What’s your approach to social media?
Do you post when and where you can? Are you struggling to get the results you want?
A social media marketing calendar can transform your content from being sporadic and random into planned and powerful. Keep reading to learn why you need a social media calendar and how to get started.
Write It Down: The Importance of a Marketing Calendar
Creating a marketing calendar gives you a central place to manage your social media campaigns and content. At its core, it shows you what to post and when, so you don’t need to come up with it on the fly. It makes your social media channels more consistent, which means your follows are more likely to rely on you for up-to-date information.
The most important function of the calendar, however, is its ability to give you time to think about your goals and then plan strategically. When you schedule your content, you can come up with stellar copy, study it, see if it works, and change it for later posts.
If you don’t have a calendar, it’s hard to tell what works and what doesn’t. Fumbling around in the dark means you could miss out on a lot of opportunities and even more money.
How to Start Your Social Media Marketing Calendar
There’s no reason not to use a calendar, but how do you get started?
You can start with a basic calendar template on paper or on a spreadsheet or choose a social media marketing software suite, like HootSuite.
Your calendar can also be as high-level or detailed as you need. However, it’s a good idea to have both a project/editorial calendar (outlining your general campaigns) and a daily calendar detailing all your posts (content, links, hashtags, photos, other media, etc.).
Ideally, you should create your content at least three months in advance, which gives you time to tweak it before you post if required. What’s most important is that your calendar makes sense for you and your social media strategy.
Don’t Forget to Reach Out and Respond
Remember that what you post is only half the battle. In addition to your content calendar, you also need to check-in regularly to respond to comments and messages.
Today, brands that use social media as a form of marketing should also expect to use it as a form of customer service. And there’s a good reason to do so: customers who get in touch on social media tend to spend 20-40 percent more money with you.
So, make sure you schedule the time to respond to questions, comments, reviews, and other content within 24 hours. The half an hour spent responding to comments comes back to you!
Save Time and Earn More with a Content Calendar
If you market your business on social media, then you should be using a social media content marketing calendar. Not only does it keep all your posts in one place and help you plan, but using the right template or software saves you hours of work.
Are you trying to make the most of your social pages but struggling to breakthrough? Get in touch to learn about our social media packages.