Social media is no longer optional for businesses. The reliance we have on mobile phones, tablets and desktops has made company social media a typical first stop for customers and prospects. Making in-person visits and dialling numbers no longer feel necessary when businesses latest pursuits and product purchasing can be accessed via their socials.
Acting as the online shopfront for businesses, marketers need to ensure the social content being shared represents the brand and its offerings in the best light possible. This can be achieved by consistently posting content that brings value to or benefits the target audience.
As social media experts, we understand the difference a content calendar makes to brand image and how easy they can be to create and implement with the right organisation.
What is a social media calendar and why does my business need one?
Longwinded communications are taking a backseat as social media provides a quicker route to the final destination, and it’s normal for businesses to feel pressure to deliver frequent and insightful posts because of this.
Recognising and alleviating these challenges is a social media calendar – a management tool used to streamline and plan the distribution of cohesive messaging across social platforms. It is the backbone behind published content, letting marketers feel in control of active accounts and the content that is shared on behalf of the business.
Essentially, it makes the maintenance of high-quality posts feel effortless through advanced planning and scheduling. Taking into consideration timings, dates and performance tracking, teams can coordinate with cross-functional collaborators and spread the load between one another. Not only does this improve resource allocation, but it brings in fresh ideas from different areas of the business.
The structural feature of a calendar provides a visual summary of content. By including supporting information such as links, hashtags, images or videos and other platform-specific features, contributors can see what the upcoming weeks of social media look like from a birds-eye view.
Even if a business has not yet experienced any issues with manual uploading, a calendar is much better for organisational purposes. It has the capacity to plan for weeks or months ahead, recognising important dates so key events aren’t missed. This level of planning helps administrators strike a balance between promotional, industry and timely posts for improved content ratio.
Though, the main reason why businesses need a social content calendar is for consistency. Social media quickly becomes ineffective if posts are sporadic and lack value. Instead, publishing activity can be maintained through announcements, industry updates, product launches, and awareness day participation, to encourage customer engagement and repeat profile visits.
How to create a content calendar for your social media
The idea of having social content ready to go saves time and improves post quality, but how do you create an effective yet realistic content calendar?
Social media marketers must prioritise the discovery of a work management platform that is suitable for their business’ needs. Some of the most basic packages may accommodate for one brand’s posting load, but if the goal is to have multiple users, share intricate videos and stories, and have accurate tracking metrics, this comes at an additional cost. However, it’s a cost worthwhile to avoid rigid platform restrictions.
Before moving on to the messaging and imagery, it’s helpful to have a baseline of where the profiles started. Conducting an audit of social accounts can point out key information, such as the most successful channel, what types of posts get the best engagements, audience demographics, and when audiences are most active. Also, it highlights what is and isn’t working which is essential for managing account progression.
After deciding which platforms take focus and require tracking, the next step is choosing the format of the calendar. There are plenty of free templates online that are readily available for businesses to use, or there is the option to create a personalised version for more specific planning.
Using the selected template, marketers can start padding out their posts, deciding on the frequency and how far in advance they need to be written. Now is the time to communicate with a designer to develop branded posts that can be shared, and hopefully recognised, on social media. Sending these requests early on will avoid overloading employees and assist with the accumulation of a high-quality asset library.
All that is left to do is to track the performance of posts, taking time to analyse trends, metrics and any other analytics that seem valuable. Depending on the results, businesses can use this information to amend or continue with their current campaigns.
Awareness Days UK
One of the hardest parts of manging company social media is seeking the right opportunities to engage audiences. Thinking of new ideas and how to deliver them in a way that appeals to certain demographics can be a difficult, which is why leveraging awareness days, national holidays, and key sporting and cultural events is such an easy win.
Businesses who harness the dates relevant to them usually experience better audience interactions as their approach becomes more varied and dynamic. Whilst it’s important to use social media to glorify the brand, it’s equally important to cover what’s happening in the outside world. Those who celebrate and participate in such events position themselves as being fully ingrained in a range of news, and abreast with emerging holidays. It also serves as an interesting content pillar away from product and service promotions.
Contact our social media experts
With the new year not far away, it’s the perfect time to sort out your social media calendar. We understand the challenges of trying to run multiple social accounts whilst catering to general business operations and pressures, which is why handing the work elsewhere is more productive. Our in-house team can use our profound knowledge and tools to create, support and manage your social media, making 2025 a fresh start.
