A social media calendar is the perfect organizing tool for social media strategists and content creators. Today we share some tips on what a content calendar should contain and the best digital tools to manage it.

Social media has become the standard -and really necessary- way to connect with customers giving brands or businesses a strong online presence. Through social media content, you can develop your brand voice and the kind of personality you want for your brand. 

Social media can help your fashion marketing strategy, creating and maintaining online communities, communicating the brand values and purpose, and strengthening brand awareness in digital environments.   

There are quite a few social media platforms to keep up with; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are the main social channels. Each of them has a singular language and content performance. You should select which of them are the most adequate to your social media strategy. 

Any content and social media strategy starts with a calendar. It is really useful when you make the calendar the center of your team’s operations, thus the whole team will be aware of changes, details and know what and when it should be published. 

A social media calendar will help you to strategize the communication objectives of the brand. If you invest time in planning ahead your social media strategy, later everything will be very much easier as you previously defined frequency, the type of content you want to boost, and the copy for every post scheduled. 

The creation of a social media calendar is time-saving for social media managers in the rush, and young entrepreneurs that want to boost their brand for its customers. Developing a social media calendar will ensure that you create relevant and attractive content. Use content (photos, infographics, video) and links to increase engagement and brand contests to increase visibility and fidelity inside the online community. 

Learn the Structure of a Social Media Calendar

Social media calendar will give you a complete overview of all your content strategy through social channels. Planning in advance will help you to have a better perspective of the type of messages that we are sending to our followers and where our content strategy is succeeding or failing. 

Five Aspects Must Be Included in the Social Media Calendar:

  1. Date and time for posting content. 
  2. The social media channel and user account where the post will be published. 
  3. Copy (text) and the creative content (image or video).
  4. Content links and tag instructions in the post. 
  5. Extended information for content type (feed, thread, story).

This content organization tool will help you to post consistently. Social networks algorithms prioritize active accounts, as well as engaged users. You can achieve both if you work on a dynamic plan in your social media calendar. 

Also, it helps to balance your team workflow, as everybody can be on the same page, and dedicate extra time to each photo session or video production in development. 

Software and Free Tools That Can Help to Manage Your Social Media Strategy

A spreadsheet can help you to create your social media calendar, it is a basic tool, but extremely effective as it keeps it simple. You can download a Google sheets social media editorial calendar template, in several marketing sites and social media hubs for free. The template helps you to organize your posting across all your social media channels. 

Setting clear objectives to achieve every month is the best approach as the social media landscape changes suddenly.  In your publishing plan define the type of content you will publish. For example, you can create an original photo or video content, a story feed sequence, repost content, or curated content for inspiration. Describe the topic or purpose for the post, add the social copy and designate the author (if you have more than one person in charge of social media channels). Specify the accounts that must have a tag in the post and the corresponding hashtags.

Social media management software such as Hootsuite, Buffer, SocialPilot, Later, Loomly, Falcon, and SproutSocial, to name the most popular, offer the best tools and features for expanding your social media goals. 

Choose the one that best fits your needs and budget, and be ready to manage your social media calendar successfully.