Schedule Social Media Posts: Pros And Cons

Planning goes a long way. And it goes without saying that keeping your online content relevant is a massive part of cultivating and growing an audience. However, what about scheduling content? There are clear pros and cons when you schedule social media posts.

Let's explore this key facet of good social media marketing and management.

What Is Social Media Post Scheduling?

Social media post scheduling is when you set up a consistent, automated posting schedule to publish content. It could be Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other social medium of your choice. In short, it's a solid content marketing strategy.

Want to post your blogs on Tuesday mornings at 8:00 AM PST? This feature of many social media platforms allows you to schedule posts for optimal viewing.

Scheduling social media posts seems like a no-brainer for businesses and digital marketers. But is it a perfect strategy for everyone? Let's find out by checking out some pros and cons.

Social Media Post Schedule Pros

So what's so good about scheduling your content across all platforms? Here are a few benefits.

Set And Forget

Spent a long time crafting a post advertising a blog page for your e-commerce startup but can't settle on a time or format? It's time to ditch that stress and use scheduling to your advantage.

You can schedule content for distribution beforehand across multiple channels to post when you want. Instead of worrying about the perfect picture to use and what time to post, you've already got it figured out.

In short, when you schedule social media posts, you keep a passive yet direct hold on your content.

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Making It Easy To Organize

Creating a consistent content schedule allows you to track your online presence more easily. Developing a plan helps you see how often you post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. As such, spreading your presence equally across all platforms makes things much more manageable.

Seeing The Bigger Picture

When you zoom out and schedule posts for the week, you can better analyze your content. Do you sound repetitive in a few posts?

Having a bird's eye view of content allows you to diversify your posts to offer something new and exciting to users on all platforms.

Having the foresight to schedule in advance can prevent you from making easy mistakes, like using similar or exact photos for different posts.

Also, consider the hashtags and calls to action in your captions. Are they the same or nearly the same? When you schedule out content, you can see all of your social media copy.

Social Media Post Schedule Cons

Although, for some, scheduling just makes sense, there are some pitfalls that, if you're not careful, can mean putting you in a tough spot.

Set And Forget

Wait, wasn't putting it out of your mind one of the social media posting pros?

If you're not careful, customers may forget about your account. When it has been too long between posts, you quickly drop off the radar. Make sure you and your team create content, craft a solid schedule to post, and follow up on those posts.

With an inactive account, there's no engagement, which is a catastrophe for a small business or brand.

Time Is Everything

Although a good schedule saves you time, in the long run, it still takes time to set a schedule in the first place. It can take a few hours of your time to work on a viable social media calendar for you and your team. If you need that time to plan something new for your business, a social media calendar might not be a priority right now.

If you have someone willing and able to craft a tweet schedule or story post, it can be a huge boon to small businesses.

Instagram Reels

Reels on Instagram are gaining a lot of traction. These vertical, short videos are bite-sized versions of your content. You can quickly deliver a message in an easy, fun way. However, you can't schedule an Instagram reel on the site.

So, if you want to hop on this popular Instagram trend, you'll often need to post manually. It's because you can't attach Instagram sounds to various scheduling apps.

When Should I Schedule A Social Media Post?

Starting to schedule your posts is an excellent step in the right direction for many businesses and brands. It's an easy way to build brand awareness with just some minimal planning on your part.

However, when is the best time to post on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn? It depends on the different platforms, but they're luckily not too different.

Here's a breakdown of good post times:

• Twitter: 8 AM on Monday and Thursday
• Facebook: 8 AM to 12 noon on Tuesday and Thursday
• LinkedIn: 9 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday
• Instagram: 11 AM on Wednesday

Familiarizing yourself with these various schedules is perfect for consistently posting content for customers and clientele.

However, are all of your customers online, specifically checking Twitter at 8 AM? Probably not. As such, we recommend doing some much-needed market research.

Who's your audience? What are their routines? Are they at work on their lunch break when you post on Facebook? Or are they mostly night owls who scour Instagram for great content? Keep these hypotheticals in mind when you're fine-tuning your social media posts.

But how do you make the most of these prime social media times? Luckily, there are some solid free options for all your social media needs.

Social Media Post Scheduling Tools

Now that the pros and cons of social media schedules are out of the way, it's time to explore how to schedule your posts. Tools everywhere will help you share your unique content with your audience.

Here are a few tools that help you create a social media content calendar.

Sprout Social

This social media tool helps you effortlessly schedule posts across multiple networks and platforms. Need to post something to Facebook and Pinterest? Sprout Social offers that.

Working with your social media team is also much easier within Sprout Social. You don't need to go it alone when scheduling and posting content, as many people can collaborate and input their ideas.

Plus, after you publish content, Sprout Social monitors all the important metrics for you to observe. It allows you to see what works, what doesn't, and what you could do better. Need to analyze the minutiae? You can seemingly do it all with this social media tool.

Tweetdeck

Exclusive to Twitter, this free social media makes posting good tweets much more straightforward.

If you're also looking for a more seamless, no-nonsense Twitter experience, Tweetdeck provides a streamlined interface and tweet scheduling.

It's a totally easy and free option to test the waters of social media marketing.

Post Planner

Remember the best times to post content for each social media platform and network? Post planner helps you capitalize on those time frames.

This tool helps you curate your content by analyzing your audience, their online presence, and even the hashtags you use.

Plus, what's a good social media planner without good analytics and metrics to measure after publishing something to your social media account?

The Verdict: Should I Schedule Social Media Posts?

In the end, social media post scheduling on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms is crucial. It provides your brand with a consistent face and a reliable schedule to share what you're creating. It also depends on the size of your business. Are you a one-person business? You might not have to lean on social media scheduling just yet. But if you're a large company with multiple employees? It's a good idea to get planning!

If you choose to schedule social media content, Just remember some of the drawbacks and how they can affect your business! If you create a consistent schedule, remember to engage with your audience. Using these social media tools, your company has a better chance to succeed on social media.

Have any questions about social media marketing? Need a digital marketing consultation for your business? Get in touch with us and start growing your brand!

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