Keeping up with social media can be a daunting task, especially when you feel like you need to post everyday, all day or learn all the new tips and tricks with the ever changing algorithms. It’s important to not get caught up in the trends, although some of them are fun, just always remember to stay true to who you are and what you want to share with the world.
The best thing you can do to keep up and not feel overwhelmed is to create a planning calendar. It can be a printed calendar, it can be in a planner, or it can be on a sheet with dates written out if you want. Whatever works best for you to plan out the month of content will work.
- Get a calendar/planner
- Make sure there is enough room to write details of the post, captions and hashtags to be used.
- Set aside ~1 hour at the end of the month (to start on the next month)
- An hour of time is just an estimate. It might take more time initially, but once you get in a groove, it shouldn’t take as long.
- Decide how many days a week you want to have posts and/or stories.
- Do you want to have 3 posts a week and then 2 days of stories? Or want posts everyday? You could start out with less and add more days as you go on..
- Set themes, such as: Motivational Posts, Tips Posts, Review Posts, Product Highlight, Meme/Gif, Funny … etc.
- Put notes in for more specific details about what you want the post to look like.
- If you are just planning out the month and going to come back and create the graphics throughout the month, putting detailed or specific notes will be helpful for when you are creating the graphics.
- Use Canva to create/design your posts. (Such a great resource) )
- Canva has great tools, templates and design elements. It’s very user friendly and pretty affordable. They have a free option and the pro option. The free option is limited, but still enough to create great posts.
- Create a hashtag reference sheet.
- This is great for creating consistency with your hashtags.ou can always throw in other ones, but this is great for consistent branding as well.
- Use an app like Social Pilot or Later to schedule posts for either a week or month at a time.
- There are many more scheduling apps out there and facebook even has a scheduling option as well, but this helps so you stay on track and you don’t even have to think about posting. Automation can really save you time.
- Don’t overthink it, just create content that is you and what your brand is all about.
The best part about planning for the month really takes a lot of stress off you throughout the entire month and allows you to free up your time to focus on other tasks.
If you need support with getting started, want a free spreadsheet template to get you moving in the right direction, or want to consider having someone take over your social media, reach out and let us know! We’re so happy to help.
By Jennifer Banuelos