Now that you’re marching forward and making social media a part of your marketing plan this year, getting and staying organized must be a top priority.
Step One in the process is taking an inventory of your social media profiles. As we’ve discussed, use a spreadsheet to write down all of your profiles, whether you plan on using them or not. Make sure to NOT delete any profiles.
Once you’ve decided on which social media platforms you want to use for your business, the next step in getting organized is finding and creating a content calendar and/or planner that you like.
There are numerous benefits to creating and maintaining a calendar, including:
- Saving time. Being more proactive helps you not be reactive later. Collecting your thoughts and plotting them out ahead of time when your schedule allows saves you time later. We suggest that you block out a couple of 30-minute windows each week on your calendar to focus on content planning.
- Developing consistency. Being more proactive helps you not be reactive later. Plan out your weekly strategy and stick to it. Use a content calendar and/or planner as a way to help you stay consistent and as a place to record your thoughts and any links you find.
- Making fewer errors. Nothing is worse than a typo from a rushed post, right? A calendar will give you a chance to edit your content before scheduling it.
💡 PRO TIP: Share your files with a co-worker so they can proofread and help prevent typos from popping up.
There are a variety of ways you can build a content calendar. If you’re a pro at spreadsheets, you can create one in Excel or a Google Doc to help you plan your content. You can use tabs in spreadsheets in a variety of ways, such as separating ideas for the various platforms, collecting your favorite quotes, and saving links you want to post.
We also recommend downloading a FREE calendar guide that includes:
- A monthly planning calendar, included color-coded suggestions on how to plan content.
- A content repository to easily save your most used content.
- Tabs for different social media platforms.
- Instructions on hyperlinking within your spreadsheet
If you prefer pen and paper to help you stay organized, you’re in luck. The Content Creators Planner is the one and only planner you need for your marketing efforts.
The planners’ creators say “This is the planner we wish we had when we started online marketing.”
Starting at $49, the planners include areas to set your goals, define your content topics, build calls to action, develop checklists, and so much more.
The Content Creators Planner includes a digital Masterclass option that will help you map out, create, schedule, and measure your content throughout the year.
You Picked a Social Media Content Calendar … Now What?
Our series on Organizing Your Social Media Presence continues in two weeks! We’ll take a deeper dive into Step #3 – using your content calendar to help you schedule posts ahead of time.
We’ll dive into the pros and cons of several of the free and paid options available to you. In the meantime, wrap up Step #2 and start organizing and planning your content!
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If you’re looking for social media help in 2021, The Social Ginger is here to be your partner! Set up a FREE discovery call today.
