Do You Really Need a Social Media Calendar?
Don’t you just hate it when that new company you started to follow on Twitter just virtually spams you with a barrage of tweets? Every time you check, there are so many new tweets from them you can’t even get through them all. It’s like they have nothing better to do than sit around and tweet all day.
On the flip side is the business you completely forgot you were following because you never see or hear anything from them. While it’s nice for you to not be overrun with social media communication, this lack of it can lead you to forget the company itself. Out of sight, out of mind.
Find the Balance
Maintaining an appropriate balance in your social communications is just one of the benefits of having a social media calendar. And, I’d say it’s a pretty important one because, without that balance, you risk people leaving your fold out of frustration with the deluge of information or simply ignoring you because you have essentially ignored them. Either way, your business loses.
A good social media calendar can also streamline your entire social media program, reduce the time needed for the management of it and help you organize and curate your content appropriately.
Elements of a Good Social Media Calendar
A good social media calendar should be a reflection of your overall content marketing strategy. This ensures that your social activity aligns with your larger goals and keeps consistent all of your activities. Following are some specific elements or recommendations of a good social management calendar.
- Themes
I am a big fan of planning at least six months if not a year in advance for at least your high-level themes. Start by identifying a new overarching theme for each quarter and then breaking out each of the three months into more defined subsets of that. These themes will tell you what you will be talking about on social channels.
- Channel Breakout
Each and every social channel should have its own line item in your calendar. Even when you are posting or tweeting about the same theme on different channels, exactly what you say on them may not be the same. Be as specific here as possible and consider even keeping track of what your actual posts were once you have made them.
- Task and Responsibility Identification
Make sure that anyone who has a responsibility for creating or posting your social media content is identified here. This will avoid confusion among team members as to who is doing what when.
- Metrics
You should always, always, always be tracking the performance of your social activity. Schedule regular time for reviewing posts and make a note in your calendar of which communications performed particularly well—and not so well.
Continually reviewing your social media calendar is also a must. Whether based upon the performance of previous communications or a changing landscape, the need to adjust your ongoing strategy and plans can arise at any time. Be focused and planned but never at the expense of the agility that allows you to accommodate this.
Social media management done right will allow you to make the most out of the content you publish on social channels to drive engagement among your audiences. With this in place, you take control of your brand and your business.
