Companies that want to be more consistent with their social media marketing content should be utilizing a social media calendar.
This type of calendar helps companies get a better overview of all their upcoming social media content, which, in turn, helps them become more strategic with the content creation and publication process, as well as become more consistent in interacting with the target audience.
Content Calendar
A social media content calendar can be as complex or as simple as a company might need. On one hand, companies can simply set out which dates they want to share content, and on which platform.
On the other hand, the social media content calendar can be a lot more detailed as it can also include the people that will be working on each piece of content, a deadline when each piece needs to be completed, and more.
Most effective content calendars tend to include a lot of high-level details that can help businesses get a lot more from each piece of content they’re sharing. That means they tend to include information such as the platform where each piece of content will be shared, as well as the type of content.
There’s also the time and date of publication, the title, and topic of the piece of content, a description of the visual elements that are used inside the content, as well as URLs of any links that are used in it.
All this information can help companies create a great base framework that they can use in the future to build out each piece of content they want to create. However, it’s important for companies to be careful when they’re planning and creating the social media content calendar because there’s a big difference between a content plan and a content calendar.
A content plan should include all of the topics and strategies in detail that a business wants to use in its social media marketing efforts, whereas the content calendar needs to have high-level information about the content, such as the times and dates of each piece of content.
However, since both of these ideas are similar to each other, many businesses tend to use them interchangeably and utilize them in a single calendar, which can make things confusing for the people working on the content itself.
Importance of a Content Calendar
According to studies, over 70% of the people in the US use at least one social platform, which means companies need to invest in social media marketing efforts. There are a couple of reasons why companies need to have a social media content calendar in terms of their social media marketing efforts.
To properly implement social media marketing campaigns, companies need to be consistent and understand their target audiences.
When a company has a deep understanding of its target audience, it’s going to know what type of content the consumers want to see from the business when they want to see it, and on which platforms, which makes the entire content creation and distribution process a lot easier.
The other key element that contributes to the success of social media marketing campaigns for businesses is consistency, which isn’t always easy to achieve, especially if a business doesn’t start planning its content ahead.
And that’s precisely where a social media content calendar can help businesses as it’s also helpful in saving time and scheduling the content, creating cohesive campaigns that align with the overall brand identity, and tracking the performance of those campaigns a lot more efficiently and accurately.
Mike Paffmann is the CEO of Virgo PR. He has previously worked as a Vice President at Clarity PR, 5WPR, and Highwire PR.
Virgo PR is a full-service digital marketing and digital PR agency that caters to clients in all industries. Paffmann has over a decade of experience in the public relations industry and has provided diverse media relations programs for brands and corporations across enterprise, software, eCommerce, technology, and consumer apps of all sizes. He has worked with clients including IBM, Genies, Glint, Rebel Ventures, AppAnnie, Owl Labs, car2go, Vkanesee, and more.