How do you plan ahead for your blog?
How do you get the most of out sharing your latest posts on social media?
One answer comes to mind and that is…
CoSchedule!
This is a WordPress plugin (for more on my favorite WordPress plugins click here) that is an integrated editorial and social media calendar all-in-one.
A word to the wise, this plugin costs $10 a month or $100 a year, but have to admit as skeptical as I was I was pretty much sold when I got to try it out for free for a few weeks to share here with you.
YES!! You can totally test drive the CoSchedule plugin out for free for a week and decide if CoSchedule is a keeper for you, too.
The number one thing to know here is this plugin is truly easy to use and makes blog planning social media message sharing just that easy for all bloggers.
So how do you get started with CoSchedule, you may be asking?
First and foremost, you must install and activate the Co-Schedule plugin.
From there, you will need to connect it to your WordPress.org blog.
Once you are connected you can do all these things with CoSchedule:
- Plan Your Blog Calendar
- Create and Publish Social Media Content
- Work as a team (this one is great for those that share a blog or have more then one person that contributes to their blog).
For the purpose of this article, I am going to go over the benefits of being able to plan your own blog calendar and also publish social media content.
Plan Your Own Blog Calendar with CoSchedule:
Steps 1 – 5 – Creating New Posts on the CoSchedule Blog Calendar- (Step by Step through the images below):
Steps 1 & 2 – Creating a New Blog Post on Co-chedule Calendar
Step 3 – New Blog Post Creation in Co-Schedule
Step 4 – Sample CoSchedule Post All Ready to Go
Step 5. Sample Post Is All Set & Can Be Viewed on The CoSchedule Editorial Calendar
Social Media Message Sharing:
Step 1. Now if we click on the above Sample Post in the Calendar to edit it, we can begin to schedule social media sharing (as long as you set and linked your social media accounts – great for all posts, including sponsored posts, too).
Step 2. You will scroll down the Edit Blog Post on his window and show see the following below it:
Step 3. Create Your First Social Media Message in CoSchedule
Step 4. Social Media Post Creation…A Link Post of the Sample Blog Post in CoSchedule
Step 5. All that is left to do is “Add the Message” and you are all set to go!!
Step 5. Accept & Add the Social Media Message in Coschedule…
And that is just how simple it is to be able to use CoSchedule for an editorial and social media calendar for all your blogging needs!
Happy Blog Planning Now with CoSchedule!!!
**Please note that after publishing this article, I was informed that CoSchedule would no longer be offering Pinterest Pin Scheduling by the end of September 2014, but for a possible solution, please click here.**
I have an old school editorial calendar and spreadsheet of my posts & sharing. It keeps me sane.
Robin, anything that helps is key in my book on this one.
Janine, YOU are my ANGEL! I tried to use CoSchedule because I really do need help with this, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Now, with your tutorial, I think I can understand it (or get my daughter to help me, lol). Thank you so much for sharing this one today; seriously an answer to prayers for help with all the posting and sharing I do. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Carrie Groneman recently posted…Zucchini Squash Casserole
Aww, Carrie my absolute pleasure and I remember you had been talking about this and decided to take a look at it. Just so happy I could put this together and that it can indeed help you. And if you do have any questions, I would be more then happy to help further if you need, Carrie 🙂
Janine,
I truly need to sit down and learn this too. Do you actually write a post in co-scheduler or do you connect your post to it and all your social medias?
Thanks for sharing,
Diane Roark
Diane Roark recently posted…Caseyâs Kickinâ Chicken Sauce
Diane, you can totally begin a new post in CoSchedule with the “Pencil Tool” in the upper most right and corner or if you have a post already written can go into the CoSchedule Calendar Plugin to add social media shares for there, too. My pleasure in sharing 🙂
I have been using co-schedule for a few months now and I love it. It’s a great tool to have in your bag of tricks! 🙂
Pure Grace Farms recently posted…Preserve the Harvest: Peach Basil Caramelized Onion Preserves
Totally agree, Shari and so glad you too are loving CoSchedule!! 🙂
Hi Janine! Thank you so much for the awesome review! We are so glad that you are making such great use of CoSchedule. Isn’t it a fantastic tool? I LOVE it, and use it heavily on my own blog. Have a great day!
Nicole @ CoSchedule recently posted…Bringing Girl Develop It to Fargo
Thank you again so much, too Nicole and definitely is an amazing tool that I was so happy to share with my readers here!! 🙂
Janine, once again, you are keeping us on the cutting edge of technology! Thanks- pinned and tweeted! 🙂
Joy @ Yesterfood recently posted…Treasure Box Tuesday 34
Totally my pleasure Joy and have so much fun being able to try new and innovative things for blogging. Thank you also for pinning and tweeting, too 🙂
Janine,
What a wonderful tool, I will most certainly look into it further–thanks for the share!
Stacey recently posted…How to Increase Traffic to Your Website
Aww, so happy I can share with you and hope you try this now 🙂
Interesting! Are you limited to how many social media sites you can schedule? Does it include Pinterest? Or maybe I should ask which ones can it accommodate? Or are there any it can not accommodate? Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I think I am going to try it!
It totally allows for all the big ones including Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Pinterest, too. Happy this tutorial could help and that you are going to try it now.
I was all over the place when I first started blogging every day. Now I only do a few articles for my website a week… BUT, I feel like this is going to pick up soon so this might be something to try out. Thanks for sharing!
Melanie Chisnall recently posted…10-Minute Sunrise Morning Meditation for Energy
So happy to share Melanie and you know how I, too, was all over the place. So, I have felt that this was a big help even just in the last few weeks and wish I would have used it sooner back in the day, especially when I used to publish daily.
This seems like a plug-in worth investing in, thanks for sharing. Hopped over from Katherine’s Corner – have a great holiday weekend.
Antionette Blake recently posted…Summer Scarf & Thankful Thursday
Thanks Antionette and hope you try it out soon too now!
Sounds like a terrific tool. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop my friend xo
Katherines Corner recently posted…Black Bean and Corn Salad
Truly is Katie and hope you can try it out. Wishing you a great rest of your weekend now, too!! 🙂 xoxo!
I love your post, I have been using CoSchedule for about a month now and Im sure not up to its potential of helping me. One of the reasons I signed up was that we could schedule Pins to Pinterest and now I understand there are problems they are trying to work out, I hope they get that resolved cause that was great. And to be able to schedule for G+ is fantastic too. Still learning the ropes. I think I would like to share the link to this post on my blog, as I dont think I could come near what you have covered.
Thanks for the information.
Karren
Oh My Heartsie Girl
Karren Haller recently posted…Easy Tips to Make Your Space Appear Bigger
Karren, I am so happy that my post could help you and I just was getting e-mails about Pinterest not being viable form of sharing with CoSchedule. I want to take a better look this week and possibly either add an amendment to this article or an update of sorts. I will see what I can do and from the short glance I took looks like there may be another option, but will definitely take a better look into this and share in there next few days now. And thank you so much for sharing for me. Seriously appreciate it front he bottom of my heart!
I was considering this as well, however, with the removal of Pinterest, I’m rethinking. Thanks for linking up to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party.
Monique recently posted…New Bloggers Brags Weekly Pinterest Party
I know and just wrote all about this for today’s post. If you click on my blog front peg, you can see and apply to a new alternative now that is in trial testing from Tailwind app.