Synchronizing your times
If you schedule things across more than one platform, it’s important to make sure that your time zones are accurate.
They need to all be the same across the board, and you need to make sure the time zone reflects where you are.
It sounds elementary, but it’s important to check! If you have a blog post scheduled to publish at 10 AM, and a social media update linking to that blog goes out at 8 AM that day, that link won’t work for two hours. Which could be pretty awkward.
Here’s a real-life example from a client of ours. She had already set up her own MailChimp account and WordPress site before we started working with her. The first month we helped her, she had a newsletter and blog post scheduled to go out near the same time one morning.
When we got to work that day, we discovered that they had both gone out—but an hour before we’d expected! It turned out that her website and her MailChimp account were in the same time zone, but it was the wrong time zone!
For us and for many of our clients, the three places to make sure the time zones are accurate are the website, Hootsuite, and MailChimp.
Website
For WordPress websites, go to your website’s dashboard. Choose the “Settings” tab, and click “General.” From there, scroll until you reach the time zone settings and make sure they look good.
Hootsuite
To make sure your time zone is accurate in Hootsuite, log in and access your dashboard. Scroll down to “Settings.” In the “Account” section, in the “Profile” tab, you’ll be able to adjust your time zone.
MailChimp
MailChimp does things a bit differently. They automatically determine your time zone based on your location. But when you schedule an individual newsletter, it’s always a good idea to check the time zone in that menu to make sure the newsletter goes out when you expect it to.
Being consistent in your online marketing signals that you are a trustworthy organization. Planning is a really helpful tool for consistency, but only if your scheduled content goes out when you expect it to! Making sure your time zones are accurate across all your platforms can help you do that.