Building a Social Media Content Calendar

Why Use a Social Media Content Calendar?

At GROWL, we emphasize that consistency is the key to successful social media marketing. A social media plan’s success and effectiveness hinge on the strength of a content calendar. By using a social media calendar, marketers can successfully distribute content, relate to consumers, and build a robust digital community.

Use GROWL’s ultimate guide to creating a robust content calendar to get started.

Lay the Foundation for your Content Calendar

1. Audit your Social Media Channels

Use our social media audit, then review your brand’s old posts. Look for design and content aspects to determine what performed well and what didn’t.

2. Review Competitors & Aspirational Brands

Take a look at companies that you’re in direct competition with and also those you look up to. Compare these reviews to your brand’s audit to determine auspicious and trending content.

3. Analyze your Holistic Marketing Strategy & Goals

Social media should support your brand’s overall objectives. Review your brand’s mission, vision, and values alongside your goals and overarching strategy.

GROWL Tip: Remember that social media isn’t about sales.

4. Find your Why

Social media isn’t like other marketing channels. Social media is a digital environment that drives community, connection, loyalty, and, ultimately, conversions (read more about our Social Media 80:20 rule). Though social media can advance sales, this is not its sole purpose.

Develop Content Categories

After you understand why your brand is on social media and what you want to accomplish, it’s time to build your content calendar. At GROWL, we focus on the strategic process by developing categories, defining content per category, and justifying a frequency. With your why on paper, start building your content calendar with steps 5-7.

5. Categorize & List Categories

Create a list of general posts that you’d like to cover (i.e., community, leadership, tips, deals, how-to’s, etc.). When creating this list, consider top-performing content, competitors, and your brand’s social media why. Narrow your list down to 3-5 categories.

6. Define & Conquer

Taking your 3-5 categories, bolster your content strategy by aligning these categories with your brand’s why and overarching goals. For each category, describe the types of content that apply; list examples along with production ideas. Your social categories should look something like this:

Community – GROWL-About

Showcase GROWL in the community, including various events and activities.

Content can range from recap images to videos at events.

7. Determine Content Frequency

There are numerous ways to approach posting frequency. At GROWL, we calculate our client’s optimal posting frequencies depending on the platform, strategic goals, and availability. Since frequency is key to consistency, we examine multiple factors. If you’re trying to calculate the right frequency for your brand, consider this:

Research shows that growing brands should post high frequencies for maximum exposure, being:

Facebook: 1-2 posts/day

Instagram: 1-3 posts/day

Twitter: 3-10 posts/day

LinkedIn: 2+ posts/week

Keep in mind that maximum exposure isn’t the optimal strategy for everyone. Depending on goals and resources, GROWL typically recommends building your content calendar based on 3 posts per week.

Commit to your Content Calendar

Once you’ve established the foundation for your social media content calendar strategy, start planning! The best option is to sketch out your content calendar a month in advance. At GROWL, we use a customized, blank calendar to record what posts will be published when including the category and brief description. By adding a production type (i.e., video or photo), we can adequately anticipate production timelines. Once your calendar is complete, commit to it!

At GROWL, we focus on strategy. From reviewing your overarching goals to helping you define your social media purpose, we’ll curate an effective, data-driven plan of action.

Need a hand taking your social media content strategy to the next level? Contact GROWL today.