10 Reasons I Use Publer To Manage Social Media For Myself and My Clients

On any given week, I can create, edit, manage and/or directly post north of a hundred pieces of content to social media. These posts get shared on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business… all that fun stuff!

Some of the posts are for my own channels – many are for my clients.

I’ve experimented with a lot of third party scheduling tools. And I mean a lot!

But for the cost and the power, I’ve yet to find one that comes even close to Publer.io.

In this post, I’m going to give you 10 reasons why I use Publer to schedule and manage social media content for both myself and for my clients.
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Over the years, I’ve used a bunch of the better known social media scheduling tools. Whether free or pricey, almost all of them lacked this one key feature and it caused me endless headaches. (I’ll mention here that Agorapulse DOES have this feature but their price point is significantly higher than Publer, as well as Buffer, Hootsuite, etc.)

This feature has been kind of a game changer for me to be honest. In fact, it’s such a big one, you can just skip the rest of my list and go ahead and sign up today at publer.io if you’re so inclined.

So let’s say I wanted to do a post thanking WisDems (that’s shorthand for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin) for hosting an event.

I can create a single post in Publer, and then edit it as needed by channel.

Which matters SO MUCH if you want to be able to tag WisDems (or anyone else!) in your post.

In Buffer and Hootsuite, you have three options.

1. Create separate posts for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, making sure that each post is just right
2. Don’t tag them on any channel
3. Tag them on one channel and let the remaining channels show a broken link 

Not tagging someone on social media is like talking to them on the phone without first dialing their number. They might hear you, but probably not! You’re missing an opportunity to build on your relationship online and potentially get in front of their audience.

Tagging people with broken links… well that’s worse than not tagging them at all!

Now you can edit your post by channel. 

And for what it’s worth – you have plenty of channels to choose from. Publer lets you post on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business, YouTube, and WordPress. And apparently they have more channels on the way.

Often, editing by channel is as simple as making sure all tags are correct.

But you can also use this feature to specify which graphics you want to use on which platform. Or to share unique utm links per channel, if you’re looking to track links in Google Analytics or elsewhere.

Sometimes, a post that works great for Facebook will be just a bit too long for Twitter. Time to put on the old editing cap and whittle that post down.

OR if your post is far too long for whittling down, you can hop over to reason number 2 why I so love Publer, and create yourself a tweet thread!
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Sometimes you can say everything you need to say in just a few words. For everything else, there’s tweet threads!

Twitter limits posts to 280 characters. If that’s not enough space to get your message across, you can thread your tweets together to create a longer piece of content.

This was actually a user generated concept — users looking to go beyond characters limits (at the time a paltry 140!) started simply replying to their own tweets. Sometimes once, sometimes dozens of times. They literally started “threading” their tweets. As Twitter so loves to do, they took tools the users were already hacking together and implemented them into the platform.

But there was a problem. Until recently, Twitter’s API didn’t allow 3rd party tools to create threaded tweets. Mindbogglingly, this included Tweetdeck, which is owned by Twitter and STILL doesn’t have the functionality! That’s right, if you want to schedule tweets in a platform owned by Twitter, you have long had the option to do so through Tweetdeck. But even today, you can only create single tweets – not tweet threads.

The same is true of pretty much every other third-party tool I’ve tested. Until I found Publer.

Publer let you schedule responses to posts on any channel, even with an optional built-in delay. And for Twitter, they let you schedule as many responses as you want – aka – tweet threads!

Start by typing your first tweet.

Note: if you’ve created content for more than one channel (ie: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn AND Twitter) you can easily select which account(s) you want to add follow-up comments too.

Once you’ve selected Twitter, you can add as many additional tweets as you want:

Just keep hitting that “add another comment” button until you’ve said your piece in full!

It’s worth mentioning that when I first started using Publer, you were limited to a single follow-up on Twitter, just like with every other platform. Often two tweets is plenty for a thread.

But Twitter opened up their API and Publer eventually added the option to thread as many posts as you want to a thread. As someone who does a lot of work in politics, this was another game changer! 

But even if you don’t work in politics, it’s worth knowing that tweet threads can often get higher engagement than a standalone tweet. 

One other note – until recently, you couldn’t add media (pictures or videos) to follow up tweets in a thread. That changed recently as well.

Bringing us to reason number 3 to use Publer as your third-party social media scheduling tool:

Not much to say here other than that it’s nice to work with a tool that’s regularly getting new functionality added to it.

Users can even request new tools.

I try not to re-use images too often on social media. But sometimes, it just makes sense.

If you’re promoting an event – you aren’t going to create a brand new graphic every time you post about it.

We’ve all waded through a labyrinth of Google Drive folders to find that one image we need. It’s especially complicated when you are working with a team (or teams!) who use different file naming conventions… or worse yet – no naming conventions at all!

Publer’s media library simplifies this. Once you’ve uploaded media to any post, that media will automatically get stored in your media library.

You can then head to the library whenever you’re looking for an image and share it right from there.

You can also pre-add content to your library, including photos, videos, and GIFs. In addition to this, you can also label your media for easy organization and even upload media directly to your library from Canva and other online graphic design tools.
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Instagram famously only lets you have a single link anywhere on the platform (they actually now allow you to have 5 – but this tool still matters a ton if you’re serious about growing on Instagram). You can’t add links to posts (you can, but they won’t be clickable) and until recently you had to have 10k+ followers to share links in Stories. That changed recently, but a Story Link sticker still isn’t enough for most brands.

