3 ways to get the most of social media scheduling

a while ago, i wrote a post on the pros and cons of scheduling social media vs. organic posting. while i believe both are integral to social media success, it's worthwhile to strongly consider how you're utilizing your scheduled posts to represent you when you're not sitting there tweeting.

by using tools like hootsuite and buffer, you can plan your posts for facebook and twitter ahead of time, leaving you free write, work, explore... and not think much about tweeting up a storm. of course, you should always monitor your accounts, continue to post organically and reply/favorite/like on a daily basis, but the ability to schedule a bulk of your voice makes a huge difference.

add scheduling to your post writing routine

once you hit "publish" or "schedule", do a little more than jumping on twitter to link your post. as soon as your post is ready, go to your social media scheduler of choice and add some posts for the future - one for tomorrow ("catch my post yesterday?"), a week from now, a month from now and even six months from now. this way, you have a steady promotion of all your content - not just new posts. it's always fun to prompt your readers to look back into your archives. do this for every post you write as a part of your writing routine, and you've got promotion down the line you won't ever have to think twice about.

 

utilize holidays, special occasions & events

think outside the box for times when your post would be relevant. is it a quick, simple recipe? schedule posts around lunchtime during the week to catch the eyes of parents and college students looking for a simple dinner. is it a how-to post? schedule your tweets or facebook posts for sunday nights when people are shopping and planning their weekly activities.

don't forget holidays! there's a holiday for everything these days, so if you've made donuts, it's worth it to google and see when national donut day is (june 5th, by the way!) and set up your post to be promoted heavily on that day.

 

schedule for odd times

you may not be up reading blog posts at 3am, but someone surely is, right? consider the rest of the world and the different time zones, too. think of an audience in another country you may be missing because you only post when you're awake.

do you have any social media scheduling tips?