Once you’ve chosen your social media platforms and you’ve thought about content to fill them, the next challenge is finding the time to post. Business life is busy enough already without worrying about social media, so read on for our top tips for scheduling your posts and our free social media planner for small businesses.
Timing is everything
The best time to post on social media is different for every business. If you aren’t sure when your customers are active, knowing the most popular posting times on social media can give you a good starting point until you can measure which posts are performing better.
The best time for you to post your content will vary based on the demographic of your audience and your sector.
For example, if you are a sandwich bar open for lunch, between 11am and 2pm may be your best times for posting, while a takeaway will find evenings work much better.
Think about your customers and what time they may be actively looking for your services. Do you sell to businesses? There’s a good chance between 9am and 6pm will help your content be seen.
Top tip
Check your analytics to see when your followers are most active and post during these times.
Scheduling content
There are a number of platforms available for scheduling content to social media, all with different features and benefits.
For example, Tweetdeck is a popular free option for scheduling tweets and easily replying to direct messages from customers all in one place. You can also set up custom columns to monitor keywords, hashtags, industry leaders and your competitors at a glance. This is handy if you’re struggling for content ideas.
Want to learn more about Tweetdeck?
We covered the platform in our webinar How to use Twitter Lists to find new customers and maintain relationships.
Try it on for size
Scheduling platforms vary greatly in what they can do and offer for a business, and every platform has different features and focuses and it may take you a few attempts to find a platform that is the best fit for you and your business.
Many platforms offer free versions or free trial periods, so take advantage of these to find out which platform fits your business the best. Free trials range between 7 – 30 days, so be prepared to get to grips with the system as soon as you sign up to maximise your free trial.
Before you start a trial be clear:
- What social platforms do you currently use or plan to start using?
- Do you want to just post content or measure how you content performs as well?
- Do you want to monitor follower engagement and feedback or just schedule posts?
- Are the answers to the above likely to change in the next 12 months?
Knowing what you are looking for in a platform will allow you to make a considered decision on which the best option for you is.
Curating content
Finally, we come onto curated content. This is basically sharing content from third-party sources, and it’s a great way to grow your page’s reach and engagement levels. Tools like Feedly can help you to find relevant content to share.
Connect with and like pages that create share-worthy content which are in line with your ethos and help build up your brand’s message further.