If you find yourself struggling to make regular social media content––be it because you do not know how to bring your ideas to life or that you are out of ideas––then you need a content calendar. Content calendars are one of the most important and beneficial tools in social media marketing, and here is why.
The first and most obvious benefit of a
content calendar is the ability to focus on one specific theme more easily. Below, we break this down even further so
that you can understand why this benefit is so valuable:
If your ideas are scattered around various notebooks, Google Docs, and sticky notes, you are likely to forget something or feel overwhelmed. Moreover, you might accidentally contradict yourself, either in a blog post or a social media post, which can confuse your audience. Not only do content calendars keep all your ideas in a central location, but they also allow a bird’s eye view of your messaging. This way, you can easily edit out any contradictory or tangential ideas.
If you update a blog or upload videos on Wednesdays, then you can arrange social media posts to draw attention to your website or YouTube channel. If you post a pull quote or a clip, you can effectively give your audience members a taste of what they are missing out on. Unaware audience members now know about that content and may be more inclined to check it out.
Social media calendars are especially helpful for crafting posts around holidays or month-long observances. By using holiday hashtags, you can generate more attention and reach a wider audience. For example, if you donate a portion of your proceeds to women charities for the entirety of Women’s History Month (March), then you could continuously draw attention to your fundraiser with women-related posts. Not only will you contribute to uplifting and worthwhile causes, but you will also foster engagement and increase your leads and sales.
While you want your branding and messaging to remain consistent, you do not want to constantly copy/paste your posts across all platforms. Though the copy/paste method is more convenient, any cross-platform followers may get frustrated with seeing the same message over and over. This could result in your audience only following you on one platform as opposed to multiple. Here is how you can change that:
You can also track which posts perform better on which platforms, and tailor that platform’s feed to optimize your results.
Finally, the third benefit. It is all about tracking performance and reaping real results. Content calendars not only help you prepare for the future, but they also keep a record of what you posted when and where, and what the results were. For example:
Sometimes what you think is your best quality content just does not resonate with the audience. Data analytics should be used to identify the connecting triggers that gets your message across and invites people to want more. Some things to look for include:
Since timing is extremely important in social media marketing, you can reference your calendar to figure out when you posted the content with the highest and lowest engagement. You can also use it to determine the ideal posting times and days for each platform you use. Similarly, social media calendars can help you keep track of any experimentation with timing and content.
But beyond timing, data will help you identify poor performing content that needs improvement. It can also help you identify what your higher performing contents are; the ones that resonate with your audience better.
It is important to monitor and analyze on a regular basis the performance of each content to stay connected and engaged.
To get the most effectiveness from your content calendar, here are some tips:
Devising a content calendar is only the beginning, of course. You will want to consistently have engaging content across multiple platforms if you want to pique your audience’s interest again and again and drive results.
