When it comes to marketing, there’s no denying the importance of utilizing social media to reach your audience. Any business strategy today should involve a heavy dose of social marketing. Although you may have an idea of what type of content you want to post, it’s important to remember that when and how you post it can also impact your strategy. Scheduling your social posting can help you generate the ROI you want out of your marketing strategy.
Find out the best time to post
Even if you’re posting top-notch content compared to your competitors, if there’s no one checking out that platform, no one’s checking out your content. Although there are general guides out there for when the best time to post is, it’s usually a better idea to refer to your own reporting to determine the most popular times of day for your audience.
Looking at the content you’ve already posted on your social accounts can give you an idea of the best times for you to post going forward, or if you haven’t yet posted start experimenting and learn about your audience!
Scheduling out your content with an editorial calendar
Consistency is key when social posting, just like any other area of marketing. Depending on the time you’d like to allot to social posting, you could end up posting daily, every other day, weekly etc. Once you have an idea of your posting frequency, it’s time to create your calendar.
Editorial calendars are a great way to plot out when and what you’ll be posting and on what platform. Creating a calendar for your content can keep you on track and ensure you don’t fall behind. A calendar is also a great way to have content ready for scheduling posts. When it comes to weekends and holidays you don’t want to be busy posting on your business account, so schedule out the content prior to so that way you’re still reaching your audience.
Free up time for your social presence
Scheduling out your content can give you some free time throughout the day to focus on other tasks, like engaging and interacting with your audience! Interacting with your followers or accounts of people that may be interested in your brand can help you get people’s attention while also adding personality to your accounts.
Replying to comments across platforms, setting up twitter lists and running through it regularly, interacting with people using hashtags relevant to your field, and live-posting topical content and relevant conversations related to your industry.
Using an editorial calendar is an effective way for us to give our clients an idea of what and when content will be posted. Calendars are also a great way to facilitate collaboration and see what works and what doesn’t with your customers. If you’re looking to better organize your content, check out our editorial calendar resource here, it’s free on our website!