Why You Need a Content Calendar!

Hello Loves!

Have you ever decided to sit down to your computer and be productive and get lots and lots of work done? But then you sit down and you’re randomly checking social media accounts and post any old thing for your business accounts!

I think we can all agree that we have.

A few things to note here…

Regardless of your business, be it products that you’re selling or a service that you’re offering, marketing on social media IS in your best interest.

The issue that tends to surface lies in where to be on social media and what to post.

This is exactly why you need a content calendar. You will save time, money and your sanity. Once you have a proper calendar in place, you’ll see your productivity increase and hopefully your bottom line!

Once you have a content calendar in place you will:

• Set goals
• Establish a strategy
• Understand which platforms you will have accounts on
• Know what you will be posting
• Know which days you will be posting and
• Know what times you will be posting

Then all you have to do is pull it open, see what’s on your schedule for the day and bam, get to it!

How can you create one of these beauties for your company, keep reading my friends 🙂

I’m going to give you a rundown of how to create a calendar using Excel (Video coming soon ~ look out for it).

1 ~ First thing’s first, sit down and write down your company’s goals for being on social media. We’re going to tackle a great strategy first.

Is your goal to engage with more followers, gain more followers, establish yourself as an authority in your field, etc.

Once you have your list of goals, decide how you will go about achieving those goals, on which platforms. This is where you cut out the platforms that do not help with reaching the goals in your strategy.

For example: If your goal is to gain followers on Instagram, and this is your only goal, you have no reason to spend time on Pinterest right? Right.

If your goal is to engage with your followers and your following is on Facebook only, LinkedIn may not be a factor.

An important factor to consider here as well, is your audience. Know who your customer is and where they are on social media so that you can be there to greet them 🙂

If you find your goals will need for you to be on more than one platform, this is fine. Write it down.

2 ~ Now that you know which platforms you’ll be using, do some research to determine what the best time is for posting on those platforms.

Keep in mind that on some platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, it’s perfectly fine to post more than once in a day and may even be recommended.

Keep in mind that certain days may call for different times to post.

Once you know which times are best for each platform, write it down.

3 ~ At this point, I’d dive into Excel to create my skeleton of the plan.

Make a row (going across) with the names of each platform you will be on.

Then go one row down and create titles under the name of each platform, for DATE, TIME and CONTENT.

Now, in columns (going down) furthest left, begin to enter DATES for each day of the week, enter the day of the week in it’s column under the title and enter the time you will post on that day, in that platform.

4 ~ Now that you have your skeleton, you’re going to fill in what you will be posting specifically, on each date. (I highly recommend creating your calendar month-by-month to start out)

Do some research for post ideas. Pinterest is awesome. You can check out my Pinterest account under the Social Media Tips Board for some different ideas across different platforms. CLICK HERE!

Along with some ideas you find, decide which days you want to use for promoting your product or service, decide if you’ll be running a contest what content you’ll be posting on which days to prioritize that. Decide when you want to post something funny or an inspirational quote, etc.

Keep in mind, social media is for being social. Follow the 80/20 Rule to avoid spamming your followers.

80% of your content should educate, entertain or engage, 20% is for promoting your service or product.

Remember, this content should be aligned with your goals.

Back to our example of wanting to engage with followers more. You may want to say that on Wednesdays at 8am on Facebook I’m going to find 5 followers, go to their pages and like at least one of their photos and comment on at least 3 posts.

This is actively working to engage more.

5 ~ Clean up your spreadsheet and make it easy to read.

I’m big on color coding. Have your headers, titles, day of the weeks, time and content in different shades so that you can clearly glance at your calendar easily know your job for that day.

Check for typos, make sure everything makes sense and is cohesive across all channels.

That pretty much sums it up!

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I know it seems tedious and it WILL be time-consuming but it will be well worth it in the end.

Once it’s done, it’s done and for future months, you can just start a new tab for the new month and then copy and paste your sheet but change the content and dates to fit your new month’s plans.

I’ll attach some photos of my calendar so that you can see my method in action.

If you feel like you definitely need a clear strategy and a great calendar for yourself, or even for your virtual assistant but you’re not up for creating it on your own, feel free to reach out to me.

I think I’ve rambled enough for one post, I hope you find this helpful. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions for me or if I’ve missed anything.

Happy planning guys!

Best to you, Shante ♥ 

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Author: Shante is a home-based entrepreneur and health and fitness wannabe who’s building her agency through social media posting by day, well, mostly nights!😎