Developing a content calendar can be a daunting task for many social media marketers but it is probably one of the most important ones. A content calendar is essential when it comes to achieving the goals set for yourself in your social media marketing strategy because it holds you accountable. Planning day to day is not an efficient use of time. With a calendar and pre-planned posts, you’ll be able to utilize your time more wisely and make great content with less stress!

As you venture out to create your own content calendar, keep these three things in mind.

1. Popular Posts — what posts resonate the most with your audience? This requires you to do some research. Dig through your analytics on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook to see what posts have been the most effective. 

2. Consistency — form a consistent plan. For example, if you post a weekly quote, maybe choose a specific day to feature said quote. We consistently post “Wednesday Wisdom” quotes, which has been placed on our calendar as a reoccurring “event”. 

3. Get Organized AND Stay Organized! — once you have done your research, figured what days work best for your posts; you can finally put it all together! Don’t feel like your calendar needs to be overly detailed.  Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple. Once you’ve stated your calendar; keep up your efforts! 

Preplanning everything keeps your schedule under control. We suggest starting off with a simple calendar (as mentioned above). As you progress and become more comfortable with the basics, you can begin to explore new templates and planning tools like CoSchedule, Hootsuite or Buffer.

Personally, we like using HeyOrca. HeyOrca has been a great tool that’s allowed us to work closely with our entire team. The HeyOrca platform makes drafting, approving, scheduling, and publishing social media posts simple and the user interface of the site is extremely easy to navigate and has great individual campaigns capabilities. It was designed for social media teams who rely on collaboration & approvals to streamline the content development process. Rather than use spreadsheets or lengthy email chains to share content, users can easily share posts within their team so that everyone is on the same page!

As you start organizing your calendar remember these helpful tips and make sure you check out our other Social Media posts.