Feel like you’re scrambling to throw up a social media post? A lot of people tasked with running social media marketing feel like that. Get up, pour yourself a nice stiff coffee and then frantically flip through some upcoming company news to try to find a few items worth posting about. Ever think to yourself that there has to be a better way? There is! It’s time for you to break the cycle with a nifty social media content calendar.
The hard truth about social media managers is that they are often wearing many hats and think that they don’t have the time to create a content calendar, much less sit down and populate one. Our social media marketing team has one question in return. Do you really have time not to? Building the calendar may seem like it’s going to eat up a ton of time but it actually significantly cuts down on the time and energy while simultaneously making your social game that much stronger. ‘Cause the talonX team is always down to help other marketers out, we have created this handy how-to list to help you start your calendar off on the right foot.
Find the kind of calendar that works for you
Your calendar doesn’t have to be digital. It could be anything from a wall hanger, to one of those big ol’ desk versions, to a shared Google calendar. Mainly, you just want something that is going to work for you that other people in your organization can access if you are away or just need someone else to post. The upside of a Google calendar is that you can upload your pics right to the post, enabling the people you share it with to have access to the pics as well. As a marketing company with multiple people working on social media, we can’t sing the praises of shareable digital calendars enough, but again, it’s whatever works best for you.
Organize how it is going to work for you
If you have multiple social platforms on the go you will want to organize your calendar into the various platforms and add in the captions for each platform. Sure the same picture and video may work for all of them, but the captions are going to vary. A common organizational tool is colour coding. Instagram could be purple, Facebook blue, and on and on it goes. You may also want to organize your calendar based on how long each task takes to complete.
Plan out by the week, month, and year
You may want to plan out your calendar by the day, month, and year. For instance Christmas, New Year’s, Halloween, your AGM, and your anniversary are always on the same date every year, so get those important dates in there. By the month, you can give employee shout outs, make videos for National Day of Whatever, or plan posts at an event you know your company will be at. Monthly is usually where you’ll plan out the “behind-the-scenes” content work as well, like photoshoots. The weekly calendar schedules are where you will really flesh out the posts and create the captions and hashtags for them.
Remain adaptable
The biggest ingredient in social media success is the ability to be adaptable and stay live. Since Facebook really started pushing the live aspect, people have been expecting more and more real-time content. If you are focused on relying on your calendar you are going to miss the great social opportunities right in front of you and your engagement is going to suffer. Stay flexible in what you post or if they are both worthy, post twice! Just don’t get tunnel vision and forsake anything that isn’t planned.
All of that being said, organizational tools tend to be a rather personal thing. What works for one person in one business, may not work for another manager in another industry. If you’re feeling a little daunted by the prospect of blazing your own social path, get in touch with our social media team and see how they can help!