How do you create and manage a social media calendar and budget plan?

Objectives are a MUST! That's right, setting clear objectives for your social media activities is the key to staying focused and accountable. By defining your objectives, you can create a social media calendar that aligns with your goals and delivers content that is both relevant and valuable to your audience. This ensures that your social media presence is not just a waste of time, but a valuable asset!

You can't start your journey without knowing the destination. Setting goals early helps you measure your progress and stay on task. Quantifiable KPIs, such as revenue increased or conversations started keeps your project aligned with the goals that matter. We all love a post with 10,000 impressions but if it's not a brand awareness campaign - that's not the most important thing to look out for. If you're looking to raise revenue as an end goal (who isn't?) tracking the number of people you speak to, as a result of your social media posts/ campaign will highlight if you're moving in the right direction. Track engagement rates also, to follow if your content is hitting the right audiences.

My objectives are to increase our customer satisfaction and retention, while also growing our market share. My KPIs will include customer satisfaction ratings, revenue growth, and customer retention rates. I'll also keep an eye on our market share relative to our competitors.

A content calendar is great, but don't Post and Ghost ?? With AI and more automation tools rolling out all the time. The way to stand out from AI is to actually BE there for your social media posts. For the early likes & comments, reply, engage, support your social media efforts. If you want visibility this is the key ??? The easiest way I set that up is coordinate the content calendar with my personal calendar to ensure I am there for the first 30 minutes on social media. People want to be talked WITH. ???? #foxrocks

A content calendar is a GREAT tool, but don't get so reliant on planning ahead that you miss trending posts! ↗? Engaging with audiences and putting your spin on a popular audio or meme will show people that you want to connect with them, not just grow your follower count. Leave gaps in your calendar for trending content, and don't forget to share earned media inspired by your socials!

I have found the following 2 elements help me to be successful with my content calendar: 1. Keep it simple - I prefer a basic paper calendar or just a blank sheet of paper. Then I plan posts per day, and I do not concern myself with time of day. 2. Make it Achievable - The intent of a content calendar is to set a goal and stick with it. I only schedule 1 week in advance, and I attempt to only schedule what I can attain. If you do not consistently post currently, start your calendar with only 1 or 2 posts a week. Then stick with it a few weeks before you add more posts per week. Lastly, remember life happens, so be kind to yourself if you miss a post or two. Just start afresh the next week.

Creating a content calendar is an excellent way to keep organized and ensure that you are regularly providing useful and engaging content to your audience. To get started, think about the type of content you want to create and the frequency of posting. Make a list of topics, ideas, and themes that you want to cover, and then plan out when you want to publish each post. You can even create a spreadsheet to keep track of your content ideas, deadlines, and scheduled posts. If you need help getting started, there are plenty of helpful tutorials online that can guide you through the process. Good luck with your content calendar!

With social media, there is a lot you can do for free. Especially in B2C, people are consuming content like there's no tomorrow so even if you're posting purely organically, you need to be realistic about your budget. How much time does creating a post take? Your time is valuable so assign a value to it. Do you have to pay for any content-creating software? A scheduling tool? Keeping these costs in mind when creating your budget helps you understand the real value of creating content and you're not selling yourself short either. Win Win

Distribution! The most important and most forgotten about part of a social media plan. Creating a calendar, making content and then just posting it. Finished right? No. You have to encourage people to engage, get involved in the comments, follow user journeys to see if you've missed a platform opportunity and make a note of the language your customers are using so next time you're speaking their language.

Reporting is one of the most important steps in a social media campaign. Without a report, all your goal-setting and KPI work was for nothing. As you're not benchmarking the actual campaign against them. I suggest, making mini-reports throughout the campaign, to give you instant feedback on your KPIs and allow you to tweak the campaign as needed. Then, measure your success, and look at your goals, budgets and engagement rates to see how well you performed. Then perhaps the most important section: What can we learn for next time? What went well? What didn't? How can you take these lessons an turn them into actionable steps for your next campaign?