Social media scheduling tools are one of the greatest work hacks for businesses!
If you want to make the most of social media, but don’t have time to sit checking numerous accounts and posting throughout the day then a scheduling tool will be your new best friend.
There are numerous social media tools available and depending on the size of your business, the tools are often free or low-cost. Some of the platforms you might consider include Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Buffer, SocialOomph and Sprout Social.
Although their features and benefits differ (and one may be better for your business than another), these platforms generally make it easier for you to schedule, manage and analyse your social posts.
They may also offer handy tools to filter conversations by keyword or location to make sure you’re listening to what people are saying about your brand, competitors and industry (removing the leg work for you!).
Read below for 4 ways that you can start making the most of social media scheduling tools!
Create your plan
Start with a simple plan for scheduling your social media
You may want to consider:
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A set day or time each week when you sit and schedule posts
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How many posts you want to schedule for each week, for example
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The type of content you want to share and the ratio between salesy and engaging
Remember that this ‘batch’ style content should be your standard fare such as blogs, offers, top tips, videos, and other interesting information which keeps your profile active and enages users. Don’t fill your profile with anything and everything!
This plan will give you set time to sit and think about what you want to say and achieve for the week ahead. Making this a regular feature to your week will ensure you don’t forget about your profiles and it’s much more likely to become a manageable habit!
Test the best post times and content
Use your scheduling tools to trial posting on different days, varying times of day and types on content to see how your followers respond. How do the changes impact on engagement?
The benefit of using a scheduling tool for this activity is that you get to test and improve your activity without having to keep taking time out of your day-to-day activities. The tool does the work for you!
Once you’ve run a few tests, you can start to understand which times and content work best for the business. You can then focus your attention on what does work, rather than wasting time on scheduling posts that aren’t as effective.
Don’t turn into a robot!
Scheduling tools won’t do all the work for you. It’s important to invest some of the time you save on managing your social media back into building relationships with your customers in real-time.
However great your scheduled social activity, it won’t count for much if you forget to engage with customers who have taken the time to comment or engage with you.
Take time to respond to their queries and feedback, or even just to post spontaneous updates about what’s happening that day or join in interesting industry conversations.
Review your analytics
Make the most of the platform’s tools to refine your activity.
Most scheduling platforms will offer a variations of analytics to help you monitor and understand how well your posts are performing and how users are interacting with them.
On a weekly basis, take a look at how followers have engaged with your posts and specific content to help shape the activity you schedule for the next week. This will ensure you’re only sharing posts which are likely to achieve something; whether that’s encouraging customers to comment, driving visitors to the website or boosting sales.