Step 3: Schedule Your Engagements

This week, we are exploring the five steps to building a social media strategic plan. Step 1 is to identify your target audience. Step 2 is to match your target audience segments with the appropriate social media platforms. Today, we discuss the next step… schedule your engagements.

Like planning your wedding engagement, planning your social media engagements takes a lot of thought and research. What does this mean? You need to look at your clientele, the social platform, your staffing availability, and your level of commitment to social media. Then come up with a calendar of posts.

Here are some simple tips…

1. Start with one social media platform and work with each one individually. For example, Facebook. Then determine how many times you want to post something on that platform. Are you a once a day poster or would like to post more or less frequently than that. What time will your posting reach the most of your target audience? Schedule each engagement according to those variable.
2. Research post time. There is a lot of data out there on the best to reach specific markets. Do your research and see what other people are having success with. Look at the posts of other companies trying to reach the same market. When are they getting the most responses to their posts. Use that to determine your most efficient post time.  We covered this topic earlier this year, check our blog posting on the best time to post.
3. Try posting at different times and see where you get the most response. Post at different times during the day and week and see when you get the best response from your followers. Try early or late work hours, lunch time and evening hours. Use these trials to determine your optimal post time.
4. Make a calendar. In early October, we wrote a blog on the importance of building a social media calendar.  Read it here. It is critical that you calendar your posting and follow that calendar. Search engines love regular content and will increase your position based on the consistency of your postings.
5. Follow your schedule. Building a schedule is critical. But more critical is following it. It will help your SEO, build your social media following and make your online presence more valuable to prospective customers.

One of the most commonly made mistakes is not schedule social engagements and not following those schedules. I cannot over-emphasis the importance of this step. Don’t be afraid of the best posting times, there are several tools that can help you schedule engagements when you are not there to do it manually.