How to Utilize Social Media for Your Business: Part 3

Keeping to a schedule is extremely important for business owners since there is always so much to do each day. It helps you to keep things running smoothly. This is also true for your social media marketing. Before creating your social media schedule it's important for you to understand which social media sites are best for your business. Once you've narrowed down your social media options you can begin to create your schedule.

Before getting started, it's important to note the difference between a marketing content calendar and a social media calendar. A social media calendar will work as a schedule for how often you should be posting to which network while a marketing calendar acts as a guideline for the types of content you should be posting. You need both in order to properly execute your social media.

That being said, social media is about quality not quantity so if you can't stick to the "recommended" posting frequency for each network don't sweat it. Here is a helpful guideline to help you with your social media schedule:

Keep in mind that these are just my suggested posting frequencies and not requirements. Depending on what your goals for social media are, you may want to adjust the frequency that you post so that each time you are posting it's quality content instead of just something you are rushing to get online.

In addition to your posting frequency you should also set aside some time to monitor your social networks and engage with anyone who has commented on your posts.

As for the type of content you should post, you'll need a marketing calendar. Don't jam-pack your calendar with promotional posts or you won't reap the benefits of social media. The whole point of social media is to engage with your audience, not to turn every follower into a paying customer.

This is where the 80-20 rule comes into play. 80 percent of your weekly posts should be focused on keeping your audience informed (with information they would find relevant or interesting), and 20 percent should be promotional content.

Here is a helpful chart for which types of content you should post on which social media site:

To get started, build out your calendar with the frequency that best fits your goals and test which times of days get you the most engagement. Just like most things in business, practice is what will make perfect. So test the social media waters and keep an eye on engagement (likes, comments, retweets, shares, clicks, etc.) and adjust your approach to continuously increase engagement.

What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

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