Set up your own social media planner

If you, like me, manage a bunch of social media accounts and feel you could use a better overview and the ability to schedule posts, this might be for you. You’ve probably already checked out the different options available, but maybe backed off because of the price tag (unless this is your job). That’s why I wanted to recommend Midrub that I set up on my server.

At the time of writing I manage 10 Facebook pages, 4 Facebook groups, 10 Twitter accounts and my private channels as well. Combine that with how little time I can prioritize for social media and you’ve got a bad combo. Posts appear sporadically and the guilt is constant. What I’ve done is schedule myself (yes, I schedule every minute of my work) one to two hours each week where I only work on communication and posts and plan them into the various channels — so there’s a foundation. To do this I needed a service that makes it easy to write posts and choose which channels they go out to at set times. One service to rule them all, so to speak. Until now I’ve tried both Post Planner and Buffer, which I thought worked well. However, I’m not keen on paying between $25–$99 per month for this (depending on how many accounts and users you need). For me it’s not worth it. So I got curious when I was browsing Codecanyon and found Midrub. So what is this? Unlike the web services I mentioned earlier, this is a script — a piece of software you install yourself on your web server — your own web service. The nice thing is it’s a one-time fee of $34. Midrub is also prepared so you can sell subscriptions if you wanted to. I bought a domain and set this up on it along with an SSL certificate, so the total ended up at about 400 SEK. Installation was quick and about five minutes later you can start setting up the APIs for the services you want to use. In my case I’ve connected Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so far. But you can also post to other services such as Blogger, Wordpress, Flickr, Google+, Vimeo, Youtube, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, etc., and also email marketing (all email goes through Mandrill for me). So… time to show you how it works.

Networks

The first thing I did was create a normal user (not an admin) and connected a bunch of my accounts. It’s no more complicated than clicking “Manage Accounts” and simply logging into and authorizing each service.

RSS

The second thing I did was add some RSS feeds from sites I run, so I can autopost (that’s up to you — you can also post manually) new posts to the selected social networks. Of course you can add RSS feeds from other sources you frequently post from or follow.

Post manually — schedule

The option I use most is of course “Posts”. On the right-hand side you can see the latest posts and upcoming ones highlighted in yellow as “scheduled”. Of course I can repost these posts and search through all posts. Otherwise it’s no harder than writing something, adding an image, video or link, selecting which channels you want to publish to, and then either posting immediately or scheduling.

Monitor

Afterwards you can of course go in and check likes and comments and reply to them directly under Tools.

Summary

After a couple of days of running it works perfectly for me. These are the functions I’m after and need — and it delivers. The bigger services have more features, but they come with a completely different price tag. So if you need a service like this, give it a try. If you have better alternatives or suggestions, please leave a comment.