11.29.16 51

How To Schedule Out Social Media

This time of year blogging gets REALLY busy. Brands and bloggers alike are in the final push for the holidays, so things can get hectic. I feel like everyday contracts, drafts, reviews, revisions, writing posts, and social media planning are my entire to do list. I do love it though! One of the things that tends to get tough is social media. I wanted to share today how to schedule out social media so you always have things posting and aren’t left scrambling.

how to schedule out social media

How To Schedule Out Social Media

Use your editorial calendar: I have talked at length about my love of editorial calendars. I also use editorial calendars for scheduling social media. I do not so much have a different calendar, but I may put something like “Instagram giveaway 12/17” or “Twitter campaign 11/7” to remind me when things need to post. I also use them to remind me for certain pushes. For instance “schedule back to school content”, “schedule holiday recipes”, etc. This is used to schedule other blogger’s tweets, Facebook posts, and pins to share the love. I can’t stress using your editorial calendar for social media enough. It will really help!

Figure out what works best: What I mean by this is what scheduling tools work best for you? I prefer Buffer, IFTTT, Planoly, Tailwind and BoardBooster. These are all great tools to keep you organized and sane. Some of them cost money for certain upgrades, but I can tell you the $45 I spend monthly TOTAL on all tools is 100% worth the amount of time it saves me that I can be connecting with brands, and working on sponsored content. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, to make your life a little easier.

[ctt title=”You NEED to schedule your social media! ” tweet=”If you have ever wondered why you should be scheduling out your social media @neelykins breaks it down! http://ctt.ec/er7jX+” coverup=”er7jX”]

Set aside a day: I spend one day a week almost entirely working on social media. This means everything from taking photos, scheduling pins, organizing my boards on Pinterest, scheduling Tweets and Facebook posts, and planning out my Instagram feed.  When I say I spend a day, I devote about 5-6 hours of a normal work day to this. The great part is I am usually done with it for the week. Sure I add other posts into Buffer and Tailwind as I see them during the week, but the bulk is done this one day.

Take photos in bulk: I do this for both my blog photos and Instagram photos. For blog photos I usually spend a few hours on the weekends and we take all photos for campaigns and blog posts. Then they are edited and banked for the week so I can grab them as I need them. This saves SO MUCH time during the week. Plus if you have an organized editorial calendar you already know what photos need to be taken and you aren’t scrambling at 11 PM for a post that needs to go live the next day. See that editorial calendar strikes again!

It’s pretty easy to figure out how to schedule social media and once you do it, it rolls so easy!

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I hope you found this post helpful! If you enjoyed learning how to schedule out social media, make sure to check out my other blog advice posts!

Do you schedule your social media?

Leave a Comment

51 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this article I am going to give it a try today. I am new to all this socia media stuff and this has been the best article I have read so far. THANK

    Published 11.29.16
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  2. This is so helpful. I do set aside on day to organize the following week but I do love the idea of and editorial calendar. Thanks for sharing all of this great advice.!!!!

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  3. Social media marketing is a tough job – so it’s always nice when there are ways to make life easier by having things scheduled ahead of time. Have you ever tired using ViralTag? Great company to use!

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  4. Jamie Reed wrote:

    Thanks for the tips, I just recently started using Tailwind (I love it!) and am still looking for new tools to help. Social media scheduling is maybe the hardest thing for me to tackle so I need all the help I can get!

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  5. I don’t schedule my social media but it’s next on my list after the relaunch of my blog. I think I want to try Boardbooster first and then go from there!

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  6. This is really great information! I am looking to be more active in scheduling posts. I am definitely saving this for later!

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  7. GiGi Eats wrote:

    I use HOOTSUITE for specific tweets/facebook messages (ads that I get paid for) otherwise, I typically just post myself because I LOVE to press SUBMIT and I don’t ALWAYS trust schedulers – ha ha

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  8. These are great tips! I have always been a big fan of doing anything I can ahead of time and scheduling out social media promotions saves time in the end and keeps me from a big ol’ headache. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. This really just gave me a big push I needed because every week I tell myself to schedule and I never do and then I fall behind! I need to get it together hahaha!

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  10. This is so helpful. You are very well organized… I wish I would be too. I try to follow your tips and I’ll see the results.

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  11. Callie K wrote:

    Very informative! I schedule my pins, but that is about it. I need to look into scheduling across my other platforms! Thank you so much for sharing!

    Published 11.29.16
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  12. cara wrote:

    These are great tips! Now that I’ve made it past the year mark, I’m really looking into investing into some social media and post planners to help. Thanks for sharing this! 🙂

    Published 11.29.16
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  13. So agree with you! Scheduling social media is super important, especially when you’re busy or have an unplugged time away. Love this!

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  14. Lexi wrote:

    I don’t know what I would do without my social media scheduler. There is no way I would get anything accomplished without it. For all of my fashion posts, I shoot in bulk, usually 5-8 outfits at once. This way everything is done. I’ve got to get better at planning out my IG posts. My goal for 2017 is to focus on IG and really establish my brand. Do you have any tips? I love your feed!

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  15. Jenny wrote:

    My social media planning and scheduling day is usually Sunday but like you I will add things here and there throughout the week. My schedulers help keep me sane though.

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  16. lisa wrote:

    These are all great tips! I struggle with organizing with my social media. I definitely need to try scheduling!

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  17. Beth wrote:

    I need to get organized with all my blogging, especially social media! Thanks for these tips. Now if only I can organized enough to implement them!

