Evergreen Recycling: What's New?

Evergreen recycling is a key part of what makes SmarterQueue great, so we're super excited to share that we've made it even better! Now, you can boost your engagement and get the most out of your content while maintaining full control over how often it gets recycled 🎉

What's New With Evergreen?

SmarterQueue's Evergreen Recycling feature continues to be the best time-saving and efficiency-boosting tool, ensuring consistent and impactful social media engagement.

While it has always been a dependable tool to fine-tune your posting strategy, perform A/B testing, and get more value from your existing content, we wanted to take it one step further.

That's why we've implemented a couple of major improvements, to give you more control:

We want to let you decide the frequency at which your Evergreen content will be recycled 🎉
We're no longer pausing your Queue if you're about to share content again too soon 😲

Navigate to the cog icon (⚙) in the upper-right corner of the dashboard and check out the newest addition to the "Publishing Settings" section - the "Minimum Time to Recycle" setting.

Before, when an Evergreen post was published, it would automatically go to the bottom of the Queue to be sent out again based on your Posting Plan and other existing content in your Queue.

Sometimes, this would lead to posts repeating sooner than desired if there wasn’t enough content in your Queue available in advance. Additionally, if there was a risk that your content would repeat too often, beyond Evergreen Recycling limits, your Queue would be paused to avoid this.

But now we're changing this. Evergreen posts that are coming up on their next cycle will be delayed until the "Minimum Time to Recycle" has passed.

For example, let’s look at our Posting Plan for our SmartCo Ltd Facebook Page and our General Category. We can see there are 4 weekly Timeslots created to publish content for this Social Profile and Category combination on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

If we quickly check our "Upcoming" section of the Queue, we can see that we have 2 posts waiting to be published for the same SmartCo Ltd Facebook Page and General Category category.

The times and dates for these posts match the first 2 Timeslots that we saw earlier, and we can see that the first post is an Evergreen post, meaning it will be recycled.

Now let's take another look at our "Upcoming" section of the Queue once that first post was published.

We can see that it was sent to the bottom of the Queue, with the other post moving up a slot to be published based on the following Timeslots, just as before.

That said, we can see that the recycled post is not set to publish based on the third Timeslot we saw when looking at the Posting Plan for Tuesday, or even the fourth one on Wednesday. This is because our “Minimum Time to Recycle” setting is set for 1 week.

So even though we have Timeslots set up to publish posts, those Timeslots will be skipped by any recycled content until the appropriate time.

It also means that there's no more risk that SmarterQueue will be pausing the Queue for going over Evergreen Recycling limits. In the legacy product, with the Timeslots and setup described above, the Evergreen post would have normally:

been published again using the third Timeslot;
get added back to the queue for the fourth Timeslot (meaning would have been published a third time in the same week) - this would have triggered the recycling guidelines and your Queue would have been automatically paused.

With the new platform, your Queue will no longer unexpectedly pause, and your Evergreen content will recycle based on the "Minimum Time to Recycle" setting 🎉

Additionally, any brand-new content added to the Queue during this period, even if it's added to the bottom of the Queue, will be prioritized over the Evergreen post and will be moved up to fill in the gaps and use the existing Timeslots.

Note: For now, the "Minimum Time to Recycle" setting is limited to "1 week", as we continue working on the feature. We'll be offering additional options in the dropdown in the near future.

How Does Evergreen Recycling Work?

To make sure we don't miss anything, here's a quick refresher on how Evergreen Recycling works.

Evergreen posts are enduring social media or content marketing pieces that remain relevant to your audience for an extended period, offering timeless value. They cover topics like how-to guides, educational articles, and industry insights, providing long-term usefulness and engagement, unlike time-sensitive content.

Evergreen recycling ensures that your best-performing, timeless content continues to engage your audience over time, saving you time and maximizing its impact.

When creating Evergreen posts in the Post Editor, they will be sent to the "Upcoming" section of the Queue, just like any other post, based on your post "Timing" selection.

Once an Evergreen post gets published, it gets added back to the bottom of the Queue (for the Social Profile and Category combination it was created for).

It will then:

wait for its turn to come again, based on how many posts are ahead of it for the same Social Profile and Category combination and how many weekly Timeslots are publishing them;
skip Timeslots if its turn would come sooner than the “Minimum Time to Recycle”.

Note: You can always adjust your publishing by adding or removing content from the Queue, or Timeslots from the Posting Plan. You can also "edit" your posts and change their post "Timing" or Evergreen settings. And soon you'll be able to adjust the “Minimum Time to Recycle” setting.

If all of the posts in your Queue are marked as Evergreen posts, you’ll continually have posts added to the bottom of your Queue after they’re published, so you’ll never run out of posts 💪

You can always add new content (either Evergreen or not) to the top or bottom of the Queue. This way, you can:

prioritize new posts should you want to, by adding them to the top of the Queue;
refresh your Queue by having new content added here and there over time;
maximize engagement for Evergreen content, as it will get to be published more than once and find a new audience;
maintain a continuous social media presence without worrying that you'll run out of posts.

What Are Your Available Evergreen Settings?

With our new and improved Post Editor, you have the flexibility to select Evergreen settings for each individual post you're creating, even when adding content for multiple Social Profiles at the same time - read more about this in our "Mastering Cross-Posting: Full Customization Options" article.

You also have the flexibility to select your Evergreen settings at any point while crafting your post. The same functionality is available but with a more intuitive user interface, providing you with a clear understanding of how you're precisely scheduling your Evergreen content 💪

As you can see, you can still decide if a post should be recycled or not, or if content up for recycling should expire after being sent out a number of times, or after a specific date.

The option to enable or disable Evergreen recycling by default has been moved to the "Publishing Settings" section, next to the new “Minimum Time to Recycle” option, to streamline and organize your publishing preferences.

Note: Even if you disable Evergreen Recycling in your Settings, you always have the ability to make a post Evergreen in the Post Editor!

How Does Evergreen Recycling Work With Your Post Timing Settings?

SmarterQueue's Post Editor offers various post "Timing" options, enabling you to schedule your content precisely to match your preferences.

Combine with enabling the "Evergreen Recycle" toggle, your posts will be published as follows:

Use Posting Plan: Depending on your selection, the post will be added directly to the top or bottom of the Queue (the "Upcoming" section) to be published based on the Timeslots in your Posting Plan - once it's posted once, it will continue to be added to the bottom of the Queue to be recycled.
Post Now: The post will be published right away, after which it will be added to the bottom of the Queue to be recycled based on your Posting Plan.
Set Date & Time: Your post will first be published on your specified dates and times and only after those have been fulfilled the post will be added to the bottom of the Queue to be recycled based on your Posting Plan.
Repeat Regularly: Posts set as recurring will be published in perpetuity, so Evergreen Recycling doesn't apply to them and the toggle will not be visible - that said you are still able to set recurring posts to expire.

Evergreen Recycling Limits

Evergreen recycling comes with necessary limitations to prevent social media platforms from perceiving repeated content as spam:

We don’t allow the same Post Text to be published twice within 24 hours. This is true whether you try to post manually, or have scheduled posts.
Your Evergreen Posts can’t repeat more than twice per week.

Previously, with our legacy product, you had to meticulously balance your Evergreen content and Posting Plan to adhere to these limits. Any oversight could lead to SmarterQueue pausing your Queue, thus avoiding conflicts with social media guidelines.

However, we've streamlined this process. With the recent updates and the new "Minimum Time to Recycle" setting, managing your content is now hassle-free. SmarterQueue will automatically skip Timeslots, ensuring your posts are published correctly and timely on your behalf.