Recurpost is a useful automation tool that enables you to schedule posts on social media services and the best part is that there is a free account that is pretty good. Let’s see how it works.
What is Recurpost?
Recurpost enables you to create a library of posts you want to share on popular social media websites.
Articles can be added to the library from your company or personal website or blog, interesting things you have found on the web, thoughts and comments on topical issues and so on. Anything you would normally share on social media services.
Recurpost takes the first item in the library and shares it on social media sites automatically. It can do this at the time you choose or you can let it choose the best time.
The next day it takes the second item from the library and posts it, then the next day it shares the third item and so on. It works through the library of posts and shares them one after the other on a schedule.
When it reaches the last item in a library, it goes back to the start and posts the first item again.
If you are familiar with the looping feature in BoardBooster, Recurpost works in a similar way, looping the social media posts in your library.
You fill up your library with posts you want to share and then forget about it. Everything is automatic. You can view your library at any time, remove old posts and add new ones.
At the moment, Recurpost only works with:
However, more social media services are promised. It’s like BoardBooster looping for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
How much does it cost?
A Standard account is free and it enables you to add three social media connections and one library. A library can contain up to 100 updates that can be posted on a schedule. You can also post immediately instead of scheduling and this is unlimited.
Social media accounts and libraries are unlimited with the Large account, which costs $50 a month.
1 Sign up to Recurpost
Go to the Recurpost website (recurpost.com) and click the Sign Up or Start Now button. All you need to provide is a name, email address and a password for your Recurpost account.
Check your email and confirm your account.
2 Add social media accounts
Log in to the Recurpost website and your first task is to connect with one or more social media accounts.
Click Social Accounts in the menu and then click the Add Social Accounts button on the right.
3 Add social accounts
These are the social accounts you can add. There are Facebook Profiles, Pages and Groups, LinkedIn Profile and LinkedIn Company, and Twitter Profile.
A free account lets you add any three of these, but paid accounts let you add more.
Click a button and then authorise the app to access your social account. Return here and add another, and another.
4 Social accounts view
Now when Social Accounts is selected in the menu bar, your accounts are listed like these.
The Pause button enables you to temporarily stop posting to an account. If you find that Recurpost is not posting to a social media account, click the Reconnect button to authorise it again. The Delete button removes the connection.
5 Create a library
Click Content Library. A library is a collection of posts that you want to share with your social accounts. Recurpost constantly cycles through the posts in your libraries. Click Add new library.
6 Name your library
Enter the name for the library. There is an option to post items only once. Leave this clear and Recurpost goes back the the first item and starts posting all over again after it has posted the last one.
7 Your content library
Select Content Library and you now have one (or more) libraries. There are Duplicate, Delete and Edit buttons. The first two options are obvious, and Edit just edits the name.
What you need to do is to add posts to the library. Click the icon in the library just above the name.
8 View your library
The first time a library is opened, it will be empty. As you add posts, it shows them in a list.
There is an Add in bulk option, but let’s keep it simple to begin with. Click Add an update.
9 Create an update
An update is something you want to share with the social media accounts you have connected with. You can type in messages, paste links and attach images.
- Type in the text of the message. If you are sharing a URL, enter the URL first, then move the cursor back to the start and insert the text.
- If you are sharing a URL, paste it in first, before any text has been entered. Recurpost then fetches the image/text preview below. After pasting in the URL, insert the text either before or after the URL.
- Twitter limits the number of characters you can enter to 140. This tells you how many characters have been used.
- When a URL is pasted in, Recurpost fetches the page and creates this image and text card. It is used with Facebook and LinkedIn, which support longer posts than Twitter. It can be removed with the cross in the top right corner if you don’t want it.
- You might want to simply type in some text and add your own image. Click this button to upload one from your computer.
- Recurpost loops libraries, sharing posts till it gets to the end and then starting again. This option enables you to stop posting after a certain date. Use it to stop sharing time-sensitive posts, like a promotion or special offer perhaps.
- Add this item to your library. Return and add another and another. Up to 100 with a free account.
10 View/edit your content library
After adding lots of posts to a library it will look something like this.
Edit: Change the text, links or images in a post.
Copy: Make a duplicate of the post.
Delete: Remove the post. If you hit the 100 limit of your free account you can delete old posts to make space to add new posts.
Move: Click and drag posts up or down the list to change the order in which they are shared.
11 View the schedule
Select Schedule in the menu bar and the posting schedule for each social account is displayed. It shows the days of the week, the time, and the library. In this screenshot the time is set to automatic and Recurpost chooses the best time. The library is RAWinfopages.
If you do not yet have a posting schedule or you want to change the current one, click the Add new schedule button on the right.
12 Add or edit a schedule
This schedule determines when your posts are shared on social media accounts. Choose the days and the times you prefer or just auto-schedule it and leave everything to Recurpost.
- Select the library this schedule is for.
- Select the posting frequency – daily or weekly.
- Select the social accounts this schedule is for.
- Click in this box and select the time from the list that is displayed.
- Tick the Auto-schedule option and Recurpost automatically chooses the best time to post.
- Click Add Time Slot to post more than once a day. Post two, three or more times a day by adding time slots.
Everything is now set up and Recurpost will share your posts on the schedule you set, forever looping the library.
Return every week or every month to delete old posts you no longer want to share and to add new posts. Also check that the social accounts don’t need to be reconnected (step 4).
Action points
- Sign up for a free Recurpost account
- Connect social accounts for sharing posts
- Create a library
- Add posts to the library
- Set the schedule for sharing the posts
Online Course: Automate social media sharing and updates
2 Automate social media with Buffer
3 Automate social media with Hootsuite
4 Automate social media with Recurpost
5 Automate Pinterest using BoardBooster
