Plan Before You Post

Social media is a quick and easy way to promote your company to a large audience. Posting an Instagram picture or Facebook status takes only minutes, but it can do more harm than good if your content is not well-thought-out. This is where content calendars come in handy. They are great tools that allow you to plan your social media posts ahead of time. 

Using a calendar regularly is useful to anyone with a social media account who is looking to keep up their engagement. Having a strategy so that your content starts a conversation with your audience is the most effective approach, rather than just using it solely to promote your company. Whether you are posting five times a day or twice a week, a content calendar is a beneficial tool that will help your accounts remain lively and up to date.

Here is why utilizing a content calendar will be beneficial when managing your company’s social media accounts:

1. Keeps You Organized

Let’s face it, work can get hectic and posting on social media may not be your top priority. Having a physical schedule will keep your strategy organized and ensure that the posts will be shared in a timely manner. Also, having a calendar layout will make all of your social media platforms easier to manage, since those posts will be formulated in one place.

2. Maintains Consistency

Planning your content in advance will keep you accountable on what and when to post. Research shows that it is effective to post at specific times each day in order to reach your audience, so keeping to this schedule will benefit overall engagement. In order to figure out your optimized times, look at Facebook or Instagram insights and post just before peak engagement for that day. A consistent posting schedule will not only keep your audience interested, but will help you gain more followers as well.

3. Keep Your Content Fresh

Posting similar content every day can leave your audience bored and probably itching to unfollow, so it is vital that you mix up your posts. Planning out your posts in a scheduler will help you determine different content for each day and see all of your upcoming content together.

4. Manage Multiple Platforms

Keeping up with more than one social media platform can get overwhelming. Prioritizing the importance of each platform is critical and helps determine how much of your attention should be paid to each. By sitting down one day and planning your posts for every account, there will be little doubt and less stress for you.

In a world where social media is quickly taking over, it is important that you are utilizing these platforms to their full potential. Planning out your posts will lead to more organized accounts and, hopefully, greater engagement. Here are some free online content calendar programs you can utilize make your social media game the best it can be!