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If you don’t have extra time to spend managing your social media accounts across multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) or are looking to simplify the process, a social media scheduling tool could be right for you.

Regardless of the platform, each of these tools have some basic functions that can benefit anyone overseeing one or more social media accounts. 

Now, let’s take a look at 5 reasons why you should be using a social media scheduling tool.

1. See everything in one place.

If you have more than one social media platform you’re managing (I’m sure you do!), then being able to see all of our social media activity in one place is a huge plus. Instead of going into each individual social account, you’ll be able to create a piece of content and push it to all of the accounts that you choose. 

Why do something three times when you can just do it once?

2. Schedule posts ahead of time.

Working in social media can be draining at times. It’s hard to shut down and disconnect from work when the internet does not adhere to your church building’s hours of operations. Instead of jumping on Facebook on Saturday to invite people to your Sunday service, why not schedule that post in advance? 

These social scheduling tools allow you to schedule all kinds of content in advance for publishing. On a Tuesday, you could schedule your posts for the rest of the week and only monitor things from then on. If for nothing else, the time and freedom you’ll gain the rest of the week is worth looking into.

3. Manage your content calendar.

Content strategy and consistency is very important for algorithms, and therefore social media  success. Having one calendar to view all of your upcoming posts and content in is an important benefit. Here, you can see what information is going out when and where. This also allows you to identify content gaps and develop consistency week over week. 

Social media doesn’t often reward randomness, so let’s be strategic and watch our performance improve over time. 

4. Make adjustments on the fly.

If you’ve worked in church communications for more than a few minutes, you’re probably well aware how quickly things can change. Whether it’s a community issue that needs to be addressed, the outbreak of a global pandemic or maybe your lead pastor just changed their mind last minute (they would never!), you need to be flexible.

Thanks to these social scheduling platforms, you can simply go in and reschedule your content for a different time and date, as well as publish urgent communications quickly to all of your platforms. The world can be chaotic, so why not bring some order into your life?

5. Review engagement and analytics.

When all of your accounts are set up in a social scheduling platform, you’ll also be able to see the results of all of your social media performance. This is helpful for several reasons, but the main one is that your analytics will all be collected in one place.

This will make it easier to watch for trends, growth and what may or may not be working. If you’re wondering about which analytics are important to look for, check out this article.

Which social scheduling platform is right for you?

That’s a really good question. And it probably depends on your priorities, team size and budget. Each platform has a unique combination of these factors that may or may not make them the right fit for your social media management. Some of our favorites are Hootsuite, Loomly and Sprout Social.

If you’re looking to move your social media operation into a scheduling platform, feel free to send us any questions you have. We’d be happy to help you narrow your search or help you set up your platform for success.