By: Keilah Thompson
If you’re managing a social media page for your internship or want to maximize your personal platforms, a content calendar can help you post consistently. However, you need to put some thought into your brand before you dive into creating and scheduling content. Here’s three necessary steps to take before you start building out your content calendar:
1. Define Your Goals
Although the words “goal” and “objective” seem interchangeable, knowing the difference will help you gain clarity while planning. Hubspot defines a goal as an achievable outcome that is broad and long-term. For example, “Create a welcoming community for foodies to interact.” is a long-term goal that reflects a local restaurant’s mission and vision.
You should have a long-term goal for your social media page. Whether that’s expanding outreach, pushing people to your website or getting sponsored posts, you should know how a content calendar will impact your organization in the long run. Develop 1-3 goals to keep for reference throughout the creation process.
#2: Create Objectives From the Goals
After defining your goals, you can create your objectives. Samewave defines objectives as specific targets that typically have a time-bound schedule or timeline for completion. Ideally, an objective is S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound).
Your objectives should stem from the goals you defined earlier. If your goal was to create a community for your audience to interact in, then a S.M.A.R.T objective could be to increase user engagement across active platforms by 50% within the next quarter.
Remember to be realistic about the metrics you aim to achieve. You don’t want to set unattainable objectives and get discouraged when they’re not met. Set attainable objectives and celebrate success!
#3: Build a content strategy
This is where the real work comes in! The goals and objectives you set for your organization are the foundation for your content strategy. According to Terakeet, a content strategy is an all-encompassing approach for creating content that drives the organization’s objectives. The content strategy involves the who, what, when, where and how of your content creation and publishing.
In this step, you will decide the types of content you will publish on different platforms. It will require knowledge of your brand, your brand’s audience and your brand’s goals
Consider the audience reached on each platform and how the content is presented. Is your audience young and prefer Tiktok? Or are they older and prefer Facebook? Do you want to create casual content or more formal posts? Does your audience prefer daily content or more spread out posts?
Once you know your audience and how they prefer your content, you can start creating and planning posts! Remember that content should always connect to a goal, achieve at least one objective and fulfill a strategy. Use a document or services like Hootsuite to create your content calendar and guide your creative process.