Benefits of scheduling posts in advance
You can create your posts in advance
One of the key advantages of scheduling posts is that it allows you to get multiple posts scheduled in advance, avoiding the need for continually managing your social media account. Posting to social media can be time-consuming, and producing and scheduling your content in batches is one approach to save on the time required to maintain your social media presence.
Make sure that you have a schedule of posts ready in advance
As well as the time-saving component that comes from producing your content in batches is the fact that it ensures that you have a steady stream of material coming out of your social media account. You can, for example, ensure that you have several months of material set and ready to go.
Avoids the tendency to post back to back posts
Scheduling posts in advance also reduces a common frustration of many social media users of accounts not posting anything for many weeks, only to publish a stream of material back to back. Such sporadic posting can suddenly overwhelm your users. Scheduling these posts for points in the future helps avoid the tendency to suddenly overwhelm your followers with a sudden surge of messages.
Allows you to easily post on multiple social media platforms
Another advantage of most scheduling platforms is that they allow you to post across multiple social media platforms. Each social media platform has its own differences – the length of content, or the ideal image sizes. Scheduling platforms can highlight such differences, and convert your images to the appropriate sizes, reducing the effort required for you to make such adjustments.
Be aware of the limitations of scheduling posts
While there are many advantages of scheduling your social media posts, there are also limitations that are important to be aware of.
The environment may change - your posts may not be relevant or appropriate
One of the dangers of scheduling social media posts in advance is that the environment may change, and posts that seemed appropriate at the point that they are scheduled, no longer seem so appropriate when they actually go out.
You still need to monitor responses and replies
The other limitation to be aware of with scheduling is that there is still a need to monitor your social media accounts, and to respond to replies. A danger with scheduling posts in advance is that you forget about actively monitoring your account – there is a tendency to think that you can just forget about your accounts. But, while half of the task is taken care of, to build an engaged audience, it is also important to actively engage with your followers, and consider responding to any replies that you recieve.
Final thoughts: Scheduling is a great tool for your social media strategy
While there are some limitations associated with scheduling, there are many advantages to scheduling your social media posts. A key thing is to be aware of the potential issues – to make sure that you are still monitoring and responding to replies, and potentially canceling scheduled posts should there be a change that means the post is no longer appropriate.
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