NEW-IMAGES Blogs social-media-scheduling-banner
Back To Listings

Why you should take the ‘forget’ out of Set and Forget social media scheduling

Digital Marketing + Social Media
NEW-IMAGES Blogs social-media-scheduling-banner

Utilising scheduling tools for your social media activity is an efficient and productive way of executing your social media strategy. It not allows you to implement your posts while the overall goals for the month are fresh in your mind, but it also means you can tick a month’s worth of activity using one block of time. This is often referred to as ‘set and forget’ because most of the third party platforms that schedule your social media, also publish it (depending on your level of membership). Initially, this seems like an incredible tool, and it is. In fact, we often use them for both our own social media and our clients’. However, despite all of its efficiency benefits, leaning too heavily on them can be detrimental to not only your social media engagement, but your entire business’s reputation.

Read the crowd, and recheck your activity

2020 has been a doozy. In a relatively short period of time, society has faced a lot. The bushfires in our backyard not only created wide community concern, action and funding for fire-affected areas, it also raised heightened focus on the climate crisis. Then, we faced a global pandemic that threatened not only our physical health, but our livelihoods and mental health. Albeit a centuries long issue and by no means new, the resurgent plight for #BlackLivesMatter has taken our focus away from how we survive in isolation, to how an entire community can simply survive. 

With that, comes myriad concerns, and hopeful solutions. Of course, your social media account can feel way down the pecking order of major issues. However, it is a reality that whatever content you put out has the potential for attention, scrutiny and criticism. These big issues provide potential missteps in your messaging, unintentionally or otherwise. 

This is where staying true to the ‘forget’ in set and forget can cause big problems. As we keep seeing, the world can change in the space of 24 hours, let alone one full month. While it is highly advised to utilise third party or intra-platform scheduling and publishing tools, it is vital to check your posts regularly. (If not daily, weekly). Is your messaging still aligned with your plight? Is your wording now going to be considered insensitive? Or is it going to be poor timing for your post? The future of your business could very literally be at risk because of a poorly worded or timed social media post. 

Check the news, check your posts, check your crowd and check yourself. 

You could miss an opportunity to help your online community

It’s not all about how set and forget can harm your social media, and your business. It’s also about missing an opportunity to be truly helpful to your audience base. Through these times, plenty of brands have shown how to successfully navigate through societal change and upheaval. 

Your social media is your business’s voice and where it can be used, it should be. If you’re planning on continuing your social activity, it’s a chance to demonstrate community interest. This can be as simple as directing your audience to helpful organisations, or ways to help circumstances around them. By setting and forgetting your messaging, you’re distributing content that may now seem frivolous and unhelpful, and so scrolled past.

NOTE: It is important to understand the difference between leveraging, and being genuinely helpful, however. So, if you’re going to re-navigate your social activity to align with societal issues, focus on taking the opportunity to help, not be opportunistic. 

Last word on set and forget

Even in times of relative quiet, setting and forgetting is, quite simply, a little lazy and not doing your efforts any justice. You’re putting the effort in to create a successful social media account, so if you’re not giving it the energy it deserves (albeit with very effective and efficient tools), you’ll find that you’re not getting the results your hope for, or aren’t even aware you could be getting. By all means, we encourage the use of these tools. Just don’t let it be a reason to rest on your post laurels.