Timing In Social Media Matters

We all know the maxim that timing is everything. Sometimes it’s the difference between a campaign that works and one that flops. Timing is about being relevant but also being ready to jump when an opportunity presents itself.

For many of us in the nonprofit sphere, getting the timing right can be overwhelming.  As with everything we do, we’re doing it with a limited staff, on a limited budget. We fear that keeping track of everything that’s going on in the world or preparing for scenarios that might never happen isn’t feasible.  But the truth is that there are ways to get the timing right that are easy to implement, won’t take up too much time, and can have a big impact.

As TakeTwo’s social media guru, I want to focus on the importance of timing on social media and how not to get overwhelmed with the pure up-to-the-minute-what-is-trending-today hectic-ness of it all. It’s easy to dive in and feel like there’s no way you have time to do it all and there’s no way you can keep up. The good news: you don’t have to. In many ways, being focused and timely is better than being everywhere at once.

1. First, let’s talk about Twitter. There are tens of thousands of conversations happening every day. There’s no way you can be part of them all. But tracking a few key hashtags – and scrolling through these posts once or twice a day – is a great way to keep up with what’s going on in your field and will help you enter the conversations most critical to your mission. You might find out about a relevant Tweet-up or find a group of people debating an issue that’s important to you. Once you’re following key people and have your favorite hashtags saved, searching out these conversations doesn’t take much time, and making the extra effort up front helps keep you in the loop on what matters most to your organization.
2. Second, let’s talk about grabbing opportunities before they pass you by.  Say you work at the Red Cross. The time to solicit donations is right when a tragedy happens – not weeks later. There’s nothing worse than getting the timing wrong and missing out on an opportunity to help your core constituency. You can bet those folks are ready to go with press and campaign plans that can be adapted to various scenarios. And you can bet that they’ve thought about how to integrate social media in a compassionate and thoughtful way. Even worse than missing a chance to do good is sending out a message that’s perceived as irrelevant or offensive. As always, remember that social media is like any other social interaction – if you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online either. (And you know this, but please don’t incorporate a hashtag – let’s say “#housefire” when a local building goes up in flames – just because #housefire is trending, unless you have something really, really relevant to say.)
3. Finally, here’s a word about programs like Hootsuite or TweetDeck: these are wonderful time savers that allow you to set up posts to go out at a later date. I highly recommend them, especially for the busy staffer who takes on social media as only one component of his or her job. However, they can cause trouble if you’ve set up a post that suddenly becomes inappropriate with breaking news. Imagine if your historical society had scheduled to post a photo of Wild West gunslingers the day after the Newtown massacre. You forgot it was posting, and now you look like callous jerks. So even though you’re scheduling things days – even weeks – in advance, check in on your platforms and remind yourself what you’ve set up.

Being timely takes some thought and preparation, but just remember that you don’t have to do it all. Just a little bit of both can help keep you on point.