Scheduling your social media content is an incredibly freeing thing to do. Being able to go in and schedule a week or even a month, or months worth of content, all at once, frees you up to do other things. It allows you to capitalize on the best times to post to the various social media accounts, and batching your content in bundles and scheduling them all at once means that you actually save time in the long run.
Just this past week, I have signed up with Publer, and I cannot stress how very much I am enjoying it. I have been using social media schedulers for over six years now and was using two different schedulers up until now. I was using one to schedule my content, and another to curate and schedule content from other sources. Publer actually combines all the features I need in one scheduler, at an affordable price.
This post contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you purchase something using one of my links. I only use affiliate links of companies that I use and find to be of excellent value.
Social media accounts supported by Publer
Social media accounts currently supported by Publer are Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups, Instagram business accounts, Twitter, LinkedIn Personal profiles and LinkedIn Business Pages, Pinterest (through Zapier), YouTube and Google My Business.
The addition of Google My Business was a nice bonus I thought. Some other schedulers include it, but many don’t. It is easy to forget the need to post regularly to your Google My Business account, but having it in the mix here makes including it quick and easy.
Unfortunately, the company is waiting for approval from Pinterest to post directly there. For the moment, you can do this via Zapier. Setting those things up will not take a lot of time.
I personally use Tailwind to curate and schedule Pinterest pins from other users and to share my Pinterest pins within Pinterest groups. I look forward to seeing how Publer will work with Pinterest in the future.
Add more social media accounts easily and affordably
One of the first things I noticed and liked was how easy it was to add an additional social media account. Many social media schedulers will require you to upgrade to a set number rather than add the actual amount you need.
Currently (as of 27 August 2021) you can sign up and get 5 social media accounts or less on the free option. That is likely enough for many just starting out, but the Argentum (silver) and Aurum (gold) options offer so many more features, at such reasonable prices that they are hard to resist.
If you need more than 5 social media accounts or want to access the extra features, you can do so by using the red or green arrows on the plans and pricing page to increase or decrease the number of social accounts you need, and the additional team members if applicable.
You can also save money by signing up for 3 months (15% off), 6 months (17% off), or 12 months (20%off ) in advance. Great news for charities and non-profit organizations as well with a 50% reduction on fees.
In a nice twist, for every 9th social media account you add, you get the 10th one free. So, while I have 11 social media accounts on there currently, I am only paying $20 and not $22. It’s a small thing, but an indication of the value given.
Another thing I really appreciated was that when I did sign up for a free 7-day trial (14 days for the Aurum plan), I was shown the pricing in my currency (Australian dollars). I have not yet seen a charge come through, but if I am to be charged in Australian dollars going forward, that will save on foreign currency fees from my bank (again, small things, but they all add up).
Something that pleasantly surprised me was the declaration on the pricing and plans page that as “long as you have an active subscription, we will never charge more than what you signed up for. That’s how we value your loyalty. If you cancel your subscription and decide to come back after a while, price changes (if any) will affect you as well.” That’s incredible value, and it’s nice to see a company reward loyalty, and not just dangle great offers in front of new subscribers.
Start out with free or supercharge your scheduling
The free version of Publer will be sufficient for many people, but the Argentum and Aurum plans include so much more to really make your scheduling a breeze.
Free Plan
The free version includes the ability to schedule up to 10 posts for up to 5 social media accounts. It includes a free version of Link in Bio (see more on that below) along with the browser extension, calendar view, auto-schedule, shortcodes. It also includes the ability to group social media accounts, and add delays between posts among other features.
Argentum (Silver) Plan
The Argentum plan includes everything in the free plan but also allows for unlimited scheduling and drafts of posts. You can also bulk schedule up to 500 posts at once. You have a media library with unlimited storage and can export from Canva.
A premium version of the Link in Bio feature is included, as well as automatic RSS posting. Analytics are included in the Argentum plan, as well as the ability to watermark photos, include signatures, schedule follow-up comments and autoshare and autodelete posts. You can also add additional team members for a small additional monthly fee on the Argentum and Aurum plans. Published posts (whether published via Publer or others) are also kept on the Pulber servers indefinitely in case you wish to go back and reshare them.
