Stagger Your Social Media Updates

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Think about it, sending out a tweet or Facebook update is bit like sending a signal into space, hoping to eventually interact with another intelligent life form. In both scenarios you can’t know for sure who is listening (or if anyone even is), when they are paying attention to your message and when they will be most receptive to it, and what they want to hear from you in order to ensure a response. Sometimes, a social media update is little more than a well planned shot in the dark. But there are ways to help your messages get heard by more people in your target audience, and it’s not nearly as complicated as trying to talk to aliens.

Stagger your social media updates and republish content!

For example, when I get into my office in the morning I take 15 minutes and send my blog posts out through my various social profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+). Right now I am using HootSuite to manage my social media accounts, as it’s faster and more convenient than having to login to each profile separately. HootSuite also gives me the added advantage of being able to schedule posts in the future, enabling me to stagger my updates throughout the day. I’ll publish my latest blog post to my company’s Facebook page at 9 AM, but then also schedule it to go live again at 2 PM. By republishing my content I am giving it a second chance at life!

As part of my content marketing strategy, I write and submit a lot of guest blog posts to various SEO, Internet marketing, social media and other related blogs. When one of those posts goes live I want to leverage it for my own SEO and brand building campaign. But dumping a load of content onto your Facebook or LinkedIn community at once isn’t the way to go. By scheduling out those posts throughout the day (say one at 11 AM and one at 3 PM), I give each post its moment to shine and attract the attention of my social network. Staggering my social media updates also allows me to keep a steady stream of content going live each day, a must for a strong social media marketing campaign. If you feel like you are maxed on in terms of content creation, but want to keep your social profiles fresh and routinely updated, republishing content is a great way to fill the holes.

In order to see an update on a social networking site, a member of your target audience has to be logged into their account and actively looking at their news feed or stream when your update goes live. 30 seconds sooner or later and you might miss them entirely. Reposting your content gives you a second chance to engage and interact with that person.