How to Create a Social Media Calendar
5 min read
A social media calendar is more of a summary of the upcoming blog posts you wish to publish. You can have it in the form of an interactive dashboard, spreadsheet, or just a Google calendar.
As a conscious blogger, social media manager, or internet marketer, you need a social media calendar to help you stay organized and make optimizing your digital marketing strategy easier. It will help you achieve this by ensuring that every stage of your blog post or social media post writing is in place and, most importantly, make tracking topics, deadlines, and other essentials easier.
A social media calendar is also essential for any active blogger or internet marketer because it will help you maintain consistency and overcome several stumbling blocks in your writing journey, like procrastination which is also linked to writer’s block. Ideally, by planning out the content and adding the dates for every post, you will feel more motivated to take action.
On the same note, writer’s block may also be detrimental to your success as a student. In this case, working with agencies like EssayMama service may be an option to consider.
The social media calendar will also make it easy to track your accomplishments even as the weeks progress. Finally, it may be just the perfect tool you need to spot your target audience’s needs, identify your niche, and, even better, build a brand around your blog.
This way, it will be easier for you to narrow down to just the specific pieces of content that your audience craves and avoid those that may not be really appealing to them. Writing a perfect social media calendar may not be so smooth, though.
There are a few stumbling blocks that may make creating your social media calendar a daunting process, and that’s where this guide also comes into play. It covers the basics you may need to know to create an actionable social media calendar. It also captures how you can use social media to outdo your competitors. Let’s get started.
How do I create a Social Media Content Calendar?
To begin with, you should note that each brand is unique so is their social media presence, implying that your social media calendar shouldn’t necessarily be the same as that of your competitors. Therefore, your focus shouldn’t be to have a social media calendar akin to other brands but be one that is relevant to your niche and industry. Here are six practical tips you will find valuable when creating your social media content calendar.
I. Check up your Content and Social Networks
This will typically be your first step to creating a social media calendar that actually works. By reviewing your content and social media networks, you will get a clearer picture of your progress regarding the use of social media and the areas you may need to improve on.
With this in mind, you will also find it less stressful fine-tuning your strategy and Maximizing your Returns on Investments (ROI). In checking up your content and social networks, pay special attention to your best-performing campaigns, posts, and tactics, social assets, your audience, account passwords and security, least-performing posts, campaigns or gaps, and the opportunities for your growth.
II. Select your Preferred Social Channels
You want to go with a channel that allows easier and quick connection with your target audiences. To achieve this, it is imperative that you get a clearer idea of the user demographics on every social media platform you wish to use.
It will also help if you budget some of your time to check up best marketing strategies for the social media platforms you wish to use. The bottom line, in this case, is basically to narrow down to social media platforms that are worth your time and be knowledgeable on the best ways to utilize those channels.
III. Keep an Eye on your Competitors
You typically want to be the best among your competitors or at least be different from them. There is no better way of achieving this than keeping up with what your competitors are doing.
Again, in this case, your aim shouldn’t be to copy whatever they’re doing but to borrow a leaf from the things they’re doing well and strategize how to outdo them. Some of the things you may need to look at are their frequency of posting on different social media platforms and the types of content they share.
Do not forget to check if they get a good amount of shares or retweets on the content they share on these platforms. Just pay attention to the content they post, frequency, and engagement, as this may be pivotal in the growth of your social media accounts.
IV. Have a List of Content Ideas
You do not want to run out of content ideas to post on your accounts, so this is where your list of content ideas will be effective. After analyzing your social networks, choosing your preferred networks, and examining what your competitors are doing, you should have a good amount of information that you may need for creating a good list of content to post on your accounts.
When writing up your list of content ideas, it is natural to highlight some of the content ideas. This isn’t really necessary when still putting up the list.
What’s essential is listing the content ideas, types, and frequency you think you can publish on different platforms. Do note that every social media platform works differently.
What may drive much engagement for you on Facebook may not bring similar results on other platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Aim at coming up with different content for specific platforms.
V. Have a Content Library for the Assets
Also known as digital asset banks or media databases, a content library for the assets you will need for your campaigns will ensure that you stay organized. It will save you from the hustle of searching for misplaced assets.
It is recommendable that you have your content library for these assets hosted on reliable programs. Google Drive or Dropbox should do the trick. You may also use premium database software.
Just make sure that the database software is reliable and reputable and avoid the temptation of keeping them on your phone or desktop folders as these are not really reliable. Your chosen content library should have enough space to accommodate even your large files, be accessible from your computer and phone and allow easier sharing of the files with team members with robust privacy details.
VI. Develop a Workflow
This will come up as the final step of creating your social media content calendar. Have a sketched details of how often you will be publishing on every social media channel you’ve selected, and your process for coming up with content ideas, and who will need to approve each post. Start crafting the posts, edit, have them reviewed and published.
In Closing
A social media calendar won’t bring instant success. You will need to stay committed in creating valuable posts that drive engagements.
Author Bio
Thomas Jackson is a professional freelance content writer at essay writing service and an active member of several writing clubs based in New York. He is also a music enthusiast who has written several songs since childhood. He’s inspired by the live concerts he performed in front of family members and friends.
Binary Blogger has spent 20 years in the Information Security space currently providing security solutions and evangelism to clients. From early web application programming, system administration, senior management to enterprise consulting I provide practical security analysis and solutions to help companies and individuals figure out HOW to be secure every day.
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