Introduction
A social media content plan is an essential tool for any company that wants to grow its audience and increase engagement. Whether you're just starting out with social media or looking to boost the performance of your existing efforts, a disciplined approach to creating and executing content is key. In this guide, we'll walk through each step of the process so you can create an effective social media content calendar in no time at all.
Set your goals
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Set your goals
Before you can begin creating a plan, you need to set your goals. This step is crucial because it forces you to think about who will be consuming the content, how they’re going to consume it, and what their reaction should be. Your goals will define which social media platforms are best for your business and what type of material to use (i.e., video vs. photos).
Research your audience
Before creating social media content, research your audience.
There are tools to help. Here are three options:
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Google Analytics – A free tool from Google that allows you to track all types of statistics about your website and its traffic, including what pages people visit most frequently and how long they spend on each page (among other things). Google account required.
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BuzzSumo – This paid service allows users to search for topics based on keywords or hashtags and see what content has been shared recently on various platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (among others). The tool also gives information on how many people have shared each piece of content as well as who they are and where they live (if applicable).
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Facebook Insights – Another free tool from Facebook that provides information such as how many fans/followers your page has; what posts generate the most engagement; which countries they come from; which devices they use most often when accessing your page etcetera…
Be consistent with your brand voice and visuals
Be consistent with your brand voice and visuals across all your social media channels.
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Use the same fonts, colors, and logos in every post. For example, if you're using “Arial” as the font in a particular post on Instagram then make sure that it's also used consistently elsewhere (on Facebook).
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Be consistent across channels. You can do this by creating an editorial calendar or being very intentional about how people will respond to posts when they're published. Providing examples is useful here as well for example: “We always use exclamation marks to convey excitement!” or “We always use question marks because it makes us seem like we don't know what we're talking about.”
Create a social media content calendar.
If you’re reading this, chances are that you have a business and are looking to grow your brand on social media. Or maybe you’re simply interested in getting more out of your existing social media strategy. Either way, the first step is creating a content calendar for yourself and your team (if applicable).
Creating a content plan will ensure that you stay in control of what goes out on the platform and give you an organized way of keeping track of all the plans, ideas, and changes that come up during its creation.
A good place to start is by writing down everything that comes up while brainstorming potential topics: blog posts or articles; events; guest posts; giveaways or competitions; video clips anything!
Repurpose old content.
When you’re creating a content plan, you want to constantly be thinking about how you can repurpose your existing content. You might not think of this as a way to use old content, but it is. In fact, even if you're creating a new piece of content for social media and want to promote it by sharing your old stuff that's still repurposing!
Another thing that falls into the category of “repurposing” is using old posts as inspiration for new ones. For instance, maybe one of your older blog posts addresses an issue or topic in a way that hasn't been discussed yet on social media but that could really resonate with people there. In this case, re-posting the original article from its original site would be considered repurposing because it'll help drive traffic back over there and encourage others who haven't seen the original article yet (and may find value in what was previously written).
You can create an effective social media content plan in 5 steps
You can create an effective social media content plan in five steps:
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Set your goals
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Research your audience
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Be consistent with brand voice and visuals
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Create a social media content calendar
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Monitor social analytics
Conclusion
Now that you know how to create a social media content plan, it’s time to get started! Remember that the most important thing is to be consistent. You may have less time than ever before, but if you follow these steps and stay true to your brand voice and visual style, you can still create amazing content at scale.
