I don’t think Kevan Lee has cloned himself.
Lee works for Buffer, where he’s responsible for creating a lot of the amazing content on the company’s marketing blog. He also tweets a lot–including at off-hours.
A3: I’m a big fan of posting at non-peak times (nights/wknds), I know others love posting when traffic is high (weekdays)! #bufferchat
— Kevan Lee (@kevanlee) September 23, 2015
You know this caught my attention.
My response to him: “The downside is you’re not there to respond. (Unless you never sleep.)”
Schedule for your audience.
I wrote a post a few months ago about scheduling versus automation. In it, I wrote about my distaste for automation, and how it thus took me a while to understand that I could schedule social media posts and still be present.
For me, this means primarily week days.
First, I find it silly to see a whole bunch of links to business (or marketing, manufacturing, or other “work” related) articles from people whose core audience clearly isn’t working at 9:00 p.m. or on a Sunday afternoon. When everyone else is in shared no-work mode, they’re pushing their stuff.
Second, it’s pretty clear in most cases that the people themselves are offline. Try responding and see what happens. See? No response.
Sometimes your audience is omnipresent.
Buffer’s audience is global. And Lee and the rest of the Buffer team is dispersed across the globe. They’re especially present on Twitter — at all hours. Day. Night. (Or maybe my night, your day.)
It makes sense for Buffer to tweet at “non-peak” times. They’re not really non-peak.
The question is: what makes sense for you?
It’s not about traffic.
If you’re thinking about traffic (or eyeballs, or counting clicks), you’re missing the point.
It’s easy to get traffic. Write “list” posts. Write “the #1 guaranteed way to get traffic to your site.” Give away free swag. Offer people porn. (Okay, maybe not.) My point: Getting eyeballs is like buying “friends” online. It’s easy, but generally disconnected from your business goals.
I don’t post primarily during the work day because I can generate more traffic. I post on weekdays because my community is online then. And they’re focused on work, not just sports, TV, fashion, kids, and the other stuff that makes them tick.
It’s about being relevant. And, in my book, being present too.
Feature photo by LoopZilla (Flickr); Railroad Station by AR88 (Flickr).
