Social media gives people a simple, stress-free way to share information – or at least that’s how it started. Today, event social media managers often feel the anxiety of developing and posting content in a way that boosts event awareness. On a seemingly endless task list, generating a Twitter or Facebook post can feel like grunt work. Instead of taking time out of your busy day to get creative and upload a post, consider prescheduling solutions that allow you to set it and forget it.

Why Preschedule Event Posts? 

Event planning can get hectic, particularly close to the event date. Planning teams often run around at the last minute confirming orders, inspecting event spaces, and communicating with participants. They don’t typically have the time or the desire to craft and post compelling social media content.

Prescheduling gives busy professionals an alternative to constant social vigilance. With the right background information, social media managers can work on posts when they have the time and then place them in a publishing queue. Depending on the site, you may be able to schedule status updates, videos, shared content, and photos for future posts. With the information ready to go, you’ve now opened up 15 minutes of time here and 20 minutes of time there that you can use to confirm registrant name capitalization or discuss last-minute changes with the caterer.

In addition to convenience, prescheduling also creates time for research. Instead of wracking your brain for a last minute status update, you can use social monitoring tools to analyze topics, track audience activity trends, and find a spark of inspiration. With the background research ready, you can schedule a piece of relevant content to go live when you know users will most likely see it.

How Much Content Should You Preschedule?

While prescheduling content takes the stress off social media campaigns, it doesn’t eliminate the need for a personal touch. Social media managers should still make time to engage with users on social media platforms and stay up to date with daily posts and activities. If you schedule content too far in advance, things can fall apart. A prescheduled post could lose meaning if event circumstances change; it could confuse invitees, or it could expose the use of automation.

Prescheduling works best when it appears organic and authentic. Social media managers can use scheduling tools and social media best practices to determine the right intervals for posting.

How Does Prescheduling Work?

Some social media sites offer basic prescheduling functionality within the platform. When you post, explore optional features to place individual posts on timers. Since event organizers may handle multiple social media accounts at once, site-specific schedulers tend to fall short of expectations. Instead, many use a tool called Buffer.

Buffer is compatible with Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Users can preschedule written content, photos, and videos for future publication on any or all of the compatible social media platforms and edit the queue as needed. For event planners, the user-friendly tool delivers last-minute freedom. For speakers, it offers an opportunity to engage with audiences in real time. Schedule posts to coincide with a speech, or to follow it, and deliver timely and relevant information to followers.

The mobile and web-based tool goes beyond scheduling to deliver added value through analytics. If you were always worried about the right time to schedule a post, use the tool to understand audience engagement patterns and optimize your schedule or content.