Create a Social Media Calendar for Your Business
Social media is an effective marketing and relationship building tool for many businesses. If it is part of your marketing strategy, you need a social media calendar to get the most from your effort.
With a calendar, you organize and plan your content, communicate timely events, and align your social media posts with other business initiatives. Creating a social media calendar helps you produce consistent, well-timed, quality posts that serve both your audience and your business.
Here are three factors to consider when creating a social media calendar.
Your Content and Goals
Your social media calendar should account for your existing and planned content. Make an inventory so you can plan an effective mix.
Common types of shareable content include:
- News and events
- Quotes and inspiration
- Blog posts
- Promotions
- Questions and answers
Be sure to tag each piece of content with the goal(s) that each can support. This will help you to share content in a way that builds impact.
With an inventory you can plan for a mix suited to your audience and business goals. You’ll be better able to build up to special events and announcements as well as target specific objectives.
Your Audience
Offering great content is also about timing. When does your audience want your content? You need to know this to plan your calendar.
Some audiences are 9-5, Monday to Friday types. Others are more available on weekends or specific times of the day.
Look at your analytics to see when you are getting the most engagement. Talk to your customers to get their preferences. You can also get insights from national data sources like the Pew Research Center Social Media Fact Sheet.
Your Social Channels
You may be tempted to share the same content across all social channels. Don’t. You will want to present your content in a way that is effective for each channel.
This means using images, content and timing that is specific to each channel. So, you will need to research the optimal approach for each channel you plan to use.
Plan your social media calendar in a way that maximizes the potential impact on each channel.
