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The days of creating a social media plan on the fly are gone. Nowadays, the best social media plans are carefully crafted and thought through in order to provide the user with an experience that feels thoughtful and authentic. While managing a social media account can sometimes feel clinical, it’s important to keep in mind that brands need to be viewed as actual people with beating hearts who want to interact with YOU, on the other side of the screen. There is a way to do this that is genuine and builds raving fans, but it takes some planning. Check out our 5 tips on planning the perfect social media calendar to get started.
1. Develop a Strategy
Before you begin the actual copywriting and content creation process, there are a couple of questions you need to ask: Who is my primary audience? What is my goal in posting this content? How does this post tie into our overall business goals?
These are important questions that will determine what you post, where you post it, and when you post. Keeping your brand’s voice, strategy, and goals in mind is key to shaping your content to fit the needs of your audience. Your goals will also determine the platforms that will be best for you to post on. Discover more about the importance of understanding your audience for content creation.
2. Plan Ahead
Now that you’ve established who you're talking to and how you’re talking to them, it’s time to construct your plan around which platforms you’ll be using. We’ve found that scheduling content one month in advance leaves room for creativity, brainstorming, and time to actually create your content without feeling rushed. Utilizing a scheduling platform such as Loomly, Later, or Sprout will aid as a visual calendar to help you work through your content. It also keeps your content organized and locked in on your goals as your plans take shape. As a busy, on-the-go marketing director, planning your content calendar in advance saves you precious time and energy that can be used in other parts of your day.
3. Context, Context, Context
As you begin to create your content calendar within your perfect platform, start by creating an outline for the month ahead. Take stock of holidays or special social media days that should be utilized or avoided to your brand’s advantage so that you continue to stay on message. Additionally, as you plan, make room for content that occurs on the fly. Ensuring your content is timely and relevant is part of the planning process in itself! For example, go big for Cow Appreciation Day and get creative with your posts by planning ahead and also engaging with guests the day of. Utilizing Stories is a great way to quickly disseminate unplanned announcements or timely information to your guests as well.
Another key contextual note to keep in mind is when you schedule your posts for optimal engagement. As an example, keep your Chick-fil-A’s restaurant hours of operation in mind when posting specific content such as new breakfast menu items or dining room hours. Keeping your guests and raving fans in the loop and informed makes them feel like they're a part of the family.
4. Create your Content
Constantly creating new content through photos and videos to share on social media can be a taxing job. One photoshoot can accumulate a plethora of photos that don’t necessarily need to be used in one week, so having a game plan for how you store, label, and manage your content is pivotal to building out your content calendar. Keeping a backlog of content allows you to save time and money so that everything you capture is used appropriately. Google Drive and Dropbox are just two of many collaborative platforms to help keep track of your content.
A few helpful tips that aid in the content creation process are:
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Take advantage of your Team Members and have a fun photoshoot! This allows authenticity within your brand and also gives Team Members ownership in the content creation process.
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Utilize user-generated content or UGC. This is social media gold. When guests tag your Chick-fil-A restaurant and go the extra mile to promote your food and store, use that content to feature your outstanding guests and promote their experience.
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Want to make your graphics and content stand out among the crowd? Use these 3 platforms to make your brand come alive!
5. Evaluate the Plan
Plans can change. Systems fail us and fun moments pop up so stay flexible! It’s imperative to remain nimble and ready to adjust when necessary with content for your online platforms. In addition to flexibility, use your social media analytics tools to make appropriate changes over time. It’s critical to dig in and understand what’s working and what’s not with your content each month so that you can course-correct and make changes based on the data. Each platform has its own location where it stores the analytics of your profile over time. You can also use tools such as Databox that consolidate your data into one place. Data doesn’t lie and can be one of your best friends as you go through this process each month. Using it to your advantage is one of the easiest ways to see ROI increase on your platforms.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula in creating a social media calendar, but as we’ve experienced quite a bit of troubleshooting, these 5 tips seem to be the stand-out elements to make your online presence shine. Preparing your content and scheduling it out in advance helps take the pressure off and creates room to plan long-term strategies to help your business grow online.