For example, I run a Facebook page for my business Work For Mums and we find one of our busiest days is Thursday, with most interaction happening between 8 and 9.30pm. Scheduling your posts means that you can take full advantage of this interaction at your pages peak times.
What are the advantages of scheduling posts?
- You can ensure your posts are more likely to be seen by your page likers, therefore increasing not only your organic reach but your viral reach too
- As a result of the above, you are likely to gain more page likers
- You can manage your time more effectively
- You can spread your posts throughout the day/week rather than posting numerous times in a short space of time (this can also be annoying for your page likers)
- Your page is working for you even when you are not there, for example, in the evenings or if you are on holiday
- You can even backdate posts which might be useful for newer pages wanting to fill up their timeline
- If you are already using the ‘Promote this post’ feature, scheduling posts could save you money!
When is your page most active?
You might need to start noting down some numbers to get an idea of when your posts get the most interaction. It's a good idea to do this for a couple of weeks, posting at least daily at different times of the day; this should provide some useful information to enable you to schedule your posts at optimum times.
To monitor interaction of your posts, use the ‘XXX amount have seen this post’ tool, as shown below.
If you hover over this blue text you can view the ‘organic reach’, that is how many people who already like your page have seen the post and the ‘viral’ reach, that is how many people (current non likers) who see your post as a result of it being on one of their friends news feeds/ticker.
Another useful tool is to use edgerankchecker.com This website enables you to view some basic analytics about your page including its busiest day and its edgerank score.
The below figures show what your edgerank score means:
0 - 10 is below average
11 - 19 is average
20 - 29 is above average
30+ is excellent
Work For Mums Facebook page has an edgerank score of 25, which is above average but we are aiming for above 30! If this kind of thing interests you, there are some (chargeable) upgrade options on edgerankchecker.comfor more in depth analytics. Now you are armed with some numbers, it's time to get scheduling!
How to schedule posts on Facebook
- Go to your business page and start typing a post, you can include links and images as normal
- Before clicking the ‘Post’ button, click the little timer icon bottom left
- Enter the year, the month, the day and the time you would like your post to display (if you are backdating a post, you can't enter a specific time)
- Then click ‘Post’
- You will get a notification message to confirm you have scheduled a post
- You can view all your scheduled posts by clicking ‘Edit Page’ and then ‘Use Activity Log’
Once you are regularly scheduling posts you will be able to keep analysing your data to see the best times to post for maximum interaction.
By using this fantastic feature you can grow your page likers, increase interaction and make your page look really active without having to put in much more time.
