How to Schedule Social Media Content with Metricool

Managing multiple platforms and accounts in the chaotic world of social media is time-consuming and often extremely stressful. And this is just one piece of a social media manager’s job. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by your day-to-day work, you can schedule your social media content to execute your social media marketing strategy. In this article, we will explain how to schedule social media content. 

Using native social media apps is great until you have to post content across multiple channels. This results in wasting time and energy jumping between platforms, only to get lost in the sea of social media distraction. Thankfully, there is a tool to work with your social media channel the way you would natively, in one place. 

So, how can you schedule social media content? Say hello to Metricool, your new social media management, scheduling, and analytics tool. The best part is you can access the free platform at any time to test out this tool.

Social Media Scheduling with Metricool

Metricool is a free social media management platform allowing brands, creators, and social media managers to plan and auto-publish content to multiple platforms simultaneously. Within the social media planner, you can adapt your content to fit the different platforms with features you would find inside the apps themselves. 

With Metricool, you can plan and program your social networks effectively, and in this post, we’ll tell you everything about it. You have two options:

▶️ ️ FREE version: you can schedule your social media content of all the social profiles associated with one brand and up to 50 publications per month.

▶️ ️ Premium version: You can connect more than one brand and program up to 2,000, 5,000, or 10,000 publications per month, depending on the premium plan chosen. 

Beyond scheduling and auto-publishing content, Metricool also offers essential metrics about your content’s performance, downloadable and customizable social media reports, and management tools to tackle all your social media efforts in one place. 

To schedule with Metricool, you can create your free account and connect your social media profiles to start scheduling content: 

Connect your social media account by clicking the three-line icon in the top right corner, then choose the “Connections” tab to plug in your channels.

What social media platforms can I schedule with Metricool? 

You can manage, schedule, and auto-publish content to 9 social media platforms, allowing you to centralize your social media planning in one place. A social media manager’s biggest gripe is jumping between platforms to post and extract data manually. This process is time-consuming and can lead to frustration and an unorganized workflow. 

This is where Metricool comes in to save the day. Create, schedule, and auto-publish all social media content from the same place in hours. What platforms can you do this with? 

Instagram 

The first platform you can schedule content with Metricool is Instagram. With over 200 million businesses active on this platform, creating a content strategy and consistent posting scheduling is crucial for your brand to stand out on this network. 

With Metricool, you can schedule and auto-publish all content formats for Business and Creator accounts: single images, videos, carousels, Reels, and Stories. You can also tag products, add a location, mention users, and invite collaborators, to work with Instagram like in the native app. 

If you want to optimize your hashtags, you can also use Metricool’s hashtag generator for Instagram, to find the perfect hashtags for your content. Search by topic or industry for the tool to generate the top-used hashtags related to this idea. This will allow you to see which hashtags are most visible on the platform. 

Here are the requirements to keep in mind when scheduling Instagram content from Metricool: 

✓ Images:

• Must be in JPEG format
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Aspect ratio: Must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range
• Minimum width: 320 (will be scaled up to the minimum if necessary)
• Maximum width: 1440 (will be scaled down to the maximum if necessary)
• Height: Varies, depending on width and aspect ratio

✓ Videos: 

• MOV or MP3 format 
• Container: MOV or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), no edit lists, moov atom at the front of the file.
• Maximum size: 100 MB
• Audio codec: AAC, 48khz sample rate maximum, 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
• Video codec: HEVC or H264, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
• Frame rate: 23-60 FPS.

✓ Carousels:

• Can include images, videos, or both formats combined 
• They must have the same aspect ratio as single images or videos.
• The content tag only works on the first image you upload, not video or other images.

✓ Reels:

• Container: MOV or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), no edit lists, moov atom at the front of the file.
• Audio codec: AAC, 48khz sample rate maximum, 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
• Video codec: HEVC or H264, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
• Frame rate: 23-60 FPS.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 to avoid cropping or blank spaces.
• Duration: 90 seconds maximum, 5 seconds minimum.

Also, remember that to auto-publish content with Metricool, you must have an Instagram Business or Creator account. If you want to post manually, you can enable push notifications to send you a notification when it’s time to post! With this, you can schedule your content per usual, and toggle off the “Auto-publish” option. 

Facebook 

Facebook is another network compatible with Metricool. This feature is extremely convenient because you can simultaneously cross-post content to Instagram and Facebook. When doing this, the tool will create a template, however, if you want to edit the post per network, you can click into the different tabs to change elements. 

These are the specifications for multimedia files:

✓ Images:

• Must be in JPEG or PNG format
• Maximum file size: 30 MB
• Square publication size: 1200 x 1200 px
• Horizontal posts: 1200 x 900 px
• Linked images: 479 × 246 pixels on computers and a minimum of 320 pixels wide on mobiles.

