Are you struggling to organize, select and create engaging content for your social media channels? No matter what your answer is, you’ve already identified the importance of developing a strong identity for your brand. However, the solution to staying consistent on social media is simple: a content calendar.
In the midst of developing all assets of a brand, it’s not easy to keep a regular posting cadence, but implementing a social media calendar will help manage a daily, weekly or specialized posting schedule. Besides the luxury of having all your posts planned out, a content calendar gives transparency to all upcoming content and the flexibility to adjust posts when needed. It’s time to take control of your social posts to improve workflow and social media users’ representation of your brand.
Creating engaging topics.
Developing unique social media content is imperative to capturing the attention of consumers. Before writing and developing a creative direction, analyze your current audience and/or desired new audience to ensure the upcoming content is tailored to the right demographic and industry for all social media platforms. Developing unique content to capture the audience’s attention is essential when building brand equity.
According to a 2021 Twilio Segment report, a majority of people expect more personalized content when interacting with a business online, and, in e-commerce specifically, 60% of people say they will come back if they have what they feel is a more tailored shopping experience. So how does this statistic tie in with social media? Personalizing social content will attract returning users to your profile if your content resonates with their interests or shortcomings.
Personalized content starts in the development process when choosing social media topics that entice users to stop and engage with your posts. Organizing a list of themes for a series of posts helps support a creative direction and cohesiveness when developing content. Once a decision has been made on topic direction, take a moment to review competitor research or social insights of previous posts that received positive feedback and demonstrated a clear, individualized approach. These insights provide precise data on a user’s interactive journey, what should be highlighted more on a social feed, and things to integrate into a social strategy.
Creating targeted keywords and hashtags is a critical action to consider when developing posts. Using keywords within the copy of the post, or utilizing them as hashtags, will help users searching for similar content come upon your post more easily.
In manufacturing, here is what can be highlighted as key topics on a content calendar:
- New machinery and equipment
- Specialized company services, such as 24/7 customer service
- Company culture, such as holidays, work anniversaries, group outings, and more
- New employees
- Industry expertise in a specific area (i.e., automation, two-shot molding, IML, etc.)
Generating engaging social media posts helps build brand equity and reliability in the information shared on their social feed. Conducting social media audits helps build a cadence and can be done in three steps:
- Industry Research- Look into trending keywords or hashtags for select industries pertaining to a brand’s target markets. See what competitors are doing and what posts receive the most feedback.
- Set Goals and Plan- After conducting thorough research, plan content based on the highest engagement or traffic times for select social platforms. Sharing information on what things inspire or make someone interact with a post is easier when there’s data behind it.
- Monitor Analtyics- To properly assess what is and is not working, review the data provided to help make informed decisions, and use this data to help make adjustments to future copy and creative. Having data to explain the details behind every post is the right approach to building a strategy in the right direction. Starting with the basics and then implementing the data into a calendar will make planning a more straightforward process.
So what’s the best way of implementing all this information into your social media calendar? Having the right calendar application can go a long way in helping you maintain the right cadence.
What calendar application should you use?
Now that topics have been chosen and the social research has been completed, it’s time to organize those pre-developed posts into the daily, monthly, quarterly, or perhaps an annual social calendar.
There are plenty of ways to create a calendar, including using applications such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or specialized Cloud software services like HootSuite or Sprout Social. Companies that take a more conservative approach to social media may not need to invest in a robust social media management tool, so they may manage their calendar in Excel or Google Sheets. These programs offer a simple, user-friendly solution to organize posts.
However, if a company has a strong strategic focus on social media and a robust content strategy, investing in a platform like Hootsuite or Sprout Social offers autonomy. These platforms provide solutions, including:
- Scheduled posts
- Better assessment of trend data through analytic reporting
- Collaboration tools (internal reviews, reviews, etc.)
- Hashtag recommendations
Most social applications have planning features that allow users to better layout posting schedules. For example, Twitter released their 2022 social planner that provides a detailed step-by-step guide for users to create a consistent social strategy on their platform and can be replicated across other social channels. Finding the best calendar to match a brand’s cadence and posting schedule makes the process more cohesive when monthly calendars arise.
To build a user-friendly calendar, categorize your topics into sections from:
- Platform
- Date
- Time
- Content-type (Blog, social post, etc.)
- Topic
- Copy
- Graphics
- Links
Using a format of “platform, date, time, content, etc.” allows all the steps put into a social post to be seen in one place, eliminating multiple files of content or graphic assets. Planning out monthly calendars can be a flexible and creative process that exercises unity and provides transparency of what to expect for the upcoming month. Additionally, having a comprehensive resource of the upcoming posts creates greater visibility and efficiency so your messaging can grow as a team and company overall.
Kickstart your social media strategy
Starting a new or renewed social strategy is a great time to establish a scheduling system. The organizational tool creates an effective way to position your company as a subject matter expert, and, ultimately, influence an emotional connection to your brand. Taking on a more organized approach makes the strategy and execution more user-friendly and an enjoyable process for the future.
If you need help creating a robust social media calendar, contact the Vive team today to get started.
