One of my big goals this year has been to grow this little blog of mine – my strategy for this was 2-part: Blog consistently and increase my social media presence. The first, blogging consistently, was easy enough. For this I used the good ol’ pen and paper method.
However, I was lacking on a good way to easily share those posts I so meticulously planned out. Sure, there are social media scheduling services but it’s kind of really time consuming to have to sit there and copy/paste your post link, add post title, choose the date + time, etc. So I started looking for a more streamlined way of doing things. In comes my knight in shining armor – CoSchedule.
I would call this a review, but honestly it’s more like a love note. CoSchedule is simply amazing.
What makes it so amazing? I’m so glad you asked. CoSchedule it’s an integrated editorial calendar and social media scheduler. I can, all in one, plan out my posts and schedule the social shares to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. What, the what?! And this social media scheduling? Works not only for new posts but for those oldies but goodies sitting in the archives. I can do it, all in one, directly from my WP Dashboard. LOVE.
CoSchedule – The Editorial Calendar
Ok, let’s break this down. The first and foremost CoSchedule is an editorial calendar. After you sign up for an account at CoSchedule.com, you install the plugin on your WordPress blog. From here, you can use it as an editorial calendar and begin planning your blog posts. Look at this beautiful dashboard and toss the pen and paper.
Scheduling posts with CoSchedule is super easy, all you have to do is hover over a given day and a little pencil will show up. When you click that pencil, tell CoSchedule you want to schedule a blog posts, and a new window will pop-up where you’ll be able to title your blog posts, pick an author and date, category, and assign tasks – such as proof reading, add links, add images, etc. I’ll admit I don’t use this portion, tasks, much myself but I can see it being super useful is you run a blog with multiple authors. Because yes, it also integrates multiple authors (amazing, amiright?).
One of the features I LOVE about CoSchedule as an editorial calendar is its drag-and-drop feature. Say you have your calendar all set up for the next month, when bam! you get a sponsored post opportunity that needs to be published on a certain day. No problema señorita. Go to your dashboard and drag-and-drop your already planned out posts to fit in your new posts – it will re-schedule your posts (and social media messages!).
CoSchedule – Social Media Share
This is the part of CoSchedule that really, truly honestly got me – scheduling your social media shares. I can not talk enough about how amazing this portion of CoSchedule is. I (just like you) work really hard on each and every post that I publish. One of my biggest issues up until now was getting that social media sharing scheduling done. How many times am I supposed to post to twitter? Crap, I need to go copy/paste that link. Wait, shoot… I forgot to schedule Facebook. Does anyone still use Google+? A mess, I tell you, a mess. But CoSchedule takes care of all of that!
First, you can schedule your social media shares directly on the editorial calendar as your plan out your posts AND you can also schedule those shares while working on your post in the post editor. And the way it’s set up makes it super easy – it gives you options to schedule for the same day the post is published, the next day, the next week, a month out or on a custom date.
No more trying to remember which days to schedule, no more forgetting social media channels since they all show up right there for you. Additionally, after your post has been published, CoSchedule will tell you how many times that post has been shared throughout social media. In your Dashboard, you’ll also see your Top Post and will be able to easily add more social media shares for those oldies but goodies.
Is The Price Worth It?
Yes, CoSchedule is a paid plugin – I use the $10/month plan. However, it is 100% worth it. I was a little skeptical that all this social media sharing would actually work. What if people felt I was bombarding them with links?. But taking a quick look at my analytics tell me CoSchedule is worth those $10/month.
The photo below shows my increase in visits and pageviews from Twitter alone – the comparison is between May 2015 (when I started using CoSchedule) and May 2014. More than double the sessions. And in all honesty, I don’t have that much more followers on Twitter compared to a year ago so that increase is so incredible to me.
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Phew, alright if you made it through that whole post *high five*. Long story, short – if you haven’t done so already, TRY COSCHEDULE. Definitely give it a shot, CoSchedule has helped me save time and grow my blog all in one! You don’t have to commit straight away, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial and see if it works with your process.
Hey Fran! Quick question – what makes you like this versus using a free way to do this (ie the WordPress Editorial Plugin + free version of Buffer)? Is it just that it’s all in one? Curious because I go about this in a free way, but I’ve heard so much about CoSchedule that I consider it, but I’m just unsure if it’s totally worth the money when it’s possible to manage this for free!
I can’t speak for Fran but I’ve been using CoSchedule for about a five months now, and yes, I like this because it’s an all in one plugin. The editorial calendar can help you visualize your social media posts for the whole month. It is also less buggy for me. I don’t think a lot of people have issues with Buffer, but I noticed that it likes to disconnect my Twitter a way lot.
I’ve had that issue with buffer too!
I too love it because it’s all in one. I’ve used buffer and hootsuite and similar sites but they just don’t compare. Plus I love that it makes it SO much easier to make changes to my scheduling. I’m always moving posts around and this calendar allows me to drag and drop everything without having to go into the post and manually change the scheduled posting date. It does everything for me in the background. I don’t know what I’d do without CoSchedule and think it’s worth every penny.
Exactly! All-in-one is the way to go! Oh man, and the drag and drop?! Life saving! I’m constantly moving things around haha
[super late reply!] but yes, it’s the having everything in one. It makes everything super easy and less-time consuming – and when I’m trying to get everything schedule before Joey wakes up from his nap, I need easy and less-time consuming haha
I’ve heard so many great things about this program and wish that they had it for Blogger.
xoxo, Jenny || Breakfast at Lillys
Yes! Sadly, Blogger doesn’t allow this kind of added functionality, thumbs down.
I’ve heard some about CoSchedule, but I haven’t made the investment yet. It looks like such an awesome service! 🙂 Thanks so much for all the info about it!
It’s amazing, and you can always do the 14-day free trial before committing to see how you like it!
I am always looking for new things to try out on my blog…Thank you so much for this awesome post!
Absolutely! Thank you for stopping by!
Thanks for sharing this! I am in need of a way to stay on track and keep things organized, but in a simple way. This just might be what I am looking for!
Basically, I have my work cut out for me tomorrow when I have a baby sitter. I’ve been so hesitant to try this, because of the cost involved, but I like the idea of a free trial first. AND if I’m serious about growing my blog (which I am), then I should probably just do it. Also, I wish I lived near you so I could meet up with you all the time and pick your brain, or I wish I had a million dollars so I could just pay you to run the behind-the-scenes part of my blog. 🙂
I was really hesitant because of the cost too but after doing the free trial, I was sold.
This looks great and the price is a lot less than what I used to pay an assistant to schedule posting for me on a site I used to own, not to mention the time it took train her!
Exactly! People pay so much for VAs, but won’t pay $10 for CoSchedule haha
Great post! I started with Co-Schedule just yesterday. I’m not a “just click around and figure it out” kind of person so this really helped! Lately if I have a question about blogging, I come to freeborleta and search here first. lol I feel like I have you on speed dial. 🙂
Thank you so much Jodi! The last part of your comment seriously means the world to me! Let me know if there’s ever something you want information on an do haven’t written a post on it yet – I love answering questions!