With multiple social media platforms on which to publish and a content manager who may serve other staff roles, your small business may benefit from creating a social media calendar. The development of strong content on a consistent basis can be overwhelming, and a calendar is a simple tool that can help to keep your social media marketing organized and on message.
Facebook, Twitter and the like are important networks through which you can promote your brand, attract new customers, and drive business to your website. It’s important to publish new content and engage with customers on a frequent basis, but it’s equally important to do so with your overall digital marketing strategy in mind. Disconnected updates may keep your pages from becoming stale, but your social media content should be planned, and a calendar can help your business build momentum and followers while staying focused.
What is a Social Media Content Calendar?
Quite simply, a content calendar should break down activities by day and month, identify the pieces of content that are scheduled and where they should be posted, and indicate who has been assigned to write, publish, and promote these pieces. For many small businesses, one person may be tasked with all of the responsibilities associated with the social media calendar, but perhaps there will be times when a guest writer has a contribution. Holidays and key dates for your business should also be included. These may affect the type of content that you publish or explain the engagement levels associated with a particular post. Some businesses naturally will receive more web traffic during the holidays while others slow down, and social media engagement often follows suit.
Like many good planning tools, your content calendar may help you to reassess your overall strategy. While creating posts for Instagram, you may realize that your business hasn’t considered how best to present content on a platform that is so visually driven. Or perhaps you have not explored the ways in which to present your staff as industry experts on LinkedIn. If you notice that all of your posts are consistent among the various platforms, you may need to reassess how best to tailor content based on the audiences and styles of each.
Tracking Your Results
By tracking post engagement, you can determine if changes are needed to your upcoming schedule. You may be able to determine what would be a successful periodic promotion or type of update to spark conversation and engage your customers. If a calendar review leaves you with the sense that your messages are forced, adjust your scheduled content to make sure it is infused with authenticity. Viewed as a whole, social media content tells an overall story about your business and how you engage with customers. If the majority of your content is highly promotional, you are missing opportunities to share ideas, engage in conversations, and build your brand. Show your followers that you are a valuable and interesting source and that you appreciate their engagement.
Mark Your Calendars!
Once you begin using a content calendar as a planning and assessment tool, it becomes easier to refine posts and deliver high-performing pieces that are of value to your networks and your business. Use your comprehensive social media marketing strategy as the guide by which you schedule and create content, but allow it to be informed by the results you are tracking as well as changes in the social media landscape. New networks emerge, audiences migrate, and your plan should not remain static. If you would like to kickstart your social media content calendar, reach out to us at Premiere Creative or give us a call at (973) 346-8100.