by By: Gabby McGillis
Have you ever sat down to create a social media post for a student group, job responsibility, or even your personal account and had no idea where to begin? In today’s world, it can be difficult to decide what type of content to post, where to post it, or when to share it.
I experienced this firsthand when I began creating social media content for a student organization on campus three months ago. At the time, the account had 250 followers and has since grown to more than 1,300. So, how can students use organization and strategic planning to improve their social media presence? A great place to start is by creating a social media content calendar.
1) Define Your Goals and Target Audience
It can be easy to say that you want to gain more followers on a platform or more views on a specific post. However, what is more significant is understanding why you want this attention on your page — how do you want your audience to react to your content or take action?
Next, identify your target audience — who do you want to view your content? Whether you are attracting your target audience is an important factor in marketing yourself correctly on social media. In my case, this target audience was students and my goal was for the audience to gain interest in our organization and become involved in fundraising initiatives for our cause.
2) Choose Your Platforms and Posting Frequency
When one is beginning their social media posting journey, it can be overwhelming to feel as though you have to post on every platform; however, this is not always the case. For example, a younger audience may be more active on TikTok, while an older audience may prefer Facebook. Instagram is an incredibly useful platform, with 79% of adults ages 18-29 and 64% of adults ages 30-49 using the platform. Choosing the right platforms can help increase your brand identity and reach.
Once you have established where your audience is most likely to view and engage in your content most frequently, you can determine how often you will post. Posting too frequently can cause audiences to overlook content.
On Instagram, for example, it may be effective to post almost every day on one’s story, but closer to only three to five times per week for “main feed” posts.
3) Establish Your Content Categories
Once you have determined how often and where you are posting, it is time to consider what you are posting. Depending on your platform, you might have multiple types of posts or you might prefer to stick to a few main types of content.
A useful tactic is to balance promotional graphics with photo and video content. On my group’s page, we aim to post two high-quality photos per week, mixed in with two to three graphics promoting events or organization information.
4) Choose Your Organizational Tool and Start Planning
Your content calendar system does not have to be complicated. I have found that Google Sheets is useful for my purposes because it allows me and others on my social media account to see dates, content types, and platforms used all in one place. The video below provides a visual example of how to create a similar calendar and a template you can use as a starting point.
5) Post and Monitor
Now, it is time to post! Whether you schedule posts automatically or publish them manually, it is important to monitor your content. Monitor engagement and audience sentiment while keeping an eye out for errors that need correcting. Monitoring your posts can also help you provide support and feedback to your audience and manage crises if needed.
Building a successful social media presence takes time and effort, but it does not have to be intimidating. A content calendar provides the structure and organization needed to keep yourself on track and create purposeful content. Regardless of the account you run or manage, a social media content calendar can help turn broad goals and ideas into actionable steps. With this five-step process and the usage of content calendar platforms, you can strengthen your social media marketing skills and brand identity efficiently and effectively.
Hi Gabby!
Thank you for this post. Social media is such an important part of our lives in today’s society but it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. This was super informative and a helpful guide to navigating and succeeding on social media, whether it is career oriented or just for personal use.
Hi Gabby! I really appreciated the Google Sheets how-to video that you shared. I find these resources very valuable to my learning experiences. I think that it is important to have a schedule in order to not get overwhelmed, so this ia a great reminder and tool on how to do so.