Have you been preparing for summer? It’s going to be here soon! One of the best ways to free up time is to automate the systems in your business. Of course, there are ways to connect lots of systems together, but that can be complicated. Let’s take a look at a few simple ways to make your life easier and free up time immediately using scheduling.
If you aren’t using these 3 ways to automate your scheduling, consider getting them up and running.
Online Appointment Scheduling
Your business uses systems, why not find ways for those systems to really work for you? One simple solution would be to automate scheduling appointments. Use an online calendar to automate scheduling appointments for clients or prospects. People can select their own day and time from your online calendar; no more back-and-forth emails. Here are a few systems you could use:
Blog and Newsletter Scheduling
Write your blogs early and set them up to publish when you are on vacation. You can do the same for your newsletters.
If your blog is a WordPress website, it’s easy to schedule posts to publish at a later day and time. Here’s how:
- When you are finished writing your draft, look over to your Publish panel on the right side of your screen. Find Publish immediately and click Edit.
- The Publish panel will expand and you will be able to select the date and time for your post to publish. Once you enter your selection, click the OK button.
- Click the Schedule button. That’s it!
Newsletters are simple to schedule too. Each system has its own method for scheduling. Normally you will find it after you are finished saving your draft. You’ll have the option to Send Now or Schedule.
Social Media Scheduling
Another way to maximize your time is to schedule your social media posts. Now, I’m not talking about ALL of your posts, I’m talking about your planned content. These are the posts you share at various parts of the day: your tips, your blog promotions, and even articles you think your ideal client might find valuable. Then, you can spend your daily time concentrating on what’s really important, engaging with others.
Here are a couple of tools that you can use for social media scheduling:
Remember, nothing can replace engagement. If your account looks like a robot is posting, people will know. So, go ahead and schedule your planned content, but make sure you take the time to engage with others. I find setting a timer daily for 10-15 minutes helps me make time yet not get lost down the rabbit hole.
These simple scheduling automations can free up your time and put some of the basics on autopilot. Even though we’re talking about summer planning, these automations can help you year-round.
Hi Amanda,
Yes, a combination of scheduled tweets/posts and real-time engagement work best for social media. Nothing replaces engagement, as you say.
And I love the timer, too! Old school egg timer for the win!
Carol Stephen
Hi Carol,
Thanks for stopping by. Egg timer! Love it! It does work!
~Amanda
Hi Amanda,
After I comment on a blog post, one thing that I really hate is to have my comment approved after a long period of time. One week (or even more) is a long period of time. I’ll make sure not to comment again.
So… here’s a question: if the bloggers schedule the posts and disappear, who will approve and reply to comments? 🙂
Hi Adrian,
Great question. I recommend that you have another person review comments in your absence – maybe a team member or a virtual assistant. I know it’s not automated.
One option might be to adjust your comment moderation settings to not hold the comment for moderation if the person has had a previously approved comment. It could still be off-putting for the person to wait for a reply if they asked a question.
Thank you for taking the time to ask a question! I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long. We just had a holiday weekend. 🙂
~Amanda
Hi Amanda,
“One option might be to adjust your comment moderation settings to not hold the comment for moderation if the person has had a previously approved comment.”
1) An approved comment doesn’t guarantee that the rest of the comments are acceptable.
2) The spammers know that some bloggers use that setting. See the consequence here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1962605703964582/permalink/1976518435906642/
It’s an example of spammer who used one of my commenter’s name and email address.
“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”
The major problem isn’t the waiting time. But the fact that there’s no way to subscribe to replies. That’s a big NO-NO. If you do care about your commenters, put yourself in their shoes.
So… I asked a question, I’m waiting for a reply. But you don’t send notifications. Not even a simple tweet, “Hey, Adrian, I replied to your comment.”
It’s easy to figure what I had to do in order to see your reply… To waste my time and check from time to time your blog post.
Is that acceptable? A huge NO. I was curious to see what you’ll respond and I did it, I wasted my time. But in 99.99% of the cases I don’t do it. And I never come back.
Hi Adrian,
Thank you for coming back and sharing your wisdom. I really appreciate it.
I did not even think about spammers taking advantage of that setting. My eyes are open now and settings changed.
You’re right. It’s not acceptable to expect anyone to leave a comment and assume they will waste their time checking to see if they get a reply. I know I probably wouldn’t even remember to check. I did not realize that you couldn’t subscribe to comments on my blog. It used to be there, but it must have been missed when we did a redesign. I have since corrected it. HUGE thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Since you are not subscribed, I will send you a tweet. I hope you will come back again. I really do appreciate your insight.
~Amanda