Social media is the key to helping your organization thrive, but that’s only if you use it properly. If you lack content, consistency, or engagement, then it’s unlikely that you’ll develop a large following. Luckily, scheduling your social media posts in advance can help your animal shelter gain the popularity it deserves.
Benefits of Scheduling Social Media Posts for Animal Shelters
Social media can be overwhelming, and gathering followers is no easy task. Luckily, scheduling your posts in advance can help you stay on top of your shelter’s page.
It Will Help You Post Consistently
Some weeks are much busier than others. So, you could end up with dozens of posts one week due to free time, but almost none the next week because of a busy schedule or lack of creative ideas. Having weeks with minimal interactions makes it difficult for followers to know what’s going on. Also, the less interactions and posts you have, the less you'll show up in your followers feeds later, even with content due to Instagram's algorithm. Scheduling your posts in advance can help you consistently post content.
It’s Easier to Manage Your Accounts
Planning ahead always makes things easier. By scheduling your posts, you’ll know in advance what holidays, pet features, and posts are coming up. This makes it easier to manage your shelter’s page, especially if you’re in charge of more than one account at a time.
You Can Time Working on Other Things
Scheduling posts allows you to have less stress when it comes to keeping your content updated. It will also give you more time to do other things with your shelter, such as interacting with comments and personal messages. And, of course, it will give you plenty of time to care for the animals and make their online profiles even more adorable.
How to Schedule Social Media Posts
Every shelter or rescue does things a little differently. But luckily, scheduling posts isn’t too difficult, as long as you have a good method of keeping track of the posts.
Use a Spreadsheet
The classic way to schedule a large amount of social media posts is to start by using spreadsheets, such as Excel or Google Sheets. This will make it easier for you to keep track of all your posts, and it will make the process easier than just manually entering it into social media websites.
You should create three essential columns in your spreadsheet: date, post, and link. You can add additional tabs for other post items, such as memes, images, and affiliate promotions. Then, fill out the spreadsheet with the date and time that you want it to publish, what you want the text of the post to be, and where you want it to link to.
Once that’s all filled out, you can copy and paste it to your social media account’s publishing tools, such as Facebook. From there, you should be able to preview the posts before they’re shared at the scheduled times.
Use a Platform
Many shelters and rescues choose to use a platform for posting their social media content. These sometimes cost a fee to use, but they’re
more user-friendly than a traditional spreadsheet.
These platforms will make it easier to organize your thoughts, and the program can post them right to your account. You can draft, schedule, and queue posts all in one accessible place.
Here are some examples of platforms:
● Airtable
● Buffer
● Canva
● Hootsuite
● Loomly
● Post Planner
● Sprout Social
Of course, there are many different platforms to choose from, but these are just a few popular options to help you get started. All these options have different features and tools, some of which might be better for your specific needs. So, it’s important that you take your time and do your research to help you choose the best one for you.
Managing a social media account can be overwhelming, but scheduling posts ahead of time can help you stay on top of it. So, choose a schedule and stick to it to help make your life a lot easier.
For a broader reasoning on how and when to schedule Social Media posts, see our blog post "Why Rescues Should Plan their Social Media"
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