Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, oh my! How do businesses stay on top of their social media campaigns while still managing their business? A content calendar is a small step to take when organizing content for a business’ social media accounts. With so many moving parts, it’s important to stay ahead of the game. Here are a few simple steps to create a social media content calendar.
Brand Tone and Voice
Via SXSW
Understanding the tone of your brand is the first step in creating a content calendar. Will your accounts be informational, humorous, witty, or conversational? Will your social media brand tone reflect your traditional marketing campaigns or have its own voice? Once this is decided, you can begin to take the next step. Learn more about finding your social media brand voice and tone.
Determine Content Categories
While it may be tempting, you cannot start gathering and creating content without first having a plan. Take the time to determine general content categories. For example, a restaurant may have the following content categories: menu items, specials, recipes, and customer testimonials. Keep in mind your audience and which platforms you will be posting on. It’s important to have content categories to keep the content calendar focused, but you are not limited to these once determined. It’s important to have room for current events and changing information. If your business has added a new location, you would of course want that information included in your upcoming posts.
Consistency of Posts
How often will you be posting on social media? Will you post more on Twitter than Facebook and Instagram, or is your target customer an avid Tumblr user? Will your business benefit from posting every day, every other day, three times a week? Fans want to engage with brands who are consistently posting and interacting. By getting to know your audience, you can better determine how consistently you should be posting. Post consistency can also be based on a business’ advertising budget.
Know Your Audience
Who is your target market? Always keep in mind the person reading your content. Will your content appeal to college students or their parents? How will your audience interpret the content? Audiences also change as you move across social media platforms. As the Facebook age demographic is getting older, Instagram and Tumblr have the attention of the high school and college demographic. What does this mean for your content? Your business’ content will change according to the platform. Instagram is very visual, while Twitter is great for posting articles.
Formatting Your Content Calendar
After determining your brand tone, the type of content to be posted, post consistency, and your audience, it’s time to gather all of your content in one place. Each business will have their own way of formatting their content calendar. There are many online programs that will help you to organize your content. One idea is to organize your content into an actual calendar format to visualize what type of content is being published each day, but styles differ from business to business. Determine which format works best for you.
When taking the above steps to create your social media content calendar, the most important factors are organization and vision. It may seem simple, but having all of your content in one place is one of the best ways to see where your campaign is headed. A business must have vision and purpose for its content. How does your business organize its social media content? Share in the comments below!
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