very marketer needs a tailored social media marketing strategy. There is no arguing the fact that your social media content requires it to be data-driven and spot-on to keep your audience engaged. The more relevant content you publish, the greater the chances of generating more traffic. However, planning your calendar is as important as telling your audience good stories and creating beautiful graphics.
As a busy social media marketer, it’s always not possible to create and post content on the fly. In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, there is no formula for ‘one size fits all’. You need the right content mix to keep your audience engaged. That’s when planning your social media calendar gives you the advantage of making sure you post the right content at the right time and place.
What is a social media content calendar?
A social media content calendar is a well-organized, strategic, detailed plan of all upcoming social media posts. Your social media content calendar will help you plan your marketing strategies better and coordinate with teams in advance.
Why is a well-planned social media content calendar important?
An impromptu technique may work for a while. In the long run, creating such a calendar will be especially helpful for you in case you’re managing several social media accounts on various channels like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others.
Your audience relates to your company or product through your voice and vision. Planning your social media content calendar has many benefits:
- A documented strategy allows you to maintain a unique voice
- Gives time to create thoughtful and better content
- Saves time and keeps posts well organized and on track
- Allows to prioritize content
- Simplifies the task of managing multiple posts on various channels
- Helps in improving posting consistency
- Allows time for brainstorming and generating great ideas
- Provides cross-department visibility
- Allows to analyze audience preferences and execute social media marketing strategy
Steps for making a social media content calendar interesting
Find the right strategy
The first step is to identify what’s popular with your audience. You have to feel the pulse of your audience and understand what keeps them coming back for more. Tell stories, compliment them with interesting photos, ask for feedback, choose relatable characters, share live videos, think out of the box, and use infographics in unique ways.
For example, if you run a travel company, use personal experiences, and client experience to create compelling stories with a personal touch. Pull up photos from your collection or use stock photography to make things more appealing. Steer the audience to dream, experience, plan, book, share their thoughts and interact on the platform. Create conversations and videos, and give information in creative ways. Use appropriate headlines and tags to show up on search results and draw traffic to your website.
Develop a content creation plan
Impressive content creation can be tricky. You need to have clarity of thought to create interesting content that speaks for your company, product, or services. Stay organized, set measurable goals, and understand your audience. Develop a SMART content marketing goal.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Actionable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Make your content relevant and alive
Simply posting blogs or photos may not be the right social media marketing plan. It is important to boost community engagement. Think of ways to engage your audience and promote two-way communication. Aim for posts that drive more views, likes, comments, and shares. Popular websites funnel more audience and increase the chances of leads and sales.
Stay updated and know the current industry news, trends, and forecasts. Use them to make your posts more interesting and relevant. Remember, your audience consists of different kinds of learners. Grab the attention of the larger audience by offering them a mix of text, audio, photos, videos, and other forms of graphics.
Use features like audience polls, give rewards, discount codes, and free trials to capture attention.
Research your target audience
Without knowing the preferences of your target audience, you cannot create a successful social media content strategy. Guesswork isn’t good enough when it comes to a buyer persona. Study your audience using analytical tools to narrow down the age, gender, location, language, time, and influencer preference of your existing audience.
Pay attention to the content type that drives the highest engagement rates. Reviews and surveys can help decide what steers the audience to you, encourages them to explore more, or consider a competitor.
Choose the right platform
A successful content planning strategy for your social media calendar depends largely on your target audience. Is it Gen Z or the mid-senior level you are planning to engage in? Research shows that the younger generation prefers photo and video-heavy channels like Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The relatively senior audience is more attracted to social media platforms like Linkedin, and Twitter. Use content strategy wisely to be popular with your audience.
Be consistent
You need not create new content from scratch every time for all platforms. It is possible to edit and repurpose existing content into social media-friendly formats. A blog can be turned into an engaging video to create brand awareness, drive traffic, and keep the audience engaged. Plan articles, blogs, stories, reels, guides, and FAQs, and post them strategically taking a broader view of your social media marketing plan.
Being consistent is extremely important for building trust and connecting with the audience. That’s why you need an engaging and well-planned social media content calendar. Measure the success of your content plan, learn from your success and failure, and optimize your strategy.
In Conclusion
Fill up your social media calendar with compelling content that will direct your audience to your product page. Remember content is king! Not only what you post, but when, where, and how you post are equally significant for a successful social media content marketing strategy.
