First things first: According to a survey, 64% of the most successful companies have a documented content strategy, which includes a content calendar.
There’s nothing like good planning to help you reach your goals. So why not apply this rule when creating content for social media? Creating and managing a good calendar of contents will save you from hours upon hours of work and procrastination in front of your computer.
You might be wondering: “Do I really need a calendar of contents for my social media?” Yes. A good calendar of contents will not only show you when to share the next posts on your profile, but it also helps you to:
❖ Keep a consistent frequency of posts;
❖ Bundle up the planning of contents;
❖ Prevent possible mistakes;
❖ Offer a central point of information to any member of your team;
❖ Analyze what aspects could be improved;
❖ Choose the best time to post on your platforms.
Okay, but how to create a calendar of content that really is helpful? We’ll tell you now.
What are your social media channels?
Just first, answer me the following question: In what platforms should your brand be present? We can’t forget that your brand should aim to connect with the public you want to reach, so it’s important to map out what social media platforms your persona uses the most, and if your brand should be there.
Keep reports on your brand’s progress
When your making these reports, keep in mind of
- What is your most successful post on each platform;
- What type of posts engages more interest on your public;
- When the user you aim to reach is active on social media.
Plan, plan, plan.
It’s important to determine what frequency and how far in advance you’re going to start creating your brand’s posts. Setting out a schedule will help you find out what your production capacity is and to optimize the content creation process.
Stocking up content
To those who work with creativity, it’s not uncommon to have those days where it feels like you’re the least creative person in the world. So days like that don’t get in your way, have a document on Word, or wherever you prefere, with themes for content, links, photos, and anything that’s essential for you to create good content.
How long in advance will the content be created?
Before you start posting, it’s important to have already created some content. Our recommendation is for you to always have two weeks, at least, ahead of content. And yes, we know that some things will be made (and posted) overnight. But it’s important to have the main stuff up your sleeve.
Keep an eye out for important niched dates
Holidays, conferences, products debut, all of that should be contemplated on your callendar of content. If you work with sales, it’s important to add dates you offer deals and new collections.
Feed your calendar in real time
Let’s be honest, there’s no point in having all that work in creating your calendar if you’re not going to use it. Marking the content that has already been posted as “done”, changing publication dates, adding new texts… all that has to be done on your calendar on a -almost- daily basis. Stay tuned.
Don’t skip the revision step.
Creating is important, but so is revising everything that has been created so far. Dedicating some time to set out and align your revision routine is crucial for the success of your brand on social media.
Watch your results.
Ok, there’s no point in dedicating all this time in creating, posting, revising if you don’t watch the results. Keeping an eye on what works and identifying and refining your social media campaign is essential.
Not sure about what tool to use when creating your calendar? We’ve thought about that too, and set out 3 tools that can be helpful on this.
Google Sheets
Good ol’ Excel, right besties? Some love it, others hate it, but when it’s time to create and visualize a calendar Excel’s lines can be your best friends (or worst enemies – depending on your point of view).
Google calendar
You can’t upload any files that need to be posted on it, but you can add reminders on the deadline of a post or article that needs to be shared. That way, you won’t miss any deadlines and you can demand people on your team on the right dates, with no pressure or stress for either party. ☺
Notion
Personally, I love Notion. It’s a better version of Trello, in my opinion. You can set up your calendar in it, share it with people, create tasks, and a lot more. Use it as much as you can.
Extra tip:
A calendar of content won’t only be useful to guide you when creating content for your brand’s social media. You can also use it to help you organize other tasks, such as the creation of a podcast episode. Use the calendar to define the publication dates of the episode, to set the date of when you should write your script, who are the guests of the day, when you’re going to record it, edit it, etc.
A calendar is an indispensable tool in the life of any creative person.
We hope these tips help you.
Do you have any tips that we missed and you think are essential? Write them to us, we’ll love to hear what you have to say.
And see you next week.
References:
https://asana.com/pt/resources/social-media-content-calendar
https://neilpatel.com/br/blog/como-criar-um-calendario-editorial/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/content-calendar/
https://www.outbrain.com/blog/how-to-build-a-content-calendar/
