On this week’s Dear Katie, I was asked a question that I think a lot of people have: How do you plan out your content for social media? Is there any structure or strategy to what works best when it comes to boosting sales?

Only 3 out of 10 social media users post occasionally, and as a firm owner, this lack of posting means lower content reach, less exposure from search algorithms and lost opportunities.

There is a structure or strategy for creating a social content calendar that works best. And as the saying goes: fail to plan, plan to fail.

I always plan for an entire month in advance, and what I do is:

• Brainstorm evergreen topics that I can keep in my “ideas bank” and are always waiting for me to post.
• Decide how much content I’ll post for the month. Some of that is already decided. For example, I post on LinkedIn daily, but on other social platforms, I post multiple times each week.

Once I do all of this, I then start planning my social content calendar using a 5-step strategy that has worked very well for me and my clients.

My 5-Step Process for Creating a Successful Social Content Calendar

1. Slot in Things You Know You Want to Post About

I start with a monthly review and slot things in that I know I’ll have going on and will want to post about. For example, this often looks like:

• Add in my weekly Dear Katie social media post that I push out every Friday.
• If I’ll be at events or holding webinars, I’ll add them into my content mix because I want to share them ahead of time.
• I’ll add in “holds” for any podcast appearances or articles that I’ll want to share.

After filling in these days with content, your content calendar is unlikely to be full, and I’ll discuss what to do with these content gaps shortly. Before I do that, you need to start setting goals for the content.

2. Set Goals for Other Content

Next, I consider if I want to focus on selling any specific offerings. For you, this might be year-end tax planning. In this case, for example, you may want to slot in a few months to share testimonials, case studies and transformations focused on tax planning. Don’t forget to add a call to action to book a call with your team. 

3. Look for Gaps

Now, I start looking for gaps in my content calendar that need to be filled in. Here’s where having a bank of content is beneficial. I’ll take my evergreen content ideas to fill in these areas. 

4. Batch-Create Content

Once I have a plan, I’ll start batch-creating all of my content, including:

• Writing posts
• Filming content
• Post-production
• Reviewing edited video and written content

5. Repurpose

Finally, I focus on repurposing. Now that I have my content, how can I repurpose it for each platform to increase my reach? Repurposing allows you to maximize each piece of content you create, so don’t overlook this crucial step (even if you’re tempted to). In fact, 46% of marketers believe repurposing content is even more effective than creating new content.

Pro Tip: Don’t Try to Do it All in One Day

One important thing to note about this strategy: I don’t recommend trying to do everything at once. I find that it’s MUCH more effective to split everything up into phases:

• Brainstorming
• Writing
• Filming
• Editing
• Approval

Each of these stages requires different hats and skills, so breaking them down into phases keeps task hopping to a minimum.

So, I will brainstorm one day, write one day, film one day (and send it to my editor the same day), and then approve everything another day.

What About Your Tech Stack?

Creating content doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need expensive tools. In fact, at Leaders Online, we like to keep it super simple.

Here’s what our tech stack looks like for content:

• Google Docs for writing
• Google Sheets for organizing the content calendar
• Google Drive for organizing all media (photos, videos, etc.)

We used to always post manually but now we’re using Metricool. So far, we haven’t seen a difference in it impacting reach when compared to manual posting. 

And that’s a wrap on this Dear Katie! 

Now I want to hear from you. Do you have a question? 

Submit it here

Until next time, cheers to your success!

Katie