How to Create a Social Media Calendar that Works

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"Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan".

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" background_size="initial"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Opening Paragraph " background_layout="light" border_style="solid" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" background_size="initial" _builder_version="3.0.80" module_alignment="left"]Truer words have never been spoken. Social media management takes on a completely new meaning when we are required to juggle multiple clients while creating engaging content for each of them. Between scheduling, planning, and engaging with thought leaders or customers, as well as jumping from one social channel to the next, you need to create a social media calendar and keeping separate social media calendars is essential for managing multiple clients.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" background_size="initial"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Why Use a Social Media Calendar" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" border_style="solid" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" background_size="initial" _builder_version="3.0.72" module_alignment="left"]

Why Use a Social Media Calendar?

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• Using a social media calendar allows you to keep a high-level overview of each campaign and their respective content strategies.
• Keeping a social media calendar is a great way to stay organized. This is particularly valuable when we have to manage multiple clients across various social channels.
• A social media calendar allows you to create a visual snapshot of your campaigns that any member of your team, can view to get a clear sense for your upcoming content and confirm that it aligns with their goals.
• An important benefit of keeping a social media calendar is that it helps you mitigate the risk of your posts not being published on time or worse publishing posts that don't align with your client's public image.

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Successful Social Media Calendars Should Have...

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1. Icons and colours of each social channel accompanying each post. This will help you to easily separate your content plans for each network and keep your content planning clean and tidy.
2. The option of easily segmenting your upcoming content plans by month, day, social network and of course, by client account.
3. Everything you need to manage your social content strategy. Think of your social media calendar as mission control.

Related Article : Enhance your social media calendar with placeholders

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How to Create a Social Media Calendar

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Content Buckets

Organize your content into buckets, and use tags and filtering to keep your content organized. Different types of content, even long form vs. short form will attract different types of people. For example:

• Videos
• Blog Posts (In-house, guest)
• Behind the Scenes material
• Influencer/Thought leader material

Organizing your content this way will allow you to analyze the effectiveness of your content strategy and make adjustments. This is also a great way to keep your material organized - especially as the demand for content grows.

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Marry social media with content

Decide on which social media platforms you plan on using throughout your content strategy. Keep in mind which content you plan on distributing, and how you plan on distributing it. For example, if there are special events, perhaps a Livestream video on Facebook would be appropriate. If you're looking to promote more user-generated content, Instagram and Twitter are great platforms to get audience members involved. By successfully marrying social platforms and content, you will drive more engagement and better results.[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Get the Timing Right " background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" border_style="solid" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" background_size="initial" _builder_version="3.0.72" module_alignment="left"]

Get the timing right

Did you know that Facebook has higher rates of engagement on Thursday and Friday? What about the fact that Twitter sees higher CTR on the weekends? Timing is an important consideration when developing your content strategy. Last minute and trending topics aside (which will come up), determine the frequency and times to schedule your social posts. You wouldn't send a long email on a Friday at 4:30 pm because you know the recipient probably won't look at it - apply that same idea to social media posts. People scroll through news feeds in the morning with their coffee, on lunch break, etc. Make the most out of those windows of time to spark engagement.[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label="Choosing Tool & Conclusion " background_layout="light" border_style="solid" background_position="top_left" background_repeat="repeat" background_size="initial" _builder_version="3.0.80" module_alignment="left"]

Choose your tool

There are lots of options out there when it comes to social media calendar tools - it all depends on what you're looking for. Looking for spreadsheets? Love analytics? Or maybe scheduling is more your style. Perhaps your client would even like to be part of the content creation workflow without having to follow your progress through spreadsheets and emails.At the end of the day, the objective of using a social media calendar is to make your workflow easier to understand and to manage. Choose a calendar that's easy to use and that complements your current processes.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built="1" fullwidth="off" specialty="off" prev_background_color="#000000" _builder_version="3.0.106" global_module="12787"][et_pb_row global_parent="12787" _builder_version="3.0.106" background_color="#3547bd" border_radii="on|15px|15px|15px|15px" custom_padding="25px|25px|25px|25px"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="CTA" global_parent="12787" background_layout="dark" text_orientation="center" _builder_version="3.0.106" saved_tabs="all"]

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