Do you find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out what to post on Facebook and other social media sites?
I feel your pain. I manage a handful of Facebook pages and I used to spend hours trying to figure out what type of content my followers like to see and share.
Then back in 2012, I found PostPlanner
It wasn't completely love at first site though. One of the things that attracted me to PostPlanner (aff. link) initially was that I would get a link back to my blog with every post. For example, at the top of the post on Facebook you would see “via Basic Blog Tips”. Unfortunately, that fancy little link stopped working after awhile and that quickly ended my love affair with PostPlanner.
New Features Added to Post Planner
Well, I should have guessed.
Turns out that PostPlanner wasn't to blame for this after all. It was Facebook – once again they changed the permissions for third party apps and that explains why the “Basic Blog Tips” branded links went bye-bye.
But now they offer so much more. They even hired popular blogger Rebekah Radice to help craft some of their blog posts and status updates. In this Post Planner review, I'll try to cover most of what you can do with the tool as it stands right now. But if I miss something that's only because it does so much – feel free to let me know if the comments if your favorite feature get's overlooked.
- Stay top of mind with PostPlanner's Facebook post scheduler
- Post to Facebook Groups that you're listed as an Admin
- Curate content based on keywords
- Find popular posts in your niche
- See which images are going viral
- Skyrocket your engagement
- Get the perfect quote to post
- Create your own custom images through direct access to Canva (this is huge)
There are more updates coming for PostPlanner and eventually it will become a stand-alone website instead of a Facebook app. I want you to see what the interface looks like and in the video you'll get an inside view. Watch this (btw don't miss the update I added to the end of this post). Now; back to the video:
PostPlanner: Never Worry About What To Post On Social Media Again
Generate Content Ideas for Every Platform
Toward the end of the video (you did watch it to the end right?) I shared a little bonus tip. It's a two step-process I use that involves using Buzzsumo in conjunction PostPlanner. You'll hear more about Buzzsumo from me over on my podcast, but in a nutshell I use it to find popular images to pin on Pinterest. Stay tuned, because soon I will share the results of my little Pinterest experiment.
Have you tried PostPlanner? They have a free version to get you started. I love this tool so much I became an affiliate and you can use my link to sign up:
GIVE POSTPLANNER A TRY
Let me know what you think.
UPDATE: You Can Recycle Your Evergreen Content on Twitter in PostPlanner
PostPlanner Tutorial Video Transcript
Hey guys it's Ileane from Basic Blog Tips. And today I wanna talk to you about a tool that's going to solve your problems of generating content – when you don't know what to post on social media; when you don't know what to write about on your blog, this tool's gonna help you generate content ideas and give you a fast and easy way to post it's called PostPlanner. Stay tuned because that's coming right up.
Now PostPlanner works inside of Facebook. But you can easily take the ideas that you find inside of PostPlanner and use them on your blog or Twitter, Instagram and so forth. Let me just show you how PostPlanner works and then at the end I'm gonna give you a little extra tip!
At the moment PostPlanner works inside of Facebook but I did find out that they have plans to move it as a stand-alone app. So depending upon when you're watching this the interface might be a little different but the content generation ideas should be pretty much the same. Once you've connected [to Facebook] you're going to, of course, have access to all of your Facebook pages and also any groups that you're the admin of. And it gives you a little bit of guidance up at the top up the page but I wanna show you the feature at is called “Trending Content”.
Oh, by the way you can schedule things to post with PostPlanner I guess, hence the name PostPlanner, so that's not even the good part that I wanna show you though. But it's always cool to have a scheduling tool but it's the content idea generation is the piece that I really, really love. For example, one of the pages that I am admin for is my daughter's fashion blog. And if we want to look up things that are trending in the world a fashion you just come in here and type in keywords. So you type in the keywords for fashion and you're going to see what's trending right now on Facebook in terms a fashion. You get to see how many shares and how many likes that content has.
And then that gives you a good idea if you think you should reshare it or not. If it's something that's really popular you may wanna just reshare yourself. Now let's bring this back home to my topic which, as you guys know, is blogging, social media, and YouTube. So hang on, let me switch over to another screen.
What the guys at PostPlanner have done they've already populated these folders with content from very popular Facebook pages. Right now we're looking at what's popular over at Social Media Examiner. Now here you'll see that these things are being shared they've even got more shares than they have likes because people know how popular their content is so they're resharing it in droves! And so what's happening is, these people that are resharing it are probably getting the likes on their reshares. So this gives you an idea of, like I said, you can use this just to share on Facebook – you know schedule it out. But you can also go click through to the website well in this case, we already know that the site is SocialMediaExaminer.com, so here's what we can do!![Ah! Now I Know What to Post on Facebook [Hint: PostPlanner]](https://i0.wp.com/basicblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Ah-Now-I-KnowWhat-to-Post-400x400.png?resize=400%2C400)
There's another tool that's called Buzzsumo and I like this piece because this is gonna show us other networks like Google+ and my favorite Pinterest! So now I'm over in Buzzsumo. And over in Buzzsumo I've typed in the domain Social Media Examiner. Over on the right hand side you're gonna see the shares and which networks. Basically is going to be Facebook LinkedIn, Twitter Pinterest and Google+ and then of course you'll see the total. But you can sort this by – let's just say you wanted to see the top shares just on Twitter. (I have it sorted for Pinterest) but you can sort it either way. Then you now that more than likely if you share that content on that network that it's going to get some attention and you're probably going to get some reshares and perhaps interaction. In my case I like to use this to source content for Pinterest.
