Your social media calendar is a guide to content production and publication. Once you have completed your social media strategy you can begin to plan your content. The first step you will take is identifying the type of content you want to create for your platforms. Each platform has different measurements for content. Be prepared to make several different content types.
Presently there are multiple ways to set-up a social media calendar. You can create your calendar using spreadsheets, Google calendar, or an interactive dashboard like Facebook Business. Once you have decided on your content you must select your post frequency for each platform. When you are building brand awareness the best option is to post more frequently so that the algorithm responds to your activity.
When you schedule your post each entry should include the following content:
Visual imagery for post
Date and time to be published
Social platform it will be published on
Copy for the captions
Links and tags included in the post
To be successful on social media you must be give effort and attention to your content publication daily. It is not enough to post once a week or only when you are inspired. Having a calendar will help you manage your schedule and keep your content consistent. This level of organization is absolutely necessary if you intend to grow your following on any platform. The creators of these apps understand this, which is why most platforms have content scheduling features today.
Creating a social calendar will allow you the space to batch your content and plan ahead while not experiencing creative burn out. Scheduling your content will free up your time to be more creative and assess your content performance. Your schedule allows you to not rush to your phone at 12pm, 3pm or 6pm to make sure your posts goes up. It also allows you to not scramble to find a post for those times.
There are lots of tools you can use to make the process easier but first you must use the most effective steps to creating your calendar.
Steps to creating your content calendar:
Create a strategy and audit your content
Select platform for publication
Create a content library
Establish post frequency and workflow
Create posts and copy
Review and edit posts
Schedule posts
Once you have completed these steps you are ready to begin analyzing your content. We recommend that you take some time weekly to identify the most successful content and areas for improvement. Using this information you can refine your strategy, update your audit, and improve your content calendar. This step is very important for growing your engagement and reaching your strategy goals. If you want to perform like a pro on social media you must remain consistent daily. Look into creating a calendar, if you have any questions feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help you.