✓ Videos:

• File type: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Maximum file size: 500 MB
• Maximum length: from 1 second to 240 minutes maximum.
• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (for PC or mobile) or 4:5 (mobile only).
• Video settings: H.264 video compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression from 128 kbps.
• Resolution: 1080 x 1080 pixels minimum.
• Animated GIFs: Minimum height and width of 120 px

✓ Reels:

• Container: MOV or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), no edit lists, moov atom at the front of the file.
• Audio codec: AAC, 48khz sample rate maximum, 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
• Video codec: HEVC or H264, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
• Frame rate: 23-60 FPS.
• Vertical format
• Duration of 4 to 90 seconds.

X (Twitter) 

With X (Twitter), you can plan the content ahead of time from Metricool and mention users, tag up to 10 users, schedule threads, and publish multimedia content. These are the requirement specifications: 

✓ Images:

• Must be in JPG, PNG, or GIF format.
• Image size: up to 5 MB
• Dimensions: 1024 x 512 pixels

✓ Videos:

• Format: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Maximum file size: 512MB
• Maximum length: 2 minutes and 20 seconds
• Recommended video codec: H264 High Profile
• Recommended frame rates: 30 FPS, 60 FPS
• Recommended video resolution: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (landscape), 720×720 (square)
• Recommended minimum video bit rate: 5,000 kbps
• Recommended minimum audio bit rate 128 kbps
• Recommended audio codec: AAC LC
• Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)

Animated GIF recommendations:

• Resolution should be 1280×1080 (width x height).
• Number of frames: 350
• Number of pixels (width x height x number of frames): 300 million
• File size: up to 15 MB

TikTok 

TikTok is a unique social media platform that has grown tremendously in recent years. What once was a “young persons app” has evolved into a strategic platform that brands can use to amplify their voice. To do this, you must be consistent. 

Once again, you can use our “Best Times” feature to see when your audience is more active, with exact percentages. 

Ensure that your videos meet these requirements:

✓ Videos: size less than 50Mb, the duration must be between 3 and 60 seconds, MP4 format (if you upload it in .mov format, the platform transforms the video automatically), and a resolution greater than 540p.

✓ Carousels: include anywhere from 2 to 35 images in JPG or PNG1080 x 1920 pixels with an aspect ratio of 9:16 or 1:1, but a 4:5 ratio will also work.

LinkedIn

Working with a professional network can boost your credibility and help you gain new connections in your industry. 

Remember that a LinkedIn connection is only available with a Premium Metricool account. Here are the requirements for scheduling LinkedIn content: 

✓ Images:

• Format: PNG or JPEG
• Weight: max. 5MB
• Size recommendation: pixels 552 wide x 276 high
• Ratio: from 3:1 to 2:3 (width/height). If the ratio is higher the image is centered and cropped.

✓ Videos:

• Format: MP4 or GIF (MOV is not supported).
• File size: minimum 75 KB and maximum 512 MB
• Video length: minimum 3 seconds and maximum 15 minutes.
• Dimensions: minimum 256×144 pixels and maximum 4096×2304 pixels.
• Aspect ratio: 1:2.4 – 2.4:1
• Frame rates: 10 fps – 60 fps
• Bit rates: 192 kbps – 30 Mbps

YouTube 

With Metricool, you can schedule and auto-publish Shorts and long-form YouTube videos. These are the requirements you have to fulfill for your videos.

✓ Videos: longer than 60 seconds and with rectangular orientation, 1:1 format.

✓ Shorts: videos shorter than 60 seconds in portrait orientation: 1:1 or more vertical.

Pinterest 

Create your pins directly from Metricool. Add to your boards and insert links to your website, shop, or other landing page. You can also preview how your pins will look on the desktop and mobile versions. 

✓ Images in .PNG or .JPG format and a maximum of 20 MB. We recommend using a 2: 3 ratio or 1000X1500 pixels.

✓Videos: MP4 format, if you use a different format our planning tool will convert the file. The duration must be between 4 and 15 seconds and have a maximum size of 500 MB.

Google Business Profile

From Metricool, you can publish both the Posts and Photos sections. Depending on how you schedule the content, it will be published differently: 

• Text: the post is published.
• Text + link: post with button and link preview.
• Text + image: post with an image.
• Text + link + image: post with an image and button.
• Image (without any text): Photo post type.

Metricool’s Social Media Planner 

Now that you know what social networks you can plan with Metricool and all the requirements and specifications to do it successfully, it’s time to get down to work, let us show you how the planner works to save you time and improve your organization.

CREATING NEW POSTS

While this process was briefly mentioned earlier, let me dive into everything you can do when creating your posts in Metricool. 

• Highlight the social media networks you want to post to, whether that’s one or multiple. 

• Select the time and day you want to schedule this post.

• Do you want to add a GIF, image, or video? Add them by selecting the multimedia icon. 
• If you want to hide a long URL, you can use the link shortener. 

