Before we get into how to use Social Bee, really we need to talk about what is Social Bee. And how Social Bee can help you and your business.
As you know, I am a BIG fan of systems and processes and basically anything that will save me time. If I didn’t have these in place there is no way I would be able to run my business on 25 hours a week.
I have a love hate relationship with social media. I’m a HUGE introvert and sometimes I just need a break. By having posts scheduled to go out, it means that I can step back and take a break whenever I mentally need to.
Just a quick disclaimer, there are affiliate links in this post which means I will get a percentage of the sale if you choose to sign up for something – at no cost to you!
What Is Social Bee?
Social Bee is a social media scheduling tool. It allows you to set up and pre-schedule your social media posts for Twitter, Facebook – pages and groups, LinkedIn and Pinterest. With Instagram you can choose to post directly or have it send you the post as a reminder.
Basically, you prepare your posts ahead of time. Stick them in Social Bee and then choose to schedule each one at a specific time and date or to add to the scheduler. In that case the same category of post goes out at the same time and day each week.
There are pros and cons of each. I’ll talk about how I use it to make the most of the features available.
Why Social Bee rather the Hootsuite, Meet Edgar, Buffer etc…
Way back when, I started with Hootsuite but a free account, I didn’t love it, it didn’t feel intuitive. Admittedly I haven’t used it for years so it might be different now. Next I signed up for Meet Edgar, which I loved.
Meet Edgar at the time was the only tool that allowed you to reuse the content you created.
Why was this important?
Because I run several groups and we have regular posts going out such as Motivation Monday, Promo Tuesday etc. Or in my mastermind group I have the daily hit list reminders going out.
To manually post those every day or even set them up to go out only to have to repeat it all again the following week would be a royal PITA!
Meet Edgar was a huge time saver for me but it came with a hefty price tag, I joined when it was in beta and paid $49 a month. Which was still cheaper than hiring a VA to do it and I was happy to pay because of the time it saved me.
But then… App Sumo has a deal and I snagged Social Bee for a $ 49-lifetime deal. I hesitated for about 3 microseconds as I knew moving everything over would be a pain in the butt BUT my bank balance was screaming ‘Just do it’ at me so I did!
I did feel a bit bad about jumping ship because Meet Edgar had been perfectly wonderful. But as a savvy business owner, keeping an eye on my running costs are important.
Even comparing Social Bee and Meet Edgar now, the Social Bee Bootstrap plan is $19 a month, for the same options on Meet Edgar it’s $49/month.
Ways To Use Social Bee
I’m not going to go into how to set up, it is pretty straight forward and Social Bee has a step by step guide.
Instead, let’s look at the different ways to use it.
Before you set up your content categories, have a think about what you final outcome will be – how exactly are you going to use the content? I use the categories in the following ways:
- To schedule to a specific group on a specific day
- Launch assets for a specific program
- Evergreen promotion posts
- Evergreen testimonials
- To schedule to a specific group on specific DATES
- Niche-specific conversation starters that can be used across all platforms
- Evergreen blog posts
- Evergreen lead magnets
- Pinterest pins to specific boards
- Pop up groups (such as live challenges)
- Evergreen stories
- Seasonal posts
That looks quite complicated but broken down it is pretty straight forward.
Three Ways to Schedule Using Social Bee
This first system works great if you want the same post to go out at the same time, on the same day each week.
Quick note, you can only schedule to groups you are an admin of. In the admin settings on Facebook, you have to add Social Bee permissions to be able to post.
For example, with my SPARK Mastermind (accountability mastermind for moms in business) we have daily check-ins so I set up 5 categories, Monday – Friday. There is one post in each category, but 4 variations of each post.
Then in the Social Bee scheduler, at 6am each morning the assigned post is scheduled to go out.
The second way works for posts to go out on a specific date at a specific time.
I use this method in the Wonder Moms Success Club for the Big Boost Challenge week – this is a productivity week we have each month. It is almost aways from the 21st of the month.
I schedule the posts to go out each month manually but I can bulk schedule so I already have all the big boost challenge posts scheduled for this year.
I also use this system when running pop up groups and challenges because then I can adjust the dates that things are going on and they are not evergreen posts.
