Are you a pantser or a planner?
There are two types of authors: pantsers, who write and go where the story takes them, and planners – who know where they want to go and plan the way there.
What does this have to do with social media? There are those businesses who are successful at being pansters, posting whatever happens during the day, or are on their shelves and it works.
Then for most of the rest of us, we’re planners – we have to be in order to fit things around our lives and businesses.
But what goes into creating one? I mean, it should be simple right: what do I want to share and when should I do it.
There’s a little bit more to that.
A social media audit
This is about figuring out what works and what doesn’t according to the numbers/ analytics. And it’s really hard to argue with those no matter how much you like filming a your dance – it’s not about you, it’s about your audience.
Identify your top-performing content themes and formats. What types of posts drove the most engagement? Was it a particular season that made your posts do well, or did it have to do with a new launch? This audit will reveal your strengths to build upon and areas for improvement.
Goals and content pillars
You need to know your goals for your social media: are you looking to boost brand awareness, drive website traffic, nurture an online community, or promote customer loyalty?
Then, think content pillars. These are the overarching topics that reflect your products/services, industry expertise, and audience interests. Example pillars could include:
Products and case studies
Education: industry news and trends
Tips and tricks
You, your business and everything that happens behind the scenes
Knowing these content pillars is going to make it easier to create different types of content and not fall into doing the same thing over and over.
Your actual content calendar
There are so many:
Trello
Coschedule
Asana
Metricool
Google sheets
Go with whatever works best for you and your budget, because there’s nothing saying you can’t change as you and your calendar evolve.
Have a Master content calendar
Thing of this as a guide. Add
What’s happening in your biz every month or quarter – is there anything you need to make sure you do?
Frequency: start small, and don’t stress out if you can’t do a post every day or every week. You’ll get there – you just need to find your groove
Events and holidays
Are you going to have a series, with the same type of post every week?
Know your brand imagery and platform dimensions
Hashtags: it’s worth investing in building a library of tags to use.
Depending on your business, there’ll be more for you to do. But here’s what I think is important.
Last: always monitor and improve – by no means the fun part of this strategy, but an essential one. It’s going to help you grow and improve over time – and make all this planning worthwhile.