5 Simple Steps in Creating a Social Media Calendar

Whether using social media marketing for your business or for a personal event or fundraiser, ensuring that you plan what you post on social media is essential to your success. It is statistically proven that people who post on a whim do not achieve the same results as those who post with a plan! A plan isn't hard to achieve and can be accomplished using 5 simple steps!

Step 1 - Choose Your Social Media Sites

It has been proven that individuals who attempt to succeed on all social media platforms do not do as well as those who chose a few platforms to be great at (approximately 3 or 4). Therefore, the first step to planning your social media calendar is choosing the social media sites that are best for your business. Almost every business will have Facebook as their first choice; however, whether they then choose Pinterest or Twitter depends solely on their brand.

Step 2 - Choose How Often You Will Post

It is important to pay attention to how often you will be posting on your sites. Make sure that you take into account whether you have a certain day that you are usually swamped, or a day you have to take your kids all over the planet. On these days, choose to post less! A lot of people post a tonne of content for the first couple of weeks before veering off into other avenues in their life. When this happens, social media sites become stale. We all know that stale sites lose. followers, lose credibility and are unfollowed. You want to make sure that your Social Media Calendar is realistic and works for you!

Step 3 - Identify Theme or Content

There are several hashtags available for each day of the week, stringing together people all over the planet! There is also the possibility of creating your own hashtags and/or themes on any given day! For example, Cinis Marketing has themed Wednesday #WineAndWisdomWednesday! The hashtag appears in a live video that is streamed weekly on Wednesday. This is a theme that we have chosen as Wednesday is a key visibility day on social media. Find your themes and your reasoning, and roll with it!

Step 4 - Create Spreadsheet

Personally, I like to use a calendar when creating my Social Media Calendar. I find that there is definitely a personal preference where this is concerned. Some people like to use a grid with several different factors and an algorithm that makes sense to them. I am a visual person! For me, a weekly calendar that shows days of the week on top, and hours in the day on the left hand side is perfect. This is an easy way to jot in all of my clients, their theme days, my content and theme days, and add any additional information I may have. In doing this, my week runs smoothly and there is a continuity between my posts!

Step 5 - Add Additional Events or Holidays

To add a personal touch, I like to add any holidays or events to my calendar once it is created. For example, Canada Day just passed. On Canada Day, each of my clients and myself had a post on our social media sites wishing everyone a Happy Canada Day. I saw posts like this all over Social Media, and again on July 4th with our American counterparts. A special event could be a corporate BBQ that you want to ensure you post during or an employee's retirement. Using Social Media to capture these experiences makes your company look fun, and will aid in future hiring. As well, your site followers will enjoy the personal touches, and you will gain more followers utilizing this method.

Cinis Marketing follows this 5 Step process on a weekly basis, and you should too! It is a simple and effective way to gain followers, have continuity in posts, and have fun with your Social Media Marketing Campaigns. If it seems like too much work, call us and we can do it for you!