The Ultimate Guide To Using CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a powerful tool, connecting the world’s most popular blogging

platform to a beautiful editorial calendar. Plan and publish your blog and social

media content from one place.

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Table Of Contents

Introduction

You Need To Use An Editorial Calendar

Why CoSchedule Is For You

Making The Most Of This Guide

Getting Started With CoSchedule

What Is CoSchedule? What Does It Do?

Connect Your WordPress Blog To CoSchedule

Making The Most Of “My Activity”

Connecting Your Social Media Accounts

Working With Your Team

Add Your Team To CoSchedule

Managing More Than One Blog

Yikes! When Things Go Wrong

4 Ways CoSchedule Will Save You Time

Teams And Tasks Made Simple

Social Publishing Where It Should Be

A Change In Plans Is Easy

Flexible For Your Ideal Workflow

How CoSchedule Makes Social Media Easy

Social Media Content That Works With Your Post

See How Your Social Media Fits

Create An Active Sharing Schedule

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Introduction

Schedule your social media as you blog. Talk to your team. See what's happening on your WordPress

blog. Plan everything. Move it around easily. Mix and repeat.

CoSchedule is a social media editorial calendar for WordPress. Install our plugin, connect to the

CoSchedule service, and blog and social publishing just got easier.

You Need To Use An Editorial Calendar

Great content isn’t an accident.

First, you need to be convinced of the value of an editorial calendar.

Planning your content using an editorial calendar might not sound like a lot of fun, but wait! It’s the best

habit you could ever get into.

When you have a content marketing editorial calendar for your blog and social media content:

1. Your writing will improve. When you know what you have to write about ahead of time, you

can put more thought and time into it.

2. Your team will be on the same page. It helps if everyone on your blogging team understands

the what, when, and why behind the content you are creating. Team content can seem disjointed

if everyone doesn't understand what's happening.

3. You will publish more. Planning (if you stick to it) will keep you writing more. No more excuses

of "I don't know what to write" because your plan is telling you what to write.

4. You will do better research. Research gets sloppy and shallow if you're in a hurry. Planning gives

you ample time to research and ruminate on what you're going to write.

5. Your content will be more strategic. Planning ahead gives you the opportunity to be more

thoughtful about how you approach SEO, keywords, images, and themes.

End the haphazard content. Get back on track. That's what editorial calendars help you do.

Get: A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar That Works To get you started with editorial calendars, we've created a full guide and free editorial calendar worksheets. Grab your free copies. Related Reading: Why A Content Plan Will Bring You More Traffic How To Do Content Marketing Research For A Blog Post 6 Simple Tips For Using Online Research In Your Content Marketing

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Why CoSchedule Is For You

Get rid of extra tools. Get extra time.

CoSchedule is the must-have tool for any blogger with a self-hosted WordPress blog.

What we hear most from bloggers is that they are pressed for time and that they are having a difficult

time with planning and management.

Can you answer yes to any of these?

● I don’t have time to publish my content on all of my social accounts more than once.

● Team communication is clunky and redundant.

● I/we am struggling with a to-do list for my blog and social media tasks.

● We’re using spreadsheets and tools that don’t work well together and using more time for

management than writing.

● The system I have in place to publish blogs and social media is ridiculously complex.

If you answered “yes” to just one of these questions, CoSchedule is for you if you're finally ready to

manage, create, and publish from one place.

Heck, CoSchedule is a tool already used by some of your favorite web sites and blogs!

Find out more about the powerful features that CoSchedule offers.

Making The Most Of This Guide

There are no Easter eggs in CoSchedule.

While there are no hidden secrets in CoSchedule, this guide will help you better understand the tool.

You’ll be an expert in no time.

Sometimes knowing how the machine works doesn't help you use it the best way possible. We'll give

you practical ways to use CoSchedule with your team, with your blogging schedule, and how to make it

fit the time you have available to do your content marketing.

Digging Deeper Into CoSchedule The CoSchedule Help section is a great place to dig into the nitty gritty of what CoSchedule can do.

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Getting Started With CoSchedule

CoSchedule takes the principles of editorial calendar planning, and combines it with social media

publishing and team management. That sounds complicated, but it isn't.

We'll show you how to do it.

Watch the video: Get to know CoSchedule. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK3un3Wt_Qo)

What Is CoSchedule? What Does It Do?

