Scheduling your small business’ social media posts is an art….or rather a science. Scheduling is more than just the tools you use to publish your posts.
Here are some ideas to plan and schedule your social media posts more efficiently. Creating a social media calendar does take some work and strategy.
Create Content Categories
Create a list of all the different types of content categories you plan to share. Content categories could be blogs, event promotions, holidays, industry events, quotes, and videos. You might have other categories for your business’ content.
Your list of content categories should be a complete overview of what you’d like to publish over the next few months. For example, divide the year into four quarters and plan each quarter’s content.
Research Which Content Resonates
Look back at your past social media posts to see which posts were most successful.
How do you find which content was successful? Ask yourself which content got the most likes, the most comments, the most shares?
If one or two content categories are always popular with your fans, you can give your audience more of what they like.
Post at the Optimal Times
Social media platforms change their algorithms all the time so getting seen is getting more difficult for small business. Keep up to date on what changes your social media platforms are doing. But most importantly, look at your analytics to see when your readers are visiting and interacting with your posts.
The most simple tactic you can use it to post when your audience is most active.
Decide How Often to Post
Keep your audience in mind when posting so you’re not bombarding them with posts that are inappropriate or irrelevant.
Here are some basic standards for how often to post to social media:
Facebook: 3-10 times per week
Twitter: 3-5 times a day
LinkedIn: 2-5 times per week
Google+: 3-10 times per week
Pinterest: 3-10 times per day
Instagram: 1-2 times per day
Fill in Your Social Media Calendar
Once you’ve decided on what content you will share, how many times per day or week you will be posting (depending on the platform), and what time(s) you will post, it’s time to fill in your social media calendar.
Each social media platform should have its own calendar even though many posts can be used on every platform your business uses.
By filling out the calendar, you will never miss an important date or a fun holiday. If you’re a coffee shop, you don’t want to find out at 5 pm today that today is National Coffee Day! You want to know weeks ahead of time so you can create a promotion to coincide with this fun ‘holiday’ and definitely post about the day on all your social media platforms.
Remember to use the 80/20 rule for posting your content. 80 percent of your posts should be helpful and interesting to your readers and 20 percent of your posts are for selling your products or services.
Fill out a quarter’s worth of content and schedule them. This way your social media is always working for you, even if you’re in a meeting or out of the office. Remember to engage with your followers and track the success of your efforts so you’re always improving your readers’ experience.