Marketing

Want a Successful Social Media Strategy? Make a Solid Plan

Your social media goals are no different than the ones written in your planner — they both take time and attention. Here’s why you should plan out your social media content.

A woman sits on a couch and is on her phone

A social media content calendar is one of the most important parts of your social media strategy. At first glance, it can appear overwhelming — planning out social media content days, weeks, even months in advance is a lot. But soon, you’ll realize that social media planning is one of the key components of a successful social media strategy. Here’s why you should plan ahead.

Scheduling Content Saves Time

Your social media marketing goals are no different than the goals you have in your planner, in that they take time and effort every single day. So, why aren’t you planning them out just like you plan out your meetings, or your tasks for the day? Maintaining a social media calendar lets you plan ahead, avoid multitasking, and gives you more time to brainstorm creative ideas later.

Basically, it saves you from scrolling through Pinterest boards late at night, trying to come up with a witty post in the morning for your Instagram account.

It Keeps Your Feed Consistent

Social media is fast-paced by nature, so if you want your account to remain relevant, you have to consistently update your feed with new, refreshing content. Otherwise, you risk posting content that becomes obsolete within days. Remember, you want to make an impact on your viewers. If you post once every few weeks, you’re missing out on new engagement, new followers, and new conversions.

Populating your social media content calendar with posts ahead of time allows you to post consistently, and to increase your organic reach via the platform’s algorithm.

It Reduces Grammar Blunders

You know how embarrassing it is to watch a company post excitedly on Instagram, only to see their caption littered with the wrong form of “your.” Or maybe a grammar error like Veteran’s Day, instead of Veterans Day. These seem like silly mistakes, but they can really tarnish your reputation on social media, and people do notice. 

Planning your posts ahead of time means you can run it by a fresh set of eyes, such as your copy team, or even a grammar-checker like Grammarly. A social media calendar, especially one with team-member approvals built in, can help you avoid embarrassing typos on social media.

It Helps You Strategize

Once you’ve gotten the hang of scheduling out your social media content, you can free your mind up for some serious strategizing. Should you run an Instagram giveaway? Maybe it’s time to get on LinkedIn, or Pinterest? 

If you want to take your social media to the next level, it starts with organization.

It Keeps Your Content Fresh and Relevant

A social media calendar helps you to strategically observe worldwide global moments that are relevant to your brand’s audience. For instance, May the 4, also known as Star Wars Day. Also, with your day-to-day social media content covered, you have the capacity to engage in a spur-of-the-moment post if something exciting happens!

It Helps You Produce High-Quality Content

In today’s digital marketing, it isn’t uncommon for a social media account to have an entire team of copywriters, designers, videographers, and photographers working together behind the scenes. Asking your team to drop everything for a last-minute social media post is not guaranteed to gain traction or engagement from your followers. 

A social media calendar helps you to allocate your assets — so that your team can do their best work.

It Helps You Track and Adjust Accordingly

A social media calendar has a lot of analytics to deliver you. When you utilize a social media management platform like Hootsuite or Sprout, you let a machine generate all of your analytics in a simple-to-understand format. 

From there, you can see what’s working, what isn’t, and adjust your social media strategy accordingly. Plan out your A/B tests until you find the right recipe for the type of format, content, post frequency, and the time of day to post for each of your social media platforms.

If this seems like a lot, well — it kind of is. But we have an entire team of social media experts who are ready to help you streamline your process and create a consistent social media routine. Get in touch with us today.

Alana Harmond

About Alana

Alana has always had a love for writing and all things creative. She graduated from UAB with a degree in Marketing and concentration in social media management, and she now carries her passion into her position at Infomedia as Content Strategist. When she’s not typing up copy for a client’s website or providing a continuous supply of pink Starbursts to her officemates, you can find Alana hanging out with her friends and her cats, Iver and Rosy. She also enjoys singing and playing guitar, taking care of 90+ houseplants, and compiling her “one second every day” video.

See more articles from Alana Harmond

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