And the third method is the bulk evergreen categories, that go out at the same time on the same day but are not day specific.
The first method, is when I want a specific post to go out on a Monday for example. This system if for posts that can actually go out at anytime.
T do this, build up a library of posts in a category, for example, conversation starters or quotes. Make sure your content is evergreen, you don’t want questions about Christmas going out in June!
I like to create these so I can use them across the different platforms, for images I stick to 1080×1080 pixels. Just because it’s easier than making new images for each platform.
Once you have plenty of content, you can schedule it out.
Your options as you set up a post:
- Select the places you want the post to go out to.
- Add the text and image
- Variation, if you want to split test or use the same post but change the image/text you do it by clicking here
- Hashtags, if you are posting to Instagram you add your hashtags here. One of the cool features is that you can create hashtag banks. In two clicks you can add your 30 #
- Want to post the same thing but to twitter, Insta and Facebook. No problem, you can tweak your copy/image by using this button
- Choose which category to add your post to and below decide how you want to schedule.
- Post preview, this is helpful to see what it will look like on the various platforms.
Word Of Warning About Scheduled Content
IF you only have 10 pieces of content and you schedule a post to go out daily, after the 10th day you are going to be serving the same posts out again and again.
The platforms don’t like that and your audience won’t like it. You need to build up a library of content. This might mean adding 10 posts a week to your category for 3 months.
I prefer to block a couple of hours and bang out a load of content in one go.
Crunch your numbers, I like to work it for 90 days. My goal is to have enough fresh content to go out without repeating anything over 90 days. If I want to have 2 convo starters go out a week then I need 180 posts for the 90 days.
That sounds like a lot of work initially so that you don’t have to keep doing it!
Once you have a bank or library of posts, it is easy to occasionally pop in and add a few more.
Social Bee also has the option to add variations to a post. You can use the same image but change the text that goes with it and vice versa. As well as variations for the different platforms. You can add # for your Insta posts and cut the texts down to 140 characters for Twitter.
Basically you create one post, tweak it and have all your platforms covered!
Bulk Uploads on Social Bee
One of my favourite features is the bulk upload.
This is how I roll… I get on my iPad, usually, when watching my latest Netflix binge and create a load of images. Having templates makes it easy to switch out the image and the text. I batch so I will do a batch of stories posts, a batch of convo starters etc. Save to my iPad camera roll.
I usually use the OVER app for this or Stencil, I prefer Stencil on the computer and OVER on the iPad. I know a lot of people use Canva.
Once I have created a load of images, I open Social Bee go to the bulk upload. Pick which category I want the images to go to and select the images. Make sure all posts are in DRAFT (so you don’t accidentally have them go out) Then upload, happens in seconds.
Later I will go into Social Bee and add the text and mark them live. The Draft option is great if you are working with a VA. It means you can check the work before it goes out.
FAQs About Using A Scheduler
I know people have a lot of reservations about using a scheduler so here is my 2cents worth answering the usual questions.
Q. Will using a scheduler effect my reach?
A. Probably, the only way to really know is to test it yourself. I did a split test and the difference wasn’t worth quibbling about. For me, being consistent and getting something out there every day is the trade-off. I would rather be consistent than have hit and miss reach because I’m posting on the fly.
Q. What about Facebooks owner Creator Studio?
This would be my second option or first if money is the issue. I personally don’t like how glitchy it is and it certainly doesn’t have the flexibility Social Bee does.
You can only post to Facebook and Instagram using it. In theory, reach should be better using Creator Studio as it is the native scheduler. That wasn’t the case for me. Test it yourself though to be sure.
Q. Isn’t it better to do it all organically.
A. Probably but who has time for that? By scheduling posts, it frees up my time so that I can actually BE SOCIAL. Make connections, it’s all a matter of how you look at it.
Q. I hate social media, Can I pay someone to do it for me?
A. Absolutely. Many people do but if you are just starting out and you don’t have the cash to throw at a VA to deal with it all for you then using a scheduler will save you time in the long run.
Q. What other tools do you recommend?
A. Lucky for you I have a page with all the tools I use right HERE.
If you have any other questions about Social Bee and how I use it let me know or tag me over in Moms That Rock!