Create a Content Schedule: When to Post New Content [Infographic]

Creating new content is a waste if no one sees it.

And unfortunately, due to the nature of social media algorithms, if your content isn’t seen and engaged with soon after you post it, chances are slim that it’ll resurface in your followers’ feeds. This is why having a content schedule is important.

The day, time, and platform on which you’ll publish content can have a big effect on audience engagement, and determine whether your brand is top-of-mind or lost in the noise of the internet. Planning everything in advance means you won’t accidentally miss the times of the week your audience is most active.

You may think that a tight publishing schedule matters less for blog posts and emails than for social media posts, but timing your emails to be at the top of your readers’ inbox the moment they open it is still important. Perhaps a reader would be more likely to open something sitting at the top of their inbox rather than something 20 messages down that came in while they were sleeping. At the very least, it helps to ensure the notification is seen.

What to schedule and when

Our infographic provides a starting point for when to post, publish, or send out content over various platforms. If you don’t know when your audience is most active, you can start with these days and times and adjust as you gather statistics on your audience engagement.

Below are some guidelines for building your publishing schedule.

Find out when your audience is most active

After you start building your audience on these different platforms, you’ll be able to use your data dashboards to see when your audience members are most engaged as opposed to the norms shown in the infographic above.

For example, in Instagram, you can go to Insights within your profile menu, and then click on the Activity and Audience tabs to see when your followers come online. After that, it’s as simple as adjusting your posting schedule to fit.

In your email newsletter software, look through your campaigns to see when most people open the emails you send, and set your sending times to just before then to increase your visibility and open rates.

If a certain platform, like LinkedIn, doesn’t show you these statistics, make a note of when you receive notifications for likes and comments on your content, then shift your publishing schedule to match that.

Schedule content in advance

Keeping track of more than one platform can be time-consuming, especially when you have to publish at different times for each one.

Within WordPress.com, you can choose what day and time you want a blog post to publish. In addition, almost all email newsletter tools will let you write and schedule emails in advance, so you don’t have to live on the computer just to hit the “send” button at all hours of the day.

You can lean on a number of WordPress.com plugins to automate all kinds of activity.

Don’t get complacent

Once you pin down a content schedule that works well for your audience, you’ll notice more people coming to your website and engaging with your content. Check your data every so often to make sure you’re still posting at the best times for your audience as it grows and develops.

Following these simple tips as you build out your online presence puts you on the path to establish a loyal following that will be with you for the long haul!