5 tips for building content calendars that will save you time
Springboard’s recent survey found that 38% of digital marketing professionals find time is their biggest digital marketing challenge. This is something we see again and again with our clients, especially when it comes to managing their social media. Sourcing the right content, drafting copy, developing sponsored posts campaigns, engaging with followers – all of these activities can eat into your work day.
It may sound more time consuming to sit down and plan all the posts for each social media platform for weeks in advance but creating content calendars will save you heartache in the long run. Here are our five tips to building content calendars that will help you utilise your time more efficiently.
Planning and analysis
We recommend creating your content calendar at least one week in advance. This gives you time to add to your calendar, gather and review content, and make strategic changes.
Tapping into popular topics, posting times and platforms is also integral to boosting your following and engagement online. Our survey found that one quarter of respondents admitted that they never monitor their digital marketing analytics. At Springboard, we strongly recommend keeping an eye on your social media insights and metrics and using the results to inform your content calendar.
Managing platforms
Content calendars are especially useful if you have multiple platforms to manage. Create a spreadsheet or document plotting out your week or month, and list each platform you will be posting to. Your chosen platforms should complement your company’s brand and reflect your target audience.
Once you begin populating posts, you can strategically spread them out across each account, change your wording and word count to suit the specific platform, and ensure you are maximising the reach of your existing content.
Curating and creating content
It’s vital you consistently provide your followers with the content they’re actually interested in. Plotting out your posts in a calendar will give you perspective on what content you have, and what content you need to gather and create.
In your calendar, fill in the copy for each post, and add in any other content such as links to videos and images. This means it will be close to hand when it comes to posting, and you won’t have to waste time searching for a relevant image.
Always proof everything as you add it to the content calendar, not just when you post, to ensure any errors are caught ahead of time.
Time your posts
When creating your content calendars, you should also include the proposed time for posting. The optimum time can be calculated from looking at your analytics. When are your target audience online? When do you see spikes in engagement?
Content calendars also allow you to plan the amount of posts per platform each day. Generally, you should have more posts drafted for Twitter whereas less are needed for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Be agile
Social media is by its nature fast-moving so don’t stick religiously to your content calendar. Join conversations and jump on trends, if appropriate. If you post about something that’s relevant and topical, it’s more likely to get a good response.
Most importantly, be aware of the pitfalls of scheduling your posts to publish automatically. While it might make your life easier, there is always the risk that a pre-scheduled social media post may be pushed out in the wake of a breaking news story or scandal, and be interpreted as inappropriate, ill-timed, or incorrect.
Social media isn’t a one way conversation. Content calendars provide the structure that will allow to become active and aware on all the platforms on which your company has a presence so you can ensure you remain relevant, authentic and engaging.
For more information on amplifying your brand on social media, contact us today on info@springboardcommunications.ie
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