Early bird gets the follower. That’s how it goes, right? Well, you snooze you lose when it comes to posting on social media. That’s why we’re here to talk about timeliness on three levels:
1) Posting to Social Media on a Schedule
2) Following The Best Times to Post on Social Media
3) Using Reactive Content as well as Proactive Content to Your Advantage
Let’s dive into this important hat trick, shall we?
Why Timeliness Matters on Social Media
If you read our blog, you know all about content buckets and a content calendar—the stuff you plan for months in advance so your feeds never dry up and followers don’t dwindle. However, life loves to throw curve balls. But when you write timely social media posts that marry your business with trending topics, you’ll deepen your relationship with customers, gain new followers, and piggyback on hashtags to get more exposure.
Say, for instance, your women-owned business sells nutritional supplements and GOOP blows up an ingredient your products contain. Harness that! Post about it. Write a post, email, and blog about it. Tag those accounts and ride those coat tails. Or, maybe a story comes out about an environmental pollutant that’s harming people. Maybe your products can help. Use those trending topics and timely stories to your advantage—as long as they’re relevant to your business.
How often you post on social also matters. If you start to slack off on your posting cadence, your customers may find your business untrustworthy, and the algorithms may downgrade your content from feeds. Erratic posting sends up red flags, so make sure you post at least once or twice per week per channel—without any long gaps in between!
The actual time of day or night you publish a post matters too. You can check out the best times to post on social media and a ton of other tips in our downloadable guide.
How to Have a Social Media Posting Schedule
Choose your platforms strategically!
Don’t have time for social media management? You should always prioritize your social media presence by which platform intersects with your customers, patients, and clients.
Go where your audience already gathers and to the format that makes the most sense for your products or services. For example, it makes a lot more sense for a clothing designer to be on Instagram and Pinterest, and a software developer to be on LinkedIn.
Use Scheduling Tools
It’ll be much easier for you to get on a social media posting schedule and remain timely with your content if you use social media scheduling tools. They’re affordable, easy to use, and will keep your feeds fresh.
Go All In
Once you decide which social media outlets you want to use for your brand, go all in. Show up when expected and delight customers with your message.
Going all in means learning how people use the outlet and what they expect from content there. Every social medium has norms in the way people post and behave there. Learn and follow them.
Each social outlet also has expectations for how often you’ll show up and even the best times to post. Follow these “rules” to get more from your efforts.
Plan Engagement
You can’t be on social media all the time. After all, you have a business to run. That means you’ll want to plan daily time to engage with your followers. Like comments and respond to questions or complaints. Like other accounts, share content, and use each platform like a person, not a business. It’s OK to check in more than during your scheduled daily time, but you should at least plan time each day to make sure it happens. You never want DMs to go unanswered or complaints unacknowledged for the world to see.
Create a Calendar
Strategic social media posting and engagement isn’t likely to just happen. You need to have a plan. Create a social media calendar. Plan out your regular posts at least a month in advance. Don’t forget to include any sales or announcements for your business and some fun stuff. Who doesn’t want to celebrate National Pet Day?
Need to organize your social media? Take a look at our social media planner. It makes creating planning how you’ll show up on social simple.
Set Alerts
Set Google alerts on your name, your business’s name, and key terms in your industry. Stay on top of what’s happening that you need to address with your customers. Share news items with expert commentary as big things happen in your industry. Become an expert resource for your customers.
Monitor What Works
Sometimes social media can seem like people post for the sake of posting—and they do. Make sure your posts get bang for your buck and time by analyzing your metrics and optimizing where it makes sense. Review the posts that get the most views and engagement. Notice any trends? Do more of what works for your audience!
It can be challenging to be active on social media and do it well while running your business. That’s why so many business owners outsource social media marketing. Do you need more help with your social media marketing? Not sure what to do or just don’t have time to do it? Reach out to us at Charm School Marketing. We’re social butterflies and love to help.
