Stories are light: Tech Stuff for Writers

This is the first in a series of posts where I'll share the tips, tricks, apps and software that I use to make my writing life on-line as efficient as possible. I want to enjoy my time on-line (and I do) but at the same time I don't want to waste manuscript writing time.

So welcome to PostCron. PostCron is a web application that allows you to schedule Facebook Posts. I find this useful because I often find things I want to post when I am researching or just checking my Google Reader feed but I don't want to interrupt my workflow to post them. I don't want to forget them either. I also want to post them when my friends and colleagues are most likely to be on-line.

So if I find something interesting on the web that I want to share on Facebook I immediately set up a PostCron entry. I keep the URL on my Favourites bar so the whole process takes a few minutes.

The URL for Postcron is postcron.com. I login with facebook which means some details look after themselves. I choose the free version. It has everything I need.

The post screen is set up very similar to a Facebook post. Nothing new to learn here! Text, pictures and links are entered the same way. The only difference is you have a choice of your Facebook Pages or your Profile Wall as the post destination. You can post to more than one destination concurrently. In this screen I have selected my Sandy Fussell Author Page.

After entering the text and attaching an image ot link, the post will be previewed.

Press Schedule to set a date and time to schedule the post. Set and forget.

Sometimes my screen seems to hang but I just press F5 to redisplay and everything is as it should be. You can schedule multiple posts to different pages and to your profile wall. The free version has a limit of ten posts pending. Pending post are stored in tabs based on posting destination. Select the tab to see the scheduling details.