Doing marketing and not knowing what a social media content calendar is is almost like going down a blind path and hoping to reach the finish line without first having to suffer a little.
A social media calendar is a great tool for businesses that want to have social media posts planned.
Learn in this article not only what it is, but also how it can benefit you and how to make a content calendar.
We all interact with calendars on a daily basis: some just look at the date on them, as well as the emblematic days, while others take advantage of them to schedule their activities, whether professional or personal.
When we talk about a social media content calendar, we are referring to the key point of any digital marketing strategy.
The social media calendar tool will help to create social media plans and there every day of the year we will gain a new opportunity to achieve the goals we have set.
Imagine this: you check your calendar and realize that the Super Bowl is today, but you don’t have anything associating your brand with the event to do some advertising taking advantage of it.
This wouldn’t happen if you made the decision to have a social media calendar marking all these moments.
And that’s basically what social media content calendars are all about.
Beyond showing you emblematic dates of where you are located, they contain all the global data so that you can schedule your social media content according to what is developing in the year and that way you can then stick to trends and more.
Now that you know what a social media calendar is, let’s talk a little bit about why creating a social media content calendar is based on all the benefits and advantages of taking a certain amount of time to establish an order between what media posts you need to publish based on your social media content strategy.
Your social media marketing goals have one thing in common with many other goals in your schedule that is key, and that is that they require a great deal of effort as well as attention from your day to day, and not just at 11 o’clock at night when you feel inspired.
When you plan a social media content calendar you gain the ability to plan ahead, group your work, avoid having to do more than one task at a time, and be able to write down your creative ideas so you don’t forget any of them.
No matter if what you are trying to do is increase the amount of likes you have on Instagram, or the number of subscribers you possess on YouTube, you must remember that the first tip of every specialist will be to do your social media posts consistently.
You have to fill your social media calendar with posts that you have scheduled in advance, with the intention that you are consistent when posting even on those weeks where you feel there has not been a lot of movement, or they are not the most important days of the year for your campaign.
Another benefit of having a social media calendar is the fact that, when you plan your posts in advance, you will be integrating a fail-safe mechanism into the way you work.
If you work days, or even weeks, in advance, it will be much easier to edit your copy and text, check that the information you want to share contributes something, and even review interested parties with the intention of finding any weak points that could damage your brand.
If you stop and look at the biggest brands in the world you’ll notice that they tend to run more than one campaign at a time, and these are what will make up their social media posts throughout the day.
Once you’ve established a schedule you’ll have more of a head to go for more ambitious questions – what if you ran a contest on Instagram, or looked for some influencers to associate with your brand?
You can even have a clear vision of which social media channel you want to tackle next.
While you’re making an effective social media content calendar, you can mark out what to post on the most important dates throughout the year. For example, this time you won’t miss something related to New Year’s Eve.
In fact, it will even serve to define in advance which dates or events are better to ignore at all.
You will have a strategic vision of all global moments so that you can decide which ones your brand can be involved in and which ones you won’t need to add to your social media content planner.
In recent years the production values of content for social media have skyrocketed in an incredible way.
And that notion of the millennial who tweeted only from his bed at dawn has already been forgotten (except for some).
Nowadays it is usual to see publications on social networks that have a whole team behind it.
And when it’s your case, asking all of them to stop what they are doing to put something together at the last minute may not win the hearts of your audience.
The last of the reasons why to make an effective social media content calendar that we will give you has to do with the fact that everything you schedule will be carried out, and if you have a measure of it you also have the opportunity to improve it.
The analysis you do on social media gives you valuable information for your business, and with the help of these calendars you can schedule experiments that will help you improve your social media content strategy.
For example, plan A and B tests to find your content type, format, the frequency at which you should post, the best time of day and more.
Now that you know more about this powerful social media calendar tool, we’ll tell you how to make a social media content calendar with Canva, a tool that makes the task as easy as possible.
The first thing you’ll have to do is go to Canva, you can do a quick Google search to find the site or you can also access it after reading us by clicking on this link: Canva Content Planner
Pay attention, once you are inside the platform then you should look for the “Calendars” option in the search tool before you start designing.
Once you’ve completed the previous step you’ll notice hundreds of social media calendar templates, so feel free to explore and validate each of them.
Canva offers an option to make everything easier, and that is that to find the ideal template for your project you can add certain keywords so that it shows you what you are describing.
When you have found a template that completely catches your attention, and you want to start designing on it, all you have to do is stand on it and click on it.
Once you’re in the tool, you should make sure to take full advantage of Canva’s library. There you will find millions of stock photos, images, illustrations and other content that you can freely use.
For your social media content calendar, we encourage you to choose your own color scheme and font styles. In order to add different elements to your design you will only need to use the drag and drop technique.
In order to get the most original result possible, Canva offers you the option to combine designs from different templates, as well as to upload your own photos, notes and elements to give it a more personal touch.
Take the time to customize the design to your liking and make sure you don’t finish until you are satisfied with it. On Canva there’s always something new you can add if you’re looking for it.
Once you’ve finished your content calendar you can save it and have the option to share it with your friends, family, or anyone else who might be interested in taking a look at it.
To finish off this step-by-step to create a content calendar with Canva you will also have the option to print high quality copies of your work so that you have it at hand.
Also, Canva saves your project so you can open your calendar and edit it every year or whenever you need to.