The best way to schedule a week’s online content in one hit

Do you struggle to keep up with posting valuable, interesting, timely and targeted social media posts every day? Do you start with good intentions, then as business priorities change and work comes in, your efforts trail off? Worst of all, are you feeling burnt out by the pressure to  get content out there every day?

Better planning and blocking out scheduling time enables you to  schedule a week’s online content with ease. Being more consistent in when and where you interact online will increase your visibility and your ability to make connections.

Why should I schedule a week’s online content in one hit?

Plan in advance and you will:

• stick more closely to your goals as you focus on making your content work harder for you
• use themes and stories to move your target audience briskly along a sales path
• add greater value by putting time and effort into focusing on how each piece of content fits your bigger picture

When you have a documented strategy that lays out the why,who, where and what you want to achieve online, you can plan your every day content output to fit with and to promote that strategy.

Panic can set in with ad hoc posting and this approach can be very time-consuming and ultimately disheartening. You may get less engagement that you were hoping for.

With planned content you can set your course more proactively, as long as you don't set and forget it. Click To Tweet

Use some of your freed-up time to engage with your audience online and build relationships through your enhanced content.

OK. Where do I start?

1. Set aside a session each week and make sure you plan that into your week. When you do this matters less than you aim to cover a week in one hit. This week’s posts should fit into an overall annual or quarterly plan, but aiming for a week stops overwhelm.
2. Be clear on your goals. You might be raising brand awareness, looking for sales leads, making new connections for collaboration. Think about how each piece of content you schedule will support those goals.
3. Where do your audience hang out? Don’t try to be everywhere and for everyone online. Focus on areas that generate the most engagement for you to maximise your efforts. Balance your efforts between your own real estate such as your blog, and rented space on social media sites.
4. Know what content you have available already. If you blog on a regular basis, what posts do you have that can be re-shared over time? Continue to share content while it is still relevant. Remember to mix up how you introduce the content to avoid exact repetition.
5. Understand your different types of content and what proportion of each type of content you want to share each week. What evergreen content can you share? Are there seasonal themes you can feature that will offer more visibility? What is in the news that will appeal to your audience? Can you share something personal from behind the scenes off your business? Share anything that helps to build trust and recognition with your readership.
6. Establish the proportion of different types of content you wish to share over the week – include content curation of helpful relevant content to reduce the amount of original content you need to create while still maintaining visibility. Your mix might be might be 20% blog posts, 10% news, 60% curated content and 10% personal – experiment and see what works best for your audience.
7. What gaps do you have of content that you know your audience will love and respond to? Use an editorial calendar to track new ideas and plan over time to create this content.
8. Above all, wherever and whatever you post, stick to your brand values, be yourself and post authentic relevant content that will add real value to your specific audience.

How much should I post?

You should aim to get good coverage on your chosen networks by understanding when your audience is online and most responsive. There is no stock answer on when to tweet as it depends on your own audience, strategy and goals.

Plenty has been written generically about this. Many research studies have been shared to try and find the magic answer. You might try some of this advice as a starting point until you can confirm your own best times.

Coschedule’s recent summary research What 23 Studies Say About The Best Times To Post On Social Media has some great insights into best posting times if you are looking for more inspiration.

Understanding the lifetimes of different social media platforms will also help with your planning. A tweet has a lifecycle of only around 20 minutes, a Facebook post 90 minutes, while on LinkedIn a post can be visible for around two days. Twitter will stand more frequent recycling than some of the other platforms, and also demands that you post more frequently, whereas repetition for example on Instagram is not so effective.

And breathe…

Often working daily in your business can have the effect of you losing the bigger picture. Taking time each week to pause and consciously review this while you schedule a week’s online content in one hit will help your perspective. Perspective allows you to asses your progress. You should start to see better engagement, reduce stress levels and blank mind moments. Enjoy the time you can now spend on building relationships rather than stressing over creating content on the fly.

If you need help in this area, there are lots of ways we can support you. Get in touch with us today at info@marketingondemand.co.uk and let’s explore what services we can offer you.