Social Templates are by far one of CoSchedule's best features for time-strapped bloggers and solopreneurs. This blog post teaches you all the things you can do with Social Templates AND gives you a perfect sample Social Template you can copy and paste right into your CoSchedule account. You’ll learn:

• What Social Templates are.
• How to use Social Helpers.
• How to set up an amazing Social Template in your CoSchedule account to save you a bunch of time when scheduling social media messages.

Table of Contents

• Introduction to CoSchedule Social Templates
• Create Your Perfect Social Sharing Strategy
• Save Your Campaign of Social Messages as a Standard Template
• Apply Your Template of Social Messages to A Blog Post
• Create a Social Template Using Custom Social Helpers
• Add Text to your Custom Social Helpers

Introduction to CoSchedule Social Templates

You know how every time you write a blog post, you also have to think about when to promote it and on what channels? Doesn’t it get tiresome and repetitive to have to think about your promo strategy every time you publish a new blog post? That’s not to mention the endless uploading of images, copy/pasting into a social scheduler, and a ton of manual work. It’s no wonder scheduling social messages is annoying and time-consuming. Until Social Templates, that is. Social Templates put an end to all that time you waste scheduling social messages… all while driving even more traffic to your blog. More traffic AND less effort?! Sounds pretty awesome, right?

Create Your Perfect Social Sharing Strategy

Let’s create your first social template in CoSchedule. One of the keys to getting more traffic is to share your blog post multiple times on social media. This is the job of your social campaign in CoSchedule. We’ll walk you through how to create one that consistently promotes your blog post over an entire month. Open up a blog post on your CoSchedule calendar and attach a social campaign. Start by adding a Twitter social message for the same day your blog post publishes. Add the {title} and {permalink} default social helpers by clicking on the social helper button in the corner of the text editor. You’ll see the title of your post, post image and link magically populate into your social message. (Note: This will only happen if you have the link field populated) Keep adding additional social messages to your campaign following this social sharing strategy.

Save Your Campaign of Social Messages as a Template

Now that you’ve created your perfect social sharing strategy, save it as a template to use every time you write a blog post. Click the “Templates” icon in the top left and area. Choose the option that says “Save Existing”. Change the name to “Blog Post Promo - Default”.

Apply Your Template of Social Messages to A Blog Post

Are you ready to see some real time-saving magic? Open a different blog post on your calendar, click the social templates icon and apply the template you just created. All of your images, text, links, and social messages will automatically schedule with the click of a button. This puts a permanent end to the tiresome manual work of scheduling your social messages… all while driving more traffic to your site.

Create a Social Template Using Custom Social Helpers

The social template you just created using default social helpers is one of the best time-saving features of CoSchedule, since it basically writes all your social messages for you. But... sometimes you want to use custom text in your social messages for additional flexibility. CoSchedule lets you create your own custom social helpers that function similar to the default ones we used in the previous example. To start, open a blog post on your calendar, add a social campaign, and click on the template icon in the top left-hand corner. Choose the option “Create New” and name your new social template “Blog Post - Custom”. Add the following social messages and helpers to your template: Save your template and apply it to your blog post.

Add Text to your Custom Social Helpers

Click on the “{ } Helpers” icon located next to the Templates icon in the top left-hand corner. This is where you can add custom text that will be applied to your social messages. Add a quote from your blog post under the {quote} social helper. You’ll see the text automatically apply to all the social messages in the template that used the {quote} social helper. Similarly, add some text under the {urgency} social helper. Here’s an example: “You won’t want to miss out on these 21 fall trends that are fresh off the runway.” Using custom social helpers lets you easily add unique text to your social campaigns without having to create a ton of individual messages. Looking for more inspiration? Here’s a list of some custom helpers and corresponding social messages that are commonly used. Feel free to copy and paste these examples directly into your social message: {urgency}

• We’ve only got 15 seats left in our webinar. Claim yours before it’s too late.
• Don’t miss my newest weekly recipe on the blog now.
• Time’s almost up! Get your application in for Blogger of The Year.

{quote}

• Faux botanicals have come a long way since the days of garish silk florals. -Reichel Broussard
• When looking for blackberries, choose ripe ones that are plump (soft, not mushy, and rich blue-black all over). -Martha Stewart
• You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. -Zig Ziglar

{announcement}

• We’ve updated our logo and changed our name. Check it out!
• Ready to connect with other bloggers after the long summer? Join us for our next Blogger’s Happy Hour on September 6th!
• Target announces new line of baby clothes and we got a sneak peek!

{how-to}

• Learn how to create infused olive oil in 5 easy steps.
• How to start couponing 101 - the ultimate guide!
• DIY project: How to wire a sconce without tearing apart your drywall and rewiring.

The post How Bloggers Can Use Social Templates to Save Time and Drive More Traffic appeared first on CoSchedule Blog.