There are various ways to create content for your social media campaign, but my go-to is always the social media calendar. I like to create an editorial calendar for each of my clients. If you’re managing your own online marketing, than creating a calendar should be simple. You just have to sit down and do it! Here are a few tips that will help you get started:
Scheduling Posts
Think about what you want to say and when you want to say it. Try not to post more than once or twice a day on Facebook. Twice is absolutely the max for me. I don’t like to bombard people with information unless I absolutely feel it’s necessary. If you do decide to post twice, try to keep them 4-5 hours apart, unless of course it’s time sensitive. Occasionally posting more frequently will happen, and that’s okay, but try not to make a habit of it on Facebook because you will likely lose followers.
Twitter is slightly more forgiving, so you can post your news more frequently. I would keep tweets to no more than four times a day if it’s news specifically about your brand. If you’re carrying on conversations with others than tweet away!
Mark up dates on your calendar as necessary. If you have an event, make sure you give yourself enough time to promote it, perhaps you’ll want to start a week before. You’ll probably want to send one tweet about it everyday and promote it on Facebook with posts (two-three times a week), and set up an event to invite your friends.
Your Blog
When setting up your blog, determine how frequently you will blog and which days of the week. Consistency is very crucial in the blogging world, especially when you start gaining more and more readers. They will come to expect your blog on the same day(s) each week, so make sure you stick to your schedule. It’s always easier to sit down for a big block of time to write the week’s blog and schedule it so that it posts on a specific day. That way you know you won’t be late.
Contests, Offers, and Promotions
I typically don’t like to do contests for my clients more than about four times a year, but it really depends on the industry they’re in. You want to spread it out so that you’re not constantly giving things away. The last thing you want to do is cheapen your brand. So, plan out when you will do your offers and special promotions as well as your more involved contests. Remember, you can keep your offers and promotions to one or two-day specials, but you can run your contest for a month if you want to. That will in large part depend on your audience, so feel it out with them.
Think Deeper
You will want your calendar to have something like the following types of posts for maximum results:
- ~When you will post about your brand and what the post will entail
- ~When you will post about a community brand your business has liked on Facebook or followed on Twitter
- ~When you will respond to community posts
- ~When you will host a contest
- ~When you will have an offer or promotion (Mondays are 15% off pizzas or all night happy hour, for example)
- ~When you will post about various aspects of your brand (join our mailing list, try our bottomless bloody mar bar, come to happy hour for food and drink specials, etc.)
- ~When you will ask “this or that” questions to get your fans engaged
- ~When you will post pictures of your work in progress, or your employees having fun at work (this can be more random, but something to think about each week)
There are so many types of posts; the ones above are just the tip of the iceberg but a good start anyhow. If you have others, please share them!