Social media has helped a lot of businesses today. It is an effective tool to keep an active social presence with minimal effort. Facebook, being one of the most prominent social media, is widely used by small, medium, and large businesses to get people to listen to them. And one of the best ways to be active online and engage your audience is to post frequently and routinely.
Not posting regularly or unprepared posting means the waste of massive traffic. However, this can be avoided by scheduling posts. Scheduling a post on Facebook allows business owners to post messages including images and videos ahead of time.
It is particularly beneficial for busy marketers or business owners but unfortunately, many still underestimate the power of scheduling a post on Facebook. This article is mainly to instruct online marketers on how to schedule Facebook posts step by step.
Can You Schedule Facebook Posts?
This is a big question from business owners. Yes, just about anything can be scheduled on the internet today. For a website developer, blog posts can be scheduled.
For an email marketer, emails can be scheduled. So who says Facebook posts can't be scheduled?
The question should be "How can I schedule Facebook posts?" With the right app to schedule Facebook posts and the following steps, just anybody can schedule Facebook posts.
Why Schedule Facebook Posts?
Before delving into the steps to schedule Facebook posts, there is a need to first highlight the benefits of scheduling Facebook posts.
1. Save valuable time
Scheduling Facebook posts is time-saving. Instead of racking your brains on what your next post will look like, a Facebook scheduler helps to plan your post.
2. Increase productivity
Better engagement implies increased productivity. The Facebook scheduler provides a decent amount of time for you to research titles, images, videos, hashtags, and captions. This way, you invest less and get more – that's being productive.
3. Grow your audience-base
One of the biggest secrets of achieving success using social media is to post relevant posts frequently. This not only attracts traffic to your business, but it also increases your brand's visibility. Followers love consistency so scheduling your posts on Facebook will keep your followers updated in real-time, knowing when to expect new posts from your business.
4. Keep your followers engaged
When you post at the time your audiences are online, there's an increased tendency of getting more likes, shares, and comments. When someone visits your page, they instantly get convinced about what you posted because you took the time to be creative about the captions and hashtags.
4 Easy Steps to Schedule a Facebook Post
So how do I schedule a post on Facebook? Having listed the benefits, below are 4 steps to follow:
Step 1: Create a post
Log in to your Facebook business account, on the left column click "Publishing Tools". You will see the box where you can create a post. Create a beautiful post for your audience by adding text, images, or videos, captions, and hashtags.
Step 2: Select schedule
Now it's time to schedule the post you have created. Normally, after filling the post box, you will click on the "Publish" option. But since you want to schedule the post, simply click on to the drop-down button next to "Publish" and select "Schedule". That will take you to the next step.
Step 3: Select time and date
A window will pop up for you to select the time and date you want your post to be scheduled. Your choice will be dependent on your audience. It is a wise choice to post when your followers are most active.
Various analytic tools can be used to determine the perfect time to post on Facebook. And if you want to pick a random time to post, research has shown that people are most active on Facebook during the hours of 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. during weekdays.
Step 4: Click schedule
After creating your post and selecting a time and date, you may proceed to click the "Schedule" button at the bottom of the window. That's all; you've successfully scheduled your Facebook post.
If you preview your scheduled post and observe some errors, you can as well edit, delete, or reschedule the scheduled post entirely. How? Follow these steps below:
1: Click "Publishing Tools" at the top of your Page
2: Click "Scheduled Posts" in the left column
3: Click the post you want to edit
4: Click "Edit" to edit the post, or click the dropdown button to choose to publish, reschedule, or delete it.
5 Helpful Tips for Facebook Posts
1. Mind what you post
Only post relevant content that best suits what your brand or business offers. Avoid controversial posts at all costs.
2. Use analytic tools
Analytic tools will help you know what your audience likes and the kind of content they'll like, share, and comment.
3. Don't duplicate or post too many audiences
Avoid spamming your audience with too many or duplicate contents. This overwhelms your Facebook audience and you may eventually lose them with such act.
4. Take time when crafting your messages
The best contents are the most engaging. It took the content creator time and effort to come up with something valuable.
5. Post at the right time for optimal engagement
Don't post by 4 pm just because your friend posts by the same time as Facebook audiences vary so should the time for posting vary as well. Posting at the right time can attract traffic, boost engagement, and gain potential new followers to your page.
11 Best Posts Schedulers for Facebook Marketing
While scheduling posts with the Facebook platform is easy and straightforward, there are scheduling tools that can offer a better solution in this regard. With the best post schedulers for Facebook, marketers can operate their social accounts efficiently.
These tools come with intuitive features that can enable marketers to design, plan posts, bulk schedule multiple posts, and manage posts to deliver the best posts to your audience.
Below are the best post schedulers for Facebook marketing:
1. Buffer
2. Sprout Social
3. Agora Pulse
4. Promo Republic
5. Hootsuite
6. Social Oomph
7. Loomly
8. Meet Edgar
9. Sendible
10. Crowdfire
11. Later
Conclusion
Utilizing Facebook as a marketing tool is essential in promoting your business. Facebook is affordable and highly effective. Using the scheduling feature even makes your marketing efforts easier.
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