What if your social media marketing was missing one key ingredient?

You might have amassed many followers and created some awesome content. But your social media presence will never reach its full potential without a good content calendar.

A content calendar can boost your efficiency by giving your every post precision timing. Still not convinced? Keep reading to discover our complete guide to using a content calendar!

What Is a Content Calendar?

Our guide will help you learn the many benefits of using a social media content calendar. First, though, we must answer a fundamental question: what exactly is a content calendar, anyway?

This term refers to any method that allows you to write and plan your social media posts ahead of time. In some cases, a calendar can be as basic as an online document where you write ideas for future posts. However, most individuals and businesses now prefer apps to help them schedule content.

With such an app, you can target specific posts to specific social media platforms. And then you can schedule the posts to go “live” for a future time and date.

A content calendar can let you plan posts for the next year and beyond, but is it really worth your time? Next, we’re going to explore the many benefits of using a social media content calendar.

Consistent Posting

One of the problems with social media is that inspiration may strike you at random times, causing you to post erratically. But if you really want each post to be seen by as many people as possible, you need to post consistently.

For your biggest online fans, consistent posting gives them something to look forward to. For example, if you post every Monday and Friday at 8:00 am, your most loyal followers will keep an eye out for your content.

But consistent posting is also important for reaching your more casual fans, too. That’s because consistent posting of fresh content improves your chances of showing up in their feed as they scroll. And as more people engage with your posts, even more people will discover your brand.

Easy Organization

Ever try to craft a social media post and get stuck on what to write? There is nothing quite as annoying as frantically Googling things like inspirational quotes in the hopes of making a last-minute, half-hearted Facebook post.

With a content calendar, you can do all of the research and organization of your posts ahead of time. Furthermore, you can plan posts for many months in the future. That means you won’t be stuck trying to come up with a post at the last minute like a college student facing a midnight deadline!

Longterm Strategies

Most modern digital marketing strategies are part of a larger campaign. The philosophy is simple: your current and future marketing plans should be working together in service of your different KPIs.

However, if you’re just writing out social media posts when you feel like it, then your social media marketing is isolated from the rest of your digital marketing. But a content calendar plan can change all of that.

Once you start scheduling posts for months ahead of time, you have the luxury of planning for the future. That means you can create ambitious social media marketing that revolves around things like new product launches or online contests. And you can seamlessly integrate these posts into the rest of your digital marketing.

Reduce the Number of Mistakes

Most writers live by a simple proverb: the easiest way to notice a mistake is to hit the “send” button. And this certainly applies to social media posts!

The mistake in question may be as simple as an annoying typo. Or it may be as major as linking out to the wrong site or featuring the wrong image. And the worst thing is that once you post that mistake, the cat is out of the bag.

You can always delete and/or edit the post, of course. But there is no way of knowing how many people saw the post before you corrected it.

With a social media content calendar, you can do more than write your posts out in advance. You can also take the time to edit each post for minor and major errors long before it goes live. The final result: each and every post is nice and polished before a customer sees it.

Marketing Around Special Holidays

When it comes to social media marketing, most businesses schedule posts around the “big” holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even Halloween. But there are countless other holidays and commemorative days that you can schedule posts around as well.

For example, May 4th of each year is “Star Wars” day. Making a Star Wars-centric post on that day is a great way to appeal to everybody’s inner geek.

And January 20th is Cheese Lovers Day. What better day to post some “cheesy” content of your very own?

By scheduling posts in advance with a content calendar, you can go ahead and create quirky content for as many fun holidays as you want. And the simple act of scheduling posts instead of writing them on the fly will give you extra time to research the holidays you want to make posts about.

Get the Timing “Just Right”

Speaking of time, there is one more fundamental reason you need a good content calendar: it helps you to get your timing “just right” for every post.

If you wait for inspiration to strike you to post, you might end up posting very late at night or very early in the morning. At that point, it doesn’t matter how good your post is because too much of your audience is asleep at the time!

A calendar helps you schedule posts for the optimal time on any days you choose. For example, Facebook posts typically get the most engagement between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. And for whatever reason, Wednesday is the best day to post!

Keep in mind that content calendars help you test what works best for you and your company. Eventually, you’ll discover the most effective days and times to post content.

Using a Content Calendar: What’s Next?

Now you know why a content calendar is so beneficial. But do you know who can help you make the most out of every post?

We specialize in social media marketing, e-mail marketing, analytics, and much more. To see what we can do for your business, come learn more about our different special features.

© 2021 – 2020, Chris Duncan. All rights reserved.