Let’s face it. As a small business owner, planning meaningful, interesting content can feel like a full-time job. And if you’re already strapped for time and resources, it can seem downright impossible to plan, create, and post.
However, successfully scheduling social media content is also necessary to reach a wider audience and boost engagement. While developing a calendar (and sticking to it) may feel tedious, we promise it’s essential for building your network. Luckily, there are some simple strategies to incorporate that will make planning your social media schedule a little easier.
Here are four ways to improve your social media scheduling without giving yourself more work.
1. Post Consistently
Consistent action creates consistent results. We can’t stress it enough—to positively position your business on social channels, you MUST post regularly. Doing so creates a welcomed expectation from your audience so they keep tuning in to see daily updates, business announcements, and other inspirational content.
2. Share at the Right Times
Do you know your social media “sweet spots”? If you’re not posting when followers are tuned in, you risk missing a huge chunk of your audience. Statistically speaking, early weekday mornings, especially Tuesday-Thursday, are the best days and times to post, but that varies based on many factors. Diving into monthly analytics is a great way to determine when your audience is the most active and engaged.
3. Create a Calendar
You use a calendar for client meetings and business reminders, so why not use one for your social media, too? When your ideas are already outlined, it becomes much easier to create engaging content and takes the guesswork out of what to share.
We recommend using a spreadsheet, a template, or tools like Google Calendar to organize your ideas. Consider what types of content you want to share (image or video), the topics you want to cover that week or month, and any time-sensitive promotions, holidays, etc.
We also realize that this is often easier said than done, so we’ve recently added industry-specific content calendars to the list of our services at Officially Social. They're complete posts with images, links, text, and hashtags for an entire month- all you need to do is download and share!
4. Use a Scheduler
While you can choose to post organically to each social media channel you subscribe to, many find it daunting logging into multiple accounts daily. A social media scheduler helps streamline all of your content in one easy-to-access place while also allowing you to schedule posts in advance so they’re automatically published when you want. We have partnered with Social Champ so our clients can load Officially Social content directly into their calendars to create, schedule, organize, and analyze multiple social accounts. Social Champ also has a free plan, and it's easy to use!
Just like you’d prioritize time for any other business task, scheduling your social media content in advance is a game-changer, saving you valuable time and headaches later. Whether you choose to DIY or outsource, there are plenty of tools available to make the process seamless. And as always, our team is here to help answer any questions! Email us anytime at alison@officiallysocial.com.
