5 Easy Steps to Create a Social Media Content Calendar
Planning out your social media posts across different platforms is the first step to successful social media marketing. So what is the social media content calendar? It’s a calendar to organize and schedule content across various social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin, TikTok, and more.
A few reasons why to create your own social media content calendar are the following:
Save time by being organized and not thinking about what to post every day
Post consistently and show up for your audience
Make high-quality content and have enough time to create graphics
Track what works and what doesn’t work
Here are five easy steps to create your own effective social media content calendar:
Step 1: Identify Social Media Channels that You Are Going to Consistently Post In
To choose the social media platforms that will help your business revenue grow, analyze your target audience by answering the following questions:
Who do you want to reach with your posts?
Where do these people usually hang out and post themselves?
Whether it’s only Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn - set clear goals and expectations on where & how many times weekly you will post.
Step 2: Decide What Information You Are Going to Add to the Calendar
Keep your social media calendar simple; however, make sure to include the information that is necessary for a successful posting of your content, such as:
Social Media Channel
Date and time to post
Visual (e.g., photo, video, graphic, etc.)
Post Caption
Hashtags (if appropriate)
Link to assets (if not included within that calendar)
Link to the published post
Step 3: Choose A Social Media Content Calendar Platform that Works For Your Needs
The sky is the limit in choosing your social media content calendar platform. It could be as simple as using an Excel spreadsheet, Google Docs, or a more customized platform such as Airtable with already pre-made social media content calendar templates.
Step 4: Create a Content Library for Your Assets
Add all images, videos, and graphics that could be used as content on your social media platforms to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or any other easily accessible cloud storage.
Step 5: Establish a Workflow
Now that you have all the components figured out - establish a workflow on how, when, and what you will do. I suggest batching your content - take one day a week to plan your full monthly content schedule by creating posts, graphics, captions, etc., and filling out your content calendar.
After that, schedule your posts either via platforms like Later.com, Canva.com (create graphics, videos and publish to Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, and more), or any other platform of your choice that specializes in social media content publishing.
Remember, the first step to seeing social media success is to start. Don’t wait till tomorrow. Start today, and little by little, you will start seeing the results of your work.