Here’s a pro tip: Scheduling your social media posts in advance can help communicate your purpose and refine your strategy.
If I didn’t have a desk calendar, kitchen calendar and a bound agenda in my purse (not to mention my Google calendar), it would be hard for me to keep track of where I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to handle on any given day. That’s probably overkill for most people, but here’s the thing: My schedules keep me organized. The same is true for managing social media.
Here’s how:
Scheduling social posts can help you execute your strategy
You know, your strategy — that thing you developed to better engage with your friends, fans and followers? When you put thought into this, you can then be intentional about what you post and you can remain on-message. If you’ve determined which times create peak engagement for you, then scheduling posts or tweets to the minute and hour is a no-brainer.
A social media schedule helps you post consistently
When you’re plugging in content a month in advance, you quickly see where the holes in your coverage are. Then you can plug in a variety of content, whether it’s a blog post, a link to relevant content from another brand or business, a photo or even a video.
Scheduled posts can help you find free time
Scheduling “evergreen” content for holidays or milestones that happen every year means you have more time to focus on things that pop up unexpectedly. It also means you’re ready when you have an off day, take vacation, or are out sick — because your content is covered.
We use two scheduling tools at Infomedia: Hootsuite’s free version (for scheduling Twitter and Instagram posts) and Facebook (which allows us to schedule posts to Infomedia’s Facebook page). Click here for directions on scheduling with Hootsuite and Facebook.
Both options allow you to edit and reschedule your auto-scheduled posts. Of course, there are other tools out there — Buffer is one — but Hootsuite and Facebook’s tools work best for our purposes. Evaluate your own needs and goals to determine which will be most beneficial for you.
One word of advice: The point of scheduling posts in advance is to help streamline your process and create a consistent routine. But don’t forget the appeal of “random” or “spontaneous” posts. When someone engages with a post, respond to it — that creates a dialog and can convert a commenter into a client, customer or referral.
