How To Have A Social Media Presence Without Being Present?

Running a social media strategy as well as being a business owner will only lead to stress and sleepless nights.  But everyone is on social media, right? Even the Pope.

You need to strike the balance between informative and annoying. Studies show the optimal postings for the two most popular networking sites are:

Twitter: 3 posts, daily
Facebook: 5 posts, weekly

Doesn’t require a lot of effort, does it? But finding free time is any business owner’s challenge, so you need a method of having active accounts, without it taking hours and feeling like a chore. 

Welcome to scheduling. It’s a strange thought that people can tweet without actually being behind the screen at the time, but it’s a time-saving approach to social media marketing.

Having a consistent online presence is a necessary part of marketing, but you don’t want to be doing it every day.

So which schedule tool should you use?

TWITTER

1. Tweetdeck

https://web.tweetdeck.com/

For Tweetdeck newbies, this is your new best friend when it comes to developing your Twitter presence.

You don’t have to create an account; just sign in with your Twitter logins and you’re off - no email confirmation required. And it’s free! Music to everyone’s ears.

You can plan posts into the far future. Ideal for those who have a lot to say. A huge pro is that Tweetdeck’s layout looks similar to Twitter (probably because Twitter bought it in 2011).

At any time, you can log back in and amend scheduled tweets or delete them. This is a great idea if something you have scheduled is no longer accurate or relevant. You can keep track of when your posts are, too, if you log in often.

HOW TO USE IT

1. Visit https://web.tweetdeck.com

2. Sign in using your Twitter login details

3. Click ‘New Tweet’

- Select your account

- Type your tweet you want scheduling

- Click ‘Schedule Tweet’

- Select the relevant date and time

- Once you’ve proofread, click ‘Tweet at…’-

TIPS

- Don’t be confused by all the columns. The beauty of Tweetdeck is that you can see your direct messages, timeline, notifications and messages all on one screen. Delete all the columns apart from ‘Scheduled’ to tidy up your dashboard.

- Scroll to the right of the page, so you can just focus on the Scheduled column. Here you will see all the tweets you have planned for the future.

- If you have multiple accounts, you can add them all. You can even post the same content across all accounts easily, by selecting all the accounts.

- Don’t forget to add an image with your text, too. Just select the ‘Add Image’ option, before submitting the tweet.

- Once you become an expert, utilise all the columns by monitoring what your followers are retweeting and your notifications.

FACEBOOK

1. Facebook

www.facebook.com

Even avid social media users don’t know you can use Facebook to schedule posts and many are paying for services that do no different.

Using Facebook to schedule is free and you can prepare a post using the same process as posting normally. You can only automate on a page, not a personal account. Again, you can see your scheduled posts and amend or delete them at any time.

HOW TO USE IT

1. Sign into your Facebook page.

2. Type the post you want scheduling. Do not click ‘Post’.

3. Click on the clock symbol.

4. Select the date from the calendar and choose the time you want the post scheduling.

5. Click on ‘Schedule’ once you’re happy with your post.

TIPS

- With a 63,000 character limit, utilise this space with detailed posts.

- You can schedule up to 6 months ahead, so plan time-relevant posts, such as Christmas.

- Be consistent with your postings. Aim for at least 5 a week.

- Avoid newsworthy content, because for the date you’ve scheduled it, it will no longer be news.

- Select your times wisely. People are more likely to see your post at 7am, when they are waking up, than 9pm on a Friday night. Target locations will also play a part. 

It’s tempting to rush scheduling, but your followers will notice if you’ve just posted anything. Interesting posts about the industry, links to your service and entertaining posts will vary your content and make your account interesting.

Be wary of posting at the same time and day across your accounts, because you want to mix it up a bit.

Scheduling makes life easier, but don’t neglect your accounts. Regularly checking notifications and interacting with your followers will further improve your social media marketing.

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