10 Practical Social Media Scheduling Tips For Stress-free Campaigns

Imagine that marketer who has to navigate all the main social media channels, publish content, and interact with followers.

These tasks can spiral into a time drain and prevent the marketer from performing other profitable marketing tasks.

You don’t want to be that marketer.

And one effective way to save time while improving your social media performance is social media scheduling.

But how can you schedule social media posts to get the best results?

In this guide, I’ll show you 10 social media scheduling tips to keep in mind for your campaigns.  

1. Discover the best posting time 

Years ago, you could publish posts on social media platforms, and you’ll continue to attract engagement for hours and even days.

However, that has changed.

With social media networks looking to boost advertisement revenues, engagement is now a scarce commodity. That’s why you need to schedule your posts at the right time to reach your audience.

What’s the right time to publish your posts on social media?

Put simply, when your audience is present on the social media network. 

So if you’re just starting with scheduling, you can look at some studies about the best time to post on each social media network. 

For instance, a CoSchedule study revealed that the best times to post on social media are 7:00 pm, 3:15 pm, and 8:41 am in your target audience’s time zone. 9 and 12 am from Monday to Wednesday. You can visit that page to see the breakdown for each social media channel.

With a simple search, you’ll find even more studies about the best time to post on social media.

However, no two studies recommend the same time on a social media network. This shows that no study result can perfectly predict the right time for every brand.

So, I wouldn’t take a study as gospel. Over time, you’ll have to watch your audience and find the time that works best for them on each platform.

For Instagram, you can check on the “Insights” page. Go to the top corner of your profile page and click on the menu. Then click on “Insights” and the “Audience” bar.

Here, you’ll see the top locations of your followers and their most active times.

If you’re looking for the best time on Facebook, you’ll find it on Facebook Analytics. Just navigate to the Posts section of your Insights page. You’ll see when your fans are most active online.

Another indicator to look at is the past performance of your posts. Which posts have the highest levels of engagement? At what time were they published?

Apart from these, social media management tools like Sendible and ContentStudio suggest the best time to schedule your posts.

When you schedule your posts at the right time, one common result is a high level of initial engagement. And in return, social media platforms will show them to more users.

For instance, you could get featured on the Instagram Explore page. Likewise, Facebook can show your post to more page followers.

2. Find the best posting frequency 

Post too little, and your audience may forget you exist.

But if you post too much? You can also annoy them.

You have to find a balance to stay on your audience’s mind.

So what’s the best posting frequency? It depends on the social media platform and your audience. For instance, while posting once daily may be okay on LinkedIn, it is insufficient on Twitter.

HubSpot published a study that explains the frequency that works best for different social media networks. The summary is that you should post many times on Twitter daily, fewer on Instagram, and fewer still on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can check the study for more details.

Moreso, you can track engagement on your posts for different frequencies to find the best frequency for each social media platform. Once you do this, you can schedule your social media posts accordingly.

After finding the right posting frequency for your social media accounts, it’s vital to post consistently. Over time, your audience will know when to expect your posts.

In addition, never sacrifice quality for quantity. Because if your audience gets no value from your post, why would they engage with it?

3. Use the right tool 

Since you can’t schedule posts manually, the social media scheduling tool you use becomes vital. This tool will provide features to help you get the best out of social media.

For instance, you can schedule posts on multiple social media channels at once. Then, you can interact with your audience right inside this tool.

That said, there are tens, if not hundreds, of tools you’ll find today.

So, you need to consider critical factors to pick the right social media management tool. While there are some uninspiring choices, there are tools that will meet most of your scheduling needs.

There are too many to fit into this post, so I’ll just mention 3 of them. 

ContentStudio

ContentStudio lets you enter your text, images, and hashtags for your posts. You also get the AI caption writer that assists in writing captions.

With content curation, ContentStudio lets you add web links to your posts. If you work with a team, you can send social media posts for approval before publishing them.

You can read my ContentStudio review for more information about this tool.

Pallyy

Pallyy is a great tool for freelancers and solopreneurs. You can insert your text, images, and hashtags into your social posts and customize them for multiple social networks.

You also get the AI caption writer for different social channels and tones. Pallyy shows your post previews before publishing.

Pallyy also offers a link in bio page to drive traffic from Instagram to your business pages. You can also send posts for approval or leave feedback for team members in the scheduler. You can read my Pallyy review for more details.

Later

Later is a great social media management tool for content creators. You can add text, add media, edit media, or use AI captions in your post builder.

You also have different ways to get media files for your posts. So, you can collect user-generated content from your audience to feature on your profile.

Later also offers a link in bio page to sell products on Instagram and TikTok. Read my Later review for more information about it.

4. Don’t schedule too far into the future 

On the internet and in most businesses, things can change quickly. That’s why it’s better to schedule posts for only a short period.

Usually, scheduling posts for 2 weeks or a month is the sweet spot. Your posts can stay relevant and fresh for your audience during this period.

