5 Ways to Get Ahead on Social Media Posts for your Business

Doesn’t it always feel good to be prepared? Admittedly, I am a procrastinator to the core – but when I actually DO THE THING and am prepared – wow, it feels good. So today, let’s talk about 5 ways to get ahead on social media posts for your business.

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In almost every area of life it just feels good to have a little bit of “cushion.”

Maybe that includes:

Having an emergency fund of money.
Having some meals prepped and in the freezer.
Having a big work project prepared ahead of time.
Having an extra pair of school shoes for your son hidden at the top of a closet so that when he tears a hole in his good ones while skateboarding, you don’t have to go emergency shopping before the big school performance. (Just me??)

You get the point. It feels really good to be ahead.

It feel amazing to be in a place where one little “bump” in your day or week isn’t going to create major chaos.

Because, whether we plan for it or not – chaos will come! There will be sickness in our family. Crazy schedules. Company coming that you weren’t planning for. Or even just days where you (or your kids) are NOT FEELING IT.

When we have some “cushion” in life and are prepared, we can take these moments in stride.

We can apply this same thinking to our social media pages.

Because nothing is worse than having a crazy morning, with a million phone calls, a child crying and hanging on your leg, and you are trying to post AMAZING CONTENT.

Let’s get your pages planned ahead, so you can be more flexible with your timing and schedule!

5 Ways to Get Ahead on Social Media Posts for Your Business

1. Get your Social Media pages scheduled out 1 week.

This is HARD at first, but once you push and actually get a week of content SCHEDULED – meaning it’s all the way ready to go and you’ve actually scheduled it to post on a certain day and time – then you can just CONTINUE operating at a week ahead.

Even having this 1 week of “cushion” on your social media pages allows life to happen.

Little bumps in your week won’t derail your social media pages. Great content will still be posting, even if you get sick.

Also, this allows you to batch your time! If you know that Mondays are the days you have more time to sit and think, block out a couple of hours on Mondays, create and schedule all of your social media posts for the week, and be done with it!

*Note: You’ll still want to check in regularly to respond to any comments as needed, but most of the “work” will be done and ready to go.

2. Keep a folder of “evergreen” posts.

This is a folder of graphics or photos – along with a quick blurb of text for each – that you can easily post for your business at any time.

They are not dependent on the time of year, season, or day of the week. They are simply great information about your product, or some type of content that connects with your audience.

When something does happen in your life and you need a quick/ easy post to throw out there, you grab something from this folder.

This way if you are NOT planned ahead one full week (gasp!), then you can still get content up quickly in a way that does not take up your time.

*Protip: Keep these graphics and text blurbs saved on both your computer and your phone. This way you can quickly post something great in a pinch, no matter where you are.

3. Create a list – a rotation of topics and ideas for your business.

We can all use a little creative nudge now and then!

Sometimes, you may need an idea of what to post. Or you may need to shake up the topic of conversation sometimes.

A simple list to rotate through is just the thing.

Think about your particular business and what you could post about on social media. Here are some questions and ideas to get you started:

Why is your product unique?
What ingredients go into your product?
Is there anything unique about your process?
Feature an employee.
What fun things are you rolling out soon?
Post quizzes and contests with giveaways.
Is there a way that your business “gives back” to the community?
How did you get started?
Tie into a trending topic or hashtags.

When you have a great list (the longer the better!) you can look at it periodically and know that you are creating a variety of interesting content.

AND, you don’t have to pour a bunch of time into coming up with new ideas every time you sit down to schedule out your posts.

4. Make your general social media plans 1 month out.

Carve out a block of time once per month where you sit down and brainstorm out the next month of social media posts.

(This is not the time where you get into the nitty gritty of creating specific graphics and posts.)

This is the time where you look at the next month’s calendar for your business, and you make a plan for what you’ll talk about on social media each day.

For example, make note of new product launches or releases you have coming. If you are planning a big sale or event, put it on the calendar.

(And with each big event, make sure you also plan to “tease” the event or product. In other words, talk about it in different ways several times before it happens,)

Look through your “rotation of topics list” that you created in step #3, and think about different ways you could plan to engage your audience.

You could also look through some social media pages of businesses who are marketing to your audience. What kind of content are they posting? Could you do a similar idea for your business?

5. Be flexible.

Planning ahead and scheduling things out allows you some freedom, BUT being “in the moment” and talking about things in real-time helps your business to feel like actual, real people are behind it.

It’s a balance between the two.

I say – be scheduled. Plan ahead.

AND be willing to quickly change your plans if something great comes up that you need to post about.

For example – If you can tie into conversation on social media about the big game, do it! You will appear personable, likeable, and real-life.

Your planned post about your product can go up later.

Try putting several of these tips into practice for your social media pages and see if you don’t feel the pressure relieved!