Tips for Creating a Social Media Calendar
November 30, 2021
Don’t wait for a free minute in your schedule to post on social media.
Having a business profile on Facebook or Google+ is just the first step toward building a strong social media presence for your business. You also have to post regularly, which can be difficult to do when your schedule is packed full.
Small business owners are some of the busiest people around, often working overtime every week to keep their businesses afloat. And, if you don’t have a dedicated social media manager helping you stay active on social media, it tends to fall by the wayside.
The solution? Create a social media calendar to help you stay on task and post regularly, even when your schedule is crazy.
How to create a social media calendar for your business
Identify the right platforms
Before you start creating a social media calendar, you need to figure out which platforms you want to use. Remember, the more platforms you use, the more content you’ll need to create, so if you don’t have a lot of time, narrow it down to two or three. Here are a few things to think about when determining which social media platforms to choose:
Where does your audience spend their time?
There’s no real point to building a social media presence on a platform that your customers aren’t already using. It’s much easier to choose a platform your customers are already spending their time on than trying to entice your customers to visit new social media platforms.
Figure out where your customer base spends their time. Most businesses can benefit from having profiles on Facebook and Google+. If you’re targeting younger people, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter can all be great options.
What kind of content best suits your business?
Not all social media platforms are well suited for all industries. For example, businesses that prefer text-based social posts won’t find a lot of success on Instagram or TikTok, which are image- and video-based platforms.
How much time and effort will it take to build an effective presence?
How often you should post varies from platform to platform. With some platforms, you need to post multiple times per day, and with others, you may get away with posting a few times per week. Whichever platform you choose, make sure that you have enough time to make your effort worthwhile.
Decide how often to post
You need to post regularly on the right platforms in order to build an effective social media presence for your business. But, how often you should post depends on the platforms you choose.
Here’s a quick guide on how often you should post (in general) on popular platforms:
Social network | Ideal posting frequency |
At least once per day | |
1 – 2 times per day | |
3 – 5 times per day | |
At least once per business day (M-F) | |
Google+ | At least 3 times per week |
Another important factor to keep in mind is how often you can post quality social media content. You should never post just to post, and you should always aim to provide value with your content.
Last but not least, think about when your target audience is online. You want to aim to post when people will actually see it, and plan out your social media calendar accordingly.
Determine what kind of content you want to post
When the time comes to create content for your social media calendar, the last thing you want is to find yourself staring at the wall, trying to figure out what in the world to post.
Come up with a few different types of content and figure out how often you want to post about it. Here’s an example for a yoga studio:
- Daily at 9 AM: Daily class schedules and openings
- Daily at 2:30 PM: Share an article related to yoga or meditation
- Mondays at 5 PM: Motivational quote or story with the hashtag #MotivationMondays
- Wednesdays at 5 PM: Photos of your studios or classes
- Fridays at 5 PM: Video tutorial on how to perform poses
Having at least a general idea of what kind of content to post will help you save time, stay on schedule and ensure that you’re not always posting the same thing.
In addition to having a general outline for the kind of content you post, it’s also important to create some guidelines for your brand on social media, particularly if more than one person is in charge of posting. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating your social media guidelines:
- Tone of voice – Think about how you want your posts to sound — i.e. humorous, educational, inspirational, etc.
- Colors and style – When you post images or videos, make sure they fit within your overall branding design guidelines
- Inclusivity – Don’t offend or leave anyone out; use inclusive pronouns, avoid assuming race or gender, don’t use race-specific emojis
- Harassment – Trolls happen on social media. Decide how you want to deal with them ahead of time, whether that’s ignoring them, blocking them or responding to them
Schedule out your posts in advance
Creating a social media calendar on a spreadsheet or in a Google Doc is a great starting point. But if you really want to maximize your efforts, take advantage of social media scheduling software, like the Marketing 360® Social app, to help you automate your social media posts.
With the Marketing 360 Social app, you can schedule posts on Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram for the day, week or month, all from one place. Plus, Social Insight Reports allow you to keep track of your overall clicks, engagements and impressions to ensure that you’re on the right track.
Social media scheduling software frees up more of your time and ensures that you post consistently, even when you don’t have a free minute in your schedule.
Don’t leave your social strategy up to your social calendar alone
From giving you ideas about what and when to post to keeping your posting schedule consistent, there are so many reasons to create a social media calendar. But, posting consistently is just one aspect of social media management.
One thing that you lose with a social media calendar is spontaneity. You want your posts to be timely, and it’s important to supplement your social media calendar with at least some spontaneous, real-time posts.
You can’t always plan ahead of time for things like industry news or business updates, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t post about them on your social media timelines.
It’s also important to remember that social media is a two-way street. When you post something from your social media calendar, it’s just the starting off point of a conversation. Keep the conversation going by checking your social media profiles often for comments and responding in a timely manner.
Save time and post consistently with the help of the Marketing 360 Social app, and work with the Marketing 360 Social Media Management team to create an effective social media calendar for your business and maximize your social presence. See our plans and pricing.
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