How to Plan a Successful Social Media Calendar
A social media calendar shows your upcoming posts organized by date and time. You can create a social media calendar on a spreadsheet, digital calendar or interactive dashboard. Just be sure that whichever method you choose, you are able to easily edit the calendar, as things change, and social media is all about being timely and relevant!
Below you’ll find some tips for planning a successful social media calendar for your brand.
Start with a social media audit.
A social media audit assesses your social media presence, accounts and engagement so you can see what’s working and what needs improvements. HubSpot has a great article on the steps required to perform a social media audit. Key details to pay attention to are:
- Your most successful posts by channel
- Types of posts that get the most engagement
- Times when your audience is most active
- How different posts perform (i.e., video content vs blog content)
- Popularity of evergreen content vs new content
- Audience demographics across channels
Choose your channels and the content to post.
Once you have an idea of where you stand on social media, you can begin crafting a social media strategy that helps you reach your goals. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin, so limit the channels you are on. Stick to the ones that give you the most engagement, which for most brands, is some mix of Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat.
Your calendar should include details such as the following:
- The platforms you’re using
- The day and time to publish your posts
- Links, graphics, hashtags and copy to include
Get feedback from the rest of the team.
When you complete your social media calendar, get feedback from your team. You’ll likely receive some suggestions on how to improve and expand upon your calendar. Plus, there might be important dates that you’re not thinking about, or relevant industry news that you weren’t aware of. A collaborative approach ensures you’re thinking about things from all angles.
Pay attention to analytics.
The major social media platforms have detailed analytics tools that let you see how your posts are performing. Pay attention to these metrics so that you know what’s working, and where you need to improve. Remember, your social media calendar is not set in stone. If you see that something is not bringing you engagement, change it!
Social media is a great tool that lets you connect with your audience, boost trust and credibility and increase traffic, conversions and sales. But, it’s important that you are using the channels wisely, otherwise, you might simply be existing on them. To learn more about enhancing your social media strategy, contact WSI Star Web Solutions.