How to Schedule Posts in Facebook

By Sarah Giometti | Facebook

Jan 13

We all get busy, we get it. What’s the first thing busy entrepreneurs push to the back burner? Marketing and social media. Before you know it, several weeks have gone by and your page is nothing but crickets, silently chirping away. Your fans have moved elsewhere. The interaction you’ve worked so hard to build has disappeared. Facebook thinks you’ve disappeared, so your pagerank slowly drops (this means less of your hard won fans will see your new posts). One of the biggest issues many of our clients face, when managing their own social media, is finding the time to post on a regular basis. Posting on a regular basis (often and consistent), is essential to a successful social media strategy. We always recommend that our clients schedule as many posts as possible in advance. Why? Because by planning out your social media content strategy a month at a time, you know exactly what you want to post and when to do it. By scheduling updates to post at a later date and time, you eliminate the risk of “forgetting” to post and leaving your fans with no communication for an extended period of time.

After recommending this strategy to one of our clients, they asked us how to actually schedule posts in Facebook. This got us thinking that there are probably a lot of Facebook page owners/admins who might not know exactly how to do this. What a great blog idea! So here is your step by step guide to scheduling posts for your page in Facebook.

 

Step #1: Make sure you are posting as the page and not yourself.

If you are using the page as yourself, the scheduling options aren’t available. You can easily change this at the top of the screen.

How to Schedule Post in Facebook

 

Step #2: Write the post that you plan to schedule.

Make sure you add the copy, image and/or link that goes along with this post.

Write your Facebook post to be scheduled.

 

Step #3: Click the clock icon on the left side under your new post.

Schedule your Facebook Post

 

After you click the clock icon, you’ll get an expanded set of options at the bottom of your post.

Facebook post scheduling

Step #4: Click the calendar icon next to the date.

Clicking the calendar icon will give you a monthly calendar drop down to make selecting your date easy.

Facebook page post scheduling

 

Step #5: Pick a time for your post.

We hope you look at your post interaction history (in the admin panel page insights…another post for another day) that tells you which day(s) of the week, and time(s) of day, you get the most interaction from your followers. This will help you to know what time to schedule your posts in the coming month.

Best time to schedule facebook post

 

Step #6: Schedule!

Yep, you got it. Click schedule. It’s that easy.

Schedule your Facebook posts

 

Wait….I scheduled some of my posts, but I forgot which days I selected. Or I might want to post something different than what I scheduled. How do I see what I already planned? Easy….in the admin panel!

Step #1: Admin Panel, Edit Page

In your admin panel (at the top of your page above your cover photo, about in the middle) click on the drop-down menu called ‘Edit Page’.

Review scheduled posts in Facebook

 

Step #2: Use Activity Log

The fourth option on the list that drops down is the ‘Use Activity Log’. Click this choice and your new screen will have your scheduled posts at the very top. Now you can edit the content of the post AND reschedule for a different date or time (you used to have to delete and start over…some Facebook changes are for the better!).

Checking your scheduled Facebook posts.

 

That’s it. It really is that easy to schedule your posts. On Facebook, posting daily is ideal, but you’re busy, we get it. Figure out how many content ideas you can commit to creating in one month (10, 15, 20) and space them out throughout the month. You don’t need a perfectly regulated schedule (every Monday, Wednesday, Friday). You just need to post regularly and consistently, every month.

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