To Schedule or Not To Schedule? That Is The Question

So, I’m sure by now you know how important social media can be for your business or brand, but it can be really time-consuming and hard to manage, especially if you’re on every social channel (even Twitter). 

One way to make sure that your brand’s social media is regularly being updated is by scheduling posts ahead of time.  

But is it a good idea? Read on to find out…  

To Schedule Or Not To Schedule? – That Is The Question 

The Pros… 

• Okay, first things first – one of the main benefits of scheduling your posts is: you can save yourself time. We all spend way too long on social media. (According to research, the average person spends around 2 hours and 22 minutes a day on social media. Not me. I spend at least 7 hours. No cap.) By scheduling your posts ahead of time, you can regularly plan time to sit down with a cup of coffee, schedule your posts, then sign off and be done with it until the post goes live and the comments come in. Yes, you have to be there to reply!
   
• We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: consistency is key. There’s no magic pill about the most perfect time of day to post or what type of post to post, one thing is clear: consistent posting benefits your social media. Not only does it build trust with your followers, but it helps you understand just how much content you should be creating. By scheduling your social media posts, you’ll be consistent – both with your timings, and content.
   
• One of the amazing things about scheduling your socials is: you can schedule your posts to go live at the right time. I know, I literally just said there’s no perfect time of day to post, but there is a time when your followers and audience are more active (most scheduling tools can provide you with this information).So, you’ve found out your followers are mainly active at 7pm on a Thursday evening. But you spend your Thursday evenings playing chess/at the gym/reading/napping/whatever… And that’s where scheduling comes in. It’s also very time zone friendly if you need to post internationally.
   
• One of my favourite things about scheduling social posts is: you don’t have to log in and out of multiple accounts (and remember all the passwords!). Get yourself a good scheduling tool (we recommend Planable) and you’ll be able to link many accounts. That means with a click of a button, you’re able to switch between accounts and channels, and post on multiple platforms at the same time!

 

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And now, the cons…  

 

• Your scheduled posts may make your brand seem less personal. The point of social media is to personalise your brand and show the nitty gritty real-life stuff that is so popular nowadays, and you could risk losing that when you schedule posts because you seem a bit… well, removed. You may also miss out on the opportunity to quickly respond to comments, messages, likes, and shares.
   
• This point makes my palms sweaty: your posts can have errors. If you’re juggling a lot of things at the same time, it’s easy to make mistakes. You’re a human after all! Again, if you’re logging on every time a post is scheduled to go live, you might not catch your mistake until after it’s been live for a while. And even worse… If you’ve scheduled posts far in advance, the post could become outdated before it’s posted and hold no relevance anymore. Remember that time Joan Rivers tweeted promoting the iPhone after she’d actually died? We do. This is what people did when the Queen died – let’s just say, mistakes were made!
   

• If you only ever schedule posts and add nothing in ‘real time’, it becomes impossible to react to events. Imagine something massive happens in your field of expertise, but your posts have been planned and scheduled for the month, it can be a nightmare to rejig and move everything around to fit something in… And that’s why it’s important to post on the fly as well.  

 

 

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So… when should I schedule social posts ahead of time? 

You’re probably sat there thinking… “Shit. When should I schedule posts ahead of time? And when should I create off-the-cuff in-the-moment content?”.  

Here are the main things to consider

• Scheduling posts is a great way to stay consistent and keep your social media channels up to date, without wasting your life away. 
• If you find it difficult to regularly update your brand or business’ social media to gain and maintain followers, setting time aside to create a social media plan and schedule your social media posts could be a game changer. 
• If you want to create more personable content and take the time to interact with your followers, then you should try to incorporate some in-the-moment content. 

 

Still not sure how to manage your social media posts?

Managing social media for brands is a lot of work and needs consistent maintenance. It’s completely normal to feel a bit lost, not know what to do next, and have questions along the way.  

If you have any questions or want to take your social media to the next level – get in touch. We might be able to help.

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