Social Media On A Budget
I know many people who think they can’t post on social media because they don’t have a smart phone. It seems the world just assumes you HAVE a smart phone and doesn’t readily offer clear cut alternatives to those who do not own a fancy pocket computer.
I am sure I don’t have to tell you, but as an entrepreneur, you NEED to be on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, AND Twitter!
Social media is an untapped bevy of eyeballs and it’s not just for those with a smart phone! So, what do you do if you don’t have a smart phone to post with? Enter social media schedulers!
But wait! I’m poor, Shannon! How can I afford such a thing? Remember I don’t have a smart phone. I’ve got you! Follow along for my very best shoestring budget social media. How do I know this works? Because this is what I did in 2012 when I started and had no money for fancy things! It’s also some of the things I *still* do now.
HootSuite: Posts to Instagram, without the need for an app!
One of the problems with not having a smart phone is for some reason IG needs an app for many trendy schedulers to work. Even though you use your software to schedule your IG post, you still need a secondary app on a cell phone to push it to the IG post…and there is a button click involved to boot. That’s why it’s not considered “automatic posting”. This doesn’t mean you are SOL. There is a way around this limitation and it won’t cost you a dime. HootSuite allows you to schedule your IG post on your computer and requires not further action from you to post to IG. No cell phone? No problem.
With HootSuite you can have three social media profiles and can schedule up to 30 posts at a time for free. It doesn’t sound like much, but most people only want to post on IG one time a day. So, if you only wanted to use HootSuite for IG, then you could schedule a whole month of posts.
What do you mean by a “social profile”?
https://hootsuite.com/plans
Social profiles are accounts (such as an Instagram account, your personal Twitter account, or a Facebook Page). With Hootsuite, you can manage multiple accounts—such as five Instagram accounts, three Twitter accounts, and two Facebook Pages—from one dashboard.
What do you mean by 30 scheduled messages?
https://hootsuite.com/plans
Our Free plan lets you schedule up to 30 messages at any given time. Once you reach the limit of 30 messages, you won’t be able to schedule another message until one of your scheduled messages is published (or deleted).
Pinterest: Schedule Posts from your computer!
Pinterest is this confusing little nugget of a platform. I used to struggle with getting pins ready. I’m busy and I don’t have a lot of time to devote to making original pins on my phone. Creating pins can also be frustrating if you feel rushed! My pinning life changed last year when I found you could schedule pins from your computer in advance!
Windows 10 Has An Emoji Keyboard!
Feel like you are missing out on cool emojis even with a scheduler? Never fear! Windows 10 has you covered. Right click on your “task bar” and then enable “Show Touch Keyboard Button”. A little keyboard should show up on your right hand side bar. Click it, then push the smiley face button to bring up Emojis! No cell phone needed!
🆆🅰🅽🆃 🅲🆁🅰🆉🆈, 🅲🅾🅾🅻 🆃🅴🆇🆃 🅻🅸🅺🅴 🆃🅷🅸🆂 🅵🅾🆁 🆈🅾🆄🆁 🅿🅾🆂🆃🆂? 🆃🆁🆈 🆈🅰🆈🆃🅴🆇🆃.🅲🅾🅼!
If you really want to make your posts unique consider using YayText.com. Simply type the message you want to change into the “Your Text” box then scroll down and see how they look. Once you find one you like, hit copy! You can then easily save the string in a Word doc or paste directly into your scheduler!
PRO TIP: Write your copy and embellish it with YAYText and the emoji keyboard. Paste that into a Word or Google document for reference and easy copy/paste posting in the future!
PRO TIP: If you ever feel the need for a mobile device, consider getting a cheap Android or used iPad tablet. Double check the device you are looking at has a fairly recent OS and that it can get some updates. Don’t buy something that won’t last you at least a year. Hooking your new device up to Wi-Fi will pretty much have you ready to use those apps. You can also use an old cell phone. Maybe you can get one from a friend? You don’t have to buy expensive cell service if all you need is to browse the apps.
I hope you found this article useful in your journey.
(This used to be part of a paid membership on my website, but the plug in locked down too much of my website so I deleted it and am re-releasing the info for free)
