Things To Remember About Scheduling Social Content
Being able to schedule your social media content ahead of time is a great feature. You save time by getting everything done at once and can schedule for the entire month in one go. This allows you to keep up with consistent posting and help boost your followers and engagement rates.
However, there is a downside to scheduling content. You need to make sure that you don’t rely too much on automation and miss out on the social side of social media. It’s too easy to go on autopilot and just send out your content, rather than engaging with your followers and building a community.
Here are some of the top things to keep in mind when you schedule your social media content:
1. Don’t Ignore The Posting Rules Of Each Platform
It’s incredibly easy to simply copy and paste your content from one platform to another, especially if you’re using a scheduling tool that posts to all platforms. You just make one post and then send it everywhere.
This can be a big mistake because some platforms have rules about what is allowed, and there are nuances that should be remembered about each platform.
For example, Twitter forbids you to post the same content to more than one profile. If you are using more than one profile for marketing, you need to post original content each time.
Another example would be that for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you can have clickable links in each post. However, on Instagram, you can’t – people usually put the link in the bio and refer to that in the post. This is where copy and paste to each platform is not a good idea.
2. Keep Your Content Fresh For Each Platform
On the subject of copying and pasting, this is not best practice for social media anyway. You should always post fresh content to each platform you use for a brand so that your followers don’t get bored.
It’s best to write original copy for your posts and to optimize the image size and shape for each platform.
This way, you’ll maximize the content you’re putting out and get your message across in a way that’s appropriate for the platforms you’re using.
3. Make Space For Timely Content
A big part of social media is that it’s supposed to be social. In other words, you should always have room in your content calendar to post about things that are happening right here and now.
It’s best to not pack your posting calendar so full that you don’t have a time to post something newsworthy or interesting that happened in the world or to your brand on a particular day.
You should also be very aware of the content you’ve created and scheduled. If something major happens in the world and it’s no longer appropriate for the content you’ve scheduled to go out, you need to get in there and cancel the posting in time.
The best scheduling tools have an option to pause your queue so that you can restart it when ready.
4. Be Sure To Check Your Metrics And Reports
Another major thing to remember about scheduling is that you still need to go in and check how your posts are doing.
It’s too easy to simply upload everything for the month, hit schedule and then forget about social media until you’re ready to schedule the next batch of content.
You need to take time to pull reports and actually see how your content is performing in terms of reach and engagement. Without this information, you’ll never reach your marketing goals.
