Why You Should Be Using a Content Calendar

Your business is starting to grow, and your everyday strategy of throwing out content one-by-one isn’t working anymore. You know you need a consistent flow of ideas turned into organized, productive, updated, and well-planned out content. Luckily, tools for scheduled-posts were innovated and content calendars are every marketer's best friend. You just need to take advantage of it.

Creating a content calendar from scratch is a task that appears far more complicated than it is. Even opening a blank Excel spreadsheet can be intimidating.

Fortunately, sometimes all that's required to get started is a quick how-to, and a great starter template, which is precisely what we've got for you here.

But, What Is A Content Calendar?

A content calendar is a tool for planning, scheduling, and organizing content creation and publication. It’s all planned in advance, so you won’t have to worry about tomorrow’s tweet.

Marketing teams use it to plan campaigns and plan agendas across multiple platforms, such as the company's blog, email marketing, and social networks. It is their right hand when it comes to content planning and creation.Without it, it’s just literal chaos. Here’s how you can get started.

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Tip # 1: Get Decisive with your Frequency of Posting

Huddle up with your team, research on tried-and-tested schedules, and decide which one works best for you. While it will vary depending on your customer's social media habits, there are some general guidelines to follow:

It may appear to be a lot, but not all of this content has to be new. Repurpose previous content through videos, reels, tweets, and carousel posts. This practice expounds the content’s message and builds up more engagement with the audience.

Tip # 2: Create a Content Mix and Curation Formula

Diversifying your content mix by varying things like format and source is another way to simplify your content calendar. Using multiple formats allows you to reach users who prefer different types of content.

Furthermore, not all of the content must be your own. Curating content from other sources not only saves time, but it can also help increase your brand's authority and build relationships with influencers in your industry. Instead of creating new original posts daily, your team can choose a combination of post formats and a post type ratio.

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Tip #3: Determine the Best Days and Times to Post

When Is the Best Time to Post on Social Media?

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Tip  # 4: Fill in Your Social Media Gaps for Visibility

Maintaining your social media calendar becomes a whole-lot more effective when you share each piece of content through different mediums, using the same social media platform. When you share content repeatedly, you can expect an increase in clicks and a drummed up engagement on the post.

Consider the following posting schedule

Because of different browsing habits and time zones, your followers will not be online all at once, giving your content the best chance of being seen by them.

Tip #5: Control the Number of Characters

Even if you are discussing the same topics from channel to channel, you should tailor the message copy to each platform.

When it comes to message customisation:

Now that you’ve absorbed the couple of tips you call for to get started in your content calendar, let's look at three different tools for planning upcoming content.

1. Excel

A spreadsheet is the simplest way to create a content calendar. Thanks to tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, spreadsheets are a free and easy way to plan upcoming content. It will require some design work, but once set up; you will be able to see your calendar at a glance and track the progress of each piece of content. Although it has cells that serve as a divider, it still doesn’t look and function like a calendar.

1. Google Calendar

Google Calendar is one of the simplest ways to create an effective content calendar. It is used to organize, track and plan social media content. What's more, is that it is accessible to all gadgets. The only catch is, Google Calendars are not so collaborative since there is no option for you to share it.

1. DashoPlan

DashoPlan is a tool that provides a centralized dashboard for content planning and collaboration for all social profiles. It focuses on solving social media content problems of small businesses and teams. Its collaborative feature allows both the creator and the client/supervisor to interact through comments regarding the curated content. Try it now for free!

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