A social media calendar is a schedule of planned social media posts across all of your social media channels. Your calendar can be as vague or specific as you need it to—ranging from planning a week’s worth of posts down to the time of day each post will go up. Ultimately, the goal of a social media content calendar is to help you stay on top of what posts will go on what platforms and when.
Benefits of maintaining a social media calendar
Maintaining a social media calendar might seem like a lot of work, but it can actually help your brand manage your social media efforts much more effectively. Here’s how.
• Maintains brand consistency:
Sharing random or reactive social media posts without having a planned strategy can lead to inconsistencies in your brand voice and content goals. Planning everything ahead of time can help you
stay on brand.
• Saves you time:
Scheduling posts well in advance can cut down on the time your social media team spends finding and sharing last-minute content on your social channels.
• Helps you align with other campaigns:
Your social media posts should fit with the
other marketing efforts
your brand is doing. Using a social media calendar ensures that you build in time to promote your newest blog posts, video ads, podcasts and more for better results.
• Ensures a range of content types:
Brands that don’t plan out their content run the risk of sharing the same promotional posts repeatedly. A social media calendar helps you visualize when you’re sharing content that’s educational, inspirational, promotional and user generated, so you get a good mix.
• Helps you identify content gaps:
If you’ve planned posts for all of the “must-share” content in a given month, you might still be a few posts short. A visual calendar helps you spot these gaps and gives you the opportunity to plan engaging posts for those times.
Making a social media calendar work for you
Social media content calendars need to be well-planned in order to be effective. The first thing you should do is determine your posting schedule for each platform. How many times a day will you post? At what time?
With that tentative schedule in place, consider the content you want to share. Plan to post content you already know your audience will engage with, as well as some test campaigns to see how they perform. Once you have content ideas, start planning! Choose the photos, captions, links, hashtags and other elements for each post. Try to plan at least a month in advance, if not further ahead.
If you
work with a creative agency
for social media content, discuss your content needs and calendar with them to ensure all of your gaps are filled and your social posts match your campaign goals.
Finally, use your social media calendar to publish content on the scheduled days, but also remember to monitor your channels and respond in real time, too. Strike a balance of pre-planned content and appropriate reactions to industry news and current events to humanize your brand and build more trust with your customers.
Your social media content should fit in seamlessly with the other marketing efforts your brand is implementing, and a social media calendar can help you stay on top of it all. To learn more about social media content and advertising,
say hello
to the team at Spin Creative.
Spin Creative is a video production company and creative agency helping marketers create winning video and creative strategies that engage, inspire and activate targeted audiences. Spin is headquartered in Seattle with offices in San Francisco and London, serving brands around the globe.
