HOW TO SCHEDULE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS IN JUST AN HOUR A WEEK
PROMOTING YOURSELF ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Imagine this you only have one hour a week to focus on promoting yourself on social media. So what do you do? Do you spend that hour scrolling on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook or do you schedule all your social media content for the week? I suggest doing the latter. By taking one hour a week and using a social media post template and scheduling your social media posts you can do just that.
THE BENEFITS
So what is the benefit of scheduling your social media posts? Scheduling your posts keeps you consistent. Many musicians go weeks or months without posting on social media. By dedicating the time to schedule your social media it keeps you from going those weeks or months without posting on social media. By being consistent with social media fans get to know you better. Once someone knows you they are more likely to stream your music, buy your album, or whatnot. By putting yourself out there on social media you can build a loyal fan base and maybe make a little money in the process.
Not only does scheduling your posts keep you consistent with social media it keeps you on brand. When scheduling your posts you are able to take time in crafting your message and look back at them and make sure they are in line with what you're wanting to tell the world. When writing your posts in the moment sometimes you can post impulsively which can come back to haunt you.
Another benefit of scheduling your social media posts is that it makes it easier to balance the types of content you are posting. There are two types of content: promotional and branding. Promotional content is content that promotes or sells something. Examples of promotional content are content that helps sell tickets to a show or promote your new music video. Branding content is content that help build a fan base. An example of branding content are quotes, questions, and posts that spark conversation.
Now that we know the benefits of scheduling social media posts we can now discuss the steps to take to create a post template which you will use to help you schedule your social media. A post template or a content calendar is a weekly schedule which lists the type of posts you post each day. A post template helps you diversify your content while engaging your audience.
CREATING THE POST TEMPLATE
CREATING THE POST TEMPLATE
The first step in creating a post template is to decide how many times a week are you going to post on social media and what platforms you are going to post on. Instagram and Twitter are the two main platforms that most musicians are focusing on currently. I recommend posting on Twitter at least once a day, posting on Instagram once a day, and Facebook a few times a week. With Facebook and Instagram, it’s all about quality over quantity. It is up to you on how many times a week you post however it may take more than an hour to schedule all of your posts if you post once a day on every platform.
The next step in creating a post template is to decide on what type of content to post. I suggest following the 80-20 marketing principle. Post branding content 80% of the time and promotional content 20% of the time. Here are some content ideas:
Selling Your Music
Selling Merch
Promoting Shows
Promoting your other social media
Asking your fans questions
Discussing pop culture
Talking about you and what you like
Quotes
Your pets
Behind the Scenes at the studio
Now the next step is to write down your post template/plan and then follow through with it. There are several different tools you can use to schedule your posts. In the beginning stages, it may be easiest to just use one scheduling platform like Hootsuite or Crowdfire. Some people, however, like to use multiple scheduling tools. Some use Tweetdeck (which is owned by Twitter), Buffer, Hootsuite, or Crowdfire among others to schedule their tweets. Some people use Later, Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule their Instagram posts. Some people use Facebook’s built-in scheduler while others use Hootsuite or some other platform. It is up to you your needs and your budget when deciding on a scheduling platform.
Now what will you do with that extra hour? Schedule your posts therefore helping you build a fanbase or scroll for an hour?
