Scheduling Social Media Content | Colortech, Inc. Creative Solutions

Beginning to develop a social media strategy and executing it doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it seems. One of the easiest ways to start is by creating a brand identity through social media. First, choose the platforms you wish to post on and define your goals and objectives. Next comes the daunting task of a) creating the content and b) remembering to post it. Luckily, there are steps you can take to alleviate this process, and they all start with making your posts ahead of time. Using a platform such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social is a great way of scheduling social media content.

Colortech’s creative team uses Hootsuite to schedule our social media posts on Facebook and LinkedIn. Starting around September, we plan our content for the following year by writing the posts and then designing accompanying graphics. By organizing our social media strategy in advance, this saves us a considerable amount of time throughout the year. We especially prioritize scheduling social media posts like special days of the year, holidays, and big events. For example, we set up posts to go out on our 45th anniversary this past February.

Below is an example of how we create a post before scheduling it for a later time. Our Hootsuite is connected to both Colortech and Blue Cardinal Photography’s social media. As a result, we need to select the correct accounts for the post to go out on. We’ll then add the pre-written post caption and the graphic. Finally, in the bottom right corner, we choose when we want the post to go out. A neat feature Hootsuite offers is that the platform will study what days of the week and what times your posts gain the most traction. With that, we’ll adjust the time the post will go live based on these conditions. After all, we want to be sure our posts are viewed by as wide of an audience as possible!

Screenshot of what scheduling a social media post looks like on Hootsuite.

Of course, we can still create content in real time and post it right away. However, having this tool allows us to focus more on what is happening in the present. We don’t need to worry about some of the everyday events that happen every year. In other words, we can post about a current campaign as it’s happening, but we’ve already taken care of the “everyday” posts that everyone expects.

Here’s just a few more examples of why this tool works so well for us. Take a look at the calendar below. This lists every post going out on all of our platforms one week at a time (across accounts as well). You can also view these posts in list form or see a whole month’s of posts in a traditional calendar format.

Screenshot of how Colortech lays out scheduled social media posts for a week's time on Hootsuite.

We call this, simply, a social media calendar. This works as a planner that organizes our social media posts by the social platform, date, and time they are scheduled. Through this method, we can view our social media publishing schedule and make any edits to these posts as needed. While managing multiple social media channels can be a challenge, seeing them all laid out makes it much easier. Staying organized is essential when putting together a social media or marketing strategy. Hootsuite does it all and more.

Finally, we enjoy using Hootsuite for the ability to create higher quality content. By planning our posts in advance, we have a much longer time period to check typos or mistakes. We’re also able to ensure everything is on-brand and appropriate for all viewing parties. When scheduling social media, we’re able to create content with much more intention and thought than if we were to make posts up on the spot.

We highly recommend using a tool like this one for your own business, if nothing else other than organization! For any questions or inquiries on how we can create a social media strategy for your business, please contact our art director at graphics@colortechinc.com.