Plan a Content Calendar so that You Never Miss a Post

A social media content calendar is a plan and schedule for posts throughout a period of time, say, a month or two. It is what makes the difference between a collection of posts and a social media campaign. A content calendar will help you see the big picture, what you plan to achieve from beginning to end, and allow you to make sure that every post is contributing to it. It can always, and should always include multiple social media platforms. And, hey, it’s never a straightjacket, a calendar can always adapt on the fly, those juicy topical moments aren’t going to waste. But the calendar should always be designed with a specific goal in mind, preferably one that’s all about better engaging with your target demographic.

Here are some tips to make your content calendar shine:

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Choose your social media channels.

Said this already, but a content calendar can and should always include multiple platforms. That doesn’t mean you should be posting everywhere, betting on all the horses is a surefire way of losing money. As far as which horses you should bet on, that’s entirely up to you and what you’re trying to achieve. Gotta do the research, but we’ve got a bit of a beginner’s guide if you want to check it out. The TLDR is to choose platforms that align with your target demographic and that prioritize the type of content you intend on producing. Besides that, try to time your posts so that they go up at busy times for each platform.

Be consistent with your brand voice.

Part of the goal behind a content calendar is to develop the brand voice, and that can only be achieved with consistency. Now, consistency doesn't mean monotony, you've got different sides to your personality, so can your brand. But just like you might feel frustrated when a character does a complete 180 on a TV show, your brand might come off as unappealing if it seems to be contradicting itself. To better achieve consistency with the brand voice you must be sure it is congruent with everything, including the visuals. If there's a weird contrast, I hope it's intentional.

Make sure that your content screams good production value.

With devising a content calendar comes the responsibility of filling it up with high-quality content. Consistency is not worth much if you are only managing to be consistently underwhelming. The difficulty in achieving this comes from how good content will usually involve many disciplines (like photography, videography, illustration, animation, writing, and advertisement). So, while you might manage a few high-quality posts by your lonesome, pulling off a successful content calendar is usually a team effort (this is where it might be useful to outsource some of the work to cover your weaknesses).

Effectively manage and monitor your scheduled posts.

Managing a content calendar is sort of like watching a toddler in a tricycle: it’s safe enough for you to look away, but the moment you do it’s already crashing into something. Most of the hard work comes in building a content calendar, but the job’s not done once you set it in motion. You’ve got to make sure that all of your posts are going up on time just like you intended them to. Programs like Hoot Suite can help you automate the process a bit, but they are still prone to mistakes. So even if you are using them, you’ve gotta make sure to check for yourself. Falling a single day behind can easily add up to a headache’s worth of alternations for your content calendar. But it’s also important to go for the alterations if something topical comes up that’s worth taking advantage of (remember, not a straightjacket).

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Content calendars require a lot of skill and hard work, but they do get easier the more you use them (you never want them to get too easy though, that's how you know you aren't doing enough). If you've never used a content calendar before, start simple, set out 2 days to plan a month's worth of content. Use the first one to plan out every single post, and the second to gather any material. As you are slaving away at your content calendar you might wonder how cost-effective it really is, but by the time you start posting, you'll be wondering why is it you weren’t doing this before.