Now that you’ve gone live with your business and you’ve nailed the product or service aspect of it, it’s time to start thinking about marketing and advertising. One of the biggest steps your business must take is to make sure it has a consistent social media presence. These days, this is a huge priority. Most people are on at least one social media platform and having your business across platforms that target your audience means your posts are in an ideal position to be seen by the right people – your current and potential customers.

Keeping on top of your social media can be a stressful task. Due to the algorithms that both Facebook and Instagram have with their posting, it means that you have to regularly post the right kinds of content and ensure that you are following their guidelines so your posts are being shown to your target audience. In order to keep on top of your social media accounts, I highly recommend you schedule posts in advance. This means that you can think ahead, plan the content and have it all sitting in the back end, ready to go!

What is content scheduling?

Content scheduling is the process of organising your social media posts in advance. By having it either loaded into the back end of your social media account, or into a third-party program ready for posting on a certain day makes your scheduling so much easier. You can upload the image and text to be posted, and specify what day and time they are to be published. Alternatively, you can manually approve the post’s publication when alerted by the scheduling program. Use programs like Airtable to create and store your content plans, as well as Canva to create the graphic posts.

How should you schedule your content?

The first step to scheduling content is to make a plan. Decide on the types of posts that you would like to be creating. Will there be theme days? Are there any particular services/products/promotions you want to highlight? What time of day will be best to post? Will you be posting the same content across each social media platform, or will you be selecting different content for different platforms? These are all decisions you need to make before beginning your scheduling, as it will save you time and reduce the stress.

Where do I schedule my content?

There are a few options when it comes to scheduling your content and the programs you can use. Third-party scheduling programs are available to upload your content and opt to have it either automatically posted to your platform, or manually approve when the program sends you a notification at an elected time and date. Recommended programs for this include Planoly and Later, both of which have these functionalities.

Facebook has its own scheduling feature in the back end of your Facebook business page. It’s recommended to schedule directly in there for all of your Facebook posts. This helps you to optimise your posts to appease Facebook’s algorithms. You can see your posts lined up in your back end, ready to post on any scheduled day. Having them completed and scheduled on a weekly or monthly basis allows you to focus on your business and customers!

Should I schedule my content?

The simple answer is ‘yes’. You should definitely schedule your content in advance and have it all prepared, ready to post. It’s ideal to have the following month planned and scheduled into either the back end of your social media account, or in a scheduling program. It not only ensures that you’re being consistent with your social media marketing, but it also removes the stress of remembering to post on social media on a regular basis.

If you struggle with creating content for your social media, or simply don’t have the time to create and schedule content, there’s the option to ask for assistance from a digital marketer like myself or a social media manager. We can help create content, read your metrics, and put together a plan for future social media needs.

Find out more about our social media workshops. Need something else? Don’t hesitate to contact us directly.