Social Media 101: How To Create A Posting Plan

This article will teach you how to create a social media posting plan, sometimes called a content calendar.

Research And Marketing That Should Be Solidified Prior To Planning

• Anchor Items

These are posts that must go up on a specific date, such as holidays, closures, cultural moments, and other joint initiatives that your brand will participate in.

• Messaging Pillars

The most important, evergreen messages for your brand. These are the truths that you keep coming back to.

• Product Marketing

Sales, products, and other promotions.

• Community Cultivators

These are the entertaining or informative posts related to the problems that your brand is offering a solution to you. Your followers are more likely engage with and share them, which will in turn help raise overall awareness of your brand and will help cultivate your community.

• Mission and values statements for your brand

You've got to know who you are and the difference that you're making in the world.

• Paid Ads

Use these for drive times, special offers, when you're seeing a dip in sales, or when you would just like increase overall exposure (be sure to define your goals and audience targeting when creating the ad).

Caveats

A social plan is not an overall strategy. Your strategy and messaging goals should color and dictate what you are posting about and focusing on. These are typically comprised of categories that help tell your overall story (like awards, testimonials, memes, significant events, etc.).

Be prepared to be flexible. Breaking news can happen at any time. Trends can appear out of nowhere. There are times when it may make sense to stay quiet and let the news cycle happen. Other times when you may want to reschedule what you had planned to quickly jump on a trend. It's all a part of life on social media.

What you are posting is just one part of your overall social media presence. Equally important is expending and engaging with your network outside of your owned channels.

Finally, keep in mind that most people do not log into their social media channels to see posts from brands. Your biggest competition isn't your direct business competitors, it's cute pictures and videos of kids, dogs, and Grandma's vacation. It is significantly easier for a post that you make from your personal account to get a like than it will be for your brand account. Many social media platforms also run on advertising dollars, and may not be as apt to give your posts as much free viewing space in people's feeds. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

How Often Should I Post?

The answer to this will really depend on the brand, platform, and where you are in the work of establishing your digital presence. Most brands will post 3-5 times a week, but many will post with a higher frequency during drive times or if they are working to build their presence.

What Format Should My Content Be In?

Experiment, keep an eye on your engagement a overall reach to determine which content your followers like on each platform. If you are going to be crossposting content across platforms, diversifying your content type is a smart move - think short videos, gallery/carousels, single images, and polls.

How To Plan

1. Ready a blank calendar for the month that you are planning. Digital, physical -- it doesn't matter. Do what works best for you!
2. Add in your Anchor Items first. These must go up on a specific date, so you might as well plan around them.
3. Add in one messaging pillar every week.
4. Your followership will grow and change over time. If it's been a few months since you've reintroduced yourself, add in a post that highlights your mission and values statements.
5. Add in 2-4 product marketing posts a month
6. Fill in the rest with community cultivators. For most brands, these will be posted more frequently than other types of posts.
7. Add in a paid post or two as your business needs see fit.

What Do I Do Next?

Start creating! Once you have a plan, it is typically pretty easy to start drafting language and coming up with images and videos. You may have photos that you are already using for your business that you can repurpose, or you may discover a creative muse and make something entirely new. To avoid liabilities and increase discoverability, I encourage you to refrain from taking someone else's image, video, or language that you've found online and using it as your own. Original content is typically favored by most social media algorithms.

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