Feeling overwhelmed by the thought of planning a year’s worth of social media content? Don’t worry, a well-crafted content calendar can be your saving grace. It keeps you organized, tracks collaborations and promotions, and offers a clear view of your overall strategy.
It may seem unwieldy to make a social media content calendar for a whole year, but by taking advantage of scheduling tools like Plann and following our other tips and tricks, you can take measured steps and make methodical and decisions that will bump up your brand’s exposure, follower engagement, and even boost sales.
Creating a Social Media Content Calendar: First Steps
Step 1: Embrace Spreadsheets
To manage a year-long social media content calendar, it’s best to start by creating a spreadsheet in either good ol’ Google Sheets or Excel. Make a section for every day of the week, and plan your year using the spreadsheet. To make it more organized, add pops of color to every individual day in the week.
For a more streamlined approach, you could directly use a tool like Plann for your social media homebase, with a built in calendar view, post creation features, and analytics all in one place.
Step 2: Plan holidays and events
Integrate important industry events, conferences, and holidays into your calendar. This keeps you and your audience in the loop while providing natural content creation opportunities.
Pro Tip: Steer clear of overly political or religious holidays. Always prioritize content relevant to your target audience.
Creating a Social Media Content Calendar: Building Out Further
Content Themes: The Core of Your Strategy
When you are done working on the structure of your calendar, you can start focusing on content themes. Content themes have to do with what your audience wants to see (and when), and what products you’d like to highlight and what times of the year.
When you consolidate a list of potential themes, insert them onto your content calendar. Always negotiate a balance between the kind of content that is meant to add value to — and grow — your community and content that’s more “sales-y.” Pay too much attention to one or the other, and you’ll lose out.
Balancing Value and Sales
Create a balanced mix of informative content that adds value to your audience and promotional content that highlights your offerings. Prioritize building a community over constant sales pitches.
Beyond Themes: Dive Deeper with Specific Topics
Refine your themes with specific topics that resonate with your audience. Use social listening tools like BuzzSumo to discover trending content ideas.
Infuse Authenticity and Originality
While research is helpful, don’t be afraid to put your own spin on content. Social media rewards authentic voices. Ensure your topics connect logically and cater to the season or current events.
Maintaining Consistency: The Key to Success
Aim for consistent posting, even if it’s once a day. Research offers conflicting advice on posting frequency, so prioritize consistency over chasing an ideal number.
Embrace Scheduling Tools: Save Time and Gain Insights
Utilize scheduling tools like Plann to streamline content creation, manage hashtags, track engagement, and analyze competitor strategies.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Plan your content a few weeks in advance to avoid last-minute scrambling for special events.
Takeaway
As you get bigger your followers will continue to expect consistency from you. Planning your social media content calendar with care will means you’re more likely to post consistently and well. But do stay ahead of schedule by a couple weeks so you aren’t late in posting about special events and other topics.
Make use of excellent shortcuts such as Plann, which allows you to edit, filter, schedule, and post to Instagram months ahead. Plann also lets you optimize your hashtag sets, keep an eye on your engagement rates and other key performance indicators, and even sneak looks at how the competition is doing.
