How to Schedule Facebook Posts

Facebook recently added the useful option to schedule a post to appear on a Fan page or a personal profile page.

Whether you use the social media network for personal or business reasons (or both), this tool is handy for users. Facebook has over 500 million active users and over 50 percent of those users (250 million) sign in every day!

The administrative tool enables users to schedule posts for publication at a specified date and time. Previously, businesses relied on third-party applications such as HootSuite to plan out automated shares.

Now, the middle-man application is eliminated for businesses that use Facebook as a primary way to network with clients and potential consumers.

Once you are logged into your FB account, click on the sharing tool. The sharing tool is the box where you update your status and add photo, place, and/or life event information.

Click the clock icon in the lower right-hand corner of the box. The year drop-down box will appear; select the current year or a future one, if available. You can schedule items to appear up to six months in the future.

Next, choose the year, month, day, hour and minute when you want the information to appear. Click Schedule.

The data will automatically post at the selected date and time.

Here are additional details about how tool:

Posts can appear at 15-minute intervals.

You can also schedule past events by choosing from the back-dated years available in the drop-down menu. The share will appear immediately within your page’s timeline based on the chosen date and time.

The back-dated option is useful for companies who want to point out past milestones in the company.

All times correspond to the user’s current time zone.

Facebook continually modifies its appearance, features, and ultimately its usefulness. Although there continue to be privacy concerns about the social media network, the usefulness of the post scheduling tool should not be underestimated for businesses.