Plan and publish your content.

CoSchedule is all about publishing your content. It works like this:

1. WordPress Plugin + Paid Service.

CoSchedule is a service that you pay for each month. It has a free plugin that connects to your

WordPress.org blog. With that plugin, you connect to the paid service. Without the paid service, the

plugin serves no benefit.

2. Social Media Connections

CoSchedule connects to the major social networks. You choose the networks you want to connect (as

many as you want!), and add them. Once they are added, you can publish to those networks.

3. Your Blog + Social Publishing

With your blog connected, and your social accounts connected, great news: you can easily publish to

both, and at the same time!

You write a blog post. You create all of the social messages you want that will share that blog post to

your networks. You can set them to publish immediately and in the future as much as you want.

4. Just Social Publishing

You can also create social messages without having to attach them to blog posts. You can create text,

link, or image posts, depending on which network you choose.

5. On A Good-Looking Calendar

You can do all of that on a calendar so you can see what your plan is. You can easily move it all around with

drag-and-drop.

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If you move a blog post, all of the social messages automatically move with it.

6. Great Extras!

We also provide you with social sharing stats, and let you integrate with Google Calendar (read only),

Bit.ly, and Google Analytics.

There are team features, permissions, and helpful task and to-do tools to make sure your content

publishing happens when it is supposed to.

Ready to get started?

Related Reading: An Overview Of CoSchedule

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Connect Your WordPress Blog To CoSchedule

Connect your WordPress.org blog in 3, 2, 1...

CoSchedule works with self-hosted WordPress.org blogs. (If your blog URL is

http://yourblog.wordpress.com, CoSchedule will not work with your blog.)

You will need to have the CoSchedule plugin installed in WordPress. The plugin is what allows CoSchedule

and your WordPress blog to communicate back and forth.

CoSchedule can auto-install the plugin for you, or you can install the plugin yourself.

Once the plugin is installed, you will see the Calendar in your WordPress dashboard and in the standalone

app at app.coschedule.com. You can login and use the calendar from either place. It works the same!

Related Reading: How CoSchedule Auto-Installs The Plugin Install The CoSchedule Plugin Yourself

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Making The Most Of “My Activity”

Think of it as the crow’s nest on the ship.

My Activity is the CoSchedule dashboard where you can get a bird’s-eye-view of what is happening on

all of your blogs. You can see, at a glance:

● Conversations on posts you are following.

● Tasks you have to complete on posts.

● Upcoming posts that you need to be working on.

● Top posts based on social shares.

This is your one-stop place to see what you need to be doing.

Related Reading: Using My Activity In CoSchedule

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Connecting Your Social Media Accounts

All of your publishing, under one roof.

Social media is your vehicle for letting the world know about your content. Sometimes you create social

messages on their own. And sometimes, you share your blog content on social media. Blog and social

media content should be created and managed together.

1. Start by connecting any of your social media accounts to CoSchedule. Add groups, profiles, and

business pages as necessary.

2. Connect your Buffer account, too. This gives you access to Google+ profiles, as well as the

fantastic Buffer queue.

You’ve just put all of the places you publish content under one management roof! You can delete a social

account at any time, and remove any messages that might get sent to it. It’s super-simple to manage. To

make social publishing even better, you should:

1. Turn UTM tracking tags on. This will let you see how CoSchedule helps your traffic in Google

Analytics.

2. Connect your Bit.ly account. This will shorten links, especially the long links that UTM tags create.

Use both Bit.ly and UTM tags together. When you do, it will keep the links you share on social media

short, pretty, and very trackable.

Related Reading: How To Add And Remove Social Accounts To CoSchedule Using Buffer With CoSchedule Use Google Tracking Tags With CoSchedule Using Bit.ly With CoSchedule

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Working With Your Team

Many hands make light work.

Watch the video on working with teams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw-owJXPrZ8)

It’s great to have a team helping you blog. CoSchedule helps you accomplish the three most common

management issues found with teams.

1. Assigning and monitoring tasks.

You can create custom tasks, with due dates right with each blog post. Then, assign them to team

members and they will be included in the loop of communication.

This task-based workflow is very flexible.

2. Talking to each other.

Time to kill the confusing email chains. If you are following a post, you can have a simple conversation

with everyone who is involved right where the content is being created.

