The average time of a social media user flies by without warning. This is particularly true when using multiple accounts at once — it's hard to keep up.
The best way to manage your time and stay organized is to plan. And the best way to plan is to get yourself a good social media content calendar.
Or better yet — create your own.
Learn how to create your own social media calendar that works. We'll also share tips tools and templates to get you started.
What is a social media calendar?
A social media calendar is an outlined and organized schedule of your day-to-day social media tasks. These tasks could involve anything from upcoming social media posts to brand collaborations and user insights.
It helps you streamline your focus and see what content needs to be posted at different times. This gives you more time to come up with great content ideas and carefully consider your audience.
How to create a social media content calendar that works
A calendar allows you to take a strategic approach to your social media journey. It helps you promote your business on social media and get results.
Here's how to create a calendar that works:
Start with an audit
A social media audit is used to evaluate your account presence interaction engagement and more. It is basically an examination that helps you check what works and what hasn't been working.
During your audit you must review your current social media content performance. Look at metrics like engagement rates conversion click-through rates reach impressions and many more. Also look at your business goals target audience highest and lowest-performing posts and publishing frequency.
These metrics serve as a review point across your social media accounts to access what you might need for your social media calendar. They also help you understand how often you post on each social network. You can check your analytics for further information about your posting frequency and time of posting.
Choose your social media platforms and content forms
After conducting your audit the next step is to choose your social media platforms and the mix of content you would post. You would need to know your target audience to plan the type of content you want to post. Without this you can't meet your social media marketing goals and post content that your viewers will enjoy.
You will need to do some quick market research which will help you understand your audience demographic. As you do this know the strengths and weaknesses of each platform so that you know how to spread your content effectively across each one.
When you are done look at your content and choose which platform to post according to your needs. With every social media platform you join get ready to increase the amount of posts you will create and add to your schedule. Thankfully you're creating a social media calendar so you'll be able to manage all of it.
Create a smart mix of social content
After deciding on the social media channels you want to post and creating your content forms you have to create a good content mix.
The best method is to create a mix of different types of content. You should include short-form videos long-form videos images infographics text-based posts live streams and more. Do not be scared to mix it up and follow trends to make the most of each platform you're on.
As you do this take note of your budget to get a realistic sense of how much content you can produce. This will ensure you maintain a high-quality output and create content in batches which helps to properly fill in your content calendar.
Decide what you want in your calendar
Even though many of the steps until now should decide what you want in your calendar you still get to choose how to keep things organized. However there are basic things your social media calendar must include which are:
- Your social media platforms
- The day and the time your posts will be posted on each of the platforms
- Your links infographics videos and text
Also think of adding your post hashtags image and text sizes and other little details to fully personalize your calendar.
This is just a start of course. As time goes on you will be able to include a lot more complex details to your routine and add them to the calendar. Using different color codes will also come in handy and it is perfect for task separation.
Use a template to create your social media calendar
After deciding on the things to include in your calendar it's time to build one with a template. Templates help you visualize what your calendar could look like and make it easy to make decisions. There are many free templates online.
Use template options that allow you to liaise with your social media team so that everything fits in nicely. Remember to note details like post times and labels for your different content on the template.
Fill in your calendar with content ideas
Once you and your team have decided on a template that works you can create it with a tool of your choice. When that's over you need to fill in your calendar with content ideas and schedules.
This is where you would go back to what you decided to have on your calendar and start filling them in. Slot them into place according to your posting schedule and business goals. Begin with the easier tasks and slowly build up to more complex ones.
Get feedback
After you complete your calendar the final step is to share it with your colleagues or team and receive feedback.
Feedback is important because it shows just how much your social media calendar works and how well your campaigns will go in the future. A good social media calendar should show an easy-to-understand layout that aligns with your brand’s marketing strategy.
If everything falls in place your feedback should be positive and your social media calendar is ready.
Conclusion
Choosing a calendar for your social media campaign can be a hassle when not done right. But with a clear plan and steps to follow things fall right into place. Following these tips you can create your own social media calendar — one that works great for you.