Don’t Waste Your Time Posting on Social Media Without a Schedule
Social Media Scheduling
Social media scheduling is as important as the post itself. Timing your daily social media posts builds your following and drives traffic to your website and blog. Without a social media schedule, you could be wasting your time.
Benefits of Having a Social Media Schedule
Holds you accountable for ensuring that posts are ready to go in a timely manner
Provides consistency throughout the week
Can be scheduled when your target market will likely be online
Ensures your special events, holidays and special events are posted in advance
What’s the Best and Worst Day and Time to Schedule Social Media Posts? People are active on social media at different times of the day. Knowing the best times to post helps you create a social media schedule that ensures a higher viewership and engagement. Activity also increases and decreases according to the social media network you’re posting on. According to a study by Fast Company, here’s the best and worst times to post on the top three social media networks.
Facebook – Between 1 pm and 4 pm resulted in the best click-through rates. Wednesdays at 3 pm averaged highest overall click through rates. The worst time to post on Facebook is Saturday before 8 am and after 8 pm. Posts with photos got 53% more likes and 104% more comments.
Twitter – The best times to post on Twitter, according to Fast Company’s research, is Monday through Thursday between 1 pm and 3 pm. Peak time on Twitter is Monday through Thursday between 9 am and 3 pm. The worst time is Monday through Thursday after 8 pm and Friday after 3 pm. Fun fact: Twitter posts with images garnered a 33% increase visitor-to-lead conversion rates with a 55% increase in leads.
LinkedIn – It makes sense that the best times to post on LinkedIn is Tuesday through Thursday at either noon or between 5 pm and 6 pm. The worst times are Monday through Friday between 9 am and 6 pm. Most posts are viewed via a mobile device.
SmartSheet offers a full range of social media resources including a Social Media Calendar template. Use their templates to create your own social media calendar.
(Social Media Planning Calendar Example)
Now that you see the importance of scheduling your social media posts, take a look at your calendar to see what important dates are coming up. These include holidays, a special event, open house or business milestone. Create content for each event as soon as possible. Schedule the posts according to the best times for the network you’ll be posting to.
After creating your content, make your social media scheduling even easier by using a social media hub like HootSuite to automatically schedule your posts in advance.
Read my previous social media post, “Simple Social Media Marketing in a Nutshell –
An Easy Strategy to Start Getting the Social Media Results You’re Looking For”.