Consistency when posting on social media is crucial. Despite struggling with this, there are strategies to ensure consistent content, even when busy!
POSTING STRATEGY
Embrace the power of a weekly posting strategy. It’s not just a plan, it’s your roadmap to staying organized and in control of your social media content.
If you are busy managing inventory, employees, and more, I have found it advantageous to create a weekly schedule that you can program easily. I do this by making a theme for each day. Such as:
Sunday – Meme Post
Monday – Monday Inspiration
Tuesday – Product Highlight
Wednesday – FAQ Post/Tip
Thursday – Throwback Thursday (TBT)
Friday – Relevant News Story
Saturday – User Generated Content.
Having a set schedule will provide a sense of relief, allowing you to sit down on a slow day and create content for an entire week. This type of strategy puts your content at the top of your mind when you are reading news and looking through IG/Twitter; you can spot things that will fit your social media strategy.
For example, if you are in the retail/e-commerce industry, a post about new trends for Fall would be a great article to share with your customers. This not only adds value to your customers but also keeps them engaged. You don’t want to constantly hit them with sales or product information.
For User-Generated Content (UGC), it’s crucial to ask the person for permission to repost their picture on your social media platforms. They own the rights to their content, and it’s a sign of respect to recognize them and seek their approval to share their content on your page.
SCHEDULING
Once you have your content, it’s important to research when your followers are on social media to get the most impact. These times will probably be when you are busy or unable to post. To find these times, Facebook and Instagram will show when your followers are most active on your pages/profiles. If you need some general information, Hootsuite does a yearly review of when the major social media platforms are busy; you can use these times and adjust as needed. For example, if your followers are most active at 8 PM, but you’re usually busy at that time, you can use scheduling tools to post at that time.
There are several tools for scheduling social media content, and the services can range from inexpensive to expensive. The social media tools I will cover here will be simple scheduling services. The more you pay for a service, the more features you can have. I will also go over some of the more in-depth social media management systems in another post.
I have used both services and recommend them for any individual or small/medium business. Each one is easy to use and can be set up in minutes.
Later
Shares to:
- Instagram – Posts, Reels, and Stories
- TikTok – Posts
- LinkedIn – Posts
- Facebook – Posts
- Pinterest – Pins
- Twitter – Posts
- Youtube – Shorts
Pricing:
- Starter – $25 Monthly – 1 Set of each social media site mentioned above
- Growth – $45 Monthly – 3 sets of each social media site mentioned above
- Advanced – $80 Monthly – 6 sets of social media sites mentioned above
Buffer
Shares to
- Instagram – Posts
- TikTok – Posts
- LinkedIn – Posts
- Facebook – Posts
- Pinterest – Pins
- Twitter – Posts
- Youtube – Posts
- Shopify
- Mastadon – Posts
- Threads – Posts
- Google Business Profile
Pricing
- Free – Connect up to three channels
- Essentials – $6 per channel, includes AI assistant
- Team – $12 per channel and includes AI assistant
These are the basic posting features. Each service offers many more features, including influencers, analytics, and more. I suggest reviewing the features of both before making a decision.
BE FLEXIBLE
One thing I stress is being flexible in your schedule as well. If you find something that is very timely and your followers will find meaningful, feel free to change up the schedule. Use it as a guideline, and don’t have it set in stone. As you grow your social media, review your social media analytics and start changing your schedule. The posts that resonate with your followers look at expanding that type of content, and those that do not resonate phase out.
Social media doesn’t need to be another chore every day; You can set up a robust schedule and scheduling system that will allow you to do a fantastic job on your social media and accomplish other items on your to-do list.