Furthermore, you can create different types of content according to your short-term social media goals. If you schedule your posts too far into the future, say 3 or 6 months, you might have to edit them as your business, and audience mood may differ in 3 or 6 months.

However, there are some exceptions to this. If you have some evergreen content pieces like blog posts or industry quotes, then scheduling them for 2 or 3 months is fine.

Apart from these, it’s generally better to schedule your posts for a short period. 

5. Post different content types 

While you want to maintain your brand voice in your social media posts, you need to avoid publishing the same content type.

Otherwise, you’ll bore your followers quickly.

The key here is to ensure that while promoting your business, you’re also providing value to your audience. There are two common formulas you can use while scheduling your content on a queue.

• The 80/20 formula: the 80/20 rule is common in various aspects of life. However, it has a different meaning here. It means 80% of your content should be educational or informative while 20% will be promotional.
• The 5-3-1 formula: here, you can schedule 5 curated posts, 3 educational posts from your brand, and a promotional post. Of course, you have to mix them up so that they don’t look too obvious.

However, these formulas are not set in stone. Usually, the formula you settle on will depend on your social media goals, industry, and brand voice.

With time, you can track how users engage with different content types. By doing this, you can easily arrive at a unique formula for your brand. 

6. Create post variations 

So, you’ve just published an excellent piece of content on your website. Do you just share once and attract an army of visitors?

That would be great, just like if I won a lottery. I won’t hold my breath, though.

In essence, you have to share your content a few times to reach as many people as possible.

Unfortunately, sharing your content the same way can reduce its effectiveness. In light of this, while creating your schedule, you use your post headline, different headlines, quotes from the post, and other creative ways to attract a click-through.

Luckily, a tool like MeetEdgar can create variations automatically while adding your content to different dates. 

7. Schedule to multiple social channels 

Even with scheduling, you can still waste time if you want to schedule to different social media networks separately. Since some of your posts will appear on all your social media pages, why not schedule those posts once to all your accounts?

Of course, to pull this off, you need a social media scheduling tool that supports your preferred social media networks.

Luckily, some tools can even adjust your images to fit the resolution of each social media channel. In such a case, all you need is your content and a single image. The tool will take care of resizing the images, and you can schedule the posts once.

If you’re using Social Pilot or any other robust tool, you’ll find this feature while creating your schedule.

8. Use a social media scheduling template 

Sometimes, social media scheduling can look confusing. Especially if you’re just starting out.

How can you schedule your content the right way? If you’re short of time or energy to learn how to execute this task, then you’ll find scheduling templates useful.

By performing a simple search online, you’ll find many social media scheduling templates to create your schedule in a few minutes.

Over time, as you track your social media performance, it becomes easier to adjust this template to your unique needs. Here’s an example of a social media content calendar template from HubSpot:

By using this, you can start scheduling your posts right now. 

9. Adjust schedule to new information 

While you can schedule social media posts days or weeks ahead, you can’t predict what will happen in the future. Usually, there may be positive or negative events that should reflect in your social media posts.

In cases like that, you have to get on your scheduling tool and edit your future posts to reflect those events. Otherwise, it might look like your brand is out of touch with events affecting your customers and followers.

For instance, when COVID 19 began, many people lost their lives, and some lost their loved ones. So, if you already scheduled a post before COVID 19 that says, “Yay! Happy times! Grab your discount!” you have to edit it in light of the new events.

If you don’t do this, your audience can see your brand as insensitive and get angry at you rather than take up your offers.

From another angle, you should also react to positive events to take advantage of the upbeat mood.

With new events, it’s vital to edit your scheduled posts to either sympathize with your audience or promote timely products. 

10. Track past performance for scheduling

If you’ve been running social media campaigns, then your past performance should inform your schedule.

Because ultimately, your social media schedule should be personalized to what works for you and your audience.

What are your goals and the key performance indicators (KPIs) to track for your social media campaigns? Are you trying to increase engagement or capture more social media leads?

Some common KPIs you need to track to improve your social media schedule include:

• Posting time with the best engagement
• Posting time with best conversions
• Content type with the best engagement
• Content type with best conversions
• Content frequency with the best engagement
• Content frequency with best conversions

If you’re just starting out, you need to track these numbers to improve your social schedule for future campaigns.

Conclusion

Social media scheduling is a vital element of your social campaigns.

After all, it can save time, money, and increase your chances of achieving your social media goals.

But social media scheduling goes beyond just dumping posts into a tool for specific dates. You have to be strategic about it to get your intended results.

That’s why this post has provided these 10 vital tips to keep in mind when creating your schedule.

Are you just planning to create a social media schedule, or you already have one? Tell me your personal best social scheduling tip in the comments!

Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. This means that if you click a link and buy one of the products on this page, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you). I only recommend tools I use and/or believe will provide value to you.