By Brittani Wilson / Guest Column
More than likely, your company is on at least one social media platform. As of February this year, there were 65 million Facebook Business pages and 5 million businesses on Instagram. More than 66 percent of businesses say they use Twitter for marketing purposes.
All of this is because 78 percent of Americans say that social media impacts their purchasing decisions. Your business has great potential to reach your target audiences through different social media channels, but are you strategic in planning for what you post? If you aren’t currently using a social media content calendar to plan, here are five reasons why you should be.
It’s proactive. First, a content calendar is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a way to plan and organize upcoming content for your social platforms. By planning your content out in advance, you’ll never miss out on important dates for product launches, events, campaigns and special holidays. For instance, you’ll be able to plan a unique post in advance for engaging, unique “days” like Global Hug Your Kids Day (July 17), Doughnut Day (June 2), Friendship Day (Aug. 6), National Dog Day (Aug. 26), and Star Wars Day (May 4). With a little advance research and planning, you can be sure you won’t miss out on these days, which are always popular on social media.
Advanced planning also helps prevent poorly written or researched posts when there’s a protocol in place to have one person, other than the content writer, proof the entire calendar before the content or any URLs are posted live to the platforms.
It saves time. Creating a content calendar may seem like a daunting task, but once you have it set up, it will save you time where you can just fill in the blanks. The headings for your calendar should include media channels, written content, any URLs, links to images, and the day and time of each post. Set these up in a spreadsheet, along with the ratio of the type of content you’ll share (promotional, owned and curated), and you’ll save time by not reinventing the wheel each month. You can then focus on creating and writing engaging content for your audience.
It’s better organized. Not only will you stay organized knowing exactly when your content is going live, but you’ll also be sure you’re not spamming one media channel while avoiding another. At a quick glance, you can see what you’re publishing, to what channels, and the days and times. A calendar also allows for a system of record, so you can stay organized in knowing what articles you’ve already curated on LinkedIn, or which event you’ve already posted about on Facebook.
It’s easier to track. While many businesses utilize social media as part of their marketing efforts, many don’t know which posts or content are working. A content calendar is a great place to track how each post performed to allow adjustments for the following month. You should schedule a regular time for reviewing posts and note in your calendar which content performed well and which didn’t. The need to adjust your ongoing strategy can arise at any time, and a content calendar allows for ready access to do so.
It’s easier to collaborate. Does your company have more than one person on your team responsible for copywriting, finding industry articles or designing the images to coincide with posts? By creating a content calendar, kept in the cloud through Google Docs or as a simple Excel sheet in Dropbox, everyone can easily collaborate without the headache of overriding someone’s else’s work or not knowing if the next step is ready to be taken.
Content marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. A content calendar can help you consistently promote high-quality content, stay organized, cut down on wasted time and easily track every post’s performance.
Brittani Wilson is director of public relations for Plaid Swan Inc., with offices in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque.
