We are always looking for ways to get more things done with fewer resources. If you’re like most publishers, everybody is stretched thin and covering a lot of ground. Then, someone goes out of town. What do you do? How can you keep the ship running with fewer hands on deck? The first thing you should do is automate your social media posts.

Don’t have an AI social media software? It may be time. But let’s help you get your staff through a vacation.

Determine how much content you’ll be able to produce.

Be honest. How many people are on your team? If you have four people and you’re down to three for a week, cut your production estimate accordingly.

Don’t overwork your staff. You don’t want to risk quality dipping and deterring potential audience/clients. Honestly, assess what you can create with your temporary limitations.

Take an inventory of your evergreen content.

You probably have a bank of evergreen content. If not, you should probably take the time to create one. This will be a key part of getting through holidays, vacations, and any other slow period. Here are some examples:

• Explainers: In a newsroom? Chances are you’re covering a lot of the same topics every year. It could be worth creating some broader explainer or “did you know” style content that can benefit from easy repurposing every year. Videos, articles, slideshows, and other multimedia integrations are all great ways to These are great because they can be added to several articles to enhance the experience and grow views.
  • Example: Hurricane categories and other terminology explained

• Holiday content: This can go in many different directions, but most publications have content surrounding specific holidays. Depending on your outlet, recipe content, traditions, historical pieces, movie and music highlights, and local lore may be the right places to start.
  • Example: Why do we hang Christmas stockings?

• Audience favorites: Spend time learning what your audience loves. Are they into ghost stories and creepy content? Do they like travel-specific content? Specific celebrities? Maybe they’re political and engage with issue explainers or graphics. You’re going to want to keep track of stories that you can resurface from time to time for that niche. You’ll also want to be on the lookout for evergreen content that you can create to keep your pool of content growing.

How much evergreen do you need?

If you’re a newsroom posting new content to Facebook every hour, and you suddenly lose six posts per day, you’ll need to fill the gaps somehow. You don’t want your social media consistency to suffer.

In this example, you’ll want to take 4-6 evergreen posts and schedule them throughout the day to lighten the posting load. If you need 4-6 posts a day for a week, you’re going to need anywhere from 28-42 evergreen posts in your bank. 

Automate everything

This is going to be the most important part of the puzzle. You’ll need a good AI scheduler like True Anthem to automate your social media posts. If you don’t have one, you can schedule your evergreen in advance. The problem is that you’ll still need staffing to schedule what’s being produced day to day.

Automating your social media posts can lighten your day to day load immensely. Once you set it up, True Anthem’s software builds a customized posting schedule based on trends, the available content, and website traffic, and you can refine the queue with categories, tags, and keywords.

Even when you aren’t short a team member, automating your social media is an opportunity to lighten the load and let your staff innovate. Why pay someone to do what we can do for you? Your staff hours are better spent on high touch tasks like content creation, engaging with an audience, and strategy.

Are you interested in planning for your team’s future? Set up a demo today. Also, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to get the latest social media news right to your inbox!