[Updated 2023.04.13] <– Sadly, I have to tell you that I’m getting rid of this plugin, click the link to learn why.
Like many people, I’m willing to spend a little money to save time. Time is the one resource you can’t purchase or create. Once you’ve spent it, it’s gone forever.
Yet, I’m going to use a FREE service (Buffer.com’s Free plan) combined with a FREE software plugin (Auto Post to Social Media – WordPress to Buffer, By WP Zinc.) to save myself an hour each month and improve my social media presence at the same time.
Believe it or not, it can take me several minutes to post about a new WordPress article on each social media channel I use. Here’s my process outlined:
- I have to log in to the social media outlet.
- Create a new social media post.
- Copy the WordPress post’s excerpt.
- Paste it into the social media post.
- Copy the WordPress article’s URL.
- Paste that into the social media post.
- Check to see if the featured image copied over correctly or not. Upload it manually if it didn’t.
- Finally, submit the post/tweet/whatever.
If I post to just three social media channels, I can easily spend 10-15 minutes doing this. If I do that 4-6 times a month I will lose an hour each month.
If I can automate this I will regain an hour or more each month. Time that I can spend answering questions, suggesting additional topics, getting into “spirited debates”, etc…
I’m going to use Buffer.com to schedule and post my WordPress articles to social media outlets for me.
The connection between Buffer and my social media outlets was setup fairly easily. I created an account with Buffer.com and connected my 3 social media channels in about 10 minutes.
Connecting Buffer.com to my website via Auto Post to Social Media – WordPress to Buffer was also very straightforward. This took another 5 minutes.
Ironically, for the same amount of time it takes me to manually post one article to 3 social media channels, I’ve now got software setup to do it for me.
This is what computers and software is all about, doing mundane repetitive tasks and freeing up time for real life.
That said, let’s see if the darn thing works…
Hurray! It works.
Did you see this page linked in your social media timeline? Well, no surprise if you didn’t, but, that’s a topic for another time.
Update – I’m removing this plugin
It’s a real bummer, I wanted to like this plugin so badly. Theoretically it should save me a ton of time and do a lot of tedious work for me.
In reality it’s actually taking more time to effectively share my posts than if I were doing it manually, and because of that it’s become more work than it’s worth.
First, thru no fault of the plugin, but, due to issues with Twitter (Elon Musk just bought Twitter), I simply can’t get the plugin to work with Twitter. There are problems creating the needed permissions to authorize Buffer to post on my behalf, problems that don’t seem likely to be resolved by the great Twit or his minions any time soon.
Of course, this reduces the usefulness of the plugin. I need to manually post to Twitter, and when doing so I also try to coordinate with the auto-posting schedule that I’ve setup in Buffer for the other social media platforms we use: LinkedIn and Facebook.
However, the deal-breaker for me is: I’m spending way too much time editing content on LinkedIn and Facebook AFTER its been auto-posted.
Somewhere along the line, each post made to social media via this plugin will have random formatting errors. Hyperlinks become duplicated; there are triple-spaces between paragraphs; list items are dropping in as HTML code fragments; and on and on…
If I forget to review the post after it has been published on each social media channel, the impression I am giving to my audience (of 3 – 7 people) is that I am incapable of professional level communications.
Needless to say, this is not a good first impression to make if you are an online business consultant.
I’m sure that many of my colleagues are quietly laughing and saying “I told you so”. Yup, I can admit it. They were right.
Manually share your content to your social media channels. Tailor each post specifically to the interests of that audience and the constraints of the software presenting it. Don’t rely on a software plugin to do it for you.
