As a business owner, you know about the importance of social media presence by now. However, with all your day-to-day responsibilities, you probably can’t find the time to promote your business online. But don’t worry–this is precisely why social media posting services exist! With these services by your side, you’ll be able to schedule your social media posts and operate your business account efficiently with myriad of social media posting tools.
Now, let’s dig deeper into social media posting with useful tips for business. We also selected our picks of the top 10 posting services, so you have all the necessary information to find the best social media posting service for you.
What Is a Social Media Posting Service?
A social media posting service updates and provides maintenance to businesses ’ social media accounts. Providers offer all kinds of services, including:
- Creating regular social media posts
- Tailoring the posts to fit your business model
- Scheduling posts at the optimal time
- Evaluation of the posts’ reception
Some service providers can also help you create your social media strategy or provide audits of your existing strategy, which would include measures for improvement. The overall goal of these social media posting services is to provide tools for business account management. You could delegate tedious tasks of social media posting and focus on other aspects of your business growth.
If your business doesn’t have an online presence, you could lose a lot of potential customers. Around 50% of young consumers say they have purchased something after seeing it on social media. Just by seeing your product on their feed, people may decide to purchase your product and potentially become a fan!
Consistent social media posting will not only help you reach new customers but will update your existing ones. There’s nothing more rewarding in business than loyalty and trust. Indeed, social media is the perfect tool for providing value, strengthening your brand, and engaging leads and customers.
The best part is that you don’t have to do the postings on your own. You could lose hours simply scrolling through the internet looking to find the best picture, thinking about captions and hashtags, and coming up with something clever to say. Scheduling your posts can take that load off your shoulder so that you can focus on other tasks essential for building and growing your business.
Why Choose a Social Media Posting Service Instead of Hiring a Social Media Manager?
Hiring one person or creating a team of people to manage your social media might be ideal, but it’s very expensive. For small business owners that aren’t ready to make such a large investment in social media marketing, it might be a better option to choose a social media posting service. Hiring a part-time service provider might create a bigger ROI (return on investment) in the long run and will not contribute to a large portion of your initial business costs.
Likewise, if you are particular about your branding needs and have a bit more time on your hands, you could opt to create all the posts yourself and use posting software to schedule them. You don’t have to make all of your posts at a time when you’d like them to go live. Set a specific time during the week to create your posts in bulk. Then, use posting tools to deliver the posts at the time of your choosing.
Whichever option you take, you will need to monitor the results. If you’re not getting more likes, comments, or shares, you wouldn’t be able to generate leads and increase sales. This is precisely why you could track how your posts are doing with different analytic tools, depending on the social media platform you’re using.
Analytic tools will help you notice opportunities for improvement, so make sure to use them frequently, even if you’re scheduling your posts. There’s no point in publishing posts that aren’t drawing attention, right?
Maybe your content is great but you aren’t publishing it at peak times, so fewer people have the chance to see them. With a good social media posting service for business, you should be able to schedule posts at the most optimal time and increase your online visibility!
How Often Do You Need to Post?
There isn’t a one and only way to this question. Every business (and every industry) is unique. Some businesses should engage with their clients more often, while others should do so more infrequently. Once a day (on each platform) is an average for most businesses, but you need to figure out what works for you and your industry. Find the perfect balance between spammy and inactive and gauge how you’re doing with your audience’s engagement levels.
Which Social Media Networks Should You Focus On?
This also depends on the nature of your business. It would be optimal if you could focus on 2-3 platforms for your online visibility. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are a good start, but if you notice that your target customers are more active on other networks, then move your activities there.
Tips for Social Media Posting for Business
Having a business social media account isn’t enough. You also need to make sure you’re active in online communities. Here are some social media posting tips that can help you out:
- Shift your focus from promotional to customer-oriented posts. Social media platforms are made for communication, so try to instigate discussions and create engaging posts. Reply to followers’ comments and share ideas. You can publish promotional posts every once in a while, but that shouldn’t be your primary focus.
- Be personal. Show insights into your business and share a bit of your personality. Being authentic will make your brand stand out.
- Always keep your target audience in your mind. Posting content that would be interesting to your potential customers is crucial in maintaining a social media account for business. You don’t want to engage with everyone online. Tailor your content to your niche of loyal or potential customers.
- Prioritize audio and visual content. People on social media don’t want to be bombarded with blocks of text. Make sure to include videos, images, or podcast teasers in your posts to maximize social media engagement.
Top 10 Social Media Posting Tools
Loomly
Loomly is a social media management platform that’s very simple to use. It has a very intuitive interface. Create posts from scratch or use available drafts. You can also manage comments and messages with ease. To see if Loomly works for you, there’s a 15-day free trial, after which you can choose a purchase plan.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a scheduling tool that allows you to plan and publish posts across multiple networks. It’s frequently used by large teams, since the platform is very user friendly and easy to use for collaboration. This posting service also includes social media analytic tools that can help you monitor the performance of your posts. You can see if it’s right for you with a 30-day trial.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite provides tools and software that schedule and publishes posts at your preferred time (and on multiple accounts). Hootsuite is a well-known and reliable service because it’s been around since 2008. It’s quite simple to use and a good fit for many small business owners. It also offers a 30 days test period, after which you can purchase a plan of your liking.
Agorapulse
Agropulse will help you publish posts and engage with people on your chosen networks. You can aggregate all your posts in a queue or schedule them in the order you wish. Just like with most providers on this list, a visual calendar, a social inbox, analytics, and collaboration tools are likewise available.
Sendible
Although Sendible is mostly used by agencies, it can be useful for entrepreneurs as well. You can use it to schedule posts to any of your social media networks and to publish WordPress articles. Sensible’s compose box allows you to plan and publish posts, images, and videos.
Buffer
Use Buffer to create a bulk of posts and schedule to publish them at the most optimal hours (which are suggested based on the previous success of your posts). Analytics and collaboration tools are also included in the package.
Later
Later helps you post on various social networks, but its main focus is Instagram/Pinterest, since Later places emphasis on photos, rather than texts. It’s very simple to use–you drag and drop posts into time slots in your calendar. You can use Later for free (up to 30 posts) before you decide to invest in more advanced plans with additional features.
Crowdfire
Crowdfire can be used to post on any social media network and on blogging platforms, online shops, and video platforms. The main focus of the service is content creation and finding the most efficient posting schedule. You can use it for free on 3 different accounts with 10 posts each, or choose premium plans with additional features.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a tool used mostly for Pinterest and Instagram accounts. It can help you schedule posts and measure their effects. It also provides recommendations on how you can improve your content. You can try it for free (for a limited time) before you decide if it works for you.
TweetDeck
If you need a social media posting service for Twitter only, then TweetDeck might be ideal for you. TweetDeck is a free tool that allows you to schedule tweets for your business.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it–all the info you need to choose the social media posting service just right for you. In case you need a more personalized approach, get in touch with us for a social media posting strategy call. Together, we can improve your social media strategy and help your business grow in no time!
