Scheduling Social Media: Better Content in Less Time
Without all the hassle
Sunday is a funny balance in our household. It is the second day of the weekend, which means behave sort of balance; day two of two parents for two children!
I don’t actually believe balance exists – and if it does, I am not really sure it is something achievable… or desirable.
What I do try to find is harmony between enjoying the time with my family, and prepping for the week ahead. When I am organized, that means a bit of time in the kitchen doing some batch cooking!
As a home-based business owner, that also means planning my online week ahead. For home-based business owners, having an online presence is essential these days (I mean, here you are reading this, right?). When I first started working online, my posting to social media was something that happened as I was inspired to do so. And my blogging…. Well, that was sporadic, at best. Things began to change as my business grew, so did my need to be a bit more organized.
As a busy mum, the reality is I do not have the time (or, honestly, the interest) to drop everything several times a day an pick up my phone.
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But that is only part of the story. If I can be genuine with you here for a second, I want to share with you something I have learned through experience when it comes to social media and posting live. Two things actually:
#1 – Mindset is everything. It is how you will attract your tribe. It’s the feeling, the spark, behind what you share that make people want to connect with you, to learn more.
If you are anything like me, you might not be feeling quite so sparkly if your toddler is having a meltdown because you are on your phone instead of pushing her on the swings.
#2 – Mindless scrolling. We do it, we all do it. ‘I swear, I was just checking my messages’ and 30 minutes later you have forgotten what you picked your phone up for in the first place. This is another topic entirely, but to get the most out of social media is not to waste your time there. It is to be intentional in both what you are sharing and what you are consuming. If you have to hop online several times per day to come up with a post for Facebook or Instagram, there is going to be unnecessary scrolling.
Also, I quickly came to realize that it is SIGNIFICANTLY more time consuming to come up with a new topic every time you post on social media or contribute to the online market. It doesn’t matter if you are blogging or posting once a day, once a week, or once a month – expecting to be able to come up with your ideal content in the moment is pretty time-consuming. Especially if you want your content to be high quality and helpful to your audience.
Scheduling your week in advance is one of the best time management strategies I have found for utilizing social media to grow my business. And interestingly – like batch cooking where you only get the kitchen messy once, with batching and planning your online and social media content in advance there is a lot less of the prep work. One topic can be spread over several posts, as well as different platforms. And informational blog post, or business page post, can tell the same story through images in Instagram, or in your Stories on either platform.
I would have liked to have been able to say at this point that when I was introduced to this strategy, I immediately recognized the brilliance. But… that would not be entirely true. Or true at all! I thought it sounded lazy like I was trying to trick people into not noticing that I was using the same content several times.
Because I was just so time poor already, and I was afraid this would cause people to notice.
I have since realized I could not have been further from the truth! Batching one topic over several posts and even platforms allow you to dive into the subject and provide some real value. On social media ‘microblogging’ has become very popular – short little snippets over longer blog posts (like this one). Most people do not read long posts on Facebook but will read a series of shorter ones if they are spaced out. So batch your content and schedule, it actually means you will likely reach more people with your message. And it saves you time – win-win!!
There are several platforms you can purchase to make this planning a bit easier. Buffer, Hootsuite, and Post Planner are popular options. At USD 3 per month, Post Planner is pretty affordable. These apps can also post to your personal profile, as well as pages and groups you are the admin for.
However, if you are keen not to buy ‘just one more business tool’ I totally hear you. This is an area you do NOT need to spend money to make money – you can still schedule your posts easily! For both Facebook groups and business pages, you can use the schedule feature right on Facebook. When creating your post, instead directly posting it, look for the scheduling option (see below for examples). This feature is a free and easy way to schedule your posts for the week, all at once. It is also a great option if you find something brilliant you are keen to share – but you find it in the middle of the night when you don’t think anyone who would like to see it is awake. Or maybe they are, but you don’t want them to know you are scrolling Facebook in the middle of the night – seriously, we have all been there! Instead of waiting until tomorrow (and hopefully remembering) you can schedule it.
Batching and scheduling your social media is like batch cooking on the weekend – it takes a bit of commitment to get into the habit, but it will save you so much time in the long run. Time better spent following your passion and doing those things worth posting about.
Up for a challenge? Build your online toolbox and try scheduling something this week, using the Facebook Scheduling tool, or try one of the scheduler apps. If you do, connect with us and let us know how it goes!
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