Talk about the post, about changes, about graphics you need. Anything.

3. Sharing files related to the content.

In the same place as where you are leaving comments, you can upload files to share.

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Photos, Word docs, graphics, PDFs–any of the files that you used to forward in email you can now attach

directly to the conversation where the content is being planned and created. You can keep them with the

blog post they belong to.

Related Reading: Creating Tasks In CoSchedule Using Comments in CoSchedule Following A Post In CoSchedule

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Add Your Team To CoSchedule

A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

When you include a team in CoSchedule, you make it easy to talk about what needs to be done to get

your blog posts and social messages published.

Let’s build your team. Anyone who has anything to do with creating a blog post should be added.

Writers, designers, photographers, editors–the whole bunch.

1. Add your team members to CoSchedule.

2. Assign them a role in CoSchedule.

3. Connect WordPress team members to their proper WordPress account. If they aren’t in

WordPress, it’s no problem. They can still be on your CoSchedule team.

Now your team is in place!

Whoever is connected into your CoSchedule account can be assigned a task, add and respond to

comments, and have access to the calendar to see what is planned.

CoSchedule allows you to set permissions so that you can control who can see and do certain things. The

control is yours.

Related Reading: Inviting Team Members And Assigning Roles Connect Team Members To Their WordPress Accounts User Roles And Permissions

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Managing More Than One Blog

Fewer logins, please.

You might have many blogs to manage.

Your personal blog, a blog for work, the blogs you manage for clients–you can do all of it from one

CoSchedule account. No crossover, no “oops!”. One account, one login, all of your blogs.

1. No crossover.

The team members, the social accounts, and the activity that happens on one blog is never seen or

accessed by a different blog.

You won’t accidentally post on the wrong social account. Your blogs are like projects, and each project is

kept separate from the others. Set up the integrations you want each blog to have, and end your

accidental-posting worries.

2. Get a better picture.

From your “My Activity” page, you can see what work you have ahead of you on every connected blog.

It’s the ultimate content management control center.

Related Reading: Connecting Additional Blogs Working With Multiple Blogs

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Yikes! When Things Go Wrong

Houston, we have a problem.

A few of the most common issues users have with CoSchedule are:

● Plugin conflicts.

● Incorrect timezone setting in WordPress.

● Creating multiple accounts with different emails and login credentials.

● Outdated CoSchedule plugin.

● Social messages not publishing.

● Blog owner not the one who signs up.

A few best practices that will head off the most common issues:

● The true blog owner should sign up. The person who signs up for CoSchedule first becomes

the owner. They get the bill each month. You shouldn’t have your IT department or VA do this for

you unless they use your login credentials. You can change your password later.

● Sign up only once. Be sure to sign up for CoSchedule only once, with one email, and use that to

login in the future, even when you add new blogs.

● Your timezone must be correct. Make certain your timezone settings are correct. If it isn’t,

things won’t publish correctly.

● Have the latest CoSchedule plugin. The latest plugin has the best new features and bug fixes.

● Don’t spam your social media followers. Many social networks will not publish the same

message repeatedly sent. You’ll get error messages saying your social media messages didn’t

send because networks rejected them as spam.

Related Reading: Troubleshooting CoSchedule Frequently Asked Questions

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4 Ways CoSchedule Will Save You Time

If there is anything we are all looking for, it’s how to save time.

CoSchedule helps you do that. By simplifying tasks that used to take many apps and more management,

your time can be better spent writing and working with your team instead of managing.

Teams And Tasks Made Simple

An end to confusing email chains.

CoSchedule uses a system where comments, conversations, file uploads, and task management happen

right with the post they are associated with.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Team blogging usually devolves into huge email chains and scattered chat interfaces and file versions

and various to-do apps. CoSchedule brings that to an end.

Summation:

No more wasting time sifting and sorting through email chains to understand conversations or find the

right file version.

Social Publishing Where It Should Be

blog : social media :: peanut butter : jelly

What you publish on social media is usually connected to what you publish on your blog, though there are

times when you have social message that “stand alone.”

Let’s think about this.

Even messages that are stand-alone are as important as your blog content. Why in the world, then,

would you to create and manage social messages on a system that isn’t even connected to your blog?

