A content calendar is extremely useful because it serves as a comprehensive strategy for your content schedule & posting guides throughout a set period of time.
If you’ve been following our articles for some time now, you would know the the top key to success as an influencer in today’s society is consistency.
Consistency allows you to gain an advantage over the many other accounts who post within your industry and help to maximize your visibility across social media networks.
In this article, we will be outlining what exactly a content calendar is and the importance of why you should use one in order to benefit.
What is a content calendar?
A content calendar is a chronological list of your upcoming social media posts.
As stated by The Influencer Marketing Hub, it should contain certain elements and these are:
- Content topic
- Content category
- Scheduled date and time of publishing
- Status
- Campaign
- Publishing channelÂ
- Links to include in the post
It has the potential to transform the way you plan, produce and promote content. Using a content calendar and sticking to it could vastly improve your way of doing things and ultimately lead to better content quality.
Things to consider when creating one
Organize via platforms
The first step to creating a successful content calendar is to distinguish what platforms you want to focus on (based on the relevance to your brand).
With so many different social media channels available, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and think that you need to post on every possible network.
Once you’ve narrowed it down to 2 primary platforms, you can start by organizing your calendar by adding appropriate titles to outline the various platforms you will be posting on.
Use insights to measure what content is working
The great feature that all social media platforms provide are insights. These help you see via numbers what kind of content is receiving high engagement rates and what your audience are interested in.
Engagement rates are a key indicator all brands will look at for any influencer they are looking to work with.
Once you have figured out what works, you can use this as a guide to implement what form of content you should produce more of (short-form videos, photos, stories, YouTube videos or blog posts for example).
Figure out your posting times & frequency
One of the most critical tasks is to determine how frequently you will publish your content.
It’s important to evaluate when your personal optimal posting times are and a good idea is to benchmark against other competitors within your field.
Check out our article here on how to schedule posts on Instagram to publish at a later time!
You can use a content calendar to plan out specific events, public holidays or celebrations that are significant to your audience and your particular brand.
This assists immensely, so you don’t ever lose out on opportunities to leverage on such events.
Choose a format that works
There are various softwares you can use to generate your calendar. For example, you can use Google Sheets, which in itself is simple to personalize and has all of the segments you require.Â
Another simple option is Excel, which there are lots of guides available online to short-cut specific actions in order to create a seamless schedule.Â
Alternatively, you could use content planning softwares that integrate content calendar features with task management planning.
Takeaways
It is important to regularly update your content calendar with innovative ideas, themes, post details, deadlines and any other information that is required.
A content calendar, in the right format and framework, can lead to significant improvements in organizing your content and helping get your name out there as an influencer or brand!
What are your favourite softwares to use to create a planning schedule or calendar? Let us know on Twitter for any suggestions @itpliveme.