How to Create Social Media Content on a Consistent Schedule

When it comes to social media content, consistency is key. For humans, though, consistency is hard to keep up, especially if you’re a business owner who has a to-do list to infinity and beyond. It doesn’t help, either, when you get discouraged that your two Instagram reels didn’t go viral.

The audacity!

But it’s important to learn about posting to social media consistency now versus never. Why? Brands that appear consistent increase the value of the brand’s company 20% more than those that are inconsistent. And when it comes to B2B marketing, 91% of successful B2B marketers state that consistent content creation is one of their most important parts of content strategy.

In this article, we’ll guide you through:

Why you need to be consistent with your social media content schedule
What a consistent schedule looks like, and how to measure the effects of that schedule
How to become more consistent with your social media goals

Now let’s get into it!

Posting Consistent Social Media Content is Not a Stretch Goal–It IS the Goal!

No matter which social media platform you post on, every single one of them states that consistent posts improve the chance of viewers seeing your content.

Every. Single. Platform. Sigh…

But think of consistent posting in the way Wasulu Habib Olawale does: “Imagine you have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Bae sends you like three texts in one day [and nothing] for the next five days and then two random texts. . . . That doesn’t look like a great relationship, right? That’s the relationship you’re building with your audience. No one likes to feel like they’re being ghosted.”

If you post sporadically, sharing only when you feel like it or when you have the time, the algorithm will lose faith in you being of value to its audience. Your followers will lose faith in you too, since they may think you only post when you want money out of them versus giving them education/entertainment/inspiration.

So let’s now go back to why you need to post social media consistently. When you do, you are most likely to:

gain the trust of of your viewers for featuring posts on a schedule
earn more engagement from your followers as they trust you more
give you further reach from the algorithm as it notes the increased views and engagement
attract more visibility to your brand and brand reputation as an authority in that industry
hone your content to better serve your followers and future followers
tantalize your audience to visit your website and your products/services

HOMEWORK: Figure out who your current followers are and the followers you want to have. What are they following? What are they posting? Make your content reflect who it is you want to attract.

Creating a Consistent Content Schedule (and Testing It!)

First off, creating a consistent social media content schedule doesn’t mean that your posts have to be at the same time on the same day every week (unless your testing says so). But it is important to keep up on the latest results that have been successful.

You will find that a lot of content schedulers such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Planoly–as well as dozens of other great schedulers!–will tell you the exact right time and day to post on each social media platform.

Ignore “do this on this day at this time” advice. There is no one black-and-white answer for how to best run your social media strategy. Why? Every company and every audience is different. Visualize these differences with these two extreme examples:

People who work the nightshift may be clicking on makers of blackout curtains and eyemasks at 6 a.m. as the sunlight is hitting their tired eyes.
People who work the dayshift may be clicking on bar websites at 5 p.m. that offer evening happy hours.

What’s the best way to gauge your followers being online? Test your posts! First start off with the days–Monday, Thursday, and Friday one week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday the next week.

Then try for different times: morning vs. afternoon vs. evening. You can use each platform’s creator tools to see when your followers are viewing, liking, and commenting on your posts.

HOMEWORK: The following homework will take a month (four weeks).

Week 1 – Create three posts this week for a social media platform you’re trying to grow. Post it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

Week 2 – Create four posts this week for the same social media platform. Post it on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings.

Week 3 – Create three posts this week for the same social media platform. Post it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings.

Week 4 – Create four posts this week for the same social media platform. Post it on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings.

Look at your analytics and see when your best days/times were! In Month 2, you can test afternoons for a week, and then you can start testing posts vs. reels vs. videos!

Setting Yourself Up for Success!

First and foremost, set realistic goals. Yes, scheduling software may have blogs telling you to post three posts and six reels to Instagram per week if you’re a company with 0 to 100,000 followers. But do you have that time or energy?
Set your goals based on analytics. This sounds scary, but all this means is looking at your account and seeing when people are most likely to see your posts and engage with your posts! If Monday afternoon is when they’re most likely to be on your feed, then aim for a Monday afternoon post.
Use scheduling programs to post to social media. Just because your audience is online on a Monday afternoon doesn’t mean that’s when you can post. You may have a set-in-stone Monday meeting or a child to pick up from school. So use a program like Hootsuite or Metricool to post something you may have created over the weekend.
Keep a list of posts/reels/videos you would like to do “someday” so you always have an endless list of inspiration. It’s hard to create anything if you have no ideas or you’re pressed to come up with ideas. So keep that well full by writing down all ideas–big and small–as they come up!

HOMEWORK: Start creating your Social Media Content Library. Use a page in a notebook or journal or diary that you usually have on your desk or the notes app on your phone since you always have it on you. Write down ideas that you’ve seen, and write down what you want to show (e.g., Do you want to inform your audience about a new product and how to use it? Do you want to entertain your audience with how to use another product? Write it down!). Start making that long, never-ending list of inspiration!

Wrapping Up

The more you show up consistently on social media, the more loyal your following will become. When your social media audience becomes more loyal:

they will become brand ambassadors, posting videos/posts of your product.
they are more likely to leave a testimonial/review on a product because they feel they have a relationship with the brand.
they will keep coming back to your brand because you will be consistently creating the posts they like.

Just remember, though, that as you grow that loyal following, you will need to interact with them to keep that loyalty loop strong. Something our next post will talk about!

digit-ALL is a full-service marketing company that focuses on the people side of marketing. We focus on company branding, websites, social media, blogs, newsletters, and even corporate event planning. We’re here to help when you’re ready for it.