Are you a marketer or a blogger looking to optimise your scheduling for social media platforms? Are you looking for tools that can help you do just that? In this article on how to schedule posts for social media using Canva Pro, I use my Canva Pro account to demonstrate it. Let’s get into it!
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Canva Pro Content Planner In An Overview
| PROs of Canva Scheduler |
|---|
| 1. Create and schedule in one place |
| 2. Ability to schedule to an array of social media accounts |
| 3. User-friendly and intuitive platform |
| CONs of Canva Scheduler |
|---|
| 1. Need to own the Pro version of Canva account |
| 2. Cannot mass-post your content |
| 3. Does not save the previously written titles and descriptions |
Why Should You Care About Social Media?
If you are a blogger or a YouTuber, you have probably heard of Canva. You might already have a Canva Free account and you are designing everything you need just fine.
However, if you promote your blog posts on social media platforms or if you are an influencer, you are probably posting a lot on social media.
Additionally, as an influencer or an online marketer you understand how important it is to keep posting on social media and how much time it takes. It is not just about what you post but also how often you post which keeps your audience engaged with your business.
Should you schedule social media posts?
Social media is a great way to stay connected with friends and family. Additionally, nowadays it is also a must-have for all (online) business owners.
It can help you stay engaged with your audience and gain exposure to your brand.
However, social media can also be a huge time sink. It can sometimes take hours in a row to come up with an idea, create it and make it perfect and then post it across various social media accounts.
Fortunately, there are ways to effectively manage your social media use. One of the most effective ways is scheduling posts in advance.
This allows you to batch your content creation so that you’re not spending hours every day on social media.
What Is Canva?
Canva is an amazing tool for people owning an online business who are posting on social media platforms.
Canva offers a lot of pre-made templates that can help you create designs for all of your social media accounts.
Interested in learning more about Canva? Make sure to check out my other post on How to design with Canva.
What do you need to schedule posts for social media using Canva?
In order to schedule posts for social media using Canva you need to, first of all, update your Canva Free account to the Canva Pro account. Once you have done that, the option to schedule your posts becomes enabled:
Once you have the content planner enabled, you have two options to schedule your posts for social media:
- Option one is to choose the content planner option from the left side bar of your Canva home screen. You will see your calendar with all of your scheduled content. To schedule your next content hover over the desired date you would like to schedule your post on and press the + (plus) button.
That will open a new window where you can choose to either create a post from your previous designs or choose from the pre-made Canva designs.
Alternatively, you can click on the Create design button:
That will open the creator window that we are all familiar with. There you can start designing as usual. Once the design is ready you can either post directly on social media or schedule the post for a later date.
- The second option to schedule posts for social media is by starting from scratch from the home screen.
Press the Create a design button from the top right corner. There you can choose the type of design that you would like to create.
Alternatively, you can also choose to custom your design size. From there the creator window opens where you can start designing as usual, either by yourself from scratch or using one of Canva’s templates. From there you can directly either post on social media or schedule for a later date (just like above).
I have also recorded a walk-through video that shows the exact steps that I have described above:
Advantages Of Using Canva Pro To Schedule Posts For Social Media
- Create and schedule in one place
The first thing that I like about Canva introducing the scheduler is that it allows me to create and schedule my posts, both in my Canva account. That saves me time by not having to download the images and upload them to each of my social media accounts.
- Ability to schedule to an array of social media accounts
Canva allows to connect many social media accounts, including Pinterest, Facebook, instagram, Twitter, etc:
- User-friendly and intuitive platform
Canva offers an user-friendly platform allowing a clear and intuitive flow of each step needed to create and post or schedule your content.
Disadvantages Of Using Canva Pro To Schedule Posts For Social Media
- Need to own the Pro version of Canva account
In order to be able to use the Planner option of your Canva account, you need to update to Pro. I am currently using the 30-day trial option which is plenty of time to decide whether you benefit from the pro features.
To create a Canva account or update to the Pro account, you can follow this link.
