Blog2Social feature imageTo build a successful online business you need all the help you can get.

Using the Blog2Social plugin I will show you in this article how to post to multiple social media sites at once.

I love this free plugin. It is the best one I have found to share your blog posts straight to all your social media platforms with one click, it’s that simple.

It will not only make your life easier but also ensure you are making the best use of your social media time.

There are so many plugins and tools out there that sometimes it can be hard to decide what you need, and more importantly what new wiz-bang gadget will not break your website and will actually do what you want.

Just a word of caution here before we start. Don’t go mad with adding plugins to your WordPress site. Some can and will slow down your loading rate and some are super difficult to use.

I use this on all of my sites. It is simple to use and does exactly what it promises without compromising site speed.

Cut Your Social Sharing Time In Half

Blog2Social is an absolute gem of a plugin. One of my fellow WA members put me onto it and I have been using it for the past few weeks. It is a social media access plugin which you can use directly from your WordPress blog to post to all of your social media pages with one click.

We all know social media engagement is an essential part of promoting your blog – that’s why we have share buttons within our posts right?

You are writing lots of wonderful content, you are creating delightful graphics and your posts are chock full of information, but your website is new and you may not be getting the traffic you need to start seeing sales.

[bctt tweet=”The quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get eyes on your blogs is to share them on social media.” username=”TheRatRaceEscap”]

But this can take an extraordinary amount of time once you have finished writing a blog.

If at this stage of your site’s development you haven’t set up a Facebook page, Pinterest account, Twitter feed and a Google Plus profile GO OFF AND DO THAT NOW.

Hang on just a sec though, if you are creating a Facebook presence for your website make it a page, not a profile. I’ll explain later but if you are going to set it up now and come back you need it to be a Page.

Blog2Social WordPress menu

OK once you have those accounts you need to download the Blog2Social plugin via the WordPress dashboard.

Once you have downloaded and activated it you will have a link in your menu that looks like this.

Now we will run through what the important menu items are and get it set up.

Read on.

Settings

First up go to Settings and the General tab at the top. Your screen will look like this:

Settings Menu Blog2Social
The important points are to set your correct time zone and then check out the Content section.

Bitly

If you have a Bitly account it is worth checking this box as Blog2Social will automatically shorten your URL for Twitter and other platforms who require it. It’s just another thing you don’t need to do.

If you don’t have a Bitly account it is free and you can sign up here or click on the Info link next to the checkbox and create one through the link.

Under that checkbox is one for Allowing Shortcodes. These are dynamic elements within your blog post. I don’t use them at this stage so have left this box unchecked. If you are using Elementor or Content Builder and adding shortcodes to your blogs you need to check this box so that Blog2Social will also allow those shortcodes.

WordPress Tags

Also click the Insert WordPress Hashtags box. This will then convert the WordPress tags you have added to your blog into hashtags and include them. I know many experienced marketers say that using the tags in WordPress hold no real SEO value so many of you may not be using them, but for the extra few minutes it takes to add them and now that Blog2Social will use them as hashtags it makes sense to spend that extra bit of time after each blog to add some tags.

Legacy Mode

Click the box next to Activate Legacy Mode, this simply staggers the plugins load times so as not to overload the server.

Don’t worry about the extra tabs at the top of this screen, they all refer to the Premium account so if you are trying this out on the free version there is nothing to change here.

Now click over to Networks, this is where the fun really begins.

Networks

This is where you will add your social media profiles so that Blog2Social sends your blogs to the correct pages and profiles. I currently only use Google +, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for social engagement, but Blog2Social can also connect you to your Instagram, Linkedin, Google My Business, Tumblr, Flikr and a host of others.

My screen looks like this.

Network Setup Screen - Blog2Social

It is very simple to set up each platform. Simply click on the + button and add the URL for each social media platform respectively.

One tip though with the changes to Facebook on the 1st August 2018 third-party plugins cannot post directly to a Facebook personal profile, so your Facebook business needs to be set up as a page. That’s why I suggested that earlier.

Error Message – don’t be alarmed

If you are using the All In One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin you may get this error message the first time you use Blog2Social.