Enter the Link In Bio tool.

With a link in bio, you can create a landing page that shows all of your Instagram posts with links, and folks can click through to an associated link from the matching post.

It’s far from perfect, but for many content creators, it’s better than the alternative – no links at all!

There are loads of free and paid link in bio tools out there. But Publer has one built right into its platform.

It’s easy to set up, simple to use and it’s free.

To create yours, click your settings menu in the top right corner and then select Link In Bio.

You can then customize your page, including adding primary links – like website, your store page, your social channels, your ActBlue account if you’re a candidate… anything important and evergreen.

You can even add custom images for those evergreen links to keep things looking nice and on brand.

Then, whenever you’re creating an Instagram post through Publer, you can simply add a link, as needed, to the bottom of the post.

Once done, you can mention in the post that people can learn more (or shop, or donate, etc.) through the Link In Bio.

When someone clicks the link in bio, they’ll see that post, as well as all others you’ve added links to, and can then click directly through to the url.

Not as easy as Twitter or Facebook, but that’s how Instagram rolls. So nice to have an easy – and free! – workaround.

I’ll also refer you back to reason number one that I use Publer as my third party social media scheduling tool of choice – not only is this great feature built right into the platform, you don’t even have to create a standalone Instagram post. You can crosspost the same content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, wherever, and then customize by channel and drop that link into the bio.

Voila. You are good to go!
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If you’re a one-person social media team, this next feature probably won’t matter to you. But if you are working with clients, or managing a team of people who help with content creation, this next feature is key!

You can add team members to your account, with limited access levels.

You can even pick and choose which accounts to share access to, so you’re not turning over the keys to the whole kingdom, just to the doors that make sense for any given client or team member.

To add someone to your account, click the dropdown menu next to your avatar (top right of the page) and select “Manage Teams.”

From here you can add team members (clients, band members, people from your team…)  and provide them access.

They can then create content you approve, do final edits, give green lights before you post – whatever works for you and your social media team!
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Publer has an easy to use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, to help making content curation a breeze. RSS feeds are a great way of pursuing the internet without having to bookmark and track dozens, or even hundreds, of links.

Head to their “Content” tab and you can search for articles by keyword and category, and filter by date, language, country and even domain.

You can even save your searches to make future curation even easier. This is great for businesses who consistently speak on a few core topics or nonprofits or political campaigns who are passionate about specific issues.

I’m a firm believer in the power of analytics for social media. Your audience is talking to you through your analytics – it’s your job to listen!

Publer has built-in analytics for your accounts.

Honestly, I don’t use their analytics much. I prefer to go directly to the platforms for more granular looks at how things are doing.

That said, they are convenient, free and right there.

They also send regular emails letting you know which of your posts are your top performers. That one is pretty nice to have, if for no other reason than it’s a good reminder that you should be digging deeper into the backend of your accounts.

I never wear rose colored glasses when it comes to any digital platform.

I’ve had some significant technical issues with Publer over the years.

I was posting content to one Twitter account that regularly had tweets end mid-sentence even though I was 1000% sure I had everything set up perfectly (I mean the first time I was quite sure, but by the 5th time, I was quadruple checking and it was still happening).

Google has tech issues. Amazon has tech issues. Facebook is pretty much just one massive tech issue these days. These things happen. To use the internet is to accept that.

But… every time I’ve had issues with Publer, I’ve reached out and found real people ready and eager to solve my issues. I definitely can’t say that for every platform I work with!
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1. You can customize social media posts by channel
2. You can create Tweet Threads
3. They regularly update the platform
4. You can easily reuse media from your media library
5. They have a free built-in link in bio tool
6. You can easily provide limited access with team members and clients
7. They have a built-in RSS feed for easy content curation
8. They have a Chrome Plugin that’s actually kinda great
9. They have built-in analytics (which are now amazing!)
10. They have solid customer service
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So yeah, clearly I’m a fan of Publer. But it’s not perfect. 

A few updates I’d love to see:

• I’d love to be able to post Instagram carousels (aka albums) through Publer. Currently, you can post multiple pictures to Facebook and Twitter, but you’re limited to a single image for Instagram. I’m quite sure this is an Instagram API issue, but still on my ultimate social media consultant wish list. This has been updated since this post was first published. You can now share Instagram carousels directly through Publer!
  

• I’d love to be able to post and schedule Stories to Instagram directly from Publer. Hopefully this one is in the works. This too is now possible in Publer!
  

• I’d love to be able to engage directly with comments once my posts are live right in Publer. This one is a beast and likely if Publer ever added this, their price point would look very different. I only know of one scheduling tool that currently has this option and that’s Agorapulse (which is, again, powerful but expensive). I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that would be another game changer for me. While you can find comments on your posts, there isn’t a single place to go through and engage with them…. yet!

So that’s 10 reasons I use Publer as my go-to third-party social media scheduling tool.

If you have any reasons you like Publer, let me know! Or if there are any features it’s missing, or a reason why you love one of the many, many alternatives on the market, let me know that as well.

I’ll also mention that I don’t do affiliate marketing for any products or services, but do have an affiliate link for this one specific tool. I only have an affiliate link because I’m such a fan of the platform that I found I was constantly recommending it anyway. Just wanted to be fully upfront about that.

If this post was helpful to you and you do wind up signing up, please use this link when you do so – publer.io/jlemonsk