What Is a Social Media Calendar
A social media calendar is a list of the dates for all of your upcoming social media posts. Content calendars are used by social media marketers to schedule posts, oversee campaigns, and evaluate current tactics. There are several types of social media calendars.
On-the-fly content creation and uploading is challenging. You’re more likely to make typos, tone issues, and other errors. Making a social media calendar in advance will be much more effective. In this manner, you will have set aside time to draft, edit, proofread, and schedule posts.
How to Create a Social Media Calendar
You can start by using a planner, Google document, or excel sheet when creating a content calendar. The aims of your website, your target audience, and your brand/company should all be reflected in a strategic content calendar.
These key points will give you a great starting point when planning and using a social media calendar. Brainstorm content ideas that will reflect your brand, schedule content to be posted for the next 1-6 months, color code your content for different kinds of content such as blogs, videos, infographics, etc., and plan content around holidays or special events.
The date and time the post will go live, the social network and account where it will be published, the language and creative assets needed, and the links and tags to use are often included in a social media calendar for each post.
Steps for Creating a Social Media Calendar
The fundamental guideline is to mix up the material types (pictures, videos, gifs, articles, and reposts) (carousel posts, reels, polls, stories, and live videos). Start by adding recurring events to your calendar.
A posting schedule for social media is crucial for two reasons. First, social media should be used to support rather than replace your existing marketing initiatives. Second, social media moves so quickly that it might be simple to become overwhelmed and publish excessively or insufficiently. Your business objectives, the resources at your disposal, and audience engagement trends should determine your publishing schedule.
Don’t feel obligated to use every social networking platform; doing so will just cause you to spread yourself too thin with little to show for it. Start with the three most popular social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn) if you’re unsure which one to use, and then expand from there.
You should have a defined workflow in place before sharing your social media content calendar with the marketing team so that everyone is aware of their responsibilities.
You can incorporate failsafe into your workflow by planning and scheduling your postings in advance. The time allotted for scheduling allows your team and partners to change the text and fact-check the content.
Tools for Creating Social Media Calendars
Online management tools are a great method to stay focused on your objectives. Investing in an online management platform gives you access to it around-the-clock, collaboration capabilities, and the freedom to choose a plan that will help you achieve the content objectives for your website.
Project management tools facilitate task organization, team member organization of communication, and project organization. Using a project management tool might help you outline the key processes if you are managing a large team or numerous website contributors.
Conclusion
When planning content for your website, content calendars are an excellent opportunity to get creative. Being adaptable and coordinating whatever content you produce with your brand objectives are essential for success.