If you want to get your business noticed by more people, you have to invest in content creation, including blogs and social media posts. You can choose to have a presence on multiple social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even TikTok. If you choose to be on multiple social media platforms, that’s great – you will reach more customers that way. But with that being said, keeping up with your social media accounts can be a bit overwhelming and challenging. Don’t worry, though, there are ways that you can keep your content marketing organized on these platforms – all you have to do is plan your social media calendar with the following tips.
1. Know The Difference Between Social Media Platforms
First things first: all social media platforms are different, so what can work for Twitter will not necessarily work on Facebook or Instagram. For example, if you’re using Instagram, you should be posting attention-grabbing photos, while Twitter is more for text and links. There are 4 main types of posts you can publish on social media:
- Images
- Video
- Text
- Links
2. Gather Data
To be successful at posting on social media, you will first need to gather data, such as your target audience’s preferences, ages, etc, as well create a plan of attack for social media posts, before you can start mastering your calendar. Don’t think you can just wing it and hope for the best! After gathering this data, the next step is to answer the following:
- How frequently do you want to post?
- What is the best time to post on each platform based on your target audience?
3. Tools To Use
So what do we actually mean when we say “scheduling” your social media posts? Well, you don’t need to waste your time chained to your computer, constantly posting on social media: there are great tools out there that allow you to schedule all your social media posts ahead of time, whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly, or even months into the future. There are many different scheduling tools that you can use to help make things easier, and save time, including:
- ContentCal– A social media tool that provides you with a visual content calendar so you can effectively plan for multiple social networks, and lets you publish and analyze your posts.
- Buffer– Creates a unique publishing schedule for each social media account, making it easier to visualize the posts you have lined up and make changes or optimizations as necessary.
- Sprout Social– Comes with a visual publishing calendar that lets you view and manage your posts for multiple profiles, campaigns, and social networks. It also allows you to automatically schedule them for future delivery.
- Hootsuite– This tool comes with a Chrome extension, and is an interactive, media-rich planner that gives you a clear overview of your social media calendar. You can get a small preview of the post along with the accompanying image, post timing, and caption.
- Falcon– features a content calendar and campaign planner, along with advanced analytics dashboards and a unified inbox for all your social interactions.
4. Have A Monthly Set Of Social Media Goals
When creating your calendar, try to leave a spot at the top of each month specifically for your goals and the focus of your content. This will be especially helpful when you are experiencing writer’s block: you can try basing some of your content on what’s going on that week or month, as well as what your audience is most interested in.
5. Know When To Fill In The Calendar
It is usually a good idea to fill in your social media content calendar roughly a month ahead of time, but this time frame might vary for some. If you set it and forget a month in advance, you leave no room for last minute announcements and will then have to juggle things around, which takes time away from other things you could be doing. You can also try to fill out your content calendar each week on the same day to prepare for next week’s content.
And when it comes to posting, you can plan out your social posts so you aren’t posting the same thing on the same day to every platform. For example if you post something on Instagram on Tuesday, you can post it on Facebook on Thursday to re-promote yourself on a different social media platform. Just be sure to slightly change the post so it is not repetitive.
6. Regularly Review Your Content Calendar
Always regularly check in with each social media platform’s analytics. This will allow you to see what’s working and what’s not, so you can tweak your content. Visit your Instagram Insights, Facebook Insights, etc. to see the most ideal days and times to post across each platform.
Being successful does not happen overnight, and neither does getting a good social media following and results from posts. However, if you take the time to create a social media content calendar, you can map out your content strategy for weeks, and make it work better for you, and make your life a little bit easier!
