A strong social media presence cannot just depend on intuition. Although there are some individuals who seem naturally adept at posting effective content online, even they know the true value of a good social media calendar.

A good social media calendar helps you strategize content production. It helps keep you on top of your game so you never run out of effective things to say.

Determine your persona, tone, and branding needs

Like an episode of Mean Girls or some similar high school movie, you need to survive a world run by public opinion. So how do you present yourself? What kind of content will the people who matter find valuable? Will this get their nod (like)? Is it strong enough to be shared? Does this suit the image you are trying to present? And how will this help your branding efforts? These are things you need to think about as you brainstorm your content for the next 6 months. Make sure your social media calendar is sprinkled with these contents.

Don’t just talk about yourself

Since we were already talking about likeability, no one would follow a social media page that talks only about itself. While your promotions, your corporate news, and your new products might get the attention of clients who already make up your sales, adding some creative content which is not directly sales-pitchy can do wonders for you.

If you are out of ideas, consider special holidays as the theme. Add humor or poignancy. Keep your mind open. If you don’t have the resources to produce that type of content, consider curating content from other sources. Use your instincts (or if you could, an actual empirical measure) to determine whether or not your audience will actually like them.

Plot your dates

Get to know your social media channels. Facebook users behave differently from Twitter users. The best times and dates to post will vary depending on the culture of your social media channel. When you are handling different social media websites, a social media calendar becomes a complete necessity because you cannot just post on these websites as you feel like it. If you don’t post frequently enough (around 5 times a day or more) on Twitter for example, your initial followers will find you irrelevant. You will lose their interest. Facebook followers, on the other hand, might find you spammy and annoying if you post more than 3 to 10 times a week.

Have specific times in your calendar

It’s more than just frequency. Different social media channels will have different peak hours of readership. If you want your content to be seen, post smartly. Choose the hours when your target audience is already online. For example, if your target audience uses Pinterest, then you know they belong to the working class. It would be unwise to post during working hours because they are not likely to see your content. Strategize and post most of your content when they are relaxing from work and actually listening to you.

Be ready for constant change

One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to creating an effective Social media calendar is that it has to be set in stone. Nothing can be farther from the truth. If you are in a competitive niche, then you cannot be complacent. You need to be open to change. The content you have planned in your Social media calendar will have to be tossed out the window if they do not attract enough readership. In the same manner, even popular blog post types like life hacks will have to be rescheduled if there is another content that is more time-sensitive.

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*Featured image made in Canva

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