You’re almost done. The i’s have been dotted, the t’s have been crossed…your article is now published. Time to get it posted on social networks…lots of them. Ugh.
Syndicating your content across the social web can be a monotonous chore, but there are a handful of tools (that start out free!) that you can use to quickly distribute your content across many channels instead of logging into one service after another to post.
Onlywire
Onlywire allows you to push your content to dozens of social networks, content aggregators and bookmarking sites via individual posts or automatically through your RSS feed, making content distribution an absolute snap. All you have to do is authorize your accounts for each site and connect whatever feeds you want to use, and you are good to go.
Onlywire also includes a great monitoring section for seeing how your content performs (including Bit.ly analytics), as well as a “recommended” tab for finding great content to share with your audience.
Onlywire starts free, with paid plans starting at only $5/month.
IFTTT
Be careful with IFTTT (IF This, Then That) — once you start diving in, it can hard to stop! IFTTT enables you to create cross-service triggered actions, and with numerous services (or “channels,” as they are called on IFTTT) being added all the time, the possibilities are pretty much endless.
While most of IFTTT’s “recipes” focus on automating tasks in your personal life, there are a number of great actions that you can trigger from a new post being added to your blog, a new picture being uploaded to your Instagram, a new tweet going out with a specific hashtag…you name it. In just a few short minutes, you can set up very customizable “recipes” that automatically publish every new article on your blog to Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and many other networks.
IFTTT is completely free to use.
Zapier
Zapier is similar to IFTTT, but with a heavier focus on business-related automation. All of the great content automation functions you can create in IFTTT can also be done in Zapier, so if your company uses several of the SaaS apps that can connect to Zapier, it’s worth trying out a Zapier account.
Zapier starts free, then scales upward, with paid accounts starting at $20/month. Zapier really starts cooking when you get to their paid accounts, though the free version is useful, too. You can also check out their library of 300+ apps and all of the triggered actions you can build before you pull out the credit card.
Buffer
Buffer has a great reputation as a very useful tool for social publishing — and it definitely deserves it.
Buffer is built from the ground-up with today’s social media manager in mind, with plenty of great tools included for syndicating both your content and content you curate. Have you noticed that posting at certain times of the day or week is extremely effective? Great — you can create a custom posting cadence to make scheduling a breeze. Just add content to your Buffer queue and you’re set. You can even make things easier by connecting your Buffer account to IFTTT and Zapier.
Buffer has a robust free version, with their “Awesome Plan” costing $10/month. Buffer also has a business product, Buffer for Business, which starts at $50/month.
