Step-By-Step Guide to Preparing a Social Media Calendar and Content

A social media calendar is a simple plan that outlines your social media content, including:

• what to post

• when to post

• where to post.

When you combine it with a scheduling tool, you can prepare your content in advance and then use automation to “go live” at the desired time. The following steps can be adapted to suit your needs.

Identifying Your Social Media Goals

Writing down your social media goals gives you a focus for your content. For instance:

1. If your aim is to increase brand awareness, you should focus on creating content that showcases your brand's personality and values

2. Want to generate leads? You should create content that educates your audience about your products or services. Calls to action are critical.

3. If you want to drive website traffic, you should create content that includes links to your website.

Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms

Choose one or a handful social media platforms that suit your business goals, and is aligned with your target audience. Don’t try and do too much; setting unreasonable targets often leads to abandonment of the plan.

Conducting a Social Media Audit

Before you start creating your social media calendar, it's important to conduct an audit. Review your existing social media presence to determine what's working, what's not working, and what can be improved.

Assess the following:

• Your social media profiles: Are they complete and up-to-date?

• Your content strategy: Has your previous content been relevant, engaging, and aligned with your social media goals?

• Your competitors: What are your competitors doing on social media? What can you learn from their activity?

The social media audit will help you identify areas that need improvement and provide insights for creating a calendar that adds value to your business.

Frequency

Choosing a content frequency is like Goldilocks – too much bland information will turn people away but too little is unlikely to give you the traction you require.

If you haven’t been posting regularly, then start with lowered targets. It’s important to achieve your activity goals and generate a culture of success around this project.

Scheduling Your Posts

You can set up your posts in advance and select a date and time for them to go live. It saves you time because you are more efficient when you do multiple posts. It also ensures you post even if other business needs are more urgent at the moment you planned to go live. A few tips:

• Engagement: Post when your followers are most active on social media.

• Time zones: If your target audience is spread across different time zones, you should schedule your posts accordingly.

Watch the Data

Don’t expect to be an overnight success. It normally takes time to build a following.

Therefore, track your social media metrics and adjust your content plan to improve your performance.