A social media content calendar can be a powerful addition to any company’s social content strategy. In fact, there are numerous benefits to taking your business online and managing it effectively. In fact, 76% of industry professionals say that social media helps them to increase their web traffic.
However, preparing content for social media can be difficult to maintain due to the number of hours and resources required. It takes time to plan, create and post content consistently each month.
Using a social media content calendar has a whole host of benefits and can save you time in the long run. Before you begin, what do you need to consider?
Setting Goals
Before you start anything, it’s important to set clear and achievable goals. Knowing what you want out of social media for your business will form your next steps. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic or generate leads? By defining your objectives, you can tailor your social media content calendar to meet your goals.
Consider the SMART method when you’re getting started. Ask yourself if your social content strategy is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. The more realistic the plan, the more chance of success you will have.
Consider the Process
The process of starting a social media content calendar consists of the following steps: planning, tailoring and reviewing.
Planning
When planning content, you should start by identifying key themes, topics, and keywords relevant to your audience and industry. Incorporate a mixture of timely pieces such as national holidays, with commercial product or service posts and evergreen, curated content too.
Leveraging online social media content calendar systems can help to streamline the planning process. It can also help with laying out posting dates and times for a consistent posting schedule.
Tailoring
Creating and tailoring your content will be the next step. Take the time to understand your audience’s pain points, interests, and preferences. Depending on where you are posting and who you are posting for, you may need to tailor to different demographics and platforms. This is referred to as a multi-channel strategy.
Experiment with different formats such as blog posts, videos, infographics and more. You should also familiarise yourself with each social media platform’s requirements. These change often, so always check back regularly. By delivering valuable, relevant content you can foster stronger connections with your audience to drive engagement.
Content management systems with a built-in social media content calendar can be a big help here. They can make sure captions are the appropriate character length, that the message will be transferable and that the assets are the right dimensions for each platform.
Some even have the capability to show you when most of your followers are online. Knowing the peak times to post can also give your engagement a helping hand. Scheduling can take a lot of time, but it’s good to know everything is prepared for the following month.
Reviewing
How often you’re posting will depend on the factors you have decided are appropriate to your business. It’s important to dedicate time to constantly evaluate the content you are putting out. With algorithm changes and growing audiences, reviewing is the key to success.
Regularly review your content performance against different metrics like page views, engagement rates and impressions. You can analyse what’s working well and what could be improved. It could be as simple as posting earlier in the morning or uploading a carousel of images instead of one.
Part of the convenience of using a social media content calendar through a content management system is the built-in insights. These powerful analytics tools will let you see all of the stats so you can refine your content strategy and re-optimise.
The Benefits of Using a Social Media Content Calendar
Saves time and resources
A well-organised social media content calendar streamlines the entire process. It means minimising last-minute scrambles or wasting people’s time and resources. It allows you to be reactive to trends or breaking news. By planning ahead, you can allocate resources more efficiently and ensure a steady flow of high-quality content.
Stay organised and on track
Having everything laid out in front of you on a social media content calendar can help to keep things organised and on track. It takes time to plan, tailor and schedule content which is why it’s good to get it done in advance. Deadlines are no longer daunting; drafts can be prepared, and you can enjoy an overall view of the upcoming month.
Builds credibility
Like with any other part of running a business, consistency creates credibility. By consistently delivering valuable content to your audience, you establish your brand and your brand voice.
Trustworthiness and credibility are two great qualities for your business to exude. Overall, growing your audience online means growing your customer base too.
Content Calendar Mastery
Mastering your social media content calendar is not just about scheduling posts. It’s about strategic planning, centring your audience and building credibility. Investing that time at the start to bring everything together will see the process become more streamlined as time goes on. Regularly reviewing what you’re doing will help you to unlock the full potential of your content strategy.
At DCA PR, we are a trusted and experienced social media marketing agency. We know what it takes to grow and maintain a social media presence and have achieved proven results for our clients. Find out more about what we do by visiting our Services page.