Thinking ahead can be a massive asset for social media marketers. There are so many moving parts involved in social media management that the ability to automate certain tasks, as well as schedule them ahead of time, is invaluable. And since Facebook is typically part of most brands’ core social media strategies, then you’ll want to know how to schedule Facebook posts in advance.
Scheduling Facebook posts ahead of time has never been easier.
In addition to Facebook itself, there are multiple tools that make planning ahead simple. If you’re ready to learn how to schedule Facebook posts so you can automate a portion of your social media marketing, read on.
Why Schedule Facebook Posts?
There are so many reasons why social media marketers should be scheduling social content in advance.
Scheduling Facebook posts ahead of time allows you to batch your work. Social media marketers often find themselves juggling multiple tasks and wearing several hats at once. Working ahead to schedule and automate your posts frees you up to focus elsewhere and keeps you from having to manually push posts out every day.
In addition, batching out your work for any given social media platform gives others time to approve your posts’ content. For example, if you create a batch of Facebook posts for the month that you intend to schedule, you can pass that post content on for approval before it goes live.
Automating scheduled posts is also easier than scrambling to create content at the last minute. As a result, the quality of your content goes up. You create time to think through what you’re going to post before you need to schedule it, so you know what’s coming.
Scheduling Facebook posts also allows you to be more strategic with the mix of content you’re sharing via social media. You’re giving yourself the foresight to create a rhythm of written posts, curated content, images, and videos. Additionally, you’ll also be able to plan around holidays, special events, and any special offers your clients may be creating for their audiences.
How to Schedule Facebook Posts with Facebook Business Suite
Facebook has incorporated powerful scheduling features into its Business Suite so you can use the platform itself to schedule posts. The Business Suite works both for Facebook and Instagram, so you can take care of posting on both platforms in one place. If you're new to Facebook Business Suite and want to learn more about this platform and how to use it, have a look at our extended Facebook Marketing Course and learn all there is to know.
In order to schedule posts, first open Facebook's Business Suite. From the Home page, you can click the blue Create Post button to get started.
Alternatively, you can open the Posts & Stories page from the left-hand navigation menu. Click the blue Create Post button in the upper right corner to start creating your post.
The Business Suite will display a pop-up window where you can build and customize your Facebook post. You can choose whether you want the post to go out to Facebook, Instagram, or both platforms. Additionally, you can preview the draft on both platforms. For Facebook post drafts, you can toggle between desktop and mobile previews to see how it’s shaping up.
Next, add your media. You can upload a photo or video, or you can create your own video for the post.
Now it’s time for your text. When you type into the text box, you’ll see a preview of your text for both platforms in the center panel. On the far right, you’ll see that text paired with your image.
Once you’ve entered your text and media, you can set a location, add an optional link preview, or choose to set your call to action to get direct messages on your Facebook page. When you’re happy with your post, click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen. From there, you can choose to either schedule your post or save it as a draft.
When you click Schedule Post, you’ll see a dialog box where you can choose the date and time you want your post to publish. When you’ve set the schedule, click Save to continue.
You’ll then go back to the post draft screen. To lock in the scheduled post time, click Schedule Post in the bottom right corner.
Finally, you’ll be taken back to the Posts & Stories page. You’ll see that your scheduled post has now populated in the list on the Scheduled view.
Now that you’ve learned how to schedule Facebook posts, you can go back through the steps to queue up all your posts for the coming week.
Third-Party Facebook Scheduling Tools
There are a number of third-party Facebook scheduling tools you can use in place of Facebook Business Suite, and which have different sets of features depending on your needs. Let’s look at a few.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a powerful, data-driven social media publishing platform that integrates with Facebook for post scheduling. It’s geared toward analyzing post performance and competition, social listening, and features an all-in-one inbox for your platforms so you can engage more effectively with followers.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a highly visual scheduling tool, with all feeds displayed together on one dashboard. With easy engagement tools and powerful analytics, it’s a popular tool for businesses of all sizes.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a fantastic social media scheduling tool for growing teams. It integrates with multiple social media platforms, allowing you to engage cross-platform with ease. Collaborate with your team to monitor analytics, growth, and performance.
Buffer
Buffer is another tried-and-true scheduling tool with powerful engagement and analytics tools. It suggests ideal post times based on the platforms you’re using at the time, and makes it easy to generate attractive reports when you’re ready to check your data.
Later
Later integrates with a number of visual social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. It includes a grid that allows you to plan your Instagram aesthetic ahead of time, as well as a powerful hashtag research tool so you can optimize posts.
Final Thoughts
Knowing how to schedule Facebook posts is essential for your social media marketing business.
As you grow your client base, you’ll need plenty of automation tools at your fingertips so you can get your posts scheduled in advance, batch your work, and create a more efficient workflow. Even better, you’ll be able to better serve your clients with strategic, high-quality content.
.png)
.png)
