How to Schedule Your Facebook Posts

Now, we all know how important having a great Facebook fan page can be for your business.  You can direct your customers to "Like" you so they can be kept up to date on your specials, exclusive offers, and so much more!  However, the downfall of many (or at least me) is that we can forget to post something on our page at least once a day.  Even if you post an inspiring quote or a funny cartoon (nothing political or sexual, mind you), it keeps people seeing that you are posting and that keeps them interested.
Recently, I logged into my Facebook fan page for the first time in "I don't know" (Note:  This points out my major problem, I can always think of something to promote, but I often forget to do it!) and I noticed a new feature - Scheduling!  I leapt for joy.  Now I can make my page work for me!
The ability to schedule your posts is going to change your page if you actually do it.  A little research tells me that posts can be scheduled up to 6 months in advance, but you don't want to be doing this.  Jamberry changes too often to do more than 2-3 months without checking in and adding things.  Even then, you should expect a few hours if you're going to schedule that many posts!  This is a great way to keep customers aware of products, even while you take a holiday break!  So, here's what you're going to do the next time you have a couple of hours.  It doesn't take a ton of concentration, you could even watch a movie!

1.  Navigate to your Facebook fan page.  Note:  This is different than your regular Facebook profile.  If need be, I'll post a tutorial on how to create your own page sometime in the future.
   
   
2. Create the post you intend.  I put a tip for you in the box.  No matter what you're putting up, whether it has to do with Jamberry or not, ALWAYS give your client your website.  That way, they always have a link to it on their timeline somewhere.
   
3. After you've created your post, click the clock in the lower left-hand corner.
   
4. A new line will appear with scheduling options!
   
5. Click the date and a calendar will pop up to help you schedule your post for someday in the future.
   
6. Once you've selected your date, you can specify a time for the post to go out.  This can be determined at 5 minute intervals.  Two things to keep in mind:
   The time you choose is your own time zone.
   If you don't schedule a time, it will automatically schedule as the same time you create the post on the date you chose.  For example, if you're typing your post at 10:45 AM and schedule it for Christmas day without a time.  It will post at 11:00 AM on December 25.
   
   
7. Notice above that, if I type "5" into the box, Facebook assumes that I'm referring to 5 PM instead of 5 AM.  Good guess on Facebook's part, unless you have a ton of friends who don't sleep.  If you want to change whether the post goes out in the morning, keep typing and, eventually, you'll be allowed to select between AM and PM.
   
   
8. Now that you've created and scheduled your post, all that's left is to Schedule it!
   
    
9. A neat little box will come up telling you that you have successfully scheduled your post and that you can find it any time in your Activity Log.  Your Activity Log is available from this notification or at the top of your page under "Edit."
   
10. When you look in the activity log, you'll see all of the posts you've scheduled and the last few you've actually posted. In the upper-right hand corner of each post, you'll find a carrot.  I drew it in because I could not for the life of me get it to actually appear in a screen shot.
    
11. Clicking on that carrot will give you options for that post such as changing the date and time, publishing right now, or deleting the post all together.