You’ve seen them all come and go over the years, social tools that promise us the moon and more, when it comes to content creation. From photo editors to schedulers, we’ve seen it all… or have we?
I’ve been following a new social content creation app online for a while and I think it has scope to help us generate content variations quickly - especially useful for campaigns and automation. In today’s blog post I want to show you the tool I found, PostMaker.io.
PostMaker.io: The new social app on the block?
What is PostMaker.io
Created by Phill Duffy, founder and code writer for Code Copilot and Storism, PostMaker.io is a cloud software which generates variations on your content, based on preset variables - potentially turning 1 tweet into hundreds in just a few minutes!
“I built Post Maker to solve a marketing challenge I had with Storism and Code Copilot. I had a number of really neat Social Media Schedulers (SocialBee and Publer) but I wasn’t creating enough content to be making myself visible on my Social Media channels. Like many makers in my position, there’s only me, and I didn’t have the time to be engaging continuously on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
I decided to see if I could put some technology to use and generate myself some meaningful, and relevant posts which could tick along whilst I was building the product, and it worked. I was getting results from this little console app (running on my machine), and others began to ask how I was doing it, so I turned it into its very own product, Post Maker.
I love that Post Maker managed to grow its own audience, very much ‘dog-fooding’ the tool, I was using its output to grow, and refine its functionality.”
This could change the game when it comes to Twitter content creation, where we know that on average the impact of a tweet lives for no longer than 20 minutes. Content creation over there can feel painful because of this, particularly in light of the Tweet repetition and variations rule. So, how do you create and scale content without spending hours and hours on it? Well I think Post Maker might have a simple and elegant solution.
How much is PostMaker.io?
I know this is one of the first questions you will ask, so I thought I’d put this right up the top of my article... Pricing starts at £10 per month for a solo account with up to two brands to create campaigns for, making Post Maker an affordable part of your marketing. The tiered options are perfect if you have more than one business, or team members, or you serve multiple clients as a freelancer.
Of course you can use this as a solopreneur too.
Is it for Twitter only?
No!
You can quickly and easily create content for other social media platforms too. My best advice is to separate your channels on Post Maker by campaigns. This way you will be able to create channel specific content that works for your audience and serves to obey any character, or hashtag restrictions.
Which social media schedulers does it work with?
Because the content output will be generated in a .CSV file your social media scheduler will need to have .CSV upload capabilities. Currently Post Maker suggest the following social media schedulers:
Hootsuite - here’s a tutorial to help you get started over there.
Recurpost - here’s a tutorial if you want to get started there.
Here’s how to set up your PostMaker.io account
Sign up and choose your plan.
The dashboard will show first. This is where your created campaigns will show, along with which brands they are assigned to. In effect this acts as a quick glance catalogue.
Team - next you need to make sure that everyone who needs access, is given it. On the team page you can send an invite to the people you wish to have access to either all of your content, or specific brands. Remember you may need to upgrade if your current plan does not cover the full range of staff you wish to add.
Brands - This is where you can list all of the brands you work with. Of course the number of brands available to you will depend on which plan you selected when you joined, so you may need to bear in mind that an upgrade may be required in the future, if you work with several companies. The process of adding each brand is as simple as pressing the ‘Add Brand’ button and filling in the required details. Under each brand you will be able to see the relevant campaigns you are working on with that specific company.
Campaigns - these can be found on the brands page. You simply select the ‘campaigns’ tab under the specific brand you wish to work on and this will navigate you to the brand specific campaign page. To add a new campaign, press the ‘Add Campaign’ button, giving it a name and a description before pressing ‘create’. This will now appear on the campaign page. If you wish to rename it, or delete it press the ellipsis ("⋮" 3 vertical dots). Hover over the campaign you wish to work on and press your mouse button to open. Here you have several options:
‘Pin to dashboard’ at the top of the page, if you wish to highlight a campaign when you revisit the brand’s campaign page.
Set up - this is where you select the social media scheduler you wish to work with.
Inspiration - this area allows you to pull information from a specific web page, or blog post with which to create content. The system automatically gives you options to add some or all of these to your campaign and gives you pre-generated variations. Quite handy if your content was written in a way that can be reused as individual post ideas.