All In One SEO error messageI don’t recommend altering any settings in your AIOSEO. I haven’t and Blog2Social is working perfectly fine and my meta descriptions and tags are still there should I wish to manually place my blog into social media.

Sharing Your Blogs

OK let’s post a blog to all of our social media platforms. It’s really simple. Click on Posts & Sharing. Blog2Social automatically opens in All Post mode so you can see every post on your site. I have only screen captured the top two posts below to give you an idea of what it looks like, but it does show all your posts.

posts & Sharing Screen - Blog2SocialYou simply choose which post you want to share and click on the big green button on the right – Share on Social Media.

A new screen will then come up showing you all the different social media platforms you have and allows you to customise the comments section on each one.

Pinterest post ready to shareI do encourage you to take the time to personalise your comments. Social media is just that SOCIAL. You are trying to engage with your followers and provide them with a reason to click on your blog. Your comment should be engaging and encourage comments from your readers.

Once you have finished you simply press share and there you have it – your new blog has been shared to all your social media.

Added Extras for Free Members

Blog Tips from Blog2SocialThe plugin also has some great tracking and information posts to keep you up to date and getting the most out of Blog2Social.

They are also quite prolific with excellent social media marketing tips and strategies which are updated regularly.

One of the sections shows you your most recent blogs and when you last shared them so you can determine when or if to share them again.

Check out just one of the informative videos created by Blog2Social on making the most out of your Facebook marketing.

How much better is Premium?

There are some really fantastic Premium settings which I suggest further down the track you might want but for the time being try the free version, see just how easy it is to use and check out the Premium features as you go.

Just to give you some idea of the pricing structure though Premium starts at €69 and goes up to €199 for large corporate blogs or multi-users. Yep, that’s Euros so depending on your exchange rate it may be a little more (€69 is about $79 USD at the time of writing).

Post Scheduling

Some really cool Premium options allow you to schedule your posts for release on each individual social media platform. So you might determine that posting at 3pm on a Saturday, Monday and Wednesday are the best times for your Facebook fans. You can preset each individual blog to be released at those specific times and on those days.

Alter Post Formatting

You can also alter the post format for each platform. If you have a specific branding and layout for your posts that you want to maintain this is a great feature. For the rest of us, I think we are just happy to easily and quickly get the blog posted to our walls.

Post to Multiple Groups

Social Media Icons on smart phone screenThe other super cool feature with Premium and, for my money, the biggest reason to take the Premium package is that you can schedule to post directly into Facebook Groups that you are a member of.

If like me you are doing this manually after you post to your wall this would be a fantastic time saver.

I would, however, caution if you are going to use Blog2Social to post to FB Groups that you schedule them to do so every hour and not all at once.

Facebook is cracking down on spam, and of course, while our blogs are obviously not spam, by sending out a heap of posts with the same link all at once you might trigger Facebook’s spam radar.

I have fallen foul of Facebook by doing this manually, just sharing the one post into 6 different groups one after the other and received a warning. You don’t want to have your Facebook privileges removed so just be a little careful in how you share.

Set up Multiple Profiles

Also with Premium you can set up multiple profiles and pages under each platform, so if you are running many Facebook pages, Google + profiles etc you can send your blog direct to all of them on the Premium plan.

Personally I have a hard time managing one page or profile per social media outlet but I suppose if your really keen you might have many.

You Need This Plugin

This has reduced the time I spend on posting to social media by at least half and I absolutely love it. Not only is it free, it does exactly what it says and it’s easy to use. I hope it will also help you with managing your social media.

If you give it a try drop back and let us know what you think, or if you are using a social media plugin to automate your posting and you love it let us know in the comment section below so we can all give it a try.

You can help me too, if you found this blog helpful then please share it so others can benefit. You’ll find the social sharing buttons on the side of the page.

See You At The Top Signature Signout

About the Author

Heidi

It doesn’t matter where you are starting from, what you currently have or don’t have, if you too feel like there is more to life than what you are currently experiencing and you want to take charge and create a better life for yourself (and your family) then join me and we will do this together.

Share your thoughts

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Want More Great Content?

Check Out These Articles