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  18. Moni Love wrote:

    This post was right on time for me today! This week one of my goals was to start scheduling my posts on social media so life can be much more easier and I won’t have to be doing so much work. I use Trello as my editorial calendar and still haven’t yet figured out how to organize the lists so it won’t be all over the place and confusing. Did you create your own editorial calendar from scratch? Do you have a blueprint of how you organize where your posts go and how you date them so I can get an idea? I am currently using hootsuite I kinda like it I would like to check out the others you have mentioned to see which one works well for me. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  19. I really need to get a handle on scheduling out all my posts, and your tip of taking a day to do it is so smart. I can’t wait to try it and to read all your other helpful posts!!!

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  20. Jackie wrote:

    This is so helpful…scheduling social media is always something I’m working on to get better at!

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  21. I’ve never heard of Planoly. What do you use it for?

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  22. kara wrote:

    I’m still working on figuring this out so this is definitely helpful. Thank you!

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  23. Chrissy wrote:

    I just recently signed up for tailwind and have yet to figure it out! Seems like a really great tool!

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  24. I use Buffer a lot. I have been meaning to use Tailwind.

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  25. These are all great tips. I schedule all fb and twitter. I use boardbooster to loop pins but haven’t scheduled them because I’m not sure how to best approach that.

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  26. Michele wrote:

    I don’t so much schedule social media posts–but I do manage to keep track of them. It only gets difficult when a giveaway I promised to put on my blog by a certain date does not show up———-luckily I usually have something I can put in it’s place. This time of year it seems to happen a lot!!

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  27. Kaley wrote:

    I do what I can with Hootsuite and the FB scheduler, but there’s only so much one can do without manually doing it and putting in the time.

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  28. Divya wrote:

    How often do you spend publicizing your content? (e.g. Commenting on other bloggers posts, ,connecting in Facebook communities?)

    I feel like that takes up so much of my time and I don’t know how to shut it off so I feel like I’m doing it in spurts throughout the day!

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  29. Greta wrote:

    This is so helpful! I have a hootsuite account but rarely use it!

    Greta | http://www.gretahollar.com

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  30. I am so bad about making the time to schedule posts. I will need to revisit some the suggested tools to help me get started again.

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  31. Shelly wrote:

    This is helpful! I have three kiddos and feel so guilty when I’m spending too much time on SM. I assure them that it’s all related to helping my shop grow, but still…

    …anything that will help me cut time on SM is great!

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  32. Brown Rhonda wrote:

    I love the tip to do the photos at the same time! We’ve all dealt with the last minute photo during the night! Great tips!

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  33. Love the tips for scheduling on social media! What app/website do you use to schedule pins? Would love to know 🙂

    XOXO Ana

    http://www.modaddicted.com

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  34. I swear by scheduling my social media! It’s a total life saver! I love Hootsuite for scheduling out my Twitter and Instagram posts. Instagram is really a “pushed reminder” so to speak, but I’ve uploaded to photo, added my text and hashtags so all I have to do is hit “post” when it prompts that it’s time.

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  35. Falon wrote:

    I have to get better at scheduling my social media posts! I do everything manually and it takes sooo much time!

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  36. Emily wrote:

    It’s so smart to take photos in bulk! There are few things I hate more than having nothing to post or share . It would be nice to have a backup stash.

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  37. Rachel wrote:

    Great tips! I really need to get better about doing things in bulk!

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  38. I agree with taking photos in bulk! I try to set a day up and get enough photos done for a month

    Rachel | The Confused Millennial

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  39. Nicole wrote:

    Such good info. I was doing this so well at one point then life happened. My goal is to get back to a more consistent schedule and plan out my editorial calendar going forward into 2017. I needed this reminder. Thanks!

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  40. I need to come hang out with you for a month and just learn from your ways!!! I have used hootsuite, but not consistent. Gonna try some of the ones you mentioned in the new year!!

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  41. Anita Anderson wrote:

    I do schedule on social media. My biggest problem is Instagram as there really isn’t a program yet that I can program it for and publish without having to do it manually.

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  42. Social media can be so daunting, even for someone who “thought” they knew all about it before blogging, ha! These are great tips. I use Tailwind but I think I need to try and branch out to some others as well.

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  43. Carrie wrote:

    I do try to schedule out my social media. Sometimes it can get overwhelming if I don’t. I use CoSchedule! It has been a life saver!

    Published 11.30.16
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  44. I do refresh some old content by scheduling it for Twitter. Other than that I do most of my social media activities live and in person.

    Published 11.30.16
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  45. Shannon wrote:

    My gosh what I would give to be able to focus one full day on social media, but I suck at that! Ha! These are all such good ideas and ones I definitely need to work hard to implement into my blogging schedule!

    Shannon
    Clothes & Quotes

    Published 11.30.16
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  46. These are great tips! I love using buffer in my VA work, but forget to do it for my OWN blog (because I am so much less consistent there…) Need to work on this!

    Published 11.30.16
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  47. It’s great to use scheduling tools to keep your social media going. I use a few of them myself, especially while I am teaching during the day.

    Published 11.30.16
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  48. I couldn’t get done all the social media work I need to without schedulers. Especially Boardbooster. I love it and use it a lot.

    Published 11.30.16
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  49. This is a great post! Scheduling social media and blog post are incredibly important. It could be daunting but workable. I just bookmarked it.

    Published 11.30.16
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  50. Allison wrote:

    I schedule my social media, but I’m not very consistent about it! And I need an editorial calendar…can you believe I’m still not using one!?

    Published 12.1.16
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  51. Elizabeth O wrote:

    Aside from the enormous post-blog-production job my VAs do, I pretty much do all my social media posting and prepping myself; I have 2 of all the major accounts and 3 Facebook pages! I find the social media scheduling work very easy because I’ve developed a system and schedule that works well for me. These are all good tools, and I would encourage folks to take the time to learn about how each component that helps their blogging life works. Once we determine what we enjoy doing and can do easily, we can then go ahead and delegate the rest. We work best when we know our strengths and delegate the rest.

    Published 12.1.16
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