A lot of businesses are already using the power of social media for their marketing campaign. Besides, using these platforms doesn’t require one to break the bank, and it offers a wide range of audiences. It is the easiest way to reach potential customers compare to other marketing channels. However, managing different types of social media platform can be a daunting task since it will require a tremendous amount of time. Aside from hiring a social media manager to manage your social media, using a social media calendar would be great as an additional tool.
There are lots of benefits that the social media calendar can offer. But let us define first what is a social media calendar before we discuss the benefits and how to create one.
What is Social Media Calendar?
Handling different types of social media platform can be easily done through the use of Social Media Calendar. It is a useful tool in creating a year-round schedule for your social post, sharing, and campaigns. Imagine, if one will be able to visualize the campaign adequately, it will help to ensure the success of the said campaign. You can always seek the help of top marketing firms in Houston to maximize the power of using social media calendar entirely.
Benefits of Social Media Calendar
It Saves You Precious Time
As mentioned earlier, with having a calendar that tracks the schedule of your social media campaigns, post and sharing will help you achieve your goal. You will be able to prepare all your campaign materials ahead of time so you committing any mistake and forgetting essential details will be lessened if not avoided. This way, you will save time in the future.
It Keeps Everything Organized
Managing one social media platform is already stressful, so imagine if one is managing multiple platforms at once. Using social media calendar puts everything in place in an organized manner. One can easily track which post or campaign should be launched on a specific day of the week and what platform should be used.
It Ensures Consistent Social Activity
When using Social Media Calendar, you get to ensure that every post on every social media platform will be posted on time. Getting consistently active means that building connections and trust to your target audience will be ensured.
It Makes Your Content Balanced
Using Social Media Calendar, you can be assured that the same content topics won’t be posted on all your social media platforms. Besides, reading the same content will only make your campaign not effective since people will most likely not follow the same topic they have read.
It Keeps You Balanced when Using Different Platforms
Not every one that shows interest in your business product or services uses a single social media platform. For example, some people prefer using Twitter rather than using Facebook. This means that using the calendar; you can create a balanced schedule of time for every social media accounts you have. You can prevent yourself from using one platform too much while neglecting the others.
Why your Business need a Social Media Content Calendar?
One of the best ways for a business to succeed is that it needs to timely execute a campaign, especially when it comes to social media. It is essential that all your marketing campaign is well organized so that your followers won’t get confused. Your social media manager, as well as the team that he or she handles, can easily understand what the objective of your campaign from the coming months by looking at your calendar is. In this way, they will make sure that everything must be in placed on time.
How to Create Your Social Media Calendar
Download Basic Templates
One of the basic things you can have when creating a social media calendar is by using calendar templates. If you are new to this kind of tool, using template would be the wise move. A Social Media Calendar template already comes with a set of fields by default. One would only fill it up with information. However, as you grow your campaign using different platforms, you might find the basic template quite limited. It is always advisable to look for advanced templates or create your own. Below are the necessary fields needed to create a calendar template:
- Date
- Time
- Text to post
- Link
- Multimedia link
- Character count (for Twitter)
When it comes to where you could download basic templates, below are some useful websites that offer free calendar templates.
Hootsuite- They provide a great and easy to use social media calendar template ready for anyone to download and use.
Hubspot - If you want to have a very detailed calendar template, then Hubspot is perfect for you. It features each social media platform on a different tab for easy management.
Audit Social Media Activities
Now that you have your template ready let’s have a look at what details should you put in. To do this, you have to know which social media platform that most of your target audience is using. Also, you should identify which platform works best when it comes to getting engagement and conversions. In this way, you can set which platform gets prioritized over the other.
Campaign Materials
Let us say that you already have selected which social media will get prioritized over the other and put them on in your calendar template; it is time to decide which materials you should be using for your campaign. Content is king, and it is the best way to get your audience attention. However, it doesn’t mean that it should come only in text form. You can use a different type of media to create engaging content such as follows:
Imagery- It has been proven that using images as your campaign materials is one of the best ways to get peoples attention. It should be clear on your calendar the specifics of the image you are going to use, such as the best image size for every platform since not all of them requires the same format.
Engaging Videos- Similar to imagery, using videos as your social media campaign material comes with benefits. It can show off what your Business is offering and effectively educate your audience about what they can get in return. It is also essential that your videos are optimized specifically to the platform you are going to use. You can note the specifics in the calendar to avoid mistake.
Simple Text- If your social media manager sees on your calendar that the campaign will be using Twitter, then using simple text would do. Twitter put limits the way people should post, so it is imperative that it should be noted on your calendar whenever you use this platform for your campaign. After all, a simple, catchy phrase is enough to catch the attention of your target audience.
Outbound Links- Thanks to the innovative thinking of the developers of every social media platforms, links now have a different look instead of simple blue colored anchor text. Platforms now offer a thumbnail view of what the target link looks like. Links become engaging with social media users, so it is vital that your target page is fully optimized.
Planning
Now that you have determined the things mentioned above. It is time to focus on your content scheduling all year round. Why should you do this? So that you will know how would be the transition of one campaign to another based on the specific time of the year. Holidays, for example, need a different approach in targeting your audiences. In this time of the year, people are most likely to spend more than the usual, so it is essential that you have planned ahead and put it on your calendar.
Another thing that you should not forget in your calendar is significant events. Putting up a schedule for your activities ahead of time will help you to minimize mistakes and avoid forgetting important details. You should also create a schedule on your calendar for your upcoming promotions and product launches on your social media. Putting all of these on your calendar will make your life easier and less stressful.
Moreover, when creating schedules of important events, it is wise to put not just a specific date of the year but a specific time as well in your calendar. In this way, you get to put things in order according to priority. You also need to know which time is best for each social media platform when launching your events. You need to ensure that your target audience is online so they will see what’s new and what is your event all about.
Using the Calendar to Track and Evaluate
At the end of every campaign you have, add a field that determines the performance of the campaign. It is a great way to know whether the campaign is performing well or not. But how would you track the performance? Google Analytics is a great tool when it comes to tracking which social media platform is sending traffic to your business website as well as which campaign you had used. Put the results in your calendar, and you will know which campaign needs improving and which needs to retain.
