It’s coming to that time of year when there are distractions every which way you turn
Holiday Season is kicking in, staff are out of the office, the sunshine out of the window is distracting
And yet marketing never sleeps
Yes – marketing never sleeps
You can’t simply take a few months sabbatical from Social Media activity and hope that the break doesn’t have an effect on your bottom line
Social Media puts you at the front of people’s minds and therefore at the tip of tongue
It’s at times like this when dreams of automation and scheduling creep in and with that in mind here’s a look at the Pros and Cons of Social Media Scheduling
PROS
TIME SAVING
Scheduling elements of your social media saves you massive amounts of time
Our brains are being rewired with the constant distractions of notifications so the idea of time blocking your social media activity is a wise one
There are tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweetdeck, Social Bro, Social Jukebox which mean you can schedule your updates at the beginning of the day or week and simply let your updates go out at pre-allotted times
Scheduling is something we do for ourselves and clients as you shouldn’t be permanently chained to your device because of the social media shackles
Social Media should be an enhancement to your business, not a distraction from your business
CONSISTENCY
Do you really think it’s acceptable for a brand to go silent when one member of staff is on holiday?
We live in a switched on world where customers consider social media be as important communication method as a telephone or email
Social Media should not stop because one person takes their annual leave
All business should have a contingency plan for social media and holidays and scheduling updates before going away and letting other staff handle real time communication is key for holiday cover
Bigger than that – it’s a huge risk to have just one person in an organisation with the social media skill sets. In our experience 9 of out 10 businesses where social media goes is inactive it’s where they’ve left social media to just
one person in the organisation and there is no back up plan
ENHANCED CREATIVITY
The very idea of scheduling your updates one after each other on a dashboard means it’s highlights when you’re repeating yourself
Scheduling your social media is in fact a great creativity hack
Having that time out where your only focus is producing great content enhances those creative juices
Planning, Creating and Optimising content are all massive benefits of scheduling and actually thinking about your social media plan
Repeating yourself is so easy to do when you’re squeezing your social media updates ad-hoc to 2 minutes between other tasks
CONS
AUTHENTICITY
It’s not exactly authentic to schedule every social media update is it?
That isn’t what social media was designed for
Social Media was designed to be living, breathing and of the moment
You should be posting on Social Media in the same way you have conversations – you don’t automate conversations
REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE
Social Media is just a technological layer on what is happening in real life
You have no control over world events and when you schedule social media updates you have to be acutely aware of what is happening in real time
Let’s say, heaven forbid, a tragic world event happens such as a terrorist attack and it’s all the world is talking about on social media … expect your business that has scheduled an update asking “Is everyone having a fantastic day?”
It’s happened time and time again and the wider public doesn’t realise businesses schedule their social media updates
THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY
We’ve talked a lot about the scheduling side of automation so far which can beneficial
Then there’s the downright ugly
The auto DMs on twitter, the clunky Facebook chat bots, the updates on how many twitter followers you have gained or lost each week, the paper.li bots
There are some things you just don’t do on Social Media and these are the ugly sides of automation
SO WHAT IS THE RIGHT BALANCE?
It’s OK to schedule on Social Media as long as you
A) Remember What You Have Scheduled
B) Listen on social for real time events
C) Engage with people more than you schedule updates
Ideally if you’re scheduling social media updates at least 2/3rd of your updates should be done in real time and you should be spending the bulk of your time engaging
Social Media Scheduling should be used to free up time to produce better content and to engage with your audience
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?
Chat to about Social Media Marketing for YOUR business so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your business
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
Or
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