- Cannot mass-post your content
If you are like me, you create several pins for one of your blog articles and then save them to various Pinterest boards. Canva only allows scheduling one item of content at a time. It also does not allow going back and editing the scheduled content. Doing so will pause the scheduled post and you will have to manually re-schedule it.
The way around it I found is by creating multiple designs, containing only the pages that you would like to post and post each of them individually.
- Does not save the previously written titles and descriptions
When I schedule my Pinterest pins, I do so on Pinterest itself. That allows me to create a template if you wish, where I upload one of the images that I create in Canva and fill in the title and description.
Then I make several copies of my template and save each of them in different boards.
Then I use one of the copies made previously and change the image of the pin, while keeping the same title and description. Next I make several copies of this new version of the pin and save it to various boards again.
With Canva I need to use an external document to save my titles and descriptions, which I then manually copy and paste to each of my designs.
FAQs
Should you schedule social media posts?
There are some pros to scheduling social media posts.
Firstly, it can help you save a tremendous amount of time by scheduling your content all in one go.
Secondly, it can help you stay disciplined about your social media usage.
Thirdly, it can help you make sure that your posts are timely and relevant.
However, there are also some drawbacks to consider. For example, scheduling posts can make your feed seem robotic and impersonal. And if you’re not careful, you may end up missing out on important conversations and events.
How to schedule social media posts on Canva?
To schedule social media posts on Canva, you first need to have a Canva Pro account.
To create a Canva account or update to the Pro account, you can follow this link.
Next, you can go ahead and create your content as usual and use the content planner function to schedule your post to the social media account of your choice.
Wrapping Up
Canva Pro is a great tool for all online business owners who are promoting their business on social media. However, depending on your goals for a content planner, be it to save time or the ability to create and post on social media all from one place, Canva Pro content planner might or might not be a good solution for you.
And if you ever get stuck or need help with something specific, don’t hesitate to reach out to the wonderful community of fellow Canva users who will be more than happy to assist, or me :). Happy designing!
In case of any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.
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I was not aware that you can schedule social media posts via Canva, despite being a Canva user. I will definitely investigate as this has the potential to save me a lot of time.
I am curious in how effective this will be as what always put me off when I tried to schedule automatic postings to social media in the past is that the layout and amount of characters allowed on various different social media platforms are often different (not 100% compatible) and in the end I find it easier to just post to social media manually anyways.
This is probably just me not knowing how to work the social media automation properly and I am sure it will be well worth it to investigate and give it another go.
Hi Schalk,
Thank you for your message.
I can fully agree with you that any intermediate software that promises to easy up the process of scheduling posts to social media has its own flaws and limitations.
What is great about Canva is that one can create, post and schedule their social media content directly to their accounts. Of course the process is not without flaws.
Compared to posting pins directly to Pinterest for example, I am not given suggestions of hashtags, I am not given the option to duplicate my ready to go draft so that I can save it to multiple pins, etc.
Certainly something to look into and eventually choose what is best and easiest for yourself in your online business.
Reagrds,
Tatiana
Hi Tatiana, I have been using Canva Pro for at least 6 months maybe even a year now. I think I have used the scheduler before but my trouble is that I really can’t figure out a simple system to do this all. I think it is really just using Pinterest and doing all the Pinterest SEO and stuff. I think TailWind is a good tool if you can work out how to use it properly but yes having a means of being able to schedule the images you have created on Canva is mighty convenient.
Although, I do seem to recollect having some issues where I spend 20 minutes working on a pin description etc. then hit post and lose everything. I will have to have a play around I think I guess this is good practice. I have quite a lot of images I could use over the past couple of years so maybe could be an idea to try.
Hi Alex and thank you for your thought.
I agree that Canva might not be the best solution out there for Pinterest efficiency. It is efficient for those who prefer creating the pins from scratch and then manually and individually posting them on Pinterest. However, Canva is not without flaws. I had the same issue once on Pinterest, when somehow I lost my description while trying to post a chain of pins…
In the end, the power is in the eyes of the beholder of the tool, whichever tool that might be.
Cheers,
Tatiana