Variables - are a way of repurposing your content. In other words, here you are creating minute changes to your campaign post in order to get extra versions of the same content. To set these up you need to first navigate away from the campaigns page and to the ‘Variables’ page (remember to press ‘save campaign’ before you do this). Press ‘Add Variable’. Give each new variable a name, a delimiter (a way to show the system how to separate your variables. This could be a new line, comma, or space). Then select your scope, which in most cases will be a brand and then finally add your variables. Variables could be hashtags, or specific call to action (CTA) wording, or sign off lines you wish to use. They could also be things like days of the week, or months.
Variations - back in your brand campaign selecting ‘Variation’ will take you to a new screen where you can create your content. Remember to press ‘save campaign’ when you have finished creating.
Output - This is where your content will be generated, so press ‘Generate’ and you will see all of your variations and variables repurposed across your content. You have the option to tweet these directly, but it is better to press ‘Download .CSV’. You should be able to upload this to your social media scheduler so that you can add images if you wish and schedule them to your social media channel of choice.
Packs - This is a new area Post Maker is working on. Toggle the one that catches your eye and this will now produce a set of new variables under your variable dashboard. For example the Demo pack gives you a ‘days and months of the year’ set of variables to add to your content.
Documentation - This is the Post Maker knowledge library to help guide you through use of the software.
My review of PostMaker.io
Whilst many aspects of PostMaker.io feel effortless there is an element of code-like script to appreciate in generating your marketing content. This takes a little learning and honestly, if you have been tweeting for a while and worked on variations with the likes of Recurpost as your social media scheduler then it doesn’t take too long to comprehend and come up with ways in which this tool will be useful.
The on-site knowledge base, known as ‘documentation’ is really clearly laid out, so you don’t ever feel like you get stuck when using the software, either. This makes it a tool I am far more likely to keep on using over time and recommend to clients where I think they need it.
So what are my thoughts on how and when to use Post Maker and is it something as a content creator I could really use?
I believe the power of this software comes in it’s ability to create variations on content that you use for campaigns. So as a service or product based business this is likely to be geared around launches, lead generation for email lists and more - because this is when you are likely to want to create a stream of similar content across your social platforms.
I also think there is scope for those all important engagement posts, particularly the fun pop-quiz questions, or the customer research questions. Creating variations allows you to elicit responses on a range of topics, or sub-topics quickly and easily, without overwhelming your audience with one long, boring poll. It may even give you ideas for spin off content as each variation posts and you gain responses.
I can see value in using this if you are a Twitter user, certainly, but there’s also merit in it for your Facebook Page (or even better your Facebook group). Would it suit Instagram, or LinkedIn? I guess that would depend on your audience and your content structure. Typically in those places as social media managers we tend to create one-off pieces - but I would happily stand corrected on that.
So, I guess in conclusion I am more than happy I stumbled across PostMaker.io. I think it really could be the new app I become a long-time fan of!
Your Content Marketing Managers Top Tip - Make sure you are repurposing the right content on Post Maker.
I guess the first thing we do when we find a new tool is to scope out the opportunities we have in making our content creation easier. Here we have that. What we don’t have is a guide to the content that is truly worth repurposing. This is where today’s tip comes in.
The content you put out has to be valuable.
Valuable to your client.
In other words it has to: inspire, educate and motivate your audience. It also has to build a picture of you and your business through establishing a tangible trust, because people buy into people they like, know and trust.
The process of trust comes from consistency in message and repetition of those most important points and it’s here where content variations and repurposing may initially be useful to you. So, think about what that content might be. I believe this could be blog posts, behind the scenes posts, product or service details and important facts.
The next step is eliciting engagement, because this is where you start conversations with potential clients and build those all important relationships. This again is a big area for variations to keep things fun and conversational.
Remember there will be plenty of occasions where you mention something just once. That’s perfectly ok, because the last thing you want is for your audience to become bored with obvious, constant repetition.
This post was written by Sara Millis, but created in full collaboration with Phill from PostMaker.io
