I tend to view social media -- particularly in my professional life -- as a necessary evil. It's a great way to stay connected with your PLN, parents, and even students, but it can sometimes feel cumbersome or like "just one more thing" we have to do. 

​Fortunately, there are a few ways you can automate your social media accounts in order to save some time. ​

You may have noticed that when you go to post something on Instagram, you see these options right before you post:

If you connect your Twitter and Facebook pages to your IG account once, then all you have to do from then on is just toggle the buttons next to those networks when you post on Instagram, and your photo(s) will be posted on all 3 accounts simultaneously.

To connect Facebook and Twitter to your Instagram account, visit your IG profile > Settings > Linked Accounts. You'll have to sign in to Facebook and Twitter from your IG account once, and then Instagram will remember your login information after that.

Pictures don't cross over well from Instagram to Twitter; usually, Twitter ends up linking to your IG account instead of embedding the photos in the actual tweet. If that bugs you, can you can use a service like IFTTT (which stands for If This, Then That) to natively post pictures from your Instagram to Twitter account. 

For instance, if you create this Applet: ​

in IFTTT and connect your IFTTT account to both Instagram and Twitter, single-photo posts will appear on Twitter as though you actually typed the tweet yourself instead of just posting on Instagram. (If you use this Applet, make sure not to choose the "Share to Twitter" option when you post in IG -- otherwise, you'll get double-posts!) ​

You need to sign up for a free IFTTT account in order to create an Applet. Once you have an account, click Search > type something like "Instagram Twitter Native" > click on the pre-made Applet that says "Tweet Your Instagrams as native photos on Twitter." Toggle the on/off button to ON, and you're ready to go! (If this is your first time using IFTTT, you may need to authenticate your social media accounts, but that's just a few extra clicks, and it's a one-time thing!)

(If you prefer to watch a video versus a GIF, select this link to visit the video version.)

Obviously, nothing can automate a real-time conversation or Twitter chat, but you can save a little time by automating some posts in advance. 

For instance, when I was an Instructional Technologist, I tried to tweet at least one tip, tool, or helpful link per school day. I scheduled those posts in advance so I never had to worry about frantically finding something to write and then finding a time to post it during the day. Your social media posts may look a little different, but I bet there are still some you could schedule in advance:

• Reminders about school picture day, field day, field trips, state testing
• Posts about non-time sensitive student learning (example: spend a day making it a point to take a picture of students in action during every single lesson. Then schedule those tweets out so you're still sharing your students' learning -- it just may not be the stuff they did THAT DAY)
• Repetitive reminders: unit exams, read for 20 mins/night, spelling tests or other weekly assignments
• Links to good websites or articles that parents might find helpful

But how do I schedule my posts? 
There are several scheduling services you could use, but here are the 3 I think are most popular:

1. TweetDeck: obviously only schedules for Twitter, but there's no extra account to manage -- just log in with your Twitter credentials. I've never hit a schedule limit using TweetDeck, and I've had several months' worth of content scheduled at once. 
2. Buffer: This one is my next favorite (after TweetDeck), and what I use if I'm looking to schedule posts on different platforms (like IG and Twitter). This one allows 3 social profiles and up to 10 scheduled posts at once on the free version. What I like most about Buffer is that it automatically analyzes the best times to post content (based on views and interaction), and you can set it to post at those times as often as you'd like. Buffer even includes networks like LinkedIn and Google+. 
3. HootSuite: I can't remember what all is included on the free plan (and I can't find it anywhere on their website), but click here for their paid plans' features. Their free plan advertises that you can connect up to 3 social media accounts (so probably Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are educators' best bets), but you should know that the last time I used it, certain social media network connections (like Pinterest) weren't included in the free version at all. Anyway, their free plan also allows up to 30 scheduled messages at once, and their paid plans offer more than that. 

Depending on the tricks you use, I know you can automate posts for the following networks:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• YouTube
• WordPress

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to automate Snapchat...partly because trying to post on SC from anything other than a mobile device is a royal pain. One of SC's most redeeming qualities used to be the fact that users could only post pictures or videos in real-time, but of course, that's changed with the addition of the ability to add posts from your Camera Roll. That said, it's still primarily a mobile network and, in my eyes at least, not necessarily designed for post automation. If you're using Snapchat in your classroom or school, my best recommendation at this time is to just take all your photos and videos there, save it to the Camera Roll before posting to your story, and then use your automation services to post those images/videos on your other social media networks. 

What did I miss? Leave me a comment if you know of other automation methods!

​In a nutshell, Google Voice allows you to call and/or text anyone from an extra, specially-designated phone number from Google...all the while, concealing your actual phone number from the recipient.

Here are some more handy features of Google Voice:

• Call/text anyone through a browser on your computer
• Call/text anyone through a mobile device connected to the Internet {without revealing your "real" phone number}
• Call contacts that are already entered into your regular cell phone's address book {no need to enter information twice!}
• Automatically transcribes voicemails and puts them in your Google Voice inbox
• Listen to voicemails as they're being left
• Screen calls if the need arises
• Option to set "do not disturb" time {think of it like setting office hours}
• Block specific callers
• Ability to change the number 1 time {for a $10 fee} if the number gets into the wrong hands

You may be wondering why you even need an extra phone number. Think about those moments when you need to call a student's parent(s). Sometimes that parent's phone number is in a different area code, and you may not have the ability to make long-distance phone calls from your district desk phone. ...Or sometimes you have a lot of parent phone calls you need to make {like at the beginning of the school year when you make contact with each guardian to introduce yourself and say how excited you are about teaching their student this year}, but you don't necessarily want to be at school until 6 or 7 pm making phone calls. 

Google Voice gives you the ability to contact parents via call or text message right from your own cell phone, so you can contact anyone you want from the comfort of your own home -- without the risk of revealing your personal information to parents. {I know some teachers have no problem giving their personal cell phone number to parents, but I am a pretty private person, so revealing my cell number is outside my personal comfort zone.}

​I created a fairly in-depth Google Doc with directions that can take you through all things Google Voice related. {It even has a Table of Contents where you can click the subject you're interested in learning about and jump directly to that section!} Click here to view the document.