Having run a creative agency for over a decade, we’ve tried every trick in the book to streamline our social media management operations. Over the years, we’ve experimented with just about every scheduling tool on the market (including Later, Hootsuite, Buffer, Planoly, Unum and Sprout Social), each promising to be the solution to our challenges. And while many of these tools came ‘really, really close’ to being exceptional, there was always a caveat.
We’d often find ourselves saying, “It’s so helpful, but I wish it did…” Perhaps the interface was not as intuitive as we’d like, or the auto-scheduling feature was unreliable. In some cases, a tool would work well for our internal team but fell short when it came to collaboration. This meant we were juggling multiple systems: a project management tool for internal content planning and a separate process involving screenshots and mockups for client approvals. It was far from ideal.
Then we stumbled upon Planable.io. And while the team let out a collective grown that I wanted to try yet another scheduling tool, it wasn’t long before the entire team was head over heels for it - you know you’re a social media nerd when you’re gushing about how much you love a new scheduling tool, but the reality is our teams spend many hours of their days using these tools so it can make a huge impact on your productivity & happiness if it all just flows smoothly.
Here’s why it’s now the only tool we are using in our creative agency, and the number one tool we recommend to our students:
Streamlined Content Creation and Approval
Producing killer content is one thing, but getting it approved by stakeholders can feel like an eternity. With Planable, this process is simplified. The platform allows us to create posts that look exactly like the live versions. This “what you see is what you get” approach eliminates the need for endless back-and-forths with clients, ensuring that everyone is on the same page from the get-go.
All-in-One Content Planning
Gone are the days of juggling multiple tools and platforms. With Planable, we can bring all our content together, be it blogs, newsletters, emails, or social media posts. This centralized approach not only streamlines our workflow but also ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. We really love the ‘universal content’ section where we can draft website copy, blog posts, newsletters and more.
Multiple Views for Better Organization
Planable offers four distinct views: Feed, Calendar, Grid, and List. This flexibility allows us to organize and visualize our content in a way that best suits our needs, ensuring that we always have a clear overview of our campaigns. Each member of the team has their preferences so they can each see exactly the view they need.
Collaboration Made Easy
Collaboration is at the heart of any creative agency, and Planable was built around this idea. The platform offers intuitive commenting features, allowing team members to give and receive feedback in context. This ensures that everyone, even those who aren’t tech-savvy, can easily collaborate and contribute.
Time-Saving Approvals
With Planable’s easy approval process and real-time updates, getting content greenlit has never been faster. This efficiency means we can focus on what we do best: creating outstanding content. And we can just trust that if everything is approved and scheduled, it’s good to go. No more whatsapp messages back and forth.
I love that you can adjust the permissions for each team member, so a junior team member can be assigned to write captions but not approve them for example.
Who is Planable Perfect For?
Planable is the ideal solution for creative agencies, and marketing teams where more than one person is involved in the process. If you’re a solo brand owner on a limited budget that’s doing it all yourself, you might find that you prefer one of the simpler free tools out there. But for anyone running a business in social media management, or any brands who want a more streamlined process it’s well worth the monthly cost for how much time and headache it saves us.
Want to steal our social media process?
We’ve got over a decade of experience running a creative agency and helping brands with their social media marketing. We share it all - from our strategies to our professional workflows in our Marketing & Social Media Bootcamp.
In 8 weeks we teach you everything you need to know to master your own social media for your business, or start a thriving business as a social media manager. And you have untapped access to ask me & my team anything you want to know about how we run our business, land clients, price projects and streamline our operations. We take you behind the scenes on real client projects and show you step-by-step our entire workflow - from identifying the ideal target customer, to strategizing content pillars to writing compelling content all the way to scheduling the content and analyzing the results. And it’s not just social media but also marketing strategy, content marketing & blogging, SEO, email marketing, influencer marketing and so much more.