I gotta tell you this is one of my Ninja tips here.
So what you would do and I'm using Social Media Examiner because they're a very good example. Their content get shares constantly, they have a huge email list! But what you wanna do is bring over into Buzzsumo with the pages that are similar to yours or the web sites that are similar to yours and then you're gonna sort them by these different social networks. The one that you want to get some increased engagement on. So that's how you take PostPlanner and you combine that with Buzzsumo. So say for example you are a social media person you could come in here and find out the website URL's of all these sites that they already have preloaded in PostPlanner or you can add your own! Okay so that was some real super ninja stuff I just shared with you you know I must love you to death. Now I’ll tell you what you need to do you need to subscribe so you get more of those ninja tips right in your inbox. Go to BasicBlogTips.com/tips and I'll hook you up! Talk to you soon. Peace!
Recommended Reading:
Facebook Marketing All-in-One For Dummies
UPDATE: Add Your OWN Branding to Content You Share with PostPlanner
With the PostPlanner ShareBar You Can Promote:
#1 Your Website or Landing Page
#2 Your Twitter account
#3 Your Facebook Page
#4 Your Affiliate offer
#5 Your Podcast or Blab page
This is just another powerful feature you'll get and it's a great selling point too! Watch this tutorial to learn how to set up the ShareBar.
I started playing around with Post Planner this month. Personally I *don’t* like the Facebook website so I find it rather annoying that PP is used as a FB app, meaning I have to log into Facebook to use it. Apart from that it seems like a fantastic tool though I haven’t used it enough myself yet to have a definitive opinion. It’s reassuring that you’re such a fan though Ileane! 🙂
Hey Richard!
I saw an interview with PostPlanner’s founder Joshua Parkinson and they are working on taking it outside of Facebook and off into their own website. I think he said they will be done before the end of the year. I’m hoping that they plan to do more integration with Pinterest, Twitter and Google Plus.
Thanks for your comment Richard!
Hi Ileane,
I had tried Post Planner’s free offer and I liked it. However, I didn’t yet go for their pro version yet.
Thank you for these awesome tips. I am thinking to go pro and give it a whirl to see how things look after a month of so 🙂 It surely sounds very promising!
Regards,
Kumar
Hi Kumar,
I’m sure you’ll enjoy the added benefits when you upgrade to the pro version. It’s a fantastic tool to have in your social media arsenal.
Nice of you to stop by and leave a comment Kumar. Thanks!
Nice tutorial Ileane. Postplanner is not something that I have tried, but I do want to look into it now that I have seen your guide here.
Start off with the free version of PostPlanner so you can get your feet wet Kostas. Have fun!
Hi Ileane,
I have been using buffer to schedule all my posts from a really long time and i am satisfied with their service.
But Post planner seems promising and its features are also good.
I ll definitely give it a try and see how it goes.
Hi Ankit,
I use Buffer for scheduling as well. But you’ll find different content in the recommendations on PostPlanner. It’s also a much nicer interface.
Tried the trial version of Post Planner and it’s pretty cool.
Good for you Jon.
A free version of postplanner. Ohhh!
I have nerver use the post planner tool yet but will use it soon. After using I will decide to go on Pro Version.
I think postplanner is awesome. but monthly plan charges are too high for the non profit bloggers. any way, thanks for informing abt the site.
Manoj, You can use the free version of PostPlanner – I hope I made that clear in the article.
But just in case you want to give the pro features a try, use this code for a free trial MASTER30FREE
Really wonderful article, this post planner apps really helpful to use FB posts, FB Pages, FB groups etc., I’m gonna try it . Thnx for sharing such a beautiful article
Great article ! I never had tried Postplanner. It seems to be cool. I Will try it soon. Thanks for sharing the information.
Nice Post Ileane.
currently i watch that many of bloggers are use brackets like () [] {} in post title. it that affect in search?
Hey Ileane,
Great post by the way, your full of new and wonderful tricks to improve our blogging experience (or social media experience in the case of this post.)
I’m new here, but i’m hooked and will continue to follow you.
Our websites have a similar niche and your should check out my site sometime.
Many thanks,
John
Hi John, nice to see you joining the community here. Thanks a bunch!
Hi Ileane
Post planner certainly seems like a great tool for the Facebook lovers.
