Why I Don't Believe in Scheduling Social Posts
I've talked about the anti-socialness of calendars before, but at the very heart of that subject is the scheduling of content on social platforms. To me, scheduling is the most ANTI-social thing you can do.
Before you protest, watch the video as I cover many of those concerns:
I know there are lots of great tools out there that help with managing of content and I know that they make the lives of social media managers everywhere so much easier, but I've just never felt good about using them.
Most people don't schedule their personal social content. They think of something and then they post it (immediately), they read something someone says and respond to it (immediately), or they find something they think is worth sharing and they share it (immediately). The whole set and forget plus 'community management' model (scheduled posts + using people who only do customer service type interactions on social) is incredibly sad. It's like you've just moved the customer service hotline over to Twitter and decided that's good enough.
It's not good enough. It's lazy and it's a terrible use of social platforms. And though scheduling posts is more of a symptom than a cause (the cause is being stuck in the Industrial Era way of thinking), it certainly contributes to the noise and takes us further and further away from using social in a way that could really benefit our customers and our relationships with them.
Even worse is that posts tend to be scheduled on third-party platforms that take us completely out of the interface our customers are interacting on. Metaphorically, it feels like we are posting from an ivory tower, looking down upon the little ants on all of the social platforms.
The only thing I ever 'schedule' is the launch of my video as it takes hours to edit, upload and render, so I'm usually posting it at 2am...not a great time for viewership. ;) So, I schedule it for Sunday afternoons, but the exact time is rarely consistent as I need to pay attention to what else is going on.
Once you stop scheduling, you force yourself to be more in-tune, more attentive, and more social. Consider manually posting - even if for a trial period - and tell me what changes for you (other than, yes, it takes more time).
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I've been working on this social stuff for over 16 years and I've been a participant in the social web since 1992. My videos will come out every SUNDAY...with 2-5 minute "lessons" on what are truly social practices (and what are NOT).
Full Stack Marketing Consultant and Coach | Emotional IQ Channel Producer
7 个月Schedulers do not allow you to interact before and after posts, which increase your reach. It is great as a supplemental, but you should always still interact & post directly from your account as well. It is also doesn't let you see if a hashtag you are using is even something used on the platform, nor does it let you tag businesses, just your follower accounts. Schedulers are just very limiting for platform SEO. Great post, many businesses rely on schedulers and ignore their account and wonder why their engagement never grows.
?? Keynote Speaker ?? Patient Advocate ??? Podcaster ??? Storyteller/Writer ?? Author of medical memoir Better Off Bald
7 年I think the proof is in the numbers (and depends on the brand). My Facebook & Twitter followers, as well as my liver cancer nonprofit Blue Faery's followers, have increased almost every week since we have scheduled most of our posts using MeetEdgar. Our scheduled posts tend to be evergreen, and we do schedule them according to when our followers are most active. For example, while I'm personally more available on weekends, our followers tend to be more engaged M-F during the early mornings or late afternoons. We need to cater to their preferred times. However, if I receive any comment on a post, I respond ASAP.
Executive Search Specialist - FinTech & Payments
8 年I totally agree with you Tara. I hate using social media tools and abhor scheduling. It looks lazy and usually steals away some of the branding, which is the whole point. Each platform should have it own voice, similar content but stated differently. Also, I am a "post it as you get it" person, too. Isn't that the whole point of a streaming message board, which is basically what social media is. Updates 'as it happens'. I believe in quality over quantity, as well. It's like when you get a resume and can immediately tell they used the Monster resume tool. lol. I used to have folks telling me how great Bullhorn Reach was but it would remove our lovely branding for their garish Bullhorn Logo. I felt an immediate loss of credibility. And why would I want to drive candidates to a Bullhorn job posting when I could drive them to my company's website? Occasionally, I will get a superior bringing a new social media tool to my attention and I cringe. I hate giving away even the tiniest bit of control over the look, feel, flavor, and tone of each post, on each platform.
Legal researcher and writer
8 年Agree Diana - most smaller brands in particular don't have the money to have someone on it full time. A balanced approach is reasonable.
Helping businesses align their technology products with customer expectations | GTM | Strategic Mindset | Storytelling | Design Thinking | Democratizing AI | form. Orange - France Telecom | North America - Europe
8 年I agree with the message you're sending Tara, that social and automation are two opposites. I do however recommend a mix of both approaches to some of my clients. Those that have many recurring events year-round. Automating these will cut them some slack and allow them to put in more quality time of crafting content that matters the most. Agree/disagree?