If your council has not yet embraced the scheduling of social media posts, there is no better time to start than now. This is because over the coming weeks there are many events and festivals coming up.
Most people don’t want to manually send out a post on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve. There is a simple solution … schedule your posts.
Like it or loath it social media has become a central part of our lives and the way we communicate.
Scheduling posts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn has gone from a mere convenience to a critical aspect of successful social media strategy.
Most local councils have a presence on Facebook. If that’s the case, you might want to become familiar with the ‘planner tool’ in the Meta Business Suite. Please visit Council Hive to find out more about how it could help you.
Regardless of the platform its important to keep the following in mind:
1. Have a plan. Create a content plan for the next few months to make sure you don’t miss something. This doesn’t have to be anything more complicated than the month with important events and dates highlighted.
2. Consistency is key. One of the fundamental principles of social media success is maintaining a consistent presence. By scheduling posts, you ensure that your content appears regularly in followers' feeds.
3. Reaching your audience. Tools such as the Meta Business Suite can help you to identify the times of day when your audience (the people who follow your Page) most active and engaged. Using this data, you can time your posts for maximum impact. Posting during peak engagement hours can significantly boost your content's visibility and reach. This is unlikely in most cases to match your office hours.
4. Keep an eye on what is happening in the world. Scheduling posts in advance takes the pressure off having to post things in real-time. However, you will still need to keep an eye on things. You don’t want to be accidentally posting about a community event taking place on the same day that extreme weather conditions are forecast.
5. Plan in time to proof and perfect. Scheduling posts gives you the opportunity to review and refine things before they go live. You can make sure your council’s posts are error-free, properly formatted, and contain the right visuals, hashtags, and keywords. This results in higher-quality content that's more likely to be looked at.
6. Communications is a two-way street. Scheduling posts doesn't mean you can forget about your Page entirely. Make sure you are still picking up on comments, responding to questions and keeping up with events.
Visit Council Hive to find out more about scheduling posts and making your council’s social media more effective.