Your social media presence is not only important for building your brand online – it can drive new sales to your website and build your newsletter opt-in list (which can also lead to new sales). If you are going at it blindly, you may want to pause for a moment and come up with a plan and a schedule. This will save you time in the long run and it provides a clear framework and structure for your content activities, meaning you’re more likely to notice patterns in analytics and engagement.
Creating a daily, weekly and monthly social media strategy doesn’t have to be super hard. Even starting out with a simple calendar schedule can be beneficial. If you find that you do not have the time to plan out your social media, consider hiring a virtual assistant to help you out. Whatever you do, don’t skimp on building your social presence.
Create Weekly Post Schedule
Figure out what types of posts you will be putting out daily and write them down. This will help you create content ahead of time and have it ready to go. Make sure you have an idea of what you want to post daily. It is okay if every now and then you post something different (maybe because you have a sale you need to promote that week) but having at least a blueprint of how your weekly posts will go is very helpful. Some ideas are as follows:
- Motivational Monday – Custom quote graphic
- Tuesday – Share a blog post
- Wednesday – Promote your Business
- Thursday – Question of the Day
- Friday – Funny Friday
Create a Monthly Post Schedule
Print out a calendar where you can jot down important marketing days (sales and promotions) and include upcoming holidays. Use websites like NationalDayCalendar.com to find fun days to promote your products, services, sales or just fun Holidays in general (like National Donut Day). Adding some fun Holidays in the mix will allow you to have fun with your audience and you will also get found by more people – remember to use hashtags for those days – you can usually find them on Twitter’s daily trending list. This monthly calendar will help you stay on track – because we all know the feeling of “oh no! Christmas is in how many days?” and you are behind in promoting!
Use this monthly calendar to also schedule your weekly blog posts and schedule one day per week or every two weeks to audit your social media analytics! If you are running ads – include these in the calendar as well.
Create a Daily To Do List
Don’t get overwhelmed because we’re adding another list! This daily to-do list is just a reminder, so to speak, of what you should be doing daily on social media. It actually won’t take you much time, just check each off daily and continue your day. Your daily social media task list should include the following:
On all platforms:
Moderate comments and posts
Answer any messages sent (or review posts which you are tagged in)
Facebook, Instagram, & Google Plus
- Post on your business page once a day including articles, tips, how-to’s, video tutorials, and relevant curated content
- Interact with others as your page.
- Leave at least three thoughtful comments on pages or photos of other influencers or your target audience. Don’t forget to also add a few for your current followers!
- Join relevant groups and communities and each day, interact in at least one group offering expertise and value. Where allowed, promote your business or share your content.
- Like and share content by others
- Tweet at least once a day: Quotes, Articles, Helpful Tips. Aim for using a popular daily hashtag as well – in your industry. (stay away from controversial hashtags) If you can tweet at least 3x a day, that is even better. But it’s okay to start with less. Remember – Twitter moves fast so it sometimes requires more posts and shares to be seen.
- Use lists to segment people to follow: Influencers, Industry Professionals, Clients/Fans.
- Search keywords and hashtags to find content related to your business and engage with users.
- Engage with others’ tweet. Like, Retweet and Reply. Especially users who interact with you.
- Create eye-catching pins on programs like Canva or Photoshop and pin three to five new pins every day that lead to your website.
- Re-pin three to five others’ pins that followers would find interesting – pin them in relevant boards.
- Find five new people within industry, field or niche to follow
It’s a start…
These calendars/lists are a great way to start building your social media plan – and they will keep you focused. They can easily be tweaked to work better for you. You can use a regular calendar (printed or online like Google) or you can eventually choose to use a tool like Hootsuite. This will really depend on what you feel works best for you or your social media manager. Putting your strategy on paper or in a visible program will help you streamline your social media. Don’t forget to audit your results – each social media platform offers analytics for your review. Take advantage – see whats working, whats not and edit your strategy if needed.
Do you currently use a social media calendar? Let us know what works best for you in the comments below!