Aurum (Gold) Plan
The Aurum plan includes everything in the Free and Argentum plans along with the ability to schedule videos, multi-photo posts and GIFs. You also have hashtag suggestions and content recommendations and analytics reports included.
You can schedule Facebook Group albums and upload videos from a URL and watermark videos.
You can schedule YouTube videos, design videos (with Crello Pro) and automatically recycle your posts or Schedule recurring posts.
Publer's Link in bio for Instagram
I love this! Previously I was using Linktr.ee for my Link in Bio for Instagram accounts and some client Instagram accounts. I also have had one client that had me design a custom “start here” page for their website.
However, there is something really cool about being able to take someone to a mock-up of your Instagram page and have them click through to the exact web page that your Instagram account.
You can also include sections across the top of your Instagram Link In Bio page just as you can with your archived stories on your Instagram account. You don’t need to post a story first to select up to 15 sections that can lead to other website pages, social media accounts, or wherever you choose.
I have included a quick video below of how the Publer Link in Bio page for my other website Scullywag Astrology works.
Creating Posts
Creating posts for your social media is quick, easy and intuitive. Select the social media accounts you want to schedule your content to, and fill in the details.
In another simple, but oh so effective addition, they have a section to bold, italicize or use an emoji in your text. That may seem incredibly simple, but if you have ever tried to format text while posting to Facebook natively, you will understand just how wonderful that is.
If you are linking to an existing website page, adding the URL (website address) in the description section will bring up a preview of the website page. In the example below I have left the URL in the description area for now, but if I remove the URL link from the description area, the link preview will still work. The link preview to the website page will show up in the social media posts, and it will take people directly to the website page if they click on it.
Add media customized to the social media account
When adding media to your post, you have a lot of options. In the example above, I just entered the URL of the website page I wanted to showcase and let it fill in the featured image.
However, you can also upload media from your device, or import media from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Unsplash or your own Pulber media library. If you are using the Argentum or Aurum plans, you can quickly find images that you have previously used in the media library.
You can also design with Canva, or Crello (an online video editor). Publer is excited about the addition of the functionality of these two editors and includes access to Crello pro features, even if you are using their free version of Publer.
Use labels to make finding and reusing posts easier
One feature I really like is the labels section that you can tag all the content you are posting in that instance all at once. For example, when I schedule a post regarding transits of the Moon to other planets, I label those posts as “Moon Transits”. This means that I can easily search for any past or scheduled posts with that label. You can also search by any term in the search area. In the example above, I have used the label “My Content” so that I can find it later on to reuse it.
Customize for each social media account
You can customize the social media post you are creating for each individual social media account. In the example above, you can see an orange exclamation mark in a circle. This is warning me that I have too many characters in the text for Twitter and that the text will be cut off when it posts to Twitter.
So, I will go in and edit that specifically for Twitter. I will also go in and change the photo used for Instagram, as it doesn’t use link previews and will need its own image. However, using the Link in Bio feature, those that do click on my Instagram Link in Bio, will be able to go directly to that website page now.
You can find the customizer, directly under the content section, on the far left.
Add a location
You can find the location option next to the customizer, directly under the content section, on the left-hand side.
Add watermarks to media
The next section over is the media options section. Clicking on this will bring up a window allowing you to add watermarks to your photos. Watermarking photos is an option available in the Argentum and Aurum plans. You can upload up to 10 watermarks per social media account in the Argentum plan in your accounts section.
Add signatures
On the Argentum and above plans, you can create signatures for each of your social media accounts. Very similar to an email signature, you can set it up so that all content posted to a social media account has the signature (including text, URL’s or hashtags) or opt to add it if and when you want it. On the Argentum plan, you can set up up to 10 signatures per social media account in the accounts section.
