If you think that you don’t need a social media calendar for your online marketing strategy, you are missing out big time. Why should you even bother? A social media calendar along with a social media scheduling tool, can streamline the posting process & save you tons of time. There are many different scheduling softwares to choose from: Hootsuite, Buffer, Edgar, Sprout Social to name a few. Combine these forces & keep your social media on track and working for your business. Here are six reasons why you should add a social media calendar to your online marketing plan:
Get organized now, avoid chaos later.
Deadlines, marketing campaigns, personal post, charity, local events…these post can be overwhelming. Sit down and map out your anticipated posts on a calendar template. Take the time to enter each post into your scheduling tool. If you can preschedule your entire month, you will be set up for success. You never know when something is going to come up, but you will know that your content is ready to go and your campaigns are on track. Your schedule will help you contribute more to more social media platforms, without the stress.
Collaborate with your team without confusion.
Do you need your copywriter or administrator to double check a post? They can easily refer to the social media calendar & edit posts set up in your scheduling tool. Find a cool meme that would complement your post for next Friday? It’s easy to add additional graphics, hashtags, links and even videos to your pre-scheduled posts. These are the details that will take your social media to the next level. You will have a central location for all of your social media channels, that is organized and easy to reference back to.
Maintain brand consistency.
Keep your message clear and concise over all your different social media platforms. Your calendar serves as a template of what kind of posts your brand wants to maintain. After the posts are set up in your scheduler, most tools allow you to set up feeds, where you can quickly review your latest posts. This also allows you to keep up with the quota you set for your weekly social media posts, and keep track of where you are lacking or running behind.
Map out where you should fill in the blanks.
Social media content should not just be marketing campaigns. Rotate what kind of content you are serving to the public: promotions, campaigns, blog posts, social commentary, or goings about in your office. This is also your chance to show the personality of your brand. Look at your calendar thoughtfully, find the blank spots in your schedule and fill them with interesting content from reputable brands. Show your audience where your interests lie and what influencers are important to your brand. This also gives you the time to add in last minute articles of hot topics or current events.
Serves as a database for your content.
Your calendar is a map of your future posts, as well as a record of your previous content. Most schedulers allow you to look into past scheduled posts. This is great when you decide to create new social media accounts & want access to your previous content, without having to scroll through Facebook or Twitter. This will also help to keep you from posting the same articles, graphics or other content more than once.
Measure your success.
Use your calendar and your social media analytics to make educated decisions about future posting. Some schedulers provide basic analytics and some advanced versions can create social media reports for you. Even Twitter & Facebook provide you with their own analytic reports. Check your results, see what’s working and what needs to be improved on.
Make a social media calendar for your business & stick to it! Get it done ahead of time and you will be posting like the pros.
