When you’re running a business with multiple social media platforms, it can be difficult to maintain a regular posting schedule. The effort that goes into posting even one thing can be daunting. Not only that, but repeating those steps over and over again gets monotonous.
However, thanks to wonderful advancements in technology, there are ways to create posts now that will be uploaded later. How amazing is that? There are several ways you can get started with scheduling posts; here are a couple of our recommendations.
1. Create a content calendar to schedule your posts.
Content calendars are super easy to create, and they’re a great way to keep all of your social media posts on schedule. You don’t need any fancy software to make one, either. A Google Sheet or any other type of spreadsheet document is really all you need to get started. Content calendars are particularly helpful if you don’t post too often or aren’t planning to schedule a lot of posts at once. They can get tedious, but if you start small, you can absolutely put more content onto the schedule when you get accustomed to it.
Before you begin making your content calendar, take note of which social media platforms work best for your business. Let’s say your highest engagement is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Next, determine what posts have performed best on each platform. Maybe links to your blog and memes are the highest performing. Lastly, figure out what time of day gets you the highest audience engagement. If your pages get the most hits at 9:00am, noon, and 4pm, take note of those times for your calendar! (Note: you can find all of this information on the analytics pages of each platform. We have a post about it!)
Once you’ve gathered the necessary information, you’re ready to start laying out your calendar. Across the top of your spreadsheet, make headings for the date, time, platform, content, and a link to what you’re posting. Then you can fill in the information for each platform for what you plan to post. Doing this in advance will keep your posting schedule on track, and it’s also great if you work with a team. Everyone will be on the same page, and your social media accounts will flourish!
2. Utilize Hootsuite’s bulk post scheduler.
If you post to social media on a daily basis, you should definitely start using Hootsuite if you haven’t already. Hootsuite has a bulk composer tool that allows you to schedule 350 posts across all platforms – simultaneously. This is especially beneficial if you’re posting constantly to social media; it’ll save a lot of time and energy for you and your team.
Essentially, you create a spreadsheet containing the date, text, and link you want to include in your posts. Once the spreadsheet is uploaded, you will then be able to decide which platforms you want the posts to be uploaded to. The final step is to review what you’ve inputted, and then you’re ready to hit “schedule!”
You can view all of the posts in a calendar format, which shows you exactly when you can expect for your posts to be up. If you need to make a change to any of the posts, the “planner” tab near the top will allow you to click on any post and edit it on the right side of the screen. And there you go, bulk scheduling in a snap!
Scheduling posts can take a lot of time to get the hang of. There’s a lot that goes into it, and it definitely takes commitment. However, if you work at it, you’ll be a pro in no time!
3. Hand it over to Blackwood!
If you’d rather have someone else take care of the day-to-day operations of your social media, contact us at Blackwood Creative. We’re experts at growing businesses on social media. Let’s work together to make your page the best it can be!
