There is a famous quote that we are sure you are sick of hearing: “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” While this quote is cliché, is it vital to the success of any good social media strategy.

Content calendars are an amazing tool to align organizational goals with online opportunities. Creating a calendar may seem like one more step on your to-do list, but we promise it is a step worth taking!

To help get you started on the right path, we have broken down five steps with helpful resources that will allow you to create the perfect content calendar. 

1. Set a Monthly Online Objective for Your Company (Duh, Right?)

Each month you probably have some goal in mind, whether it be to increase sales of a specific item or increase brand awareness of your new service. Start from the beginning. Think big picture! From there you can decide how many Facebook posts, tweets or Instagram posts you need to promote your objective.

2. Create a Spreadsheet (Yay Organization!)

We’re not asking you to start from scratch. There are many free content calendars you can take advantage of from great sources such as Hootsuite or Hubspot. Map out your month. What does it look like? Making physical notes of when certain business activities are happening is a great way to keep track of your month in an organized manner.

3. Involve Your Team! #Teamworkmakesthedreamwork

While you may be the main resource for your monthly business activities, it is important to involve your team in planning your content calendar. Are your team members heading to any events you can mention? Do they want to write a blog? Ask! This will help fill gaps immensely.

4. Write Everything Down, Seriously.

Are you planning to run any online advertising with Facebook or Google? Will you be publishing a blog? Is it “National Whatever Day” that ties to your business? Include everything in your content calendar. 

You do not necessarily need to have the exact copy of what your post will include, but have the idea on paper (or in your beautiful spreadsheet). This will help guide you throughout the month. Instead of guessing what to post, take a look at the calendar and say “oh right, I remember what I should be posting today!”

5. Make It Routine!

Social media is probably not your favourite thing to do. However, having a plan makes all the difference! Creating a content calendar each month will allow you to guide the process and share the work with your team to help fill in the gaps. 

By creating a regular social media content calendar, you are able to track your initiatives, be proactive (not reactive!), and overall make your life so much easier. Create your plan for the month ahead at least one to two weeks before the month actually starts. This allows you to start the month off fresh and hit the ground running!

Questions? Reach out to us! We would love to help guide you through the content planning process. 

This article was originally published on the Simplified Social blog.