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A content calendar is a great way to stay organised in social media and to ensure that you are never stuck for content to post. By planning your content in advance, you can also stay on top of relevant news and events that could help to grow your brand. Here are some FAQ’s about content calendars.
What is a content calendar?
Usually, all you would need to create a content calendar is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with a table of content or a shared Google document which your social media team has access to. It’s good to try and create a table of contents for the upcoming year, but the level of detail is up to you.
What should you put into your content calendar?
Get a copy of your marketing calendar and start to include any notable conferences, events or company announcements that have already been planned and input these into your social media calendar. This could include events which your staff will be attending or trade shows that you will have a stand at.
Next, do some research around national days and celebrations that could be relevant for your company. A great place to start is the Project Britain website which lists all the UK national days and celebrations. National Chip Week, World Book Day, Fairtrade Fortnight; you will definitely find something that will make a good conversation or even a competition in your social media channels.
Famous Birthdays and also Birthdays in History are both good resources for finding out whether any notable people or celebrities are celebrating their birthdays. This content could provide you will the opportunity to do a nice post, image or even infographic around a notable figure related to your brand.
You should also add any notable events in the sporting calendar or popular culture that are relevant to your brand. This could be things like the Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 or Glastonbury Festival; anything that will appeal to your audience. The BBC’s 2014 sporting calendar is useful here.
We all come across interesting articles and research that are relevant for our companies. Your content calendar is a great place to drop links to articles you read in the Sunday papers, or interesting interviews you might have seen online. This way there is always content available to go back to, even when you are a bit stuck for something to say. There’s no harm in posting something that’s slightly dated, as long as you make it clear. For example ‘We really enjoyed the David Beckham interview in The Sunday Times where he talked us through his intense fitness regime. Did you see it? [Link]’
How should you plan?
If you spot some really strong opportunities whilst putting together your content calendar, then it could be worth building on these conversations and creating a campaign around the topic. For example, a food related brand might wish to host a cooking competition for National Baking Week. By spotting these opportunities early, you can plan enough budget and resource to run a competition and offer a good prize. It will hopefully give you time to plan any graphics to post and hashtags to use.
Need a bit more advice? We offer bespoke social media consultancy. To find out more get in touch with the team on 01743 272609 or email studio@vibecreative.co.uk.
Categories: Social Media
