Picture this, you schedule Facebook posts ahead of time, and suddenly, you’ve got all the extra time on your hands! Sounds great, isn’t it?
Assuming you have a business page on Facebook, there are a two different ways to schedule your posts:
Scheduling Facebook posts can help you save time, ensure your content is published when your audience is most engaged, and help you post consistently when you’re managing multiple social media accounts at the same time.
When you schedule posts in advance, you can be more organized with your social media content calendar even if you’re not in the same time zone as your Facebook followers.
Posting engaging content regularly is crucial for building an active audience on Facebook But finding time to create and share fresh posts daily can be challenging for page owners and business markets, That’s where scheduling your Facebook posts comes in handy!
Scheduling allows you to plan and write posts in advance, then set the exact date and time you want them to publish automatically. This approach provides consistency without constantly logging in.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to fully utilize Facebook’s scheduling tools for Pages, profiles, and Groups. Follow these best practices to engage your followers, reach more users, and save time managing your Facebook presence.
Why Schedule Facebook Posts?
Here are the main reasons to start scheduling some or all of your Facebook content:
-
Convenience – Create posts whenever you want without worrying about logging in to publish. Schedule a batch of posts at once.
-
Consistency – Keep a steady stream of content flowing by scheduling multiple future posts in advance
-
Optimal timing – Analyze when your followers are most active and schedule posts for those high traffic times.
-
Workload balancing – Reduce stress by writing posts periodically rather than daily Schedule them to publish on a consistent calendar.
-
Traveling – Queue posts if you’ll be away from home and unable to access Facebook as usual.
Scheduling is especially useful for businesses and creators managing multiple Facebook Pages and profiles. But even casual users can benefit from the convenience of planning posts in advance.
How to Schedule Regular Facebook Posts
Scheduling standard Facebook posts with text, images, or videos is simple:
-
Create your post as usual, including any images, videos, hashtags, @mentions, or stickers. Write the content and insert any links.
-
Click Schedule below your post instead of Post.
-
Select the date and exact time to publish your post in the future. You can schedule up to 6 months out.
-
Click Schedule to confirm your selected date/time. The post will now publish automatically at that time.
Things to know about scheduled regular posts:
-
They appear in your activity log with a small clock icon and the scheduled date/time.
-
You can edit or delete scheduled posts before the publish time.
-
Make sure your account stays active until the scheduling date to avoid issues.
-
Track your scheduled posts under Publishing Tools > Scheduled Posts.
Regular scheduled posts let you plan your Facebook content in advance with no hassle. Next, let’s look at scheduling Facebook Stories.
Scheduling Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories allow you to share moments, behind-the-scenes glimpses, polls, and more in a fullscreen slideshow format. Stories are a fun way to appear in followers’ feeds without cluttering them with constant posts.
You can create Stories on mobile and use the scheduling tool to set a future publish time within the next 24 hours:
-
Craft your Story using photos, videos, text, stickers, drawings, and interactive elements.
-
Tap the three dots at the top for settings.
-
Choose Schedule and pick a time to post within the next 24 hours.
-
Confirm your scheduled time.
Keep in mind for Facebook Stories:
-
They disappear after 24 hours, so scheduling far in advance isn’t possible.
-
Scheduled Stories won’t automatically send notifications to your followers.
-
You can preview your scheduled Story in Your Story drafts.
-
View scheduled Stories under Publishing Tools > Scheduled Posts.
Smart scheduling of Facebook Stories will make your profile shine!
How to Schedule Facebook Live Videos
Live videos on Facebook are an engaging way to interact with your audience in real time. But you can also schedule live streams in advance:
-
Tap Live at the top of the Facebook app.
-
Give your broadcast a title and description.
-
Tap More Options > Schedule Live Video.
-
Choose a start date and time up to 5 days in advance.
-
Tap Schedule Live Video to confirm.
When scheduling live videos, keep in mind:
-
Facebook will send a reminder notification to your followers right before you go live.
-
You can edit the title, description, scheduled time, and other settings after creating the broadcast.
-
Set a reminder for yourself so you remember to start the live video on time!
-
Your Facebook page or profile must stay active until the scheduled date.
Scheduling live broadcasts ensures you create consistent, high-quality videos your viewers will love!
How to Schedule Facebook Page Posts
Managing a Facebook Page for your business, brand, organization, or as a creator? All the above scheduling techniques work for Pages too.
Here are some additional Page scheduling tips:
-
Analyze your Facebook Page Insights to determine the best times/days when your followers are most active and engaged. Schedule more posts during those windows.
-
Add other Page admins as Schedulers under Page Settings > Page Roles so they can schedule too.
-
Try scheduling a variety of post types – links, photos, videos, and Facebook Live.
-
Space out your scheduled posts consistently to avoid flooding followers’ feeds.
Strategic scheduling will take your Facebook Page to the next level and help build your brand community.
Top Scheduling Tools for Facebook
Manually scheduling each post on Facebook can become tedious. That’s where third-party scheduling tools come in handy! Here are some top options:
-
Buffer – Popular social media management platform with an easy Facebook scheduling tool. Offers a free plan.
-
Hootsuite – Leading social media dashboard allowing you to schedule Facebook content. 30 day free trial.
