some best practices for starting automating your content on Facebook.
- If all you do is share content from other sources, your followers don’t need you!
You need to make sure you add value to your customers. Otherwise your followers can go straight to your source. You can add additional value through your comments and insights on the topics.
- Be consistently active on your social networks.
Consistency is the key to success on social media. Take your time to schedule your posts to help your business remain active. But be aware of any circumstances that may require to change or postpone what was scheduled.
- Avoid sharing the same message over and over again
This could be perceived as spam, and you don’t want that! Try to make use of the spin syntax, to customize your message.
- Learn how to create viral content on Facebook . It's really not that hard
If you manage to create a few viral posts you'll see so much traffic coming in that you won't know what to do with it :)
- Don’t plan too far in advance.
Or if you do, please take time to review your strategy every once in a while. Because you could end up having content that made sense a month ago but doesn’t on the day it goes live.
- Stay on top of the news
Be prepared to pause your social strategy when some big events occur, like a local or national crisis, that can dramatically affect all your social media users. Mass Planner gives you the possibility to stop your campaigns at once, if the situation requires it.
- Take your time to visit your social media profile
Visit your social media profiles daily to make sure everything is ok and to be prepared to step in and engage with your community. Respond to messages, comments or even have some spontaneous posts. You should have time for this thanks to the automation work done by Mass Planner.
This article is the first in the “How to make the most out of you Mass Planner account” series. The author, Zoe Summers, is a social media enthusiast and a computer geek, passionate about everything new in technology.
