Creating A Content Calendar That Works

In a past not so long ago, I was responsible for social media content creation for certain brands - and while functioning in this capacity, one of the things I approached with a wrong perspective was creating the content calendar. 

I'm certain most content creators still approach their content calendars with the same perspective I had back then. Basically, I saw my content calendar as a task, as something I needed to do, to plan and visualize all my content activity for the coming week and something that ensured my clients were active on social media consistently. 

I never saw it as a tool for helping the audience solve their problems. If I had, maybe I would have had better results. 

The primary function of your content calendar is to assist your audience in solving their problems, every other thing is secondary. If you view your calendar this way, it will change your approach to content creation and will bring you to that point where every piece of copy, caption, and content that goes into that calendar is deliberately created to help your audience execute their "jobs to be done" with ease. 

An effective content calendar focuses on results rather than activities. It focuses on the results your customer will get from acting on the information, tip, or advice they get from your content. Creating your calendar this way is beginning with the end in mind and taking an outward-in approach that helps you visualize the potential problems the customer wants to solve. 

Sometimes, you can be so focused on smashing your KPIs that you completely forget that the customer on the other side actually has a problem that needs solving - and though they might like your post, there's still a huge possibility that they go back the same way they came. 

The content that goes into your calendar is only high quality if it helps your audience reduce frustration and moves them towards reaching their goals.

Here are 3 key things that can make or break your content calendar based on how you apply them.

Content Themes 

These are topics, ideas, and impressions that guide and inform the content that goes into your calendar. I'm not referring to stuff like #mondaymotivation or #throwbackthursday - content themes are broader topics that branches out in various directions to form your daily, weekly, and monthly social media posts. Themes act as high-level collections of topics that align with both your company's goals and your customer's jobs to be done.

The idea is to highlight a specific area/topic or two where you pull your posts form for a period of time - like a week or a month. A higher percentage of the posts that go into your calendar during the one week or one month period should focus on your theme or themes in one way or another.

When choosing themes, think about those outcomes your customer will want to get with regards to using a product or service like yours. What is that independent value your customer will get from consuming your content before choosing to buy? 

The only type of content that should come out of your selected themes are those meant to carry the prospect from having a problem to the point where they experience a positive transformation. If your themes are not feeding your calendar with such content, that's already a sign that you didn't pick the right theme. 

Research plays a crucial role here - to identify the best themes, talk to your sales, customer service, and product teams, their feedback should help you select topics that will help your audience. 

Platforms & Content Formats

Platforms, where you publish your content, will usually be highlighted in your calendar. But to avoid falling into the "shiny new thing" temptation, focus on those platforms where your audience is most active. If you plan to start using a new platform for your brand, then you must research, test, and analyze before implementing it.

Your content calendar must not go below the standard of adapting and tailoring content to suit the audience on each social media platform. Some brands share the same content across platforms word for word, ???♀? that's some amateur move. 

Each platform is unique and so are the audience - a post meant for Facebook should not be scheduled for Twitter because it will not perform well. People use these platforms with different psychological dispositions, the mental expectation of a Facebook user is different from that of a Twitter user.

Secondly, since the goal of your calendar is to help the customer make progress - when choosing content formats for relaying your messages, select formats that have the highest impact on assimilation. Quality content that your audience doesn't understand is of no use to them and sometimes, this is because you didn't communicate your idea using the right format. If you know your audience prefers videos and that helps them understand what you say better, why use a still image?

Frequency 

Your calendar has to clearly show the number of posts per day for each platform and the scheduled time they are to go out. But permit me to talk about the frequency of creating your calendar for a sec. Having a weekly calendar allows you to optimize and change based on current feedback, but creating your calendar a month or two ahead is better, and here are 3 reasons why:

Spot trends: Creating your calendar months ahead gives you the room to raise your head, step back and have a wider view of the industry to spot upcoming and current trends that are relevant to your audience.

Deeper customer understanding: It frees up more time for you to look at your target audience more closely, to identify behaviours and patterns to fine-tune your content in line with these patterns.

Manage engagement: It gives you time to manage engagement as they come in, no customer wants to wait for ages before they are responded to. 

Based on recent research, here's how frequent you should post on each social media platform for maximum visibility:

Facebook pages: 1-2 per day

Twitter: 3-10 times per day

Instagram: 1-3 times per day

Instagram Stories: 2-5 times per day

LinkedIn: 1-2 times per week