Social media is a crucial part of the business for eCommerce owners and marketers. It’s an excellent way to reach out to new customers, keep existing ones engaged, showcase your offer, and build your brand. But it’s also a huge time suck! You juggle numerous accounts and post multiple times per day. It can be exhausting. That’s why creating and using a social media calendar will save you time…and your sanity.

What is a social media calendar?

A social media calendar is a tool that helps you manage your time on social media. It helps you plan and organize your content to share at the right time and engage with the right audience.

This article will teach you why you need a social media calendar and how to make one yourself.

Why you need a social media calendar?

 

To stay organized and updated.

Social media has become a vital part of most business marketing strategies, which means they need to be active on all platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. But managing multiple accounts can be challenging because new updates are coming out every day. A social media calendar will help you stay organized and update all your accounts simultaneously.

For easy monitoring.

A social media calendar is a time management tool that helps you plan your editorial strategy and post ideas in advance. Creating one will allow you to monitor better what kinds of content people respond to best, which will help optimize your posting schedule for future campaigns. It’s not only a way to keep track of every post you need to publish but also a way to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.

It helps you save time.

Social media calendars also save time by allowing you to schedule posts ahead instead of manually publishing them each month or week. This will save hours every week, which means more time for other important things like improving your website design or business growth strategies!

Keeps your brand’s consistency.

If you don’t have a plan and don’t know when you’ll post something on each channel, you might post too much (could be tagged as spam) or too little content at certain times. Consistency is key to a successful social media strategy. If your followers see that you’re posting high-quality content regularly, they will be more likely to follow and interact with your posts. There will also be a high chance they’ll support your product because you’re establishing credibility.

Improves business performance and revenue

The right social media content calendar can help boost your brand awareness, increase engagement and drive sales. According to Neal Schaffer, 50% of marketers using social media for more than two years have seen an increase in sales.

How to Create a Social Media Calendar

You can use this step-by-step guide on creating a social media calendar to stay organized, reduce your workload and improve your ROI.

1. Create a master list of your social media accounts.

List all the accounts where you have an active presence (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) so that you don’t miss any updates or opportunities to engage with followers. Identify the purpose of each account. How many followers are on every platform, how are they engaging, what posts are they most interested in, and what time are they usually online?

2. Set goals for each social media platform

Figure out precisely what you want to accomplish with your efforts.

• What kind of content do you want to share?
• Who are you trying to reach?
• Are there any specific campaigns or events that warrant extra attention?

For example, you can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website by increasing your social media presence and posts. Or, you may want to increase sales by promoting product launches on Facebook and Twitter. Whatever the objective, write it down and make sure everyone in the company understands it. You can’t measure what you don’t measure!

3. Plan content for each social media account.

You can track keywords related to your brand or industry to know when trending topics related to your business could influence content ideas for future posts. Also, keep track of issues that generate good discussion in your industry.

Create a recurring event (e.g., weekly) in your calendar, and schedule posts accordingly. 

Depending on your stats, determine what kind of post and media the audience is more likely to engage in. If you need more data, you can experiment by trying out a variety of posts and seeing which one receives the most engagement.

Decide what you should include in your calendar. Copy, images, hashtags, geotags, links, or other accounts you need to tag.

Research holidays related to your industry. For example, if you’re selling wine or wine-related products, there’s National Champagne Day or National Pinot Noir Day. You can take days like these as an opportunity to market your product, host an event, give special discounts, or simply post something funny and friendly to increase engagement.

4. Choose a social media calendar template.

Social media calendar templates for marketing are available online and ready to download. Google Calendar, Trello, and Jotform are also great places to create your Social Media Calendar. Or you can DIY your social media calendar free template using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. You can copy hundreds of social media calendar sheets and excel templates online. Just find one that best suits your preference and planning style.

Tip: Create your social media post copy in your template before transferring everything to social media scheduling tools like Social Bee. This ensures you have a backup and is a more suitable way to share with the team before finalizing the content. This helps avoid making accidental changes to the scheduled posts.

5. Add the posts to your social media calendar.

Set aside time to research content, important dates, and current news, create media (images and videos), and write the copy. It’s easier and faster to fill in your calendar this way. Finally, when you have everything ready, map your social media schedule with the media you created and the content you’ve planned and collected to your calendar.

Final Words

The best part about social media is that it is free and can be used by anyone. As a result, your brand can reach an audience as far as the other side of the globe. Social media calendars are essential for any business that wants to run a successful campaign. It will help you plan and organize your content, boost productivity, and save time.

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