Logging into multiple social media accounts one after the other to post an update is a waste of time and energy. SocialPilot reduces the effort required to a minimum by automating updates.
What is SocialPilot?
There are many web services that enable you to post to social media accounts and reduce the time and effort required to promote your products, services, website or blog.
It can be difficult choosing which one to use and they all seem similar. However, there are pros and cons of each one and with SocialPilot there are many more pros than cons.
It is one a great service for sharing your social updates and you can log in, create a single post, and then share it on multiple social media services on a schedule.
On the day and at the time of your choosing, the post is shared and automating your social updates is a great way to save time and effort.
More social media services are supported than with some rivals and you can add:
- 3 types of Facebook account
- 3 types of Google+ account
- 3 types of LinkedIn account
- Pinterest boards
- Instagram (reminders, not scheduling)
- Tumblr
- Others
How much does SocialPilot cost?
For anyone just starting out with a website or blog and are short of money, you will be pleased to learn that SocialPilot has a free account that is pretty good.
What’s more, the paid accounts are cheap. You get more for your money than with some alternative automated social sharing services.
A free account enables you to add up to three social media connections. Up to 30 posts can be scheduled and up to 10 a day can be posted. The schedule is up to you and you could, for example, add 30 updates and then post three 3 a day for the next 10 days.
A Basic account for individuals and bloggers is good value and you can connect 10 profiles, schedule 250 posts and up to 50 posts a day for $4.99/month.
Let’s see how to get started with SocialPilot.
1 Get a free account
Go to to the SocialPilot website, go to the Plans (socialpilot.co/plans/) and click Get Started under Free. You can upgrade to a paid account later or stay with the free one.
2 Sign up with a social media account
The easiest way to sign up is by clicking the Connect With Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn buttons. You will need to add social media accounts anyway.
I recommend using an email address and password. Why? There are three types of Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and it might connect one you don’t want to share. Twitter only has one type of account, so you could sign up with that.
3 Add a social media account
What happens next depends on whether you signed up with an email address or Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn. If you chose the latter, you are guided through the process of creating your first post. If you used an email address and password, you’ll see different screens.
The following steps show how to add accounts, set schedules and create posts.
- Select Accounts in the sidebar
- Click Connect Account
- Click one of the buttons, such as a Facebook page
When social media accounts are added you must authorise them, which usually involves clicking a button or entering your password.
With Facebook and some other services, you may be asked what you want to connect, such as a Facebook Page. Tick the box and click Save and Setup Schedules.
Add more social accounts – 3 for free, more if you subscribe.
4 Schedule social media updates
Every social account you add can have a different schedule and the schedule you set here is only for the selected account.
You are prompted to create a schedule when a social account is added, but you can return here at any time and modify it or create a completely new schedule.
- Optimal Schedule Times lets SocialPilot choose the times. Manual lets you start with a clean slate and create your own schedule. It’s up to you.
- Whether you choose optimal or manual, click the cross icon next to each time to remove it. A quick way to set up a schedule is to select Optimal and then just delete the times you don’t want.
- This section is for manually adding your own times to post. Click the days you want to post, such as weekdays.
- Click in this box to set the time you want the post to go live.
5 Use the Posts menu
You have added social accounts and set the schedule for each one. Now what you need are some posts. Up to 30 can be queued and they will be posted on the days and times in the schedule.
Click Posts in the sidebar and six options are displayed. The one we want is Create Post at the top. It opens the post editor on the right where you can add text, links and images.
6 Create a new post
- Enter the text for the post. Remember that if Twitter is one of the accounts you are sharing this too, there is a 140 character limit. Above the top right corner of the edit box is the Twitter characters used/max.
- Enter or paste links. The preview card below the edit box is created automatically from the URL a few seconds after it is entered. If you don’t see the preview below, try entering the URL as the first, then add the text afterwards.
- Select the social media accounts you want to post this to.
- This preview card is created automatically. Your website must be set up right for this and plugins like Yoast and All-in-One SEO help. The preview card can be removed by clicking the cross in the top right corner.
- Click this button to upload an image from the computer’s disk.
- Click Add To Queue to schedule this for posting.
7 Posting options
See the little arrow at the right side of the Add To Queue button? Click it for a menu.
You can share the post right now or share it next, which moves it to the head of the queue.
8 Manually schedule posts
Schedule Post enables you to manually set the date and time at which the post is shared. Use the controls in the pop-up box at the top of the page.
9 Repeat posts
The Repeat Post option is an interesting one and in some circumstances it can be very useful
It is a fact of life that most people will not see your social shares. New posts are inserted at the top of the news/home feed and old ones are pushed down and disappear.
If you follow a lot of people on Twitter for example, a post might only appear in front of you for as little as 10 minutes, as new updates push it down and off the bottom.
To actually catch someone’s eye you might need to post 10 times in a day! For this reason you might want to repeat the same post many times.
10 Manage your posts
Click Posts in the sidebar and next to Manage Posts in the menu is a red circle with the number of items in the queue waiting to be posted.
Click Manage Posts and a list of the items in the posting queue is displayed. It shows a thumbnail of the image, the time it will be posted, which social account it is posting to (just off the right side of the screenshot).
Click Move to Top to make an item the next one to be shared. Click Share Now to share it now and take it out of the queue.
The trash icon deletes it and the pencil icon is used to edit it.
More features
There are tons of features in SocialPilot, but this introduction is done and the more advanced features will be covered in another course.
Action points
- Sign up for a free account at SocialPilot
- Connect one or more social media accounts
- Create or edit the posting schedule for each social account
- Create lots of posts and fill up the queue
- Put a reminder in your calendar to come back next week and add more to the queue
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
6 Automate social media with SocialPilot
7 Automate social media with Social Oomph
8 Automate social media with Dlvr.it
9 Shares with Chrome and Safari extensions
