Time to set some resolutions for slicker working in 2025? Then setting a social media calendar now could be time well spent!
A well-crafted social media calendar is so helpful when it comes to your digital marketing strategy. It helps you stay organised and who doesn’t want that?! Ever tried to maintain consistency, but given up? The calendar will help keep you on track. Here’s a simple guide to creating a social media calendar that actually works.
- Set Clear Goals
Before building your calendar, define what you want to achieve. Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Or maybe to drive traffic or boost engagement? Clear objectives will guide your content strategy and scheduling. Try not to deviate from your goals.
- Know Your Audience
Understanding your audience is crucial. We cannot highlight this point enough when it comes to your marketing. Try to figure out their preferences, peak activity times, and favourite platforms. Bear in mind the mood on certain days of the week of your customer!
Use insights from all the free tools available to you, like Meta Business Suite or Google Analytics. If you don’t look at the insights, how do you know what is working?
- Choose the Right Tools
Time is money in most businesses, so sometimes you may need to schedule your content. We always recommend first to consider the social media platform of choices own scheduling within it. The reason being that the algorithms favour this. But in reality, the algorithm just favours live content and even better, paying to advertise with them!
You can leverage scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to save time. These tools allow you to manage your time efficiently.
- Decide on Content Themes
This might take time and you may need to trial some options to see what works best for your business. We recommend to try to establish recurring themes or patterns to your content. But try to keep your feed diverse and engaging – easy right!?
For example, we use things like:
- Motivation Mondays: Share inspiring quotes or stories.
- Behind-the-Scenes: Give a peek into your brand’s daily operations.
- User-Generated Content: Feature posts from your customers or followers
- Introduce the team: People buy from people who they know, like and trust. So show your face!
- Plan Ahead
Map out your content at least a month in advance. This might take time to work on, so aim for a week first and then longer. Include important dates, holidays, or events relevant to your brand. Leave room for some spontaneous posts. You never know what cool unexpected things you might want to post about!
- Optimise Posting Times
Research the best times to post for each platform to maximise reach. They say that platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn have different peak engagement times—plan accordingly. However, we beg to differ. It’s not just the platform, but the target customer’s time of day they opt to spend on the platform. I often give the example of when I was mother of a new-born, scrolling at 2am or sometime between midnight and 6am. Normally when most people sleep, I was online! So be mindful of when your customers might be online and what is going on in their lives.
- Measure and Adjust
Remember to use analytics to track the performance of your posts. See which content pieces are going down well, and what is not resonating so well. Adjust your content accordingly.
Key Takeaway
A social media calendar isn’t just a tool—it’s a strategy that ensures your brand and business stays consistent, organised, and engaging. By planning ahead, tailoring content to your customers or potential customers and using the right tools, you can create a calendar that drives results.
Want to set up an exploratory and complimentary call with us to see if we can help? Then get in touch with us today – https://lushmarketing.ie/contact/
Start small, stay consistent, and watch your online presence grow!