Do you want to take your engagements to the next level?
Then you need to know how to create a social media calendar like a boss.
Businesses are using social media calendars to determine the best way they can show up in front of their target audience.
So that they can plan their engagements weeks ahead ensuring that they get the maximum number of impressions.
In this article, we will discuss what a social media calendar is, its importance, its benefits, and five steps that will help you own the calendar like a boss!
What is a social media calendar?
These calendars are put together to give you a picture of what you plan to talk about or promote on your platforms.
Just like our personal calendars, this visual tool can be used to help you strategize your content and its release.
Components of a quality calendar include the date and time the post will be shared, identification of platform, and the images, article, or creative content posted. You may also want to keep the links or tags that could help it get more visibility or generate leads.
Plus, it can come in handy during the feedback session afterward.
Why is a social media calendar important?
How many of us have sat in front of our screen wondering what to post or how to even say it?
A lot.
While this calendar may meet daily and short-term goals, we have to recognize that tits effective use will help us in the long term.
You get to take advantage of sudden spurts of energy and plan posts in advance.
Here’s why we recommend you plan your content in advance.
First of all, you’ll be able to publish your content at just the right time.
Publish your post to build excitement around a campaign or let your audience know about events that they can expect.
When you are timely about sending campaign information, you can also prepare to reach more people and follow up on any questions others may ask about it. To publish on time, you have thought about the month, day of the week, and even minor details like time.
Another reason to create one is to make sure that your content is relevant. How many of us quickly fall into the trap of procrastination?
We might have taken so much time prepping for spring cleaning, only to realize that summer is here, and the image might not fit into what you’re talking about.
Let’s remember that what you’re posting will also lead to indirect or passive leads.
You want to make sure that you are relevant so that others can see your commitment to keeping connected. This is not only a marketing strategy, but engaging with an audience will further help you develop your business with the most up-to-date feedback or engagement from your posts.
The third benefit of having a social media calendar is building rapport and trust with your customers. It is not only about watching the seasons or social events, but consistently posting will allow your target audience to know that you are available.
Loyal customers will look forward to your posts. For new ones, they will pick up on how active you are with your customers. They will see that the content you are sharing is relevant and meets their needs or wants.
Five steps to creating a social media calendar— and crushing it!
Know Your WHO
Be clear on who your target audience is and make efforts to understand them. Think about their pain points.
Discover where they go on social media to find advice, enjoyment, or even a sense of belongingness.
By understanding their wants, needs, and social habits, you can zone in on specific content and platform that you can focus on. Remember that focus is more important than casting your energy everywhere with little fruit.
If you are already on different social media platforms, you may want to do an audit instead. An audit will help you determine what is going well for you.
Look into the content that your audience engages with, what time they are online, or even the platforms they are in. Next, determine where the gaps are in your service. Take a look at where and when there is low engagement.
Check to see if you are publishing promptly, relevant, or communicating and building trust. Lastly, you will want to brainstorm and strategize ways that you can improve yourself. Look at your highlights. Look at your gaps. Determine steps that you can take to address those gaps and turn them into highlights.
Focus and Organize Content
Since you have already established your WHO, you must engage them through meaningful content.
If you are wondering what to post, ask your WHO.
Provide quizzes, take a poll, or engage them in focused group discussions. The output from there can help you identify content, and with the social media calendar, strategically organize when you have it published.
Also, consider what the goal behind your post is. Is it to share information, educate them on a particular topic, or for them to be entertained?
Using any of these tactics is just as crucial as offering information about your business or the product you are selling.
Another tip is to take your content and organize them by putting them into different categories. Are you going to create a blog post? Will you share a video? Perhaps you’ll share weekly tips? Are you going to quote someone important in the industry you are in? Place them in different categories so you won’t overwhelm the audience with too many blog posts, and they can enjoy reels or quick tutorial videos within the week as an example.
There will be some ideas that won’t be used while brainstorming.
Or perhaps, after you have published, you thought of another, or customer feedback helped you see that you needed to create a short how-to video to answer their query. It is best to write these content ideas down in one place to review continually and perhaps publish later.
Set Your Publishing Schedule
The next thing you will want to do is to schedule when they will be published.
This will allow you to prepare the content that is needed, prioritize, and develop content before the deadline. It will be up to you whether you want to plan monthly or even in advance so that you can also start thinking about the special holidays that are coming up and how your topics can align with them.
Setting schedules also help you juggle deadlines to prepare for large campaigns.
When is the best time to publish?
Research when is the best time to post for the industry you are in.
You may also want to consider when the competition posts as well. The time to post on social media is also crucial. You want to post when your audience is most active to engage or has time to be scrolling on your content.
The goal of this is to make sure that you are visible to your customers. Without visibility, there will be no brand awareness, which affects your lead generation and promise of profit increase.
Maximize Use of Platforms
Remember when you were asked to discover what platform your WHO is in? Some tools can help you post the same content on different platforms. For example, you can post on Facebook and Instagram simultaneously. Talk about working smarter!
You do not need to recreate content for your platforms. There may be times when the format needs to be changed depending on the forum, but the message you bring can be consistent.
You will be able to save time and be efficient when you have already pre-identified which platforms you will be working on.
Monitor and Evaluate
Regardless of how long your business’s online presence has been, remember that setting social media metrics will also help you determine your priorities and values and help you make decisions that will help you grow along with your customers.
If you do not have metrics for social media, you need to come up with what indicators you want to use to track your progress. Metrics are important to keep objective in making decisions for your business. It will also give you another perspective or feedback about what your customer says about you.
A calendar can provide feedback on some metrics. Once your posts are published, you can determine which post is keeping your audience engaged. Are they commenting, reacting, or clicking on links you set before them? Some may suggest taking a topic over a week before changing it. In this way, you can also see which clicks with your viewers. Are you posting at the best time for your viewers?
Essential things to look for:
- Brand awareness
- Audience growth rate
- Post reach
- Engagement metrics
Remember, you can’t growth hack if you don’t track!
Takeaways When You Create a Social Media Calendar
A social media calendar helps you leverage time.
It gives you enough leeway to get posts ready, examine what the competition and adapt to it, while at the same time putting your posts on automatic release.
That’s critical.
The only thing you can’t get back is time.
How do you make the best use of it?
Planning.
