Is There Magic Behind Your Bulk Uploading Scheduler?

When Agorapulse introduced bulk scheduling, I did a little dance. It’s such a simple way to ensure that your feeds keep ticking over even when you don’t have time to post.

For a sieve-head like me, bulk-scheduling posts means not forgetting important scheduled posts, and it helps space out sales and relationship building content. If you manage multiple social networks, this will be such a timesaver.

There are lots of ways you can use the bulk publishing feature to streamline your marketing, and I’ll talk about those shortly. First, let’s look at how you do it using Agorapulse.

Which Social Networks Can You Bulk Schedule To From Agorapulse?

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+  all support bulk scheduling. Here’s how it works!

From your Agorapulse dashboard, choose your network then click on ‘Bulk Publishing.’

Select your network and click the ‘Bulk Publishing’ button

To ensure that you always get the file format right, I recommend clicking ‘Download Sample’. This will give you a .CSV file pre-populated with two lines of content that makes it easy to see how to add your own data.

I recommend downloading a sample file for bulk scheduling

You can add up to four columns of information:

• First column: Your post content (or text)
• Second column: Link if you are including one
• Third column: Date you want to send the post
• Fourth column: Time you want to send the post

Although you can add four columns of data, it isn’t required. And if you don’t want to specify scheduling times now, that’s fine, you can do it later. If your post doesn’t contain a link, you don’t have to add one.

I recommend completing the date and time columns first if you are using them. This means you can work through the times, dates, and frequency of your posts before you get into the creation phase.

Next, it’s time to add the text for your update and the link if you are including one.

If you are using all four columns, you’ll end up with a document that looks like the one below. Don’t worry if you use a different time or date format– you can tell Agorapulse that after you upload.

Example of a completed bulk schedule file

Save the file, return to Agorapulse and click on ‘Upload .CSV file’

Upload your prepared bulk schedule file

Time to map your content. This ensures that your file is being read correctly. If you used the sample as a basis for your upload this should be a painless task.

Tell Agorapulse what field your data represents

For date and time, select the format that matches the data in your file. Here in Ireland, we use dd/mm/yyyy whereas in the US mm/dd/yyyy is the standard.

Map your date and time files depending on how you structure them

Next, review each of your posts and edit them if necessary.

You can even reschedule these posts regularly (or schedule them if you haven’t added dates and times to your file) from here.

Edit and reschedule your posts

Finally, click ‘Schedule’, watch the magic happen, and enjoy that tingly feeling you get when you know you’ve set up a month of Tweets or Facebook posts in advance.

What Can You Use Bulk Publishing For?

To save time!

Do you find that sometimes you seem to have just about enough time to post content, build relationships and deal with inquiries? Then at other times, your schedule gets in the way?

Because bulk publishing can keep your feed ticking over with regular content, you’ll have more time to focus on monitoring and relationship building.

Recycling your evergreen content

Remeber that awesome post you wrote last month and that image that never fails to get engagement? They can become the gift that keeps on givin’.

Bulk publishing means you can upload your evergreen posts and set a schedule for re-sharing them. They’ll never be forgotten again. You can choose how often you’d like to re-schedule the posts after you’ve uploaded your file.

Campaign updates

If you run specific sales campaigns scheduling is a must– but it can be a head wreck. All those networks, all that content that needs scheduling– not to mention deadline and countdown posts– are hanging over your head. If you attempt to schedule one post and one network at a time, it’s easy to make mistakes (and run out of time.)

The last thing you want is a post announcing “1 hour left to get this amazing offer” going out too early or too late.

Bulk scheduling to the rescue– because you can input the exact post times into the .CSV file you upload, it’s much easier to get the timing right and enjoy one smooth campaign. (And who doesn’t love those?)

Saving up your social energy

Do you get those mad social energy bursts? Times when it seems so easy to come up with engaging posts for all your social channels?

They’re often followed by a dry patch. Instead of blurting it all out at once, save your clever questions and engaging posts and trickle them out on a schedule. This means people will continue to respond to your content even when you are in a slump.

Testing different tweet versions

I like to write at least three different headlines for each blog post I write. This gives me lots of options when sharing online and helps me hone my message. I test the headlines on Twitter and when I see one headline version gets more engagement than another, I know I’ve done something right.

But it’s a pain scheduling each version of my headline separately. With bulk publishing I can upload my 3 versions and tell Agorapulse I want to reschedule each one 3 times.

Easier UTM tracking

Are you an analytics addict like me? I have it bad! If I can’t add UTM tracking to my posts, I feel like I’m missing important information but adding UTM on a post-by-post basis is a hassle.

Bulk scheduling makes the process so much easier.  I can just cut and paste my UTM tracking code to the end of each link before I upload the post. It’s kinda exciting being able to see the results coming from my Agorapulse tweets.

The Verdict

Bulk scheduling is just amazing. I’m not kidding– it makes life so much easier for businesses and agencies that need to schedule regular content to multiple social networks.

There are so many ways you can use it, I just know you’ll find it’s a must-have tool.

Do you use bulk scheduling? What do you use it for? I’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts so leave me a comment.

The post Is There Magic Behind Your Bulk Uploading Scheduler? appeared first on Agorapulse.

Is There Magic Behind Your Bulk Uploading Scheduler? posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com