Automating Social Media - SmarterQueue

The last several weeks I have been reviewing some of the social media schedulers I have used or am using. This week I am ending with my current favorite and Go To Scheduler - let's talk about SmarterQueue.

Well, to put a spoiler on this review - this is the scheduler that I decided to adopt as my go-to. Over the past several weeks I have discussed a few that I did look at - there were others, but for one reason or another, I decided to not use them.

SmarterQueue caught my attention - it has incredible analytics and allows me to create evergreen content. I can also schedule posts on specific times (or multiple times), have posts recycle until a specific expiration date, and get notifications if I am running out of content within my queue. Basically, SmarterQueue takes the guesswork out of things for me.

Let's start with the interface - it is intuitive to use. If you have questions, there are tutorials (no charge) and a lot of videos on Youtube on using SmarterQueue but if you have ever just looked at a software package (web browser interface) - this one sort of drives itself with minimal thought and effort.

Next - categories - you can organize your content into specific post types or topics and areas.

You can define which social media accounts posts within that category can be posted to - and select the default accounts that will always be turned on. Categories can be paused as well, so if you are looking at starting a new type of posts - you can pre-load the category with several posts before starting the posting schedule, or even pause if you are going on holidays or something.

I used the pause, pre-load, and launch recently - I started a new job with a new company a little bit ago. I had two posting times a week that had been previously dedicated to my former company - specifically posting blog posts, videos, application notes, etc to help promote those products. In the weeks between giving notice to one job and starting the other one, I created a new posting queue for those same time slots but placed it on pause. I spent time creating some basic posts that were specific to my new company - so that I would not have to stress about creating content in my first weeks on the new job. When I was ready to switch over - I simply paused my old company posts and turned on the new categories - and seamlessly my posting schedule stayed the same, with a shift in content.

Let's talk for a second about posting plans - this is another area of SmarterQueue that made me really intrigued. Hootsuite required me to spend time creating a calendar and then individually creating posts that matched the campaign, and individually scheduling (or bulk uploading and then fine-tuning within Hootsuite) those posts for specific dates and times. In SmarterQueue instead you create the categories and then schedule time slots for the content in those posts to go out.

This means you can dedicate times and ensure your posts are spaced evenly - and if you fill the buckets (categories) with posts - you can ensure you post consistently. There are some great analytics around the categories and engagement as well. And each post within a category can:

• Be scheduled for a specific date and time (if you want)
• Be added to the end or the beginning of the queue'd posts within that category
• Set to be evergreen and recycle either indefinitely, a specific number of times, or until a specific expiration date

You can also create multiple versions of each post (text, pictures) when you set up the post, so that when it recycles through the queue, a different version of posts comes up in different cycles, keeping content fresh.

Smarter Queue also has some great additional features including:

• assistance in content creation - helping you search your feeds for more posts to re-share and keep relevant
• Great access to images through several sources
• The ability to attach videos and images or to link to the web based URL for images to add to content
• Easy ways to @someone on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook - they are working on Linked In
• RSS Feed Integration
• Ability to connect to Feedly (soon to be discussed in a future Resource Review)
• Bulk Uploads
• Ability to expand to teams
• Discounts for non-profits, charities and educational services who want to use this service at up to 50% off the plan price
• Access to many social profiles - Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
• Ability to customize text and preview for EACH social channel - so you are not stuck with one set of text for everywhere.
• Being able to set posts to expire - meaning you can have great seasonal content without stressing that you will be posting Merry Christmas in February - instead of Happy Valentine's Day!
• Super easy user interface - graphical, intuitive, simple to navigate (this bears repeating)
• The ability to change an image or video upload in one post of a series (across multiple social media platforms) and be able to update ALL connected posts with a simple button push.

And finally, their support is incredible. They are responsive and willing to listen to suggestions from their customers and work towards implementing ones that might make sense.

I am pretty much sold on SmarterQueue - but there are some definite cons:

• No way to integrate to Facebook profiles (note: Facebook removed the ability to directly publish to Facebook profiles - you can only publish to pages) but there are other services that will queue up the post and launch it to Facebook with a little manual work - I am hoping SmarterQueue will add this in eventually.
• It is not the cheapest software out there, nor it is the most expensive - BUT the options for plans are VERY customizable so you can select exactly what you want and need and not have to pay for options you have no interest in. The least expensive plan is $17/month paid annually in advance or $19.99 per month on a month by month plan - that is actually really not too bad. You can go up, adding profiles, posts, categories, different levels of analytics, etc - and get pretty expensive but honestly - you pick WHAT you need and can adjust it if you need to.
• No real mobile app - there is one to push posts to Instagram if you cannot automate this (some levels of Instagram accounts do not allow automatic posting and some content types like video uploads do not allow automatic pushing). It would be great to be able to tweak on the go - though this is not a deal breaker for me. Honestly - I am really better at doing content generation with a full keyboard and access to more than a single resource - so I can really think about what I am posting before I do.
• No ability to generate my own image library - though this is really not a big issue - I change things up a lot.
• When you co-schedule several posts into your queue across multiple social platforms, you cannot edit them all at once if you need to make a change (except for images or videos) - you must tweak each one separately. After the initial creation - they become separate entities - which can be a pain if you need to make a simple change. I wish you could manage the entire original group down the road or just one version - but have the choice

Having said that - I would not go back and for now it is all SmarterQueue. In fact - if you want to try it yourself, without adding a credit card - try the extended free trial using this link: https://smarterqueue.com/?ref=qgc.

I love SmarterQueue and would strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their social presence, personal brand, and free up time. I actually use it with two different organizations I help out with communications as well - and it has enabled them to do more for their social media presence and increase attendance at events and membership in a significant way.

If you want to get access to an extended free trial (without needing to add a credit card or anything) - you can use this link: https://smarterqueue.com/?ref=qgc.

Do you use a social media management platform? I have discussed and reviewed 4 platforms but there are dozens of them out there. I would love to hear what you use and why!