Like we mentioned in our previous blog post: 3 Ways to Leverage Your social Media to Get New Leads, an editorial calendar is THE way to keep up with your social media game plan, even when you’re busy with other aspects of your business. It’s an integral part of your marketing strategy, so that’s why we want to give you a step-by-step guide.
What exactly is an editorial calendar, and how do you create one?
An editorial calendar contains the details of your publishing plan for a week, or month, or even a year! By having one in place, you create a bird’s eye view of your publishing schedule, and at the same time, schedule your posts ahead of time, so you don’t have to worry about them anymore. Across the board, you should be posting daily, to each of your platforms, and preferably more than once if you can. Pre-scheduling your posts helps to create the consistency you need to stay top of mind to your clients.
To create an editorial calendar, start by researching key events, themes, or trends in your target audience’s location each month. By listing these “themes,” you get a good idea of the type of content to publish to interest and engage your ideal client. For instance, since December is a holiday season, you might want to create blog posts, and social media posts, related to it.
You also want to be sure to add in content directly related to your business. Your social media is there to support your business goals, so you have to make sure you’re always heading in that direction with everything you post.
When you have your themes laid down, and content gathered or produced that directly relates to your business, it’s time to start creating posts. Make sure you mix up the types of posts you use, to keep it interesting for your audience. Try a variety of:
- Links to your blog posts
- Quotes
- Photos
- Videos
- Articles related to your niche
Ensure all the posts you share are relevant to your target market. Otherwise, all your efforts will just go down the drain. If they’re not interested, they aren’t going to read it. Remember, when creating posts, it’s about your clients, not you.
Once you have posts ready, it’s time to schedule them! While there are many scheduling tools out there, we like using Rignite for this. The cool thing about using a scheduler is that you don’t have to go to your social media accounts each day to publish a post. Just upload them to your scheduler, choose a publishing schedule, and watch your social media accounts come alive!
Of course, you also need to check to reply to comments, and engage in conversations. Social media is about building relationships. If you’re not creating conversations you’re not building relationships, and you also won’t be building sales. Engagement is also important if you want to boost your business through social media.
Need help creating an editorial calendar? We’ve got your back. Download this editorial calendar template!
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