Using social media for business in 2022 is no longer optional. It’s now an essential way to reach your customers, gain valuable insights, and ultimately grow your brand. Today we examine how social media scheduling can help.
With the rise of social media, keeping your brand relevant is becoming increasingly important. 9 out of 10 internet users now use social networking sites and of those users 69% access social media sites daily.
While social media is a powerful beast that never sleeps, we as humans clearly do. So trying to fit your life around posting regularly or at the latest ‘ideal posting time’ is no longer an option.
This is where social media scheduling and auto-posting can give you that 25th hour and leverage time to create a social impact while you’re busy creating revenue, eating lunch or sleeping.
What is Social Media Scheduling?
How does it work? Social media scheduling is the process of using software to load up your posts for your chosen social media account/s, whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Linkedin. This allows you to post at specified times, and keep your social strategy consistent.
The Benefits of Scheduling your Social Media
- Manage multiple different accounts
The biggest advantage of scheduling, is that you’re able to load up multiple platforms or sub brands, with either the same content pool or slightly repurposed content to be contextual to each platform. Time savings here can be huge. - Leverage your time
A scheduler allows your social media content to post while you’re doing more important activities. You no longer need to make yourself available at insane times of day, trying to hit the sweet spot with the best engagement time. Focus on what you do best and leverage the power of a scheduler. - Minimize distractions
Social media companies have spent billions to ensure their technology hacks your attention, it’s very difficult to post manually and not be side-tracked with something going on in the feed. A scheduler solves this as you no longer need to enter the feed. - Create better content
As you’re not distracted with being inside the platform, you can use this extra time to be really thoughtful about what you’re posting. You’re less likely to rush the image selection and can really focus on perfecting that caption to engage your audience. - 24/7 visibility
Scheduling allows your posts to continue at the weekend or evenings outside your normal office hours. Your shop window can remain visible and share value while you rest and recoup. - Remove pitfalls
Sometimes life gets in the way. What if you lose access to WIFI, a friend needs help or you have some crisis to deal with. If your content is scheduled to go out, you can remove any potential stumbling blocks and keep your social media running smoothly even if you have to unexpectedly dip out. - Leverage your content
Scheduling makes it easier to space out a campaign, make your content go further and even re-use content that’s popular.
Scheduling Tips from a Pro
- Know your audience. When are they most likely to be online to engage with your post, what platform are they on etc. This will help you schedule content at the right time and on the right platform.
- Plan before you schedule. An easy way to do this is by using free software like Google Sheets, where you can plan ahead and get a birds-eye view of what you need to promote, pre-plan and make ahead instead of twiddling your thumbs on the day, with writers’ block… ahh!
- Bulk scheduling is a huge time saver! Whether you use just one account or you are an agency that has multiple accounts to run. Preload your image or video content with one click. For larger accounts, using a .csv upload option saves even more time.
- Don’t set it and forget it. Posting out content, but not being engaged with it, slows down your growth. Social media is about being social, so remember to log in every now and then to interact and take joy in seeing that people are resonating with your content and have taken the time to engage with it.
Get Testing
One of the most impactful ways to improve your performance on social media is with continuous testing.
When you start posting, testing is vital in identifying when and how to engage your audience.
Without testing to see what works (and what doesn’t) you’d have no way of knowing which are the best days and times to post or indeed which type of posts are gaining traction.
Most scheduling platforms offer analytics features to help you measure your performance on each social media platform. These features are important as they help you determine which types of content perform best and what posting time has the highest levels of engagement.
This data will allow you to gain an overview of your key metrics and build reports. Over time with continuous testing and with the assistance of analytics you will gain insight into what really works for your brand on each of the social platforms.
Which Social Media Scheduling Site should you use?
Buffer
This is one of the simpler options and has a free forever plan. The interface is very easy to use and even advises you on the best times to post on each platform. The basic membership is free and allows you up to ten posts per month. Sign up here
Later is perfect for scheduling Instagram posts and even allows you to visualize how your feed will look.
They have a free forever plan—no credit card required that allows up to 10 posts per month. Sign up here
In short
Social Media Scheduling is THE tool that you need to make your social marketing life easier. You can start for free, and with a range of different benefits and features, there’s NO reason for you not to utilize social media scheduling today!
Still don’t have time and need help? Get in touch and contact me to discuss Social media management 😜
