One of the best practices for social media includes planning your content ahead so you don’t find yourself asking “what I am going to post today?”
Your time and resources are likely limited, so creating a social media calendar for all of your content is one of the best strategies to set yourself up for success and get the results that you want.
Using a Social Media Calendar
We suggest planning your social media content quarterly, but if that seems overwhelming to you, then start out by planning a month.
You can use a spreadsheet or a good old-fashioned paper calendar. Just remember, you’ll likely move things around and make changes, so you may want to use a pencil at first.
You’ll be surprised by how quickly you can map out an entire month of social media posts by using this process.
- Start by noting any national holidays, dates your business will be closed, or those you may have different business hours that need to be announced.
- Add in any events that your business is hosting and/or participating in. Maybe you’re sponsoring a local 5K, presenting at a conference or hosting an educational seminar.
- If you’re a retailer or restaurant, fill in dates of any planned sales or promotions.
- Then, Download our Social Media Holiday Calendar to pick out any that may be relevant to your business. They’re a great way to mix up your content and drive engagement. For example, on National Dog Day you can ask users to share a photo of their four-legged friend.
- Lastly, instead of only pushing out content you’ve created, it’s a good idea to add user-generated content and/or curated content from other credible sources. Again, this also helps with engagement and relationship building. This could mean sharing a customer submitted photo or a local news story.
For those in the healthcare industry, we have also created a health awareness calendar to help you plan your website and social media content.
Of course, there’s still value in real-time content like Instagram or Facebook stories or live video at an event or a Q&A with a subject matter expert.
You can write and schedule posts ahead of time, but remember that your social media strategy should be flexible so that you can make adjustments based on the content your users are most engaged with.
At TargetMarket, we help clients optimize their brand online through website development, internet marketing, online reputation management, social media management, and more.
For more information, get in touch with our team!
