You’ve heard it a million times “ You should use a social media scheduler!” and today we are breaking down the pros & cons to scheduling your pins, Instagram posts and/or Facebook posts so you can decide if it’s something that will work for you.
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Pros of using a Scheduler
There are a lot of great things about using a scheduler for your social media platforms. Personally, I think they outweigh the cons but let’s go through the list of pros first so you can see how best a scheduler can be used.
Scheduling saves TIME
Time is money! One of our most important and sometimes expensive asset that we have is time. We never seem to have enough of it. Now, one way to “buy more time” is by using a social media scheduler. You don’t always have to use the paid version of these apps. In fact, the free version will do a great job up to a certain number of posts or pins. Personally, I pay for Tailwind for both Instagram and Pinterest. It adds up to about $120 per year for each platforms. However, I am saving anywhere from 5 -10 hours per week by scheduling and if my hourly rate is worth $100/hr, then I think this scheduler is well worth it!
The other thing to ask yourself, as a business owner, is: “where is your time best spent?”. For me, I run two businesses and I want to make sure my time is best spent on client work or content creation to attract new clients. I do think having a social media presence is important but it’s not where I should spend the valuable time.
Scheduling give you access to Analytics
Another cool thing about using a scheduler is that you gain access to more analytics. That can be engagement trends, follower demographics, keyword & hashtag analysis, etc. You can then figure out what pins and posts do better than others and curate your content accordingly. I put together a blog post about the 3 Most Important Pinterest Analytics that you should take a look at if you’re interested in growing your Pinterest account.
Scheduling gives you access to Perks
I can’t speak for all schedulers but on Tailwind, you get access to something super valuable which is Tailwind Tribes. In a nutshell, Tailwind Tribes is a community of like minded Pinners or contributers. If you add one of your Pins to a Tribe and it is repinned by another contributer, you have the opportunity to be seen by A LOT of users because you’re tapping into the other Pinners viewers. I created a Tailwind Tribe for Adventurous Weddings & Events (since I am in the wedding industry) which you can join for free!
If you do join Tailwind Tribes and you’re a little overwhelmed by it all, I encourage you to check out my new course that’s only $27, Tailwind Pro Mini Course. I walk you through the most important features and how I use it to 10x my Pinterest traffic!
Cons to scheduling your pins
So you read the pros, now it’s time to hear about the cons of using a scheduler. Like I mentioned before, I think the pros greatly outweigh the cons in this situation but it depends on what you’re wanting to get out of a scheduler and what’s most important to you.
Scheduling gets lower engagement
I tested this out myself and I’m a bit torn. When I started using a social media scheduler for Instagram specifically, I did noticed that I would get less likes and comments than if I uploaded directly from the platform. That being said, it’s not like I get zero likes when I use my scheduler. I went back and forth on this for a while and ultimately decided to keep scheduling my posts because that way it shows consistency and saves me so much valuable time.
On the other hand, if you’re scheduling your Pins, my engagement has been great when I use Tailwind. They are actually a direct partner with Pinterest so you’re not getting penalized for using this exact scheduler. Highly recommend!
Scheduling isn’t always relevant
I’ve seen happen on other accounts where something big in the world would happen and while everyone is talking about that event on social media, a few accounts had their scheduled Instagram posts running like normal and were completely out of place. If you’re going to schedule posts, especially on Instagram, you have to be able to react quickly to what’s happening in the world around you. I just schedule 7 days in advance so that I can still talk about relevant topics every week.
This is definitely not something that would deter me from using a social media scheduler but it’s something to keep in mind as you use it.
Scheduling may make you sound like a robot
If you “batch work” and sit down for a few hours to write out all your upcoming posts and pins, you may start to sound like a robot. It’s easy to get stuck and get “writer’s block” at some point. What you want to avoid are posts like “here is a beautiful bouquet”. That does not help anyone. Instead, think about how you can maybe bring value to your audience (especially on Instagram when the story matters). Create a post that leaves people wanting to read more or even better, wanting them to engage with your post and reply!
I love following Elixir Media on Instagram because she offers TON of free tips on her own Instagram page. I actually hired her last year to help me create a better Instagram strategy and it helped a lot.
So, what do you think? Are social media schedulers worth it? I definitely think so because right now it’s all about how to best organize your time and social media is NOT where I was to focus my precious hours.
Let me know what you think in the comments below! If you want to continue to be super productive, I recommend checking out my blog My Productive Pandemic Schedule next!
Gabby