One of the most challenging aspects of owning a pet is the question of what to do with them when you take a vacation. Do you send them to the kennel? Do you feed your little pooch some sedatives and bring them with?
The best-case scenario is that a friend or family member can watch your beloved Frisky during the duration of your absence. When you return, your pet will be happy and healthy without the stress of a kennel or of traveling to an unfamiliar location.
Think of social media scheduling tools like that friend willing to watch and maintain your pet during an absence. Most marketers use scheduling tools in some way, and the development of ways to plan and set your social media posts to launch at a certain time is a lifesaver for those trying to run a social media account on their own or even for teams with plenty to manage. Scheduling your updates will save you time, energy, and the stress of struggling to keep up with your digital platforms.
Scheduling is an art, however, and it’s a little bit more complex than posting a photo every day at noon. There are a variety of tools that can help manage your accounts, but users must remember to utilize the really wonderful nature of social media: the ability to post minute-to-minute updates in real time for your user. Pages that are overscheduled look like it, and customers who enjoy following real people and real voices will become disenchanted.
For example, some of the most horrendous social media mistakes have occurred when scheduled posts aren’t quite up to speed on what is happening in the real world, and their social media managers don’t react or cancel a post that may be offensive. For example, on the day of the Boston Marathon Massacre, Epicurious ran their scheduled Tweet reading “In honor of Boston and New England, may we suggest: whole-grain cranberry scones!” Not only was this less than tactful, anyone who knew what was happening was completely offended. This happened with multiple brands.
As soon as you hear of a tragedy or any other momentous event, be sure to check your scheduled posts and ads and find out how other brands are reacting to the same situation. There’s nothing more painful than a tweet completely unrelated to something that you should be reacting to.
If you like to plan in advance, scheduling can be helpful to create a calendar of what’s coming up on your platforms. There are plenty of tools to help with this, such as Everypost, Tweepi, and more. Hootsuite and Sprout are a fantastic way to schedule, plan, adjust, and keep your social media in one connected place.
If you have questions about how social media scheduling works or how your brand could be utilizing it, be sure to reach out on Twitter or in the comments section! We’d love to help.
Reprinted by permission.
Image Credit: CC by Dafne Cholet
