Free Tools your Visitor Attraction should consider for Social Media Scheduling

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Free Tools your Visitor Attraction should consider for Social Media Scheduling

As we creep out of Covid, it’s more important than ever to work smart- particularly when it comes to planning and scheduling creative social media content for your visitor attraction.

We’ve all been there. With 101 things on your to do list, sometimes procrastination pushes that Friday social media post to the back of your mind. With emails, meetings, reviews and enquiries taking centre stage- don’t let it be the elephant in the room!

Planning content ahead of time is key. At Agility we plan Facebook and Instagram posts in batches using monthly content calendars. This approach ensures we cover key messages, include all relevant offers and promote events, whilst still leaving flexibility for last minute additions, such as new baby animals or team news, when needed.

We couldn’t do it without social media scheduling tools. First and foremost they help our team post at key times when our audience is online. They also allow us to batch create our content in advance (Friday afternoon is never a good time!), and easily check posts across multiple channels to ensure we never miss a beat.

With Sendbible’s latest research showing that posts scheduled in Facebook via third-party scheduling tools achieved 10.3% more engagement than those posted natively, it’s a no brainer!

Here’s our top free tools your zoo, museum, farm park or theme park should try for Facebook and Instagram social media scheduling.

1. Facebook Creator Studio

At a Glance
Cost: Free
Number of accounts: unlimited
Number of users: unlimited

Looking Deeper

Our top free to use social media scheduling tool for visitor attractions, Facebook’s Creator Studio is a one stop place within the Facebook business suite to write, draft and schedule your Facebook and Instagram content.

It allows visitor attractions to manage and schedule creative pre-recorded and live video, photography, albums and much more from the comfort of your desktop or mobile device, and synchronises both.

This means that you could start by taking a video of your newest attraction, animal or event on your mobile device on site, and then seamlessly switch to edit and tweak the copy on a desktop when you are back in the office with a cup of tea.

As part of its business suite, Facebook Creator Studio isn’t a third party tool which means you can boost and promote posts directly from its scheduling platform.

It also allows multiple members of your team access to one account, without them having to share the same log in credentials- important in keeping your social media accounts and passwords secure (for more tips read our blog: https://www.agility-marketing.co.uk/secure-facebook-instagram-accounts/)

Team members can have different access rights too, from analytics to editor and contributor.

2. Hootsuite

At a Glance
Cost: Free / paid plans available
Number of accounts: two
Number of users: one

Looking Deeper

Hootsuite social media management tool, is an alternative option to Facebook Creator Studio, with a few more bells and whistles.

It’s features help with planning, scheduling, and syndicating social posts, including automatic scheduling, social media monitoring and performance reporting.

Whilst some tools are only available on its paid plans the ability to add up to one user account, two social media accounts (for example the Facebook and Instagram page of your attraction) and schedule up to five posts at any one time using their publishing feature, are all available for free.

Upgrade to their paid services, and features increase.

Whilst Facebook’s Creator Studio give you space to add more accounts, Hootsuite’s dashboard is far more user friendly, with a great calendar planner feature too.

3. Buffer

At a Glance
Cost: Free/ paid plans available
Number of accounts: one
Number of users: one

Looking Deeper

Initially launched in 2010 as a Tweet scheduler, you can now schedule for up to three social media accounts in the Buffer platform.

Allowing one user account but up to ten scheduled posts at any one time, Buffer trumps Hootsuite.

It has social media reporting available on its free option too, albeit limited, making it a good visitor attraction social media scheduling tool choice for attractions who report results weekly or monthly to directors or managers.

Our favourite thing? Buffer shortens links added to posts automatically, meaning no copy and pasting into Bitly or Google URL Shortener. It makes recommendations for media, based on what’s included in your post copy too- smart!

4. Planoly

At a Glance
Cost: Free/ Paid plans available
Number of accounts: one
Number of users: one

Looking Deeper

Putting Instagram first, Planoly is an official Instagram partner.

Its free plan allows you to upload up to 30 posts a month for one Instagram account. The limit resets on the first date of each month. What’s the catch? You can only upload photos- no videos here!

It’s easy to use calendar grid function is it’s hero.

Use the desktop or mobile app to upload a post and drag it around to design your Instagram grid aesthetic. Bright yellows for Summer fun, Oranges for your Halloween pumpkin event or Deep reds and greens for Christmas cheer, Planoly will help your ‘gram look pretty.

It hasn’t forgotten about Facebook either. Upgrade to cross post your Instagram posts onto Facebook too!

Want to stay in the loop?

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our shortlist of free social media scheduling tools for visitor attractions. For more visitor attraction social media marketing tips and tricks, join us on LinkedIn: Agility Marketing Limited  or Facebook: @agilitymktg

If email newsletters are more your thing, you can sign up to ours, here: https://www.agility-marketing.co.uk/contact-us/

Do you need help with planning content for your visitor attraction?

If you need help planning and scheduling content for your visitor attraction, we can help.

Contact our team at hello@agility-marketing.co.uk and we will be in touch.

This blog was written by Beth Powell, Senior Project Manager at Agility Marketing, a boutique marketing agency specialising in Digital Marketing for Visitor Attractions.