A calendar truly is a tool that can help you organize, strategize, and recognize your brand’s points of improvement.
With that out of the way, it is high time that we show you HOW to actually create one that would suit your brand’s needs. So, buckle up, and take notes. We highly encourage a snack.
Step 1 Start at Home: What You Already Have
We know you are excited. After all, a social calendar can give your company the extra boost that it needs. However, before you fire up your Google spreadsheets, it is important to examine what you currently have re: social media.
Before anything else, here are questions that need answers:
- Which social media platforms are you posting on?
First things first, you need to audit your company’s social presence in order to have a solid baseline. Knowing your stats before implementing your calendar would make it easier to track improvement.
- Which ones get the most engagement?
There is nothing more unfortunate, at least when it comes to social media, than shouting into the void. Knowing where your target audience ensures that your content is seen by the right people. Unsure who your target is? We gotchu (link to this article.)
- How often do you post?
A ghost town of a social media page is just as bad as having no page at all. Keeping track of the frequency of your current posts can determine the schedule you want to implement. Would you be upping the ante? Or cooling it with your irrelevant posts? This audit would answer exactly that question.
- Who is managing these efforts?
Determining who is manning your social media accounts gives you an idea of (who to blame, kidding!) who you would be turning to if you need updates. If that person is you, the congratulations and read on!
Step 2 Drafting Your Team: Where You Want to Post
Contrary to popular belief, being everywhere isn’t necessarily the best strategy. You don’t have to be in every single social media platform. It doesn’t make sense to create content for a platform that doesn’t align with their beliefs and their intended audience. You don’t want to waste time, you don’t want no (social media platform) scrub.
With that in mind, every platform speaks to a certain demographic. In order to be effective, you would want to align the content that you would post to the platform and the audience you want to reach.
There are several ways to determine which social platform would best suit your brand:
- Start with Stats
One surefire way to determine which platform you’d keep is by looking at straightforward data. If you have 500 followers on Twitter and two followers on Instagram, the decision is pretty obvious.
- Check the competition
While it is important to focus on your own brand and your own goals, there is nothing wrong with taking a tiny peek at what is going on in the next yard. Take inspiration from what they are doing and improve on it.
- Do Due Diligence (Hehe)
Like we said earlier, each social platform has its strong suit and weak points.
Researching as to what each platform is all about including the demographics they target, the schedule users are more active on, and their general popularity would help you narrow down your choices. Again – you don’t have to be everywhere. You just have to be where your audience is.
When you finalize your list, it is smart to prioritize. Determine which platform your audience would most likely be and keep that to heart when you are already writing and planning.
Step 3 Ready, Set, Prep: What To Include in the Calendar
After two steps, I bet you are asking if it is finally time to fire up Google Sheets? Well, yes and no. Like all the other steps, there are several things to consider while you are preparing your calendar. Told you, you should’ve gotten a snack.
- All about Logistics
In preparing your calendar, you have to ask yourself WHERE you want the calendar to be. Google Spreadsheets is a popular choice amongst brands. Here is a downloadable example you can tweak to fit your need (insert link of social calendar samples.)
You can also opt for a scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer to act as your content calendar. It is just a matter of finding the means that you are most comfortable in. Fair warning, it takes a little bit of trial and error to figure out what works.
- Developing Your Topics
A bank of topics listed down makes it easier to produce content. At least you already have a rough idea of what you want to post – you don’t have to constantly pull something out of your rear end.
At a loss, here are some examples:
- Inspirational Quotes
- Product/Service Feature
- Behind the Scenes
- Customer of the Month
- Employee of the Month
- Fun facts
- Blog Post
- When o When?
Since you did your due diligence, developing your posting schedule shouldn’t be too hard. Based on your research, post when your audience is active. If your current schedule does not engage the people you want to, shake it up. It is trial and error until you get the perfect formula.
Step 4 Our Hows (In the Middle of the Street): Establish a Process
Knowing what to post is good. But knowing what to post AND how to post is great. I bet you would agree with us at Friendly Human that we always want to strive for greatness.
After figuring out your actual content, the next step is to establish a workable and flexible process that would get you from step 1 to step 4.
In as much as it is important to determine what to post and when to post, you should also decide on how and when you would be sitting down to write and prepare the content:
Do you prepare content a month in advance?
Do you delegate certain steps like creating graphics?
When would you set time to track and evaluate posts?
How often would you change your set of topics and schedule?
Conclusion
A social media calendar can afford you the buzz that you want for your business without all the stress. Yes, we understand that creating your own isn’t easy – especially if it is your first time. After all, this article is more than 1000 words long. But trust us, th e pay off is leaps and bounds your investment.
And know that if you need help creating content you can be proud of, you can holla at yo boys at Friendly Human.
