Social Media Blog Hop Week 3: Scheduling Posts

The two ways I schedule posts to social media are with a WordPress plugin called Social Time Master (to share blog posts) and with Hootsuite (to share basically everything except personal blog posts). You’ll want to check out Hootsuite’s resource area to learn how to use it most effectively.

Scheduling posts is something I resisted for a long time. I don’t like to see my Facebook or Twitter feed full of repetitive messages and neither does anyone else. However, life is busy and scheduling posts does save time. So how do we take advantage of the time saving tools, but also keep our posts interesting and helpful?

Scheduling posts on Hootsuite

Here are some ideas I keep in mind when scheduling posts:

1. The 80/20 Rule – We all know what it’s like to be around people who always talk about themselves … boring at best, annoying at worst. I use eighty percent of my posts to share helpful links (from others), quotes, retweet, and comment on other people’s posts. The other twenty percent of posts I use to share my own links, advertise my products, and share my work.
2. Social Media is about building relationships, not making sales –  Social media should be about building relationships, about the other people we interact with, not about ourselves. When we build relationships, sales will follow because people will trust us.
3. Repeating the same message over and over chases people away – How many of us enjoy being around a whiny child? Repeating the same message over and over is just as annoying – a great way to lose followers. It’s okay to share the same link repetitively, but the angle and information shared in the post should vary.
4. Post when your audience is most likely to see the message – When we pay attention to our audience, we don’t waste time doing things that are ineffective. For general guidelines, check out the information shared by Social Media Today. One or two posts during high traffic times may be more effective than ten posts when our audience is offline or preoccupied. Sometimes it takes trial and error to figure out when our personal audience is listening, but it will save time and effort in the long run.

I’m still working on my scheduling strategy. In my ideal world I would schedule posts once a week. In my real world my schedule is not predictable and I end up scheduling when I have something important to share.

Do you use an app or software to schedule posts? Share your strategy and tips with us!

Want to learn more about Twitter? My new book, Learn Twitter: 10 Beginning Steps is available for pre-order on Amazon. (April 27th – Read a Story Day – is my official launch date.)

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