Forming a social media strategy can be daunting: you’ve probably got at least one social platform, email marketing, perhaps a traditional marketing method, and a website. How can you keep all these platforms up-to-date without getting completely overwhelmed?
The answer lies in content calendars. Content calendars are monthly, quarterly, or yearly outlines of the overall topics of your content and generally operate on a weekly posting schedule. When you have a plan for what you want to post and when you’re going to post it, you can create content in batches and reduce the daily conundrum of “what do I post?”
Here’s an episode from In the Loupe to get you started:
Creating Themes
Central to any content calendar is themes and topics. For the next month, quarter, or year, what topics or formats will your content highlight? Take a look at the time frame you’ve chosen as a whole, and make a note of holidays and seasons you want to include. Is Mother’s day coming up next quarter? Perhaps you decide to make a series of posts devoted to moms and caregivers. Maybe you schedule a giveaway during the month of May. Or your posts might be subtler than that: theme your content around birthstone jewelry and hint at how beautiful custom mother’s rings or necklaces are.
Some generic example topics include:
Get to know our staff or our store(s)
Gemstone, metal, or diamond education
Holiday themes and trends
Product/brand highlights
Once you’ve decided on the themes or topics you’d like to cover, brainstorm a list of sub-topics. These will become your posts.
Filling in the Calendar
Once you have your themes determined, decide whether they are monthly themes or if you’ll do a “series” of posts over the next few months. If you’re highlighting Mother’s Day, start by marking off the actual date with a “Happy Mother’s Day” post. If your store hours are affected by this, schedule a post a few days beforehand reminding everyone that your hours will be different. Then you can fill in the rest of the weeks with other posts. Space out your sales and promotional posts
Remember, you don’t have to have a new post every day in order for your social media to be effective. Experiment with your posting schedules (perhaps once a week is enough for you, or you might prefer 2-3 times a week), but spend a designated time each day interacting on your social media regardless of whether or not you post something.
Sync Up Your Media Outreach
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is wasting your time trying to come up with something clever and creative for each separate platform. Your emails are different from your Instagram posts, and the banner on your website is completely unrelated. Not only will you waste time by trying to think of something different, you’ll also risk confusing your customers who interact with you across a variety of platforms.
themes
posting assistants