A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of conducting a marketing training for about 35 restaurant owners from the Oregon coast and the Columbia River Gorge — two highly touristed areas in Oregon.
These folks were business veterans, not newbies.
I asked one of my favorite questions: raise your hand if you use a social media scheduler (e.g., Social Bee, Later, Buffer, Meta) to post to social media?
Three hands raised.
Three.
Then, I asked: raise your hand if you forgot to post a special to social media, and race to your phone to quickly post something….
Everyone raised their hand.
I then went on to explain the benefits of planning and scheduling your social media posts.
It’s a simple recipe:
- Set aside time once a month.
- Plan and create social media posts.
- Schedule.
- Spend 15 minutes twice a day engaging with your community, and replying to comments.
Planning isn’t sexy. But your sanity is.
I get it, there was a ton of bluster a few years ago that scheduling posts resulted in less organic reach.
Yes, anecdotally, you might increase your reach if you schedule inside the platform (i.e., Meta (FB + Instagram), LinkedIn, TikTok), BUT getting it done consistently is more important.
Because ... I’ve got news for you. Organic social media reach is abysmal either way.
Save yourself the headache (and stress) — plan and schedule your social media posts because you have better things to do.