Do you ever get that nagging thought at the back of your mind reminding you that you haven’t posted for a while? The less consistent you are, the more difficult it is for you to think of what to post about, isn’t it? Scheduling your posts in advance can help take that pressure off yourself!
I’ve had a chat with Michelle Webster, of JackaRoo Photography, to get her thoughts on the subject.
“It helps me stay organised. Scheduling my posts means I always have something going out to my audience on a weekly basis. If I leave it to chance each day, more than likely, I may forget with all the other tasks I have to focus on too.” – Michelle
Create your posts at a time that suits you
If you google the best time to post on Instagram, it’ll say between 9am and 1pm on a weekday. I wouldn’t entirely agree with that. I think it’s different for every business – when are your ideal clients most active? If your ideal client is a parent, then around 3pm while they’re waiting for their kids to come out of school might be ideal! Unfortunately, you might be busy at that time. That’s why scheduling can help you.
“Running a business comes with lots of behind the scenes, pressures and tasks, running your social media is like an additional full time job and is so time consuming if you want it to look right. Scheduling helps take the pressure off freeing up time to focus on the rest of your business. I block out 1 to 2 day’s at the start of every month to prep my topics to discus on socials and get them all scheduled for the rest of that month.” – Michelle
Create a plan before you write your posts
You can’t guarantee that you’ll have post ideas at the time you’ve blocked out to schedule your posts, so you want to know in advance what you are to be talking about in each post. Or, at the very least, have a Post Idea List to hand. I personally like to have a plan for the month by the 20th of the previous month, but I’ll usually start creating it from the 1st of the previous month.
“Having an idea of what you want to talk about or what message you want to get across will give you an idea of what posts you can create. Look for inspiration online. I love checking out national holidays, and seeing if there is anything I or my business can relate to to talk to my audience about. Making a plan, and setting time aside to focus on your scheduling task alone always helps. Shake up your scheduling times too, and monitor what works for you with the best engagement.” – Michelle
Built-in scheduling tools vs alternative tools
An alternative tool would allow you to have an overview of the content going out on all your platforms in one place and would allow for a team to work on the content. However, I find that the built-in tools are enough for most small businesses – and they’re free! That being said, they do have some limitations. For example, on Twitter, you can only schedule through a browser and not the app, and you can’t tag people in the images you schedule. On LinkedIn, you can’t edit your scheduled posts.
“I use the built in tools at the moment.” – Michelle
The benefits of scheduling are huge
Scheduling your posts saves you time and improves your social media game. Imagine you have a new delivery and you grab some photos of your new products. Rather than trying to remember to post them, schedule them while you’re thinking about it!
An unexpected benefit I discovered when I started scheduling my own content was a confidence boost. If I create a post for my business and post it straight away, I always get that nervous anticipation waiting for someone to engage. I’ve probably spent ages tweaking it and all I can see are the parts I’m not quite happy about. However, if I schedule it to go out at some point next week, I forget about it and I’m pleasantly surprised when that first engagement comes in. It’s also been long enough for me to forget all the details that I didn’t feel were quite right and I only see a post that looks great!
“It has helped free up more time for me to focus on other tasks in my business. I’m no longer sitting there each day, wondering what to post. I still post spontaneously, but don’t feel the pressure of it, and I can enjoy it more when I do post too. Having posts go out each day has also helped grow my audience. By having consistent content, my audience engage more.” – Michelle
My Featured Guest
Michelle Webster is a photographer who helps brands and businesses build success through images. She’s quirky, authentically herself and she helps business owners use the power of photography to show who they really are and to help them stand out from the crowd.
If you want to hear more from Michelle, find her on Facebook!
If you’d like to be a Featured Guest on this blog, please send me a message. I’m looking for people who have experiences or thoughts on various Social Media related topics.
