Running a business is undoubtedly a lot of work. So, adding another task to do, like posting on social media, can be a hassle. And while businesses should maintain an active presence on their social media pages, there are tools that can help you post while you’re busy attending to customers, placing orders, or maybe taking a well-deserved day off. Social media automation shouldn’t replace human interaction, but rather used as a complement to it.
Facebook has a scheduling tool right on your business’ page. Write your post, click Schedule, and then select the date and time you want the post to release on your Facebook page.
Twitter allows you to compose and schedule tweets if you have an advertiser account. Head over to ads.twitter.com to sign up for one, select the Compose Tweet button, select the date and time, and you’re done.
However, if going platform to platform to schedule tweets and posts is still a bit too time consuming there are a number of scheduling and management dashboards that will help you post on most platforms all at once. Clearbridge Branding Agency is not affiliated with any of the below platforms and are not receiving any compensation for mentioning them.
- Hootsuite is one of the social media industry standards. Not only can you schedule Facebook posts and Twitter Tweets, but also Instagram posts, Pinterest Pins, and even LinkedIn updates.
- Sprout Social also allows users to schedule to the same platforms as Hootsuite, just not Pinterest.
- TweetDeck has been around for many years and, while not useable for other platforms like Instagram and Facebook, IT does offer a lot of options to its users’ Twitter accounts, especially because it is owned by Twitter.
- Buffer is another popular choice for scheduling and managing of posts. Like Hootsuite, you can schedule posts for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Regardless of what social media scheduling dashboard you use, it’s important to understand that, while it’s a helpful tool, you still must rely on human interaction. These are dependable ways of posting content to free up your time, but checking to ensure that posts went out at the right time (or went out at all in some cases) is important. It is software after all and glitches do occur, although rare.
These dashboards also do not replace the importance of social interaction with your customers. Most of them do allow you to see what people are posting on your pages, however, you need to actively monitor and engage with your customers when they comment on your brand’s pages.
It’s also crucial to review your scheduled content when events of national or local importance occur. Being sensitive to an event or tragedy is more important than the scheduled tweet, post, or pin being released on your platforms. So, when something unfortunate happens, be sure to review what content you have scheduled and ask yourself if the timing of the message is still O.K., or whether it can wait a day or two while the community rebounds.
Social media can be time-consuming both personally and professionally. But by including helpful third-party tools in your strategy, you can spend more time at the front counter with your customers and less time in front of your computer or smartphone.
