Written by: Kimberly Viera, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
What do you do when it’s time to post on social media? Most small business owners don’t have a clue. They have heard they must be on social platforms, that their audience is there waiting to hear from them, but… waiting to hear what? What should you say to them? How do you get started?
If you really want to do well on social media, no matter which one you choose, you need to create a plan and posting schedule. This will remove any uncertainty and doubt. Your calendar will tell you exactly what to post and when.
Beyond helping you get started, creating and maintaining a social media schedule offers a number of other benefits:
With a plan and schedule, you’ll steadily work towards achieving your social media goals and get results
By monitoring your activity, you’ll learn the best times to engage with your audience
Your schedule will help you post consistently, which is essential for social media marketing success
Social media is truly an excellent place to grow your audience and get to know them, but it can’t be done in a haphazard way. You need a targeted strategy to achieve tangible results.
Clarify your goals and identify your audience
Initially, the purpose of setting up a social media schedule is to create a roadmap that will help you get a handle on content development and posting. Once you start using your plan and measuring your results, you’ll be able to refine it so that it’s even more effective.
Start by clarifying your goals
What do you want to achieve with your social media activity?
You may want to:
Grow your audience
Build relationships
Establish your reputation
Get feedback on your products
Boost sales using your social media channels
Picture where you want to be in a few months and how social media will get you there. This will help you clarify how to interact with your audience and what type of content to post.
Next, clearly define your audience
You need to know as much as possible about them. Get familiar with their favorite social media platforms, their preferred content, and the problems they face.
You should be creating and sharing content that’s interesting for your audience. It should add value, no matter what your goal is. This is what gets your audience to engage with it. So, it’s important to take some time and identify your audience and its needs.
Set up your social media schedule
Use your research to get an idea of which social sites your customers are active on and what they do there. Focus on one social site at first and post on it regularly.
How often should you post?
Each platform has its own guidelines for posting frequency so take a look at what the most active people in your market do.
For example, it’s recommended that you post on Twitter and Pinterest multiple times a day. For Facebook and Instagram, post once or twice daily. You can limit posting on LinkedIn to once or twice a week, creating longer, more in-depth content.
Posting more frequently usually delivers positive results, but not always so learn about the platform you are going to be focusing on. Remember that quality is as important as quantity. Don’t post so much that your content suffers as a result.
Also, keep in mind your own time restraints and ability to develop content. How many posts can you reasonably produce per day?
When should you post?
For each site and target audience, there is an optimal time to post. You’ll have to discover these peak times, but they’re usually evenings, weekends, and when people are off work and scrolling through their feeds.
If you are on more than one site, save time by scheduling posts across multiple social networks using management platforms like SocialBee, Tweetdeck, Buffer, Sprout Social, MeetEdgar, Hootsuite, PostPlanner, and ContentCal.
What content should you post?
Most of your content should be informational and helpful, limiting promotional posts to about 20% of your total content. Followers want content that helps them solve a problem or teaches them something valuable.
But, you are also a business. You have something to sell that can change your audience’s life and help them solve their problems. Let them know about it.
If you sell one thing, such as a coaching program, then post to let your followers know about your discovery calls, a special offer you have, a free webinar you are running, a discount code, a “bring a friend” offer, etc. All your content should answer your ideal client’s questions and create trust. Everything you post should lead naturally to your program.
If you have multiple products, courses, or offers try picking one to promote each month. Then the content you create for that month (social posts, articles, emails you send out, and the offers you make) will all center around that particular product, program, or offer.
You can increase your posting capacity by creating a mix of original content, shared content, and quick-and-easy content like visuals or quotes. You can also repurpose existing content from blog posts, emails, or other marketing pieces.
Content can include:
Articles
Links to articles or blog posts you have published elsewhere
Answers to commonly asked questions
Questions for your audience to get them talking
Videos
Infographics
Pictures that take people behind the scenes in your business or industry
Quick tips
Motivational quotes
High value offers
Resources to help your audience with problems they’re facing
Monitor your results and make improvements
Once you’ve set up your social media schedule and are posting regularly, you can start collecting data. Monitor your social media activity and gather feedback, using this information to optimize your content. Make note of your most popular posts and the times of day when your audience is most receptive to your content.
In fact, you may want to post at different times as an experiment to see what works best. Keep in mind that social media content has a lifespan of anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the content and platform. Track your results and then refine your strategy.
Each platform has its own insight tool that monitors performance. But social media management tools, like Hootsuite or Buffer, provide comprehensive information across multiple platforms and also offer customized reports.
Now that you have the most important information you need for creating your social media plan, it’s time to make some decisions and map it out.
If you’re a coach, consultant, or health & wellness professional get our social media posts that are already done and ready to use. Head over here.
Kimberly Viera, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kimberly Viera is on a mission to help every woman become financially independent and gain control over her life by starting an online business. As the founder of JoinTheEveolution, she helps women build transformational coaching and wellness businesses that earn them a sustainable living within a year while giving them the time and lifestyle freedom they've been dreaming of. Stop Letting Things Happen. Start Making Them Happen. Join the Evolution.
