Creating engaging social media content for your customers is no easy feat. Today’s consumer not only wants unique content delivered to them in a timely fashion, they expect it. Social media content is all about pre-planning and having a strategy. In this article, we’ll talk about how to properly plan your content in advance in order to drive brand awareness and keep your audience interested.
Before you start creating content, figure out how many times you’d like to post in a month. Remember to keep it reasonable for the size of your business. Although the average business posts once or twice per day, this can be overwhelming for a small business that doesn’t have a dedicated social media staff member. If you’re an entrepreneur who wears multiple hats at once, you might want to limit your posts to 2-3 times per week. It’s important to decide this number in advance, so you can plan to have consistent content flowing in a timely manner moving forward.
Next, you’ll want to pick a platform that will work best for you. There are plenty of free templates available online for you to download and use. Most of these calendars are made for Microsoft Word or Excel. An Excel or Word template is probably best for a small business. They are easy to use and will help keep your content organized and all in one place. The only downside to using these calendars is that there currently isn’t a way to link your social media accounts with this type of content calendar, meaning you will have to manually upload each social media post.
If you’re looking for a content organizing tool that will allow you to plan, get approvals and post all in the same place, you will likely have to pay a monthly fee to use a platform such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Loomly or HubSpot. It’s important to do your research before making a decision on which platform you will use. There are many websites each with unique features that can take your digital marketing to the next level.
Once you’ve made a decision on how you will organize your content, it’s time to start creating!
Be sure to write down the dates that are important to your business. These might be holidays, national days, events, and other dates where you feel it’s necessary to post content. Figure out what is important to your overall brand message. Is national pizza day relevant to your business? What about Valentine’s Day? Find what speaks to your business and create some great content around it. Be mindful to create content that is specific to your brand. It’s important to avoid filler posts that have little to do with your company. Too much fluff becomes boring and will only cause your audience to lose interest.
Be sure to pay attention to the posts that receive the most engagement. Are your followers more receptive to photos or videos? How often are people commenting on your posts? These are important questions to ask yourself when creating future content.
By planning out your content in advance, you’ll be able to strategically market your business to your online audience. The process of creating a content calendar allows your team to approve of posts before they go live, make changes and create stunning imagery to go with your copy. This also saves time and avoids the stress that comes with thinking of a social media post last-minute.
Keep in mind that you want your content to be unique to your business. Figure out what works for you in order to gain followers and keep your existing ones coming back for more. Content calendars are a crucial component to any social media marketing strategy and can be a great asset to your business when used effectively.
If you’re unsure of what kind of content you should post, or don’t have time to keep up with a content calendar (it can be daunting work, we know!) send us a message to find out how we can help you take your social media game a step further.
Good luck and happy planning!
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