5 Things to Stop Doing When Scheduling Social Media Posts

Having a social media strategy is essential for pretty much any business operating today. But even a great strategy can be derailed if you aren’t properly executing your plan in a way that maximizes what social media can do for your business. Often we are being coached and taught to post at a certain date, time, and told to ensure we post frequently. But we forget the fine print – to post relevant content and listen to our audience. These may seem like not so important area of focus, but if you are doing any of the following things thinking that you will create more visibility and more influence…STOP!

Read below and take note, especially if SCHEDULING your posts is part of your social media strategy.

1. Posting TOO Often: If you are posting too often, it might be time to re-think that plan. Maybe you are creating more noise and not getting the attention that you and your message deserve. You want to assure the quality and value of your posts– that is much more important than posting something, anything, five times a day.
2. Posting the Same Content Over and Over Again: It is absolutely okay to post something a few times as not everybody is online or watching your feed at the same time. Sharing content multiple times can be a great strategy, on that we can agree, however there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. To stay away from too much repetition, space out and change things up a bit to make sure the content is a bit different on each of the platforms you are using.
3. Posting Content that is Irrelevant to Your Audience: Okay, now this one is huge for me! Don’t give your audience something unrelated, it dilutes, what your message and focus is about and really, leave that to someone else on the internet! Another quick tip – be sure not to post content from the same source all the time. Curate content in a way that keeps your audience curious and interested in what you’ll post next.
4. Disappearing: Your posts need to be consistent. I know we mentioned not to post too much, but you can’t swing too far in the other direction either. Posting sporadically or not at all for a few days or weeks defeats the purpose of using social media at all. You will never capture and engage an audience with spotty content and a low impact presence.
5. Being Inflexible with Scheduled Posts: Even though you may have scheduled several posts, you still need be to be aware of what is happening with your social media accounts. Be sure to delete or update your pre scheduled posts in case there is a change in sequence, news or events.

The invention of scheduling posts was a positive step for social media management but be warned that ‘over-automation’ can reduce your ability to engage, influence and impact your audience. Measure Marketing supports businesses in Milton, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington and Toronto, who want to build a social media strategy that delivers results for their business.  Contact us today to arrange your social media consultation.