• Remember that by adding the UTM parameter to your scheduled Metricool posts, you can measure the traffic sources of your links more accurately.

• You can schedule the first comment of your post to add extra information: links, data, calls to action, etc. To do this you just have to click on the comment icon in the options bar and Metricool will show you a pop-up where you can add your text in the box and adapt it to each social network.

• From the planner, you can create a post template and edit the content according to the social network to which it will be posted. Click on the window of the social network you want to edit and without leaving the post, change the parameters to suit each of the rules.

• On the right, you can see the preview of the post that you will plan to see how it’d look on your networks once it is published. You can see how it’d display both on desktop and mobile.

IMAGE EDITING

If an image doesn’t suit you, you don’t need to leave Metricool. You have an internal editor to adapt your image to your needs. This option is available for all the social networks compatible with Metricool.

What can you modify?

✅ Crop to another layout.

✅ Edit: Brightness, exposure, contrast, etc. editing options.

✅ Add filters.

✅ Include stickers: You can add logos or images to the photo.

✅ Draw on the photo.

✅ Frame: They are applied on or around the image.

✅ Crop: Possibility to pixelate the selected part of the image.

✅ Resize: change the width and height of pixels to resize them.

IMAGE BANK

Find the photo you need in Metricool’s image stock within the planner.

The multimedia content comes from, Pexels, an image bank with a large library to get the ideal photo for your post, without leaving Metricool.

• Find the ideal photo with Pexels recommendations.
• Search by keyword according to the content of your post.
• Filter by dominant color by typing the color code.

Bonus track!

Use the drafts to finish posts later, or send the content for your client or colleague to review. They can approve or deny the content, leaving any necessary messages for changes.

BEST HOURS TO PUBLISH ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Let’s go back to the calendar. In the upper right corner, you will see a section called: Best Time On.

You will discover the best hours to post on your Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok account. 

Metricool calculates your best hours based on the activity of your audience. The darker the color hue, the better the time to post. We recommend selecting the darkest box and creating your new publication from there. 

You can see it through the percentage of active followers you have at any specific moment.

CALENDAR WITH ALL YOUR POSTS

In the calendar, you can organize all the content of your social networks.

• Visually organize the planning of each network and overview all of them.
• Change the time zone to view the best times adapted to the country’s time to which your publications are directed.
• By clicking on the planned posts, you can edit, delete, copy, and drag them to another day.

You can view your content day by day, monthly or weekly.

FEED PREVIEW

Do you want to control your future posts and ensure they fit well in your Instagram feed?
With the Instagram feed preview feature, you can do it.

• Keep your feed organized with your next scheduled posts (including drafts) with Metricool’s help. Schedule your content and preserve a harmonious Instagram feed.
• Change in time the post that you were going to upload to Instagram if you are not convinced of how it looks in the feed.
• Check how your scheduled and draft posts will display on Instagram. If you like how the feed looks, go ahead!

HISTORY

Wait, the planner doesn’t end here. Do you see the menu that appears on the left side column? Click on the history section.

• Filter by the social network or post status. Select posts that have already been published, are still pending, drafted, or with a publication error.
• In the search bar, you can find any publication using keywords.
• Delete the publications that you have created in Metricool and that you have not liked or that have been an error from this section.

LIST 

With our content approval process, you can access the “List” column to see all content that is pending approval, has been approved, denied, put in drafts, or successfully posted. This paints a clearer picture of what content is going out, as well as what content needs to be reviewed. 

SCHEDULING WITH CANVA

If you usually use Canva for your social media designs, you’re in luck. With the integration of Metricool with Canva you can design your content and integrate it into Metricool from the same tool.

This way, you save time searching for the image or video you have created. When you have your design ready, click on ‘Share’ > ‘More’ > Metricool.

Canva uploads your design and gives you the option to take you to the Metricool scheduler with your copy created and your multimedia content ready to schedule. Select the date and time, you’re done!

Benefits of Scheduling Social Media Posts

Scheduling social media allows you to work in the future, rather than always trying to pay “catch up”. Rather than stressing about what content you will film and upload that day, take the stress off yourself and start implementing a schedule that works for you. 

Plus, if you want to spend less time on the apps themselves, but still want your audience to stay engaged on social media, this is the perfect solution. The same power as the apps themselves, just off the apps. 

It will help you have a better content strategy. But there are many more benefits: 

• Save time and energy by not jumping between platforms, re-uploading content, and getting lost in the sea of content distractions. 

• Centralize your social media management for a more organized space and work environment. 

• Publish and repurpose content to multiple networks at once, thus optimizing how you deliver your messages on social. 

• You’ll activate your social networks in the most stressful moments with Autolists, so your networks are always active. 

Now you know how easy it is to plan on social networks and the many advantages it has. With Metricool you can start trying this new strategy for free.

Sara Martín , 10 May 2024