If you follow me on any of my socials, I’m sure you’ve seen the INSANE increase of content- darn good content- in the past several months. Growing and exploding on social media CAN happen in a crazy overnight viral success story but that’s not the case for 99.9999% of people, including myself. Most of the time it takes a really dedicated and stratigized content planning calender, and lucky for you, I’m going to tell you exactly how to get it done. Grab your highlighters and buckle up, y’all!!! Let’s get into it.
THE HOW TO:
Determine your topic catagories. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP. What are you planning on posting? How many different kids of things do you want to post? A few examples that I use are market updates, video series, local business highlights, personal content, team spotlights, etc. You need to make a list of all the different catagories you want your content to fall into.
For each catagory: Make a list of your topics, and by topics I mean the title of each and every post for the entire year. Write every topic out on the list under the catagory they belong to.
Decide which catagories will be presented on which platform. For example- Facebook, Instagram, Google My Business, LinkdIn, etc. Each one of these platforms performs best with a little bit different of content. Research which kind of content and what format that content is presented in is best. Some platforms, such as YouTube and Facebook do great with longer form videos, while others such as Instagram do better with short form video. Other details such as which way (horizontal vs. vertical) your content is captured and how long a video is in time makes a difference as well. Make sure you look into what will preform best for the platforms you will be posting on.
For each catagory, determine how often you will be posting. Since we are planning for the entire year, we’re planning for the entire year- weekly (52), biweekly (26), or monthly (12) TIP: Keep video length in mind. The longer the video, the more editing it requires- so don’t overplan and not be able to execute according to plan.
Get a large paper desk calender, Target and Amazon are great for these, and identify which days of the week what content will be posted. You should be posting EVERY DAY (or miniumum 5 days a week). If you want to take this one step better, look into the days/times to post on every platform to increase follower interaction. Color code each catagory with a different highlight color and then transfer those onto the large desk calender with the appropriate dates and times of when you will be posting.
SOME HOUSEKEEPING…
You WILL need to desiganate one day a week to film content. For me, it’s on Wednesday mornings before our team meeting. During this filming day, pln to film any and all content that is needed for an entire week. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that you plan to film for the week two weeks in advance of when you plan to be posting- making sure you have AMPLE time to edit. For example, if you film on the 1st- you’ll be filming for the week of the 14th.
Decide and plan IN ADVANCE what the cover photo or visual look each catagory will have so they are eaisily identified and people can tell them apart on your social grid/feed. Your followers should be able to tell what the catagory of your post is just by the cover photo. Staying consistent with this will build trust in your following- people enjoy stability.
BEFORE you begin posting, figure out ALL the little details including color palletes, fonts used, where and how logos will be included, and graphics, etc. This may seem a little nitty-gritty BUT it is absolutley vital that every tiny detail is planned out before you begin posting. This can feel very daunting- I know. Planning out these things will make the editing, posting, and even creating of your content run a MILLION times smoother.
There you have it, that’s how I planned my 2022 Social Media Content Calender. It’s not quick and easy, but my goodness it will make a world of difference. Cheers to an amazing year of growth for us all!
