4 quick tips to mastering scheduling your social media posts

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Shortcuts

1. Post consistently

2. Choose the right time to post

3. Save time and stay focused

4. Increase the value of your social media content

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Posting to social media might sometimes feel a bit daunting. Maybe you don’t have enough time, or just don’t come up with anything to post when you do have the chance.

That’s when scheduling comes into the picture. Scheduling your social media posts is one of the most powerful social media marketing practices - it saves you time, nerves and increases the value of your content.

Scheduling your social media posts is one of the most powerful social media marketing practices - it saves you time, nerves and increases the value of your content.

Here we introduce you four reasons why you should try scheduling your social media posts, and give you tips on how to master reaching your customers on social media:

1. Post consistently

Photo by Hookle

Whichever social media networks you choose to promote your business, it is important to keep those channels active and timely. If a potential or existing customer bumps to your page, they will only want to follow your business if they see interesting or valuable content.

That’s why posting daily, or at least several times a week is recommended. And not only to draw in new followers but to keep current ones engaged and entertained. When you plan and schedule your posts beforehand, it will help you to be consistent without the need to come up with new content every day.

When you plan and schedule your posts beforehand, it will help you to be consistent without the need to come up with new content every day.

The optimal posting rate varies a bit depending on the social media network and the nature of the platform. As a general guide, the optimal posting rate for a small business on:

• Facebook 3-5 times a week.

• LinkedIn 1-2 times a week.

• Twitter from 1 to 30 times a day.

• Instagram 1-2 times a day.

Note, that on social media consistency often means more than frequency! So when deciding how often you should posts, consider what is realistic for you and your business and try to stick to that.

So posting just 1-2 times a week to your platforms consistently all the time is way better than e.g. forgetting posting at all for a long time.

2. Choose the right time to post

Photo by Tyler Harris on Unsplash

Now that you can schedule your post later in the future, you can also easily choose the optimal time to publish your post.

Your followers, and generally all social media users, are more active at certain times of the day. When should you post on social media then? A good general rule is, that mornings between 8 to 12 a.m. on Monday to Wednesday are the safest times to post.

To find the best time to reach your audience, you can test out different times and days of the week. By following the success of your different social media posts and even the analytics offered by the native social media accounts, you can see if certain timeframe or weekday suits you best.

Even testing out a bit unexpected times might work. For example, do you think posting during the workday is a bad idea because no one has time to browse social media? Try it out and you might be surprised. Social media planners might be a great help for experiencing and planning your content in the calendar - learn more how a planner works.

Social media planners might be a great help for experiencing and planning your content in the calendar

You can also read more of the best time for small businesses to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn (with Infographic).

3. Save time and stay focused

When you’re running a small business, you don’t always have time to constantly create and look for new social media content. Social media marketing should definitely not be a task that interrupts your daily work and messes up your flow.

Scheduling allows you to dedicate one block of time per week to spend creating content so you can focus on the job at hand. This means you don’t need to plan daily, which can often take you away from other important tasks. So to start scheduling, try to take a time slot every week to create and schedule your content for the upcoming week. You’ll improve your online presence in no-time.

Scheduling allows you to dedicate one block of time per week to spend creating content so you can focus on the job at hand.

You can also try out social media teamwork with your team mates. Thus you can easily share your workload and get your team also involved while planning social postings and the strategy for your business!

4. Increase the value of your social media content

Like said earlier, frequency is not the most important aspect of social media content. Consistency and quality of content rule over flooding your followers with content any day. Scrambling to craft posts at the last minute can lead to irrelevant or low-quality content that your followers won’t appreciate. Scheduling makes it easy to plan and create your content beforehand without a rush.

Scheduling makes it easy to plan and create your content beforehand without a rush.

If you’re not sure what to post, think ahead on upcoming events and promotions. What national holidays or local events that are relevant to your customers are coming up? Do you have any special promotions or new services you want to introduce? What fun behind-the-scenes happenings you want to share?

You don’t need to come up with all your content by yourself. Pay attention to other websites and sources that are relevant to your audience and share their best content as well.

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Hookle is a social media planning and scheduling tool, designed especially for small business use. Get started for free and download your Hookle on App Store or Google Play now!