If you’re looking for a sign to organize your social media content, this is it.
It can be difficult juggling the day-to-day tasks of running a business and thinking about what to post on social media every day. Other tasks take priority, you get busy, and before you know it - you haven’t updated your social media in weeks!
I’m here to tell you that these problems would be solved if you started using a content calendar. Consider it your key to unlock organized and structured social media success.
So, what is a social media content calendar?
A content calendar is a portion of an editorial calendar that focuses on a single function of your marketing plan, in this case, social media. The calendar will outline in detail the content that will be posted during that specific time period.
What should you include in your content calendar?
Content calendars are very flexible and can be as simple or as complex as your brand requires. However, to get you started these are a few things we recommend including:
- Content Topic (what is your post about?)
- Audience (who is your content targeted to?)
- Posts (write out in advance your Instagram caption, Tweet, Facebook message etc.)
- Character count (super helpful to know, especially if you are using Twitter!)
- Links (so you don’t forget to share that super cool article you found)
- Photos (the ones you want to accompany that great caption you wrote)
Best Practices to Consider
Just like with everything else, the more you practice, the better you become. The same goes for content calendars — the more you use them, the more you can learn to tailor it to your brand and use it as effectively as possible. To get the most out of your content calendar when you’re just starting out, here are a few best practices we follow:
- Vary your content topics. For example, if you’re using social media for your baking business, don’t limit your content topics to just talking about cupcakes for a whole month. Change it up and give your audience a reason to keep coming back to your page.
- Check and recheck your spelling and grammar. Tools like Grammarly are a life saver!
- Consider holidays and fun national days. Your baking business may want to post about English Muffins on National English Muffin Day (April 23rd).
- Establish a posting cadence. How many times per week do you want to post, and at what times? Your audience is unique, find out when they are most online and cater your posting frequency to them.
While it may seem daunting to start building a content calendar to organize your social media strategy, it’s something you will 100% thank yourself for later. As a reward for reading this blog, we’ve included a FREE content calendar template that you can download and start using!