CoSchedule puts them together, blog and social media publishing, under one roof. You do them at the

same time and same place.

Summation:

You should be creating and planning your blog and social content in the same place. They are often

related, and are both as important.

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A Change In Plans Is Easy

Plans can change quickly. Your content can, too.

When it comes to planning your content with an editorial calendar, you usually faced one of two

scenarios:

1. Paper calendar. Every change means an eraser or a new sticky note.

2. An app for blogging, an app for social media. Make a change in one, and you have to manually

make a change in the others.

CoSchedule is going to change this for you. What do you do when you need to move a blog post to a

different date?

You drag it to the new date.

What do you do about all the social messages that you had scheduled along with it?

Nothing. They moved when you moved the post.

Summation:

Content marketing shifts and changes quickly. The tools you use to manage and create it need to be

able to do the same.

Flexible For Your Ideal Workflow

A tool that works how you want it to.

Sometimes the tools you use tell you how to use them. Wouldn’t it be better if you told them how you

needed them used?

With CoSchedule, we provide the basic features to let you and your team design the best workflow for

your situation. How?

It has to do with tasks vs. statuses.

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A status-based workflow means a team changes the status of a piece of content to indicate it is ready

for the next team member to do their job. These might be draft, idea, in-progress, proof, etc.

A status-based workflow requires a team to:

● Know what each status means for them and in the system.

● Remember to change the status of a post when they finish their job.

● Have an overseer who makes sure the statuses are updated.

CoSchedule uses a task workflow, a much more flexible method.

● Easy, obvious language lets the team know what to do each time.

● Bird’s eye view of what people have done and what is left to do.

● Team members informed specifically of what they need to do and when they need to do it by.

Tasks are flexible. Your team can create tasks specific to what you need to do for posts. You can set up

your own timeline. It’s simple!

Summation:

No more wasting time sifting and sorting through email chains to understand conversations of find the

right file version.

Related Reading: Our Best CoSchedule Workflow Secrets 3 Content Marketing Workflow Hacks Editors Must Understand

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How CoSchedule Makes Social Media Easy

Social media is easy if you have only one account. Social media is not easy if you have many accounts,

different networks, different blogs...oh my.

CoSchedule brings them under one roof. One calendar, one login, one click. You can publish to all of them

here.

Social Media Content That Works With Your Post

Related content should be created alongside each other.

When you create your social content that goes along with your post, they tend to be more related in

context. This is not the time to spew out headlines-only on your social networks.

1. Posts that fit the network.

Your messages must be custom, relevant, and unique. You need to create messages that look good on

each social network. CoSchedule lets you easily choose which type of message (text, image, link) to send

to individual networks.

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2. Posts that fit your blog posts.

It’s easy enough to spam. Anyone can automatically churn out messages that share the headline of your

post repeatedly to a social account. But that gets ignored.

When you create your messages in the same place you have written your blog posts, it’s easier to make

social messages that have actual content. You can copy text easily from your blog post and add to your

social messages.

Summation:

CoSchedule makes it easy to choose a message type perfect for the network, and to create a

message perfect for the blog post it is promoting.

See How Your Social Media Fits The Big Picture

The small pieces make the larger picture.

Not everything you do on social media is associated with your blog posts, but it still needs to fit in your

plan. Events, campaigns, conversations, promotions -- these are all important to your social media

content marketing.

CoSchedule puts all of your content, blog and social, on one calendar so you can see the larger picture.

You can see if your social media publishing is lopsided or properly target to your audience.

Summation:

You can’t plan your content unless all of it is on the same calendar. This means social content and blog

content need to be together, like on CoSchedule.

Create An Active Sharing Schedule

Share more than once. But don’t spam.

Sharing your content more than once on social media is a must. News feeds move quickly, and most of

your audience doesn’t see what you’ve shared the first time.

Constantly sharing the same content, same words, same everything, however, is spam. Networks like

Twitter won’t publish those kinds of messages. And readers don’t like it. Best plan of action?

A social sharing schedule that shares the same content multiple times in different ways.

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Summation:

Spamming is easy. Spamming is ineffective. Apps with a lot of hassle drive us to choose to spam.

CoSchedule makes it simple to create unique social message instead.

Related Reading: How To Make Sure Your Messages Look Good On Social Media Promote Your Blog With Social Media

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