How to Make a Social Media Calendar in 7 Easy Steps
Sick of feeling like you’re one step behind on your social media accounts?
You are probably well aware that consistency and quality content are key when it comes to posting on your social channels.
But, it can be really hard to pump that out on the fly!
If you find yourself scrambling to find relevant material, throwing together a poorly thought-out post, or feeling so overwhelmed that you aren’t posting at all, it’s time to get organised.
Planning ahead with your social media content helps move your digital marketing from the too hard basket to the done and dusted pile.
Want to save time and stress less?
Start by learning how to make a social media calendar for your business. Let’s go!
HOW TO MAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA CALENDAR IN 7 EASY STEPS
What Is A Social Media Calendar?
That isn’t a trick question. The concept of a social calendar is a pretty straightforward one. Essentially, it is a document that lays out your upcoming social media posts for various channels.
It shows you at a glance exactly what posts you are going to publish on each date and platform throughout the week (or month, or year, depending on how far ahead you’d like to plan.)
The calendar should include the image, link or video that you are going to publish, along with an accompanying (and engaging) written caption.
Why You Need To Plan Your Content
Whether you’re a Facebook fan, a Pinterest pro, an Instagram idol, a LinkedIn legend, or a mix of everything, it takes a fair amount of work to get the most value from your social media platforms. Throwing random posts together once in a while just isn’t going to cut it, even if they have pretty pictures and inspirational quotes attached.
If you’re going to spend time on your social media strategy, you might as well do it right! That means consistently posting relevant, useful, interesting content aimed specifically at your target audience.
To do that well, you need to be highly organised, especially if you’re running a small business and trying to do everything yourself!
Creating a social media calendar is the best way to get organised. Batch creating and planning out your content helps you to:
● Save time – spending an hour or two creating all your posts in one go prevents the mindless weekly scroll searching for inspiration. You get all your research out of the way and can spend the rest of the month focusing on other things while your social media posts are rolled out exactly as planned.
● Be consistent – no excuses for skipped posts due to running out of time or ideas. You’ll be showing up in the right places for your audience throughout the month.
● Make fewer mistakes – planning ahead gives you a more structured workflow. Instead of hurriedly typing out a post and pressing publish, you have plenty of time to edit and fact-check your work.
● Include relevant, timely content – Earth Day, Mother’s Day, Star Wars Day – there are hundreds of opportunities to creatively promote your business throughout the year. A calendar helps you recognise and capture them in your strategy.
● Spread the love – different platforms often require different types of content. Your calendar gives you an overview of what you’re doing in each channel, so you can tailor the posts for each audience and don’t neglect any one network.
How To Make A Social Media Calendar
Creating your social media calendar can actually be a lot of fun! Instead of stressing every week about what to post, you get to spend a few hours being creative, coming up with high-quality content that you can’t wait to share with your audience. This kind of planning turns social media posting from a chore into a delight.
Here is the process of how to make a social media calendar to get you going.
1. Review your current social strategy
If you don’t have one, don’t stress – that’s why we’re here! Start by going back through previous posts on each network. Identify any that seem to have connected (or bombed) with your audience and see if you can figure out why.
Determine your target audience and goals for each network, and choose some key performance indicators to help you measure your success along the way.
2. Select your social networks
Remember, you don’t have to be on every platform to be successful. Find out where your audience is hanging out, and focus on creating the best content for those channels.
3. Decide what data to include
How in-depth do you want your calendar to be? If you’re new to this kind of planning, I recommend starting with the basics. You will most likely want to record the following info for each planned post:
● The network
● Time and date of post
● The written content you’ll include
● Visual content (photos, videos, infographics, gifs etc.)
● A call to action or link
● Hashtags or other accounts you’d like to tag
4. Build a content library
One of the most time-consuming parts of posting to social media is finding the right visuals! Spend time collecting and organising your visual assets so you can easily find them when you need them. Store them in Dropbox, Google Drive, or in specific folders on your computer.
Make sure you keep track of what images or videos you have already used on which platforms so you don’t end up repeating yourself! That’s not to say that you can’t reuse your images over time, just try not to post the same one multiple times in a week.
5. Decide on a posting schedule
Now’s the time to get down to the nitty-gritty details. How often do you plan on posting to each network? What day of the week and time of day is best (you may need to do some testing and reviewing as you go to figure this one out, but start with a consistent schedule anyway)? What kind of content will you be posting, and how often? One video and two photos a week? Or perhaps two educational posts and two entertaining posts a month?
6. Create your posts
Time for the fun part! Bring all your ideas together and record them in your social media calendar.
7. Enjoy your freedom
How amazing does it feel to have all your content laid out in front of you! Now all you need to do is publish on your selected dates. You can do that manually as you go or make use of one of the many online tools that allow you to plan and schedule your content in advance, such as HootSuite, Later, or Buffer.
Let’s Do This!
Feeling inspired now that you know how to make a social media calendar? Then it’s time to get organised and start slaying your social media content! I can help you get a head start with my FREE Stress Busting Monthly Social Media Planner.
It will help you brainstorm content topics, figure out how often to post content, and schedule ALL your posts to ensure you have an engaging mix of content to keep your audience interested.
