- Social media can make or break your brand, but it can be time consuming and hard to manage.
- Scheduling your posts is a great way to use your social media to help your brand get more views, but only if used wisely.
- Scheduling posts can save you time and can help you look more consistent to your followers.
- Scheduling posts isn’t for everyone, though. If you want to create more personable content, then you should try to post on the fly more often.
By now, we all understand the importance social media has in creating relevance and interest in your brand. Even fiascos like Fyre Festival show that social media can propel a brand’s reach, no matter how questionable they may be.
Social media can make or break your brand, but it can be time consuming and hard to manage, especially if you’re a brand manager for multiple brands on multiple social media sites.
One way to make sure that your brand’s social media is regularly being updated is by using tools to schedule your social media posts ahead of time. Scheduling your posts is a great way to use your social media to help your brand get more views, but only if used wisely. There are times to schedule your posts, and there are times to create in-the-moment content.
Here are some pros and cons to scheduling social media ahead of time.
Pros of scheduling social media posts ahead of time
- You can schedule your posts to go live at the right time: Maybe you’ve started collecting data about your social media views, so you know people are looking at your brand’s Facebook page the most on Thursdays and Fridays. However, between your busy schedule and day-to-day life, you’re having a hard time posting every Thursday and Friday. Scheduling your social media posts takes care of that very dilemma! Schedule the posts when you know people are interacting with your content the most. It’s even time zone friendly for those of us who manage brands internationally. No more staying up in the middle of the night to post on social media.
- Save yourself time: We all know we’re spending an increasing amount of time on social media. According to research, at this point we spend on average about 2 hours and 22 minutes daily on social media. We also know there are a handful of people out there, especially social media managers, thinking that number is way too low. When you schedule your social media posts ahead of time, you can regularly plan time to sit down and schedule your posts, then sign off and be done with social media for a while.
- Consistency is key: While there is not a magic formula about the most perfect time to post to get the most views, one thing is clear: consistent posting benefits your social media. Not only will this help you maintain your followers by gaining their trust, but it helps you understand just how much content you should be creating. It makes managing your brands social media, well, more manageable!
Cons of scheduling social media posts
- Your brand may seem less personal: Unless you’re planning on logging in every time your scheduled post goes live, you won’t often get a chance to interact with your posts in real-time. The benefit of social media is personalizing your brand, and you may risk losing that when you schedule posts because you can be further removed from your viewers.
- Your social media can seem robotic: Most of the time, regular people’s social media like yours and mine isn’t perfectly planned out. It can separate your brand from your followers a little bit if you’ve only scheduled your posts. Plus, like we said above, you won’t get as much time to interact with your followers.
- Your posts can have errors: If you’re juggling a lot of social media, especially if you manage more than one brand, it is super easy to make mistakes. Again, if you’re not logging on every time a post is scheduled to go live, you might not catch your mistake until after it’s been live for awhile. Furthermore, if you schedule posts ahead of time, it could become outdated before it’s posted and may be not all that relevant.
So… when should you schedule social media posts?
When should you schedule your posts ahead of time? When should you create off-the-cuff, in-the-moment content? There are a few things to consider.
TL;DR on scheduling your social media posts ahead of time, consider the following.
- Scheduling posts is a great way to more consistently update your social media in a time effective matter.
- If you struggle with regularly updating your brand’s social media to gain and maintain followers, setting time aside to schedule your social media posts could be an effective plan in managing your social media.
- If you want to create more personable content and take the time to interact with your followers, then you should try to post on the fly more often.
Still unsure how to manage your social media posts?
Managing social media for brands is a lot of work and takes consistent maintenance. It’s normal to not always know what to do next and have questions along the way. If you have questions on how to take your social media management to the next level, call the professionals. Reach out to the folks at Redefine Marketing Group for help!
