Do you use a scheduling tool to manage your social media? If you’re a blogger and you’re active on more than one platform, chances are good that you’re taking advantage of tools like Buffer, Co-Schedule or Hootsuite. With all the balls you’re keeping in the air it’s really tough to post consistently, isn’t it? Setting up some automation can be a HUGE life saver! I’ve been playing around with the social media scheduling tool Edgar for 4 or 5 months, so I thought I would share my review of the app.
(this is NOT a paid or affiliate post)
You can check out the features and pricing at www.MeetEdgar.com. Much like other scheduling tools, Edgar allows you to schedule posts for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but where Edgar really shines is that it allows you build up a library of great quality posts that you can reuse again and again. Plus, if you have more than one blog or business you can easily set up different categories and schedules for them.
How Edgar Works
- CONNECT PAGES: Connect the social media pages you wish to publish content to. The starter plan allows up to 10 pages.
- CREATE CATEGORIES: Choose your categories. For example, my current categories for this blog are DIY & Decor, Recipes & Cocktails and My Blog Posts. I also have Holiday categories that I will run only during certain times of the year and I’m working on a adding a couple more.
- ADD CONTENT: Fill your library with awesome content! When I find an evergreen blog post that I really like and think my readers will enjoy, I usually add it to Edgar. If you visit blog parties regularly, they are a great source for new content and Edgar makes it easy.
3 Ways to Add Content to Edgar
- Log into Edgar and manually copy and paste the URL
- Use the handy dandy extension:
It works just like the Pinterest and StumbleUpon extensions – if you’re visiting a page and want to add some content to your Edgar account, simply click on the icon in the upper right corner. Easy! This is my favorite feature of Edgar.
- Set up RSS feeds in Edgar for the pages you follow that you trust to consistently post great content. You can still accept or reject the post before it goes into your library, but it’s handy to have the content delivered right to Edgar.
- SCHEDULE POSTS: Set up the schedule for your posts.
Tips for Scheduling with Edgar
- The more content you have in your library, the more frequently you can schedule posts. Obviously you will be repeating content, but you don’t want it to be sharing the same posts too often. When I originally set up my Edgar schedule I set up with what I thought was my optimum schedule, without taking into consideration that I was still building my library. When I stared noticing the same things popping up too often, I quickly cut back on my schedule. Right now I am shooting for 1 DIY & Decor post and 1 Recipes & Cocktails post per day, with one of my own blog posts each week. I will definitely increase this as I continue to build my library up.
- When you add a new piece of content, it immediately goes to the top of your queue for that category. So – you don’t want to post it live, then add it to Edgar – you’ll have identical content back to back. Drop it into Edgar and it will likely be one of the next couple of things it publishes.
- Consider the individual platform when you set up your schedule. I schedule to Twitter a lot more often than I schedule for LinkedIn, for example.
- You can’t “set it and forget” completely – you still want to post live here and there and make sure you’re stopping by to interact with your readers.
Pros of Edgar
- Finding awesome content takes a lot of time…you have to sift through a lot of not-so-great (and let’s face it – downright terrible) stuff in the blogosphere to find the gold. If you don’t reuse it, all that effort goes to waste. Edgar is a complete rock star in this area – your fabulous content goes into your library and on your schedule and stays there until you take it out.
- Your content is categorized. This makes it easy to post the right mix of content with the right frequency. For example – let’s say the main things I’m posting to social media are DIY type material and recipes. But, I want the DIY content to be the focus. And maybe I want to throw in some humor or funny memes, but not nearly as often. And I don’t want Christmas posts showing up in June. Simply set up your schedule accordingly.
- Once you’re up and running on Edgar you will have a steady stream of great content publishing to your pages, even if you’re not able to log in. This is PRICELESS when you have those times (and we all do) when you’re so swamped with work/life/family issues that you’re not able to keep up on your normal schedule. You don’t want visitors to land on your page and wonder if you’ve abandoned it, do you?
(I am just coming off a one month stretch of working on a project that consumes an incredible amount of my time, and Edgar was my absolute hero. There was no way I could have maintained any social media presence on my own. Yay Edgar!!)
- Your social media posts are usually seen by a very small percentage of your readers. Continuously recycling your best stuff ensures that you get the most eyeballs on your work.
Cons of Edgar
- Edgar is not free – the basic version is $49 per month. While I don’t love that aspect, I am a firm believer that you have to invest money in your blog/business if you want to grow. And, spending $49 a month frees me up to do other things…like sleep. 😉
- Edgar is not currently connected to Google+. You’ll have to do that manually or use another service.
- It takes some time to build your library. When I started with Edgar I spent some pretty big chunks of time filling it up. I try to kill at least two birds with one stone when I’m visiting blog parties or scheduling pins with Boardbooster – all good content gets dumped into my Edgar library. I also try to set aside a little time each week specifically to add new content, but as my library grows I worry about that a lot less.
If you’re looking to automate and streamline your social media efforts, Edgar can be life changing. Give Edgar a try…and let me know what you think. What tools do YOU use for your social media scheduling?
I’m linking this post up at some terrific blog parties – you can find my complete list of places I party HERE.
