I now have a FB group that I am in charge of for a short term (2 months). I need to post daily plus other times occasionally. The daily posts should be at a consistent time each day for the others to follow along. The content is already established yet it's better if each piece is shared daily, not all at once or even in chunks. I'm a fairly reliable, organized person so I could try to manage doing that on my own each day but I'm also a tech person who loves to have technology work for me-- after all, isn't that why we have technology? To help make our lives easier?
So how about one of those SMM tools to help me out? How about scheduled posting options? I'm not the 1st on this frontier to do this so this should have been an easy step, yes? Wrong.
I wanted a platform that I could use via PC for the majority of the work (copying & pasting in the content) yet also an app so that I could keep tabs on things on the go. First up was HootSuite since I already have an account & they're a big name playing in SMM. I set everything up, it was easy, and all looked good. I scheduled one post into the future for my test just to make sure everything worked before I spent a lot of time adding in other posts. At the appointed time with HootSuite up in one browser window and my FB group up in another I watched and waited for the magic to happen. Magic, yes? No. Fizzle was more like it. I shared my frustration via Twitter:
I didn't have enough characters left in my tweet but the hashtag could have been #fail -- or a few other choice words. jd-Points. I wasn't sure what went wrong -- I'm still not sure -- but I didn't have time to waste and thought possibly it was a HootSuite to FB group issue. So like many in a "want it now" mentality I was ready to move on.
I messaged my friend, Linda, who has always been a great tech/app resource (retired Librarian who was in on the main floor of 1st two MN "Thing" program offerings). She said she's used Buffer -- which had been mentioned on the Thing 8 page. I like knowing somebody who's had experience with a tool -- especially when I've been experiencing tech fails. jd+Points for recommendations
I checked Buffer out & I was pleased that it met my requirements (web & app versions plus scheduling to FB groups) so I setup an account. I connected all, setup my test post, and all went well. I added in my content for my next 10 posts (amount allowed for a free acct). So fingers crossed that the rest goes well. Oh and the app-- I can easily see my scheduled posts plus make any adjustments if/as needed. jd+Points
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