Why you should be using a content calendar.

What exactly is a social media content calendar?

Just like any calendar, it’s a way of mapping out future events and getting organized for what’s to come. In this case, you’re mapping your marketing activities and what and when you would like to promote certain services. Whether you use pen and paper, a Trello board, or an excel document, this is a crucial step in your overarching marketing strategy as this will dictate what and when you will post throughout the defined period.

We recommend working with seasonal calendars and then an overarching yearly marketing calendar coinciding with your business's goals.

This helps to keep a streamlined approach to your marketing activities, saving you time and making sure every post is in line with your marketing strategy.

1. Avoid fluff content.

A content calendar will help you to avoid what we call the ‘marketing fuff’. These are the irrelevant posts you might see businesses posting from time to time, just so they look 'active'. Every single post should have a purpose and be in line with what you are trying to market. Mapping one week to a year in advance allows you and your team to stay on track and spend more time measuring results and shifting content strategies.

2. Be consistent.

A content calendar allows you to design and post similar content across multiple social media channels giving your brand a current and consistent message during that time.

Let’s say you are a clothing line and have just dropped a new jacket. You will want to promote this ‘super cool’ jacket on your Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, and home page all at the same time. You will also want all of your visual elements to look the same to avoid any customer confusion or drop-out.

3. Hook them in.

Planning a content calendar allows you to sit down and define your content pillars. These ‘pillars’ are themes or types of posts that you want to post throughout the specified period. Content pillars might include:

+ New products

+ About the team

+ Instructional posts

+ Recipes

+ Events, and so on.

Now let's say you might post one of each of these weekly launching on the same day of each week. Your loyal following will be attracted to one or more of these content themes and will look forward and expect the content piece to land each week! I.E. Friday cocktail recipe.

If you don’t plan, there is little chance of you and your team keeping these regular content pieces up when sh”t hits the fan at work!

4. Work smart, not hard.

Having a content calendar and (hopefully scheduled posts) allows you and your team to focus on what's important. This is posting fun and engaging stories, engaging with your social media community, measuring the success of your posts, and strategising for the future.

5. Collaborate.

Having a content calendar allows you to gain access to the team's feedback and ideas ahead of time. Allowing everyone to contribute to this creates an environment for success as more heads are always better than one.

Last words of wisdom. And believe us, we’ve made this mistake. SET REALISTIC GOALS. Set publishing goals you can meet and best of all, schedule ahead of time!

We create content calendars for all of our campaigns through Trello so that our clients can visually see their social media feed coming together as we build it. It also gives them plenty of opportunities to change the look, hashtags, emojis, and captions prior to launch so that when we launch, they know it's going to be amazing!

If you think you'd like to work with us on your social media, contact us at hello@thesocialdeli.co and we can schedule a social media marketing brainstorm!