In this post, our Head of Social, Elena Rosewell will show you how to schedule a Facebook post. As well as addressing how Facebook has changed over the years, also providing some insight as to where she thinks the platform will go moving into the new year.

Social media continues to be a powerful tool to use for businesses, with Facebook being one of the pioneers for marketers, changing the landscape on how all social platforms have been used to market a brand. In this post, I’ll be showing you how to schedule a Facebook post along with how the Facebook landscape has changed over the years.

How has Facebook impacted businesses marketing over the years?

Facebook has really impacted businesses marketing over the years, helping them move into the digital era from your more typical methods such as flyers and brochures. These methods have all migrated over to online platforms through your Facebook profile and your social media. It has also reinvented the way that we talk to and communicate with customers.

Facebook and other social media platforms have made customer service much more accessible. Allowing you to build relationships with customers as well as being able to reach new audiences as well. Reaching new audiences can be done through Facebook ads as well as the Facebook organic platform itself.

So, in terms of changing the way that marketing looks, Facebook has definitely been one of the pioneers for change – especially over the last 10 years.

The Facebook app on an iPhone with a person liking a post to show how Facebook has impacted business marketing over the years.

Why is a Facebook schedule so important?

Having an upload schedule for Facebook is always important. Sticking with an upload schedule allows your audience to start to expect updates at certain times throughout the day or whenever your schedule may be. Your audience might be checking your page for an update as you may currently have a sale that’s live on the website and your audience might want an update.

It’s also good to keep to a schedule for the Facebook algorithm. You want to post regularly to improve the chances of being seen on Facebook. It’s important to note, however, that it isn’t about quantity – it’s about consistency.

When it comes to finding out what the best time is to upload a post on Facebook, this can be done by looking into your insights to see what the best performing times are for your Facebook page.

This can be accessed through the creator studio which is Facebook’s scheduling tool. You can also access that information through your own scheduling software as you might use the likes of:

There are multiple ways that you can decide what’s best for your brand.

It’s always best to go with the time when your most active users are online. The various times may depend on your industry, your brand and your audience or demographic.

The Facebook website with a social media marketer logging in on their MacBook with a latte in clear glass.

When is the best time to post updates?

Deciding when is the best time to post ultimately does come down to your industry. But in general, I would say the best time to post would be between 9 am and 1 pm UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. These tend to be the best performing days. Whereas the worst day for posting is usually a Saturday which can be quite surprising. But it does depend on your industry.

So, if you’re targeting middle-aged women with children for example. You are not going to want to post during the school run time because that’s when they’re least likely to be looking on their phones. You may want to try posting after dinner or during the working day. Thinking of when your audience is most likely to see your post is what you need to experiment with and base your scheduling around your findings.

A Facebook post with someone liking the post to show how like reactions work on Facebook.

How will the Facebook landscape change moving into the new year?

Due to our world being ever-changing, the demographic of Facebook is always changing also. So, when Facebook first hit the mainstream, the perception was that it was a very young platform and maybe something that parents aren’t likely to use. But as the younger generations have moved onto other platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok – the demographic for Facebook has changed with this.

It’s important to be aware of who is using the platform at all times, this will impact when you post, what you’re posting and how you should post. Another thing that will change is the type of content being consumed and at what times.

For example, video content has had a massive spike over the last year and a half, where everyone is wanting to consume more and more video content. Now, when you post video content will depend on how long the content is. For example, if you have a 20-minute video, you’re going to want to post that at a time when people have 20 minutes to watch a video. Whereas if you’re posting a short 32-second video then that really can be posted at any time.

It’s crucial to know what content right now is trending, what’s doing well and who is using the platform.

The digital age has made us a very restless society. So that we always want something new as we get bored very easily. So typically long-form video isn’t performing as well, whereas TikTok videos are 30 seconds maximum. The growth of TikTok alone speaks for how well the platform has done since its inception, as it truly demonstrates that people want short-form, impactful content that they can digest and move on to.

The Facebook app being opened on an iPhone with a social media assistant preparing to schedule a post.

How to schedule a Facebook post?

There are many ways you can schedule a Facebook post. You can either do it within Facebook’s own system which is called Creator Studio, or you can use your own apps such as Hootsuite or Sked.

To schedule the posts through Creator Studio, there are a few ways of doing it. You’ll just need to go onto your page on Facebook and then on the left-hand side, you should see an option to access Creative Studio and simply click on there.

Once you click the Creator Studio button, you can create a post. From that, once you’ve created your post it’ll give you an option of when you want to post it. You can set a date and time of when you want that post to go live on the newsfeed.

You can upload anything from videos, photos, links and you can tag partners in it as well. The only thing that you cannot schedule are reels to Instagram, and you can’t schedule fast comments which might be something your business needs. However, there are other scheduling platforms with that ability.