Add shortcodes
Included in all plans are shortcodes. Shortcodes work similar to signatures, in that they can include hashtags, addresses, URL’s etc, but they can be added anywhere in your posts. A huge 50 shortcodes per social media account are included in the Argentum, and it looks like a still very generous 30 per social media account are included in the free plan.
Add follow-up comments
Another really brilliant inclusion. You can schedule a comment or comments (depending on the social media account) underneath your post. You can specify the time duration between when the original post is posted and when the first and next comments are posted.
This works great for Twitter threads, but also for when you want to prompt discussion on a post or answer a question that you have posted. This is a feature of the Argentum and higher plans.
Auto-share and/or auto-delete posts
Another feature available on the Argentum and above plans, you can set up your post to automatically share to another social media account. You can also arrange to have a social media post automatically delete, or hide from a timeline after an amount of time specified by you.
Add a delay between accounts
You can specify a delay between posting to multiple social media posts when scheduling them all at once.
Calendar view and search by label
The calendar view gives a good overview of scheduled content. You can sort by all content, individual social media accounts, groups of social media accounts, by label, by search term, and by day, week, or month.
Browser extension to share content directly from a website
You can also schedule content that you come across while surfing the web. Publer now has browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.
While this is a feature in many social media schedulers, I am not sure that all of them allow you to highlight some text on a page and automatically have it come up ready to schedule.
You can share photos, videos, Gifs, links, and webpages without needing to download/upload, or copy-paste any of them. When the Publer scheduler pops up, it includes all the features you would use such as follow-up comments and other customizations.
Import RSS feeds to curate and schedule content
I love this! I had this in a previous social media scheduler but for some reason, they inexplicitly got rid of it or added it to a higher tier of their plans. I was using another social media scheduler to schedule up to date social media content from prominent social media accounts but found their system clunky.
Initially, I paid for the privilege of accessing their RSS feed with the second scheduler. However, after not being able to add as many RSS feeds as I was entitled to, and not finding any satisfaction, or answers from their support I downgraded to their free plan. With the free plan though, sorting through what was relevant, took time, and you were limited to only a certain amount of posts. With the previous scheduler, you could only search RSS feeds by search terms, not by websites. With Publer, I can go and add in the RSS feeds of the websites I want to share content from. You can add an unlimited amount of RSS feeds on the Argentum and higher plans, and you can sort the feeds by individual websites, or all at once.
Reuse or recycle past social media posts
Evergreen content (content that will remain relevant) is a huge boost to social media scheduling. I use evergreen content from my astrology website as transits and other information on the website remains relevant on a cyclical basis. Sometimes that is once a month, sometimes the content is only relevant once a year.
Publer makes searching for previous content easy (search by search term, social media account or label). When you do find your content, clicking on the reuse button allows you to edit it for scheduling again. Publer free account only saves 24-hour post history, but the Argentum and higher plans have eternal post history.
Teams
For those with more than one person handling social media posting, you can add additional team members. You can also assign specific social media accounts or groups to specific team members. Adding additional team members is an option available on the Argentum and higher plans for an additional cost.
Analytics
Analytics are available on the Argentum and higher plans. Insights are updated daily, but analytics are only available for up to a month previous.
Insights include reach and engagement, and you can view the relevant post or share it again, straight from the analytics dashboard.
Excellent customer service and documentation
All pages on the website have the support chat button in the bottom right-hand corner. I used this very early on and was pleasantly surprised to have it answered almost immediately and solved my problem.
This may not seem that extraordinary, but having had to wait hours, or days for an answer from other online software providers in the past, this genuinely surprised me. There is also a wealth of documentation and articles to help you out if needed.
Obtain a discount or refer and earn
Lastly, if you do sign up with one of the paid plans, you can offset the cost by providing feedback or a review of the company and receive an ongoing discount on your fees. You can also save by paying 3,6 or 12 months in advance.
They also have an affiliate program (which I have joined) but in a nice turn of events, you need to be on a paid plan to do so. As they say, how can you realistically refer others to Publer, if you are not using it to its full capabilities yourself?
