Most marketers now recognize that social media is an integral part of an effective inbound marketing strategy. With so many social networks available to us, staying organised and planning when and what you will share on these platforms is extremely important.
What is a social media calendar?
The social media calendar is a summary of your upcoming posts organized by date and time. A social media calendar can be a spreadsheet, a digital calendar, or an interactive whiteboard.
To get the most out of your social media calendar, it can include the following:
- The date and time the post will be published
- The social media account or network, every post will be active
- Include materials such as copy, hashtags, links, and graphics
How to Create a Social Media Calendar
To create an effective social media calendar, you first need to:
1. Do a social media audit.
A social media audit assesses your social media presence, accounts and engagement. This allows you to see what’s working, what’s not, and where you can make improvements.
But the audit is more than just analyzing your social media performance. A social media audit can help you better understand the interests, habits and expectations of your target audience. It can give you important clues about how they engage with your content.
Review and analyze the current performance of social media content.
This includes metrics for:
- Engagement
- Conversion
- Link clicks
It is also important to take analysis to the next level. Take a closer look at your top-performing posts and understand what made them successful. Ask yourself – does your audience love educational content or do they want to be inspired or entertained?
Do a competitive analysis.
Review your competitors’ social media accounts
- The types of content they share
- Post frequency
- Audience engagement
2. Choose your social media channels and the content you will post.
Once you’ve completed your audit, it’s time to put what you’ve learned to use. Your audit should give you insight into what you’re doing right, where you need to experiment, and which channels are best for your audience.
Choose your social media channels.
Target audience demographics are the information you need to know for planning your content. This can help you find the most popular social media platforms for your audience as well. As you progress in your research, be sure to evaluate the features and strengths of the platform.
Keep in mind that with each platform you add, you multiply the number of posts you’ll need to create and manage. This makes the social media calendar even more useful.
Create an intelligent mix of social content.
It’s best to create a variety of content. Videos are popular, but images, text posts, infographics, testimonials, and live streams are not far behind. It’s also a convenient way to keep up with trends that make the most of each platform.
3. Decide what your calendar should include.
You can plan your social content by season, strategy or campaign. To keep things organized, you need to decide what content you want on your calendar for the desired results.
To get started, your calendar should include the following:
- The platforms you use
- The day and time your posts will be published
- Links, graphics, videos
As you become more proficient with your calendar, you may want to expand it to include the following:
- Platform-specific content includes Reels, TikTok LIVE, polls, shoppable posts, and more.
- Geographic targeting
- Related or vertical campaigns, such as product launches and contests
4. Get feedback.
Once your calendar is complete, share it with your team and stakeholders to get feedback and make sure it meets everyone’s needs.
Your social media calendar should be an easy-to-understand plan that aligns with your social media strategy.
The monthly template in our social media calendar is a useful tool for sharing your plan with stakeholders who want a sense of the big picture but don’t need to get into nitty-gritty details.
The other sections of this tool are useful for social media managers who plan, create and post on social media.
As you use the calendar, you may find ways to improve or expand it; you will need to be open to constant feedback.
Benefits of using a social media content calendar and post scheduling
A successful social media strategy requires regular posting and engaging with followers to see positive results—whether you’re looking for sales, brand recognition, lead generation, or all three.
So if you’re not already using a social media content planner, here are a few benefits to pique your interest:
Schedule your posts
With a social media content calendar, marketers can schedule posts for entire weeks or months in advance. This will save you hours of planning strategy for the future.
Curate content just for your audience.
Social media marketers should take the time to craft personalized messages for each network because audiences expect to see something different on each.
Scheduling social media content can help you post more consistently across each social channel. This consistency creates a routine for your followers and helps you build trust.
Simplified performance tracking.
Without a calendar, business owners can’t track the big picture and results.
With calendars, they can look back and analyze which content performed best so they can adjust their strategy accordingly. If a particular type of post gets a significant amount of views, you can recreate it for another topic and potentially achieve the same success.
Scheduling content with a calendar can also help you track the impact and ROI of your social media efforts.
Reach new audiences.
With the help of a content planner, you can schedule holidays, events and holidays. This makes it easier for you to personalize your content and engage with a wider audience.
Examples of social media calendars
Jotform Social Media Calendar
Jotform’s social media calendar is not only visually appealing and functional. The tabs at the top reveal your social plan for each channel you execute your strategy on, including in-person or virtual events.
If you’re modelling your social calendar after this one, be sure to include a section detailing the content and who on your team will be responsible for creating the content. You can also have a separate section for each month to keep things organized.
How to Create a Social Media Posting Schedule for Your Business
Scheduling your business’s social posts can keep you organized and help you consistently deliver content to your followers without worrying about looming deadlines. Content posting strategies can vary by social media platform, and you need to consider not only what you post, but also when and how often.
By creating a social post schedule and adjusting the schedule to fit each platform, you can increase the chances of your posts reaching your audience.