My presence on there is a bit of a joke, so I am staying away from there at the moment and focusing on where I can spend time and energy – Twitter and Pinterest.
If only there were cooler tools for Pinterest posts :>
ashley
Hi Ashley,
I hope you got a chance to watch the video, because at the end I show how I’m using PostPlanner along with Buzzsumo to find great images to Pin. Honestly, you can use this tool to find good content to post on any social network. What’s special about using PostPlanner/Buzzsumo is that you’ll know for sure people are going to reshare the content because it’s already popular on Twitter, Pinterest or the other social sites.
Thanks for stopping by Ashley!
btw – I’m in the middle of listening to your interview with Ann Smarty – should finish up in the morning during my commute. Good stuff so far!
Hello Ileane,
I am always puzzled myself with what to post on social media profiles. This “post planner” has amazing features. Let me give it a try. This can sort out my lot of problems.
Hoping to have it soon.
Have a great week ahead!
Thanks
Nisha
We use Hootsuite so that we can plan our posting across multiple platforms. Can you use PostPlanner for this, or are you ‘sold’ on Facebook as the best way to promote your business?
Once you find the content in PostPlanner, you can share it wherever you wish. You can still use HootSuite for the scheduling piece.
Thanks as always, Ileane for your great social media tips. The video is very helpful. I have not been using FB much, but I need to start using it more, and this may be an easy way to integrate my biz material w/ some use social media tips. Thanks.
Hi Kaloyan,
I’m curious – why do say that you can’t benefit from PostPlanner in your main business? Is the business using social media at all?
PostPlanner is totally awesome because it can help one improve engagement and thus reach on Facebook. The Facebook edgerank algorithm measures engagement and uses it to determine reach, so knowing what post can trigger engagement using PostPlanner is very important and can really help a lot of businesses on Facebook.
Thanks for sharing such a resourceful article with us.
Hello Ileane, Very nice post i must say. I agree with you that post planner is really wonderful. I recently started using Post planner and i came to know about this amazing fact about Post Planner that, it can save your 2 hrs daily on Facebook Marketing! Facebook is one of the top free tool used by internet marketers and brand managers to create brand awareness and drive traffic.
Postplanner is a Facebook app which helps group admins to automate and manage their Facebook property. There are variety of features which can help you out with Facebook marketing.
When ever I thought to use a paid app, the first question that comes in my mind is: Is it worth my money and time?
But Post Planner is definitely worth your attention, time and money.
I am very thankful to you for sharing such a nice information with us, very informative article.
Good Luck
Importance of social media marketing is very high especially facebook, in this scenario official business pages on facebook need more posts and stuff to share. It is absolutely true that most of people don’t know what to post and if they post they post wrong. Your shared tips are very effective to post interesting stuff to get more views and likes on particular pages.
I had a close friend who once hinted me about PostPlanner, but i never got to understand it well, now i pop in to your great article with deep information on PostPlanner wow. Thanks for the informative and detailed post Ileane. Just trying it today and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing the great info
Thank you for these awesome tips. I am thinking to go pro and give it a whirl to see how things look after a month of so 🙂 It surely sounds very promising!
regards
Vaibhav
I just started using it recently and thank you for this amazing guide Ileane! It will come helpful.
One more very useful tip: When posting on Facebook always add a hashtag (#) with main keyword of your niche. This way you’ll get more targeted visitors, mean when people search for your niche in FB search, your post will show up to them this way.
Have a great day,
Adam
Girlfriend, you always knock those tips out of the ballpark. You are amazing. Thank you for sharing this. I would love to share your article on my FB pages for my fans (and your fans too…lol) . Anyways, so good to stop by here, you always share so much and have been so educational to me in the online world since I was just the baby beginner. Thanks for that….you are an amazing mentor!
Irish!!! You made my day with that comment. Thanks so much and I’m always here for you so let me know if you need a hand with anything. Muah!!
Hey Ileane,
I think I read about this app from you in the past (or something) but never really had time for it. Now you just rekindled the flames.
I checked their site and it looks like I will be giving the starter plan a try. I’m stepping out now but I’ll be back to watch the video more closely and see what next steps to take.
Do have a wonderful week ahead
I’ve never heard of Postplanner before, but I will definitely give it a try. I try to post on social media after work and sometimes it takes me hours to know what to write or share. This could be a great time saver. Thanks!
This is amazing postplanner tutorial for better knowledge
Hi Ileane,
nice information about social media marketing.
I am working on social media marketing.
this blog will help me alot.
Hey Ileane,
Thanks for sharing all these nice information with the blogging community and being a tutor to newbie bloggers. I signed up for the free version but it only allowed me to schedule one post, I’m being prompted upgrade to “guru” to queue more posts. I regularly follow your articles.
Have a Nice day, Happy Blogging 🙂
Post planner is good option to schedule posts . Your tutorial makes my work easy.
Hi Sharad,
That’s fantastic to hear. I’m glad you are using Postplanner and finding it helpful.