Combined with the pace of social media today and the need for even more compelling content, there are major advantages to social media scheduling – planning your posts ahead of time. Fortunately, there are many tools available to do just that.
Social media discussion on an SEO training blog? You bet! Don’t forget that a well-rounded and vibrant social media presence can do wonders for your brand’s search presence.
We have listed out the ways that you can use scheduling to your advantage.
Intentional, Personalized Posts
With an ad-driven platform like Facebook, it’s more important than ever to have posts that are engaging for your audience – enough for them to stop and look on their news feed and grab their attention.
When picking the pictures to use for your posts, don’t just select the first stock photo that seems relevant to the topic. Take the extra time to find an image with a twist, with a bold look, or something unusual.
Scheduling out your posts beforehand gives you that extra time you might not have otherwise to craft engaging, personalized posts that fit your brand.
KFC has been named as one of the top brands on Facebook – their images are a big part of their success.
More Time to Plan for Special Contests & Ads
Got ideas for specials you’d like to run, or testing an ad with a small budget? With social media scheduling, you’ll have time to go past the daily grind of remembering to post, and have time to experiment and try those fun contests.
A social media schedule also allows you to look at what special events or holidays are coming up – and make a plan for promotions. Ideally this should make you and your team less rushed, which can in turn give you less stress and your mind more room to be creative.
Strategic Thinking
Without spending all your efforts on thinking about those daily posts, you can begin to see the big picture. What do you ultimately want your audience to do? How does each social media platform serve you?
Perhaps you’re trying to build your Instagram audience, or are considering how to convert your Twitter audience. Having time to step back and think about the big picture can serve you in the long run, instead of having a collection of random posts (which leads us to our next point).
Consistency
At the very minimum, social media scheduling delivers the consistency in voice needed for any good brand. Any business can throw up something on social media every day.
With a schedule, you have the advantage of seeing things from a bird’s eye view, which gives you a heads up over the hodge-podge your competitors may be putting out!
Warning: While social media scheduling has many benefits, be sure to remain sensitive to your audience’s needs, timing, and special events. In these cases, what’s scheduled should be modified and monitored closely. Also, be sure to keep your content current and relevant – don’t schedule out too far ahead of time!
Now the next question – How should you do social media scheduling? What are the pros and cons of some of the major tools? Look for that in my next blog post!