-
Later – Visual Instagram and Facebook scheduler with powerful analytics. Free plan available.
-
Sendible – Social media manager with Facebook scheduling that also handles Twitter and LinkedIn. 14 day free trial.
-
Loomly – User-friendly platform for scheduling Facebook posts as well as Instagram. Free plan offered.
These drag-and-drop tools make scheduling Facebook content simple and efficient. They’re great for managing multiple Pages and profiles.
Facebook Post Scheduling Best Practices
Here are some top tips for success when scheduling your Facebook posts:
-
Test what works – Try posting at different times and on different days to see when your followers are most active. Track the engagement.
-
Balance scheduled and live posts – Don’t over-schedule. Continue to post live content as well.
-
Analyze performance – Check back on your scheduled posts to see which types of content perform best.
-
Preview before scheduling – Review how your post looks on both desktop and mobile before scheduling to the public.
-
Have a backup plan – If unable to access Facebook on the day of a scheduled live video, notify your followers in advance.
-
Check for issues – Occasionally log in to make sure your scheduled posts are publishing on time without problems.
Getting your Facebook scheduling strategy right will take some trial and error. But the effort pays off through stronger engagement and follower growth!
Frequently Asked Questions About Facebook Post Scheduling
Here are answers to some common questions about this feature:
Can I schedule Facebook posts on iPhone/Android?
Yes, the scheduling tools are available on both the Facebook iOS and Android apps. Simply create your post and tap “Schedule” instead of “Post.”
Do scheduled posts notify followers?
Regular scheduled posts will notify followers who have chosen to receive your notifications. But scheduled Stories and Live videos don’t send alerts.
Can I schedule Facebook photo albums?
Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t allow you to schedule the publishing of entire albums. You need to schedule each photo individually.
What happens if I delete a scheduled post?
Deleting a scheduled post removes it completely – it will not post at the planned time. You need to delete posts before they go live.
Get Started Scheduling Your Facebook Posts
Scheduling Facebook content is a game-changer for consistently engaging your followers without constantly logging in.
Use Facebook’s built-in tools or a third-party app to start planning your posts, Stories, and live videos in advance. Analyze your audience’s habits to find the optimal scheduling times.
With a thoughtful scheduling strategy, you can build genuine connections with your Facebook community. They’ll look forward to your timely, engaging posts and become loyal brand advocates.
What types of Facebook posts do you find work best for your audience? Share your top scheduling tips and apps to help fellow marketers!
Schedule a Facebook post on desktop
Step 1: Sign up for free (no credit card required) & create your workspace. Workspaces are dedicated sections for each of your clients or brands.
Step 2: Connect your desired Facebook page. You’ll have to enable access to your Facebook for the Planable app.
Step 3: From your workspace, click Compose and make sure you have the Facebook page selected in the composer.
Step 4: Create your post and Select date and time.
Step 5: Click Schedule.
And voilá! Congrats on your first Facebook scheduled post!
Be creative in advance
The Meta Business Suite App is a great way to publish and schedule posts to your Facebook and Instagram accounts. However, if your needs extend beyond these simple requirements, Planable could be an excellent choice for you.
Here are the main differences between the 2 schedulers:
- Publish content on all Facebook pages at once
With a Facebook management tool like Planable, you can publish content on all your Facebook pages at once. At the moment, you can’t do this with Meta Business Suite, you need to schedule posts on one Facebook page at a time.
- Schedule content for 8 social media platforms
Business Suite only allows you to schedule content on Facebook and Instagram, while Planable allows you to schedule content for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, Google My Business, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
- Collaboration & Approval options
Planable’s Facebook Scheduler has powerful collaboration and approval features with next-to-the-post comments, activity history, and helpful notifications. Our app was built with marketing teams in mind and includes workflow options that vastly speed up your workflow.
Planable offers four different set-ups for approvals:
- None.
- Optional – suitable for Social Media Managers who don’t want to make approvals mandatory.
- Required – a must-have for safety and security, at least one approver needs to approve the post before it can go live.
- Multi-level – any one approval will move the status of the post forward.
With Planable, you can easily recycle evergreen content. Use the recurring post option to schedule the same Facebook post multiple times weeks or months in advance.
- Schedule posts on pages and groups simultaneously
Planable allows you to publish on pages and groups at the same time. At the moment, this is not possible in Meta Business Suite.
The multiple views in Planable offer you the flexibility to view past and upcoming content in different ways. Toggle between Calendar, List, Feed, and Grid views to see all of your content at a glance across 7 different platforms and get a sense of what your content plan looks like across all your pages. The Grid and Feed views allow you to plan your Facebook and Instagram grid and feed, which is currently not possible with Meta Business Suite.
With Planable, you can test different Facebook profile pictures and covers and get them approved by the client before they go live. You can also create mockup Facebook pages if you want to prepare a customer pitch or get more visual.
Planable’s media library allows you to see all your assets in one place and keep track of what’s been used across all platforms. This ensures you’re always on brand and saves you time. You can easily bulk upload all your assets in one go and not worry about tracking down the right assets or pre-approved photos.
Planable has a giphy integration that makes using GIFs easy and fun. You can spice up your scheduled posts with entertaining GIFs that will stop users from scrolling on their feed and boost interactions.
Check out these Hootsuite alternatives that won’t break the bank.
