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The biggest business hack of all times: scheduled posts! Scheduled posts are auto posted at a future date/time from when created initially. You can schedule your posts directly from Facebook via the Business Suite planner or in your group by selecting the calendar icon versus post now. CinchShare is also another popular scheduling tool, especially when it comes to online parties. Scheduling your posts is the ultimate turn down the hustle. Below are six reasons you should schedule your social media content.
BATCHING
Batching your work is when you group similar tasks and complete them all at once. Think about meal prepping. Instead of preparing ingredients every night, you can cook three meals at once that may last your family six days. Meal prepping saves you time by not having to cook every night.
It is the same for your social media content. Instead of posting in real-time daily, schedule content for a week or month all in one sitting. The time you will save by opening up your files, carving out time in your schedule, and staying focused to post will compound over time. As a small business owner, every minute counts. When you schedule posts, set a goal to schedule two weeks at a time to start.
CONSISTENCY
We need to be what we want our customers to be: consistent. Part of being consistent as a business owner is providing quality items within your posted turn around time and showing up to meet our customers online. If we go silent or take long, unannounced breaks from social media, our customers may forget about your offer unless you have an established email list in which you are still reaching them weekly.
It takes time to build a relationship, especially if you aren't ever meeting your customers in person. As a small business owner, days off online typically get blurred. It is not realistic to show up every single day fully present. Scheduled posts can fill in the gaps when you cannot be present online at that very moment. Feel the weight lifted from your shoulders when you receive a notification that your schedule has posted. You may have even forgotten about what you scheduled, which makes it even that much more exhilarating.
PREDICTABILITY
You are well aware of how harsh social media algorithms can be. For example, competing in your customer's newsfeed against their personal friends' news stories, the latest coffee shop grand opening announcement, engagement party photos, and other businesses can push your posts further and further down. What if your customers knew exactly what posts to look for from you and when? You can, with the predictability of posts.
I do not recommend using social media to surprise your customers with your posts or posting structure. Instead, get in the habit of scheduling your posts for the same day, same time. For instance, if you schedule an ICYMI post, pick the same time and same day of the week every week. Eventually, your customers will start associating your post with a particular date/time of the week. Instead of relying on Facebook to get the information, be predictable and consistent; they come to your group knowing what they will find.
Regarding predictability, keep your call to action and links in the same place every time. If you use an emoji such as ➡️ or 👉; use this emoji every time, so their eyes eventually know precisely what they are scanning for. If you add the links to the comments, always add the links to the comments. However, adding the links to the comments requires you to revisit the post after it has been posted. The beauty of scheduling your posts is that your customers will have all the information, even if you are asleep. Another technique is teasing a product and asking those to comment who are interested and going back to reply to their comments with their link. My technique of choice is adding the link to the original scheduled post with an emoji.
STRATEGY
Have you ever felt like you are posting without any real plan or structure? Each day you feel like you don't have any direction. If you think of something, you post it but then realize the following day that you wish you hadn't posted that sale? It is tough to create a strategy for your business if you never look at it from a God's eye view to see exactly where you are going. Think about swimming underwater. You can know where you are a whole lot better once you come to the surface and look around before going under again. The same can be said for your business.
By scheduling your posts ahead of time, you can review what holidays are coming up, keep your vacation in mind, space out your sales, and strategically plan any giveaways. To add, having a plan lets you see where your business is going and keep it on track. Simply move posts around into a logical order before hitting the schedule button.
ENGAGEMENT
How many birthdays, graduation, or bachelorette parties have you thrown? Did you leave after the guests arrived because you forgot to get the cake? You didn't think through using masking tape for the banner, and now it is falling off the wall. Your lack of preparedness made it pretty hard to entertain, enjoy and engage with your guests. The same happens on social media when you aren't prepared and constantly playing catch up.
Scheduled posts allow you to enjoy your hard work with your social media followers. Instead of showing up frazzled to your group, you can cut loose with them in the comments and enjoy the posts with them.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
What about the time you get back from not stressing and trying to brainstorm every day what to post? What if your scheduled posts show up for you so you can spend time with your "why?" You started a business to provide a better life for your family or find freedom in being your boss. What good is pursuing that dream if you are owned by your phone? Scheduling your posts allows you to put down the phone and spend time with your loved ones. Also, you know when your posts will be scheduled, so showing up for 10 minutes around the time that posts first hit the interweb goes a long way.
I highly recommend sharing who you are and more about your life with your audience, but this doesn't have to be posted in real-time. Capture those moments and enjoy them to the fullest. Set aside 15 minutes a week to grab all the photos from your camera roll and add them to an album so you can share them with your group as a scheduled post.
SO WHAT
You may feel convinced about why you should schedule posts for your business but are confused about what you are supposed to be posting or where to start. Brittany Jones from Queen B Graphics & Design and I have created a product to help you do that.
Queen B offers themed engagement collections so you can stop wasting time on Canva creating your own from scratch. I have outlined content calendars to match her graphics with captions and areas to plan out your product releases.
