A solid plan for social media content is essential for building a purposeful and sustainable presence on social media platforms. But how can content be planned effectively and efficiently? In this article, we’ll show you how small or medium-sized businesses, freelancers, and hobby bloggers can benefit from smart planning and the right tools.
Why is Social Media Content Planning so important?
Social media content planning has evolved far beyond simply posting spontaneously. Strategic planning is the cornerstone of content marketing and the key to a successful social media presence – whether you’re communicating for a brand, a business, or yourself.
The biggest challenge lies in consistently producing high-quality content that resonates with your target audience. It’s not enough to be active occasionally; posts need to be published at the right times, align with your marketing goals, and capable of standing out amidst the daily flood of content. Thoughtful content planning enables you to communicate with your audience consistently, strategically, and effectively, allowing you to focus on the quality and creativity of your content.
Additionally, effective planning ensures greater efficiency by optimizing your use of resources. This is where tools come into play, helping you with idea generation, organization, and the automated posting of your content. Ultimately, this saves you time and allows you to concentrate on what truly matters: creating a strong identity for yourself or your brand and delivering value to your (potential) followers.
The Benefits of Social Media Content Planning at a Glance
- Consistency: Regular content strengthens community engagement and boosts brand recognition.
- Relevance: Posts are timed for maximum impact and tailored to your audience’s interests.
- Efficiency: A clear plan streamlines your efforts, saving time and enabling focused work.
What You Need to Know to Create a Social Media Content Plan
1. Set Clear Goals
Clear goal-setting is the foundation of a well-thought-out social media strategy and content plan. By defining specific, realistic, and measurable marketing goals – or revisiting those of your company – you can align your content systematically with the growth of your account and the achievement of these objectives.
Potential marketing goals include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Building an active community
- Positioning yourself as an expert
- Driving website traffic and conversions
- Promoting customer loyalty and engagement
These goals will shape the content of your social media plan (see point 2).
2. Define Content Categories
From your overarching marketing goals, you can derive content categories that provide genuine value to your customers and leads while strengthening your account over time.
Examples of Content Categories:
- Tips & Tricks
- Tutorials
- Inspirations
- Lists
- Problem-solving content
- Products in real-life use
- Best practices
- Employee spotlights
- Behind the scenes / Making-of
- Data, stats, and facts
- Seasonal content
- FAQs
- Community posts
- Industry news
- Polls / Ask Me Anything
- Memes
- Quotes and excerpts
- Curated content
3. Develop Content Series
The categories from Point 2 can also be used to create engaging content series. Give these series unique names or playful titles like “Throwback Thursday” or “Monday Motivation” to make them memorable. Content series not only help you maintain a consistent posting rhythm but also encourage your audience to return regularly, as social media algorithms favor consistent and engaging posts.
4. Use a Mix of Content Types
To create a social media content plan, it’s helpful to be familiar with different types of content. This allows you to systematically organize and utilize existing material from your business. Common content types include:
A mix of different content types, such as images, carousels, video clips, link posts, and more, ensures variety and appeals to the diverse interests of your audience. This keeps your content fresh and dynamic, reaching your audience on multiple levels.
5. Follow the 80-20 Rule
Before creating your content plan, keep one essential rule in mind: don’t make it too promotional! The 80-20 rule can help: about 80% of your content should provide genuine value, while only 20% should be promotional and directly aim for conversions.
Best Practices for Social Media Content Planning
Use AI for Automated Content Creation
If you’re struggling with the question of what content to create, an AI content generator can be a valuable tool. These generators provide creative ideas and topic suggestions for social media posts in seconds. With an AI content creator like Assistini, you can quickly find inspiration and save hours of brainstorming.The result? Automatically generated post captions and hashtags within a social media post template. For example, we entered an excerpt from our blog article Monthly Active Users in Social Media and received various suggestions for repurposing the content into social media posts.
Use an Editorial Calendar for Social Media Posts
To bring your content ideas to life, a social media content calendar is indispensable. This calendar helps you manage your social media posts in a structured and efficient way. It’s not just about staying organized – a well-maintained editorial calendar also enhances team collaboration and time management. See the Tool Tip for more details.
Utilize a Social Media Scheduling Tool for Automatic Posting
A social media scheduling tool allows you to plan your posts in advance and have them published automatically. This eliminates the need for daily posting, saving you significant time in the long run. Most social media management tools also support multi-platform posting, enabling you to publish across multiple social networks simultaneously or at staggered intervals. See the Tool Tip for more details.
Post at Optimal Times
The right posting frequency is crucial for the success of your social media content. Posting too often can overwhelm your audience, while posting too rarely may cause your content to go unnoticed. Maintaining a consistent posting schedule helps boost engagement and increase your reach. To identify the perfect timing for your posts, social media scheduling tools offer options for customized or optimized time settings.
In the Blog2Social plugin for WordPress, this can be achieved using the Best Time Manager. This feature analyzes the optimal posting times for each platform, enabling you to reach your audience at the perfect moment.
Leverage Content Recycling
To maximize the value of your content, repurpose and present it in varied formats – a practice known as content recycling or content repurposing. You can repeatedly use existing content by redesigning or transforming it into new formats to expand its reach. For instance, sections of a blog post can be repurposed into an informative infographic, a carousel, or a reel.
Tool Tip: Plan and Automatically Post Social Media Content with Blog2Social via WordPress
If you’re looking for an efficient way to organize your social media posts directly within the WordPress backend of your website or blog, Blog2Social is the perfect tool for you. As a WordPress plugin, it not only provides a clear social media content calendar but also simplifies the publishing and scheduling of your posts.
Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar in WordPress
With Blog2Social, you can create a practical social media calendar directly within WordPress. The calendar shows you which posts are scheduled, when, and on which platforms. This helps you keep track of your social media activities and ensures your content is well-distributed. If needed, you can easily edit, delete, or reschedule planned posts using drag-and-drop functionality. This visualization helps you avoid gaps and ensures that important topics or events are not overlooked. Posts can also be sorted by network or author, further streamlining your organization. Thanks to the clear visualization of all scheduled and published content, your social media activities remain transparent and clear across networks and teams.
Post Social Media Content via WordPress
The plugin allows you to create and automatically post social media content directly from your WordPress content or other sources. Blog2Social seamlessly connects your WordPress website with your social media channels, helping you save time on content creation and scheduling while effortlessly delivering your content to your social media audience.
Conclusion
In the dynamic world of social media, a well-thought-out content plan is the foundation of a successful social media strategy. Strategically pre-scheduling posts for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others not only provides more time for creative content creation but also ensures consistent presence and improved post performance. A reliable social media scheduling tool helps optimize content and automate publishing, significantly streamlining workflows.
The combination of planning, automation, and creativity is the key to achieving greater reach and fostering stronger connections with your audience. With these approaches and the right tools, you lay the groundwork for effective and efficient social media content planning.
