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<\/p>\n73% of marketers report that their social media marketing efforts have been \u201csomewhat effective\u201d or \u201cvery effective\u201d for their business. Indeed, social media has become a major part of marketing in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
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A social media strategy without a planning calendar is like a train without a track. Being constantly active on social media means a business can interact directly with its audience and build brand loyalty<\/a> among customers. Social media is also one of the most cost-effective marketing methods out there, with little to no costs involved, which is why no marketer should miss out on making the most of it.<\/p>\n But just being on social media isn\u2019t enough. Your approach must be organized, targeted, and timely. Yet, with so many social media channels out there \u2014 from Facebook and Instagram to LinkedIn and Twitter \u2014 it can be difficult. Enter: the social media calendar.<\/p>\n A social media calendar is an organized overview of upcoming scheduled social media posts.<\/p>\n Your social media planning calendar could be very simple or complex, depending upon your brand\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n It might be dedicated to a single social network or combine several networks into one calendar. It might be in actual calendar format or it might be a simple spreadsheet. If you want to get fancy, there are many social media management apps with endless customizable ways to schedule posts.<\/p>\n You should have a planning calendar for your general marketing strategy<\/a> and your content marketing strategy,<\/a> but you can\u2019t stop there. Dig into each of your marketing channels and create a calendar tailored for it.<\/p>\n *Enter social media planning calendar*<\/p>\n Why? Having a social calendar is essential for staying organized and consistent with your social media marketing strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s some reasons why keeping a social media calendar is key:<\/p>\n While one brand\u2019s social media calendar may look completely different from the next brand\u2019s, there are some steps every marketer needs to follow to ensure social marketing success.<\/p>\n Having all of your social media info organized in one place will make planning out your social media content calendar a lot simpler and streamlined.<\/p>\n Clearly outline:<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t already have all of your brand\u2019s visual assets accessible in a single place for the whole team, then now is the time to set that up.<\/p>\n Your digital content library may live on Google Drive, Dropbox, or any other number of cloud-based tools. Keep all of your brand\u2019s digital assets compiled here, from logos to stock images to videos \u2014 any visual components that will be in your social media posts.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also important that you provide links to individual files, which you can add right into your social media calendar.<\/p>\n This way, there won\u2019t come a time where a post is scheduled to go live, but nobody knows where the promo video went. It\u2019s just as important to keep your visual assets organized the same way you keep your calendar organized. It streamlines the whole process for everyone and ensures there\u2019s no hiccups along the way.<\/p>\n It\u2019s best to decide beforehand exactly what information your calendar needs to keep track of. This way you have a clear picture of how your social media calendar will look and what features it should have. You wouldn\u2019t want to choose a tool and start setting up your calendar, only to find it doesn\u2019t have the capabilities to meet your brand\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n Aside from the basic details like which social media platform, date, time, copy, and visuals, you may want to have more advanced details. These might include:<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve gathered all your data, centralized your assets, and know what you need to track for each post, you\u2019re finally ready to choose a social media calendar template or tool. (Check out our free templates, examples, and tool suggestions below!)<\/p>\n Set up your shiny new calendar and start scheduling social media posts. You\u2019ll quickly learn what works and what doesn\u2019t \u2014 feel free to adjust the calendar as needed. Maybe you don\u2019t need too many details, or maybe you forget to include a key metric. Or maybe the template you chose doesn\u2019t actually suit your needs and you need something different altogether. The earlier you tweak things, the better.<\/p>\n Ask your colleagues what they think of your work, and implement their feedback if relevant.<\/p>\n Now all that\u2019s left is to actually stick to the calendar and update it as you go!<\/p>\n Currently, we use Miro<\/a> to do our high-level publishing planning at Similarweb.<\/strong> We track big ticket items on this platform such as campaigns (holiday campaign), contests (thought leadership), and special announcements (Embee Mobile acquisition). Get a peek at how we use it below.<\/p>\n This allows our social media team to see the content types being posted, which days lack adequate content, and which social media platforms we\u2019re publishing on. It might seem like the types of content being posted don\u2019t matter as much as the fact that they\u2019re posted, but that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to keep track of the type of content we publish monthly to:<\/strong><\/p>\n Social media platforms are the cornerstone of any social media strategy \u2013 you have to know where you\u2019re posting your content \u2013 and why.<\/p>\n Our tip? Diversify, diversify, diversify. Don\u2019t put all your eggs in one (meta)phorical basket. Consumer behavior<\/a> changes, and platform policies and algorithms are updated constantly. Stay flexible.<\/p>\n When you build your social strategy:<\/p>\n You have your monthly strategy laid out. Now what?<\/p>\n Put your plan into action.<\/p>\n To do this, our team at Similarweb schedules content with Sprout Social<\/a>. <\/strong>As you can see, the calendar gets very busy, very quickly.<\/p>\n Which is why we have one calendar to visualize and plan our big-picture monthly strategy, and a separate calendar for execution. Breaking up our planning this way allows clarity and visibility into what\u2019s happening on our social channels.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at what our calendar template<\/a> looks like without anything posted on it.<\/strong> We used a template and customized it to our liking. Feel free to do the same!<\/p>\n Any stellar social media calendar should be brimming with posts scheduled on special days, from Black Friday<\/a> to Valentine\u2019s Day, to keep its audience engaged and entertained with relevant content.<\/p>\n On top of that, certain topics\u2019 popularities ebb and flow with the changing seasons, which may not be directly related to major holidays. For instance, people tend to scope out swimsuits in the summer and ruminate over rain boots in the spring.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very difficult to guess what your social media audience wants to see, and at what time, all throughout the year. That\u2019s why you should always keep seasonal keyword research stocked up in your social media tool kit.<\/p>\n Most people think of keyword research<\/a> as something you do for SEO<\/a>, but it can also be very useful for identifying trends for social media marketing as well.<\/p>\n Similarweb\u2019s Seasonal Keywords<\/a> feature enables users to see what\u2019s trending in any given category throughout the year. It can show you exactly which months a category gets the most traffic \u2014 which provides a big advantage for planning what you want to post about on social media and when. It also makes it a breeze to discover additional topics relevant to your industry that you may have never considered before.<\/p>\n Our 12-month view for Seasonal Keywords is basically like having a crystal ball that knows exactly what your audience wants to see in the future, from next week to next year. You\u2019ll be able to carefully plan out your social media calendar without any guesswork involved.<\/p>\n Social media isn\u2019t going anywhere any time soon. It\u2019s one of the best ways a brand can directly engage with its audience. But if you don\u2019t know what to post about, and if you don\u2019t post consistently, your efforts may bring little benefit. That\u2019s why having a stellar social media calendar will ensure your brand is always putting out high-quality, relevant posts that your viewers truly want to see.<\/p>\n Whether you make your own from scratch, use a social media calendar template, or pay for a premium tool is entirely up to you and your social media team. The most important thing is choosing a method that works for you \u2014 and that you actually use it day-in and day-out. Now go get planning!<\/p>\n And, if you\u2019re ready to create your broader marketing calendar too check out, The Complete Marketing Calendar Events Guide for 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n ![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Image-containing-the-icons-of-popular-social-media-channels.-scaled.png\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\nWhat is a social media calendar?<\/h2>\n
![\"Each](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Each-social-media-calendar-entry-should-include-links-hashtags-text-and-visuals-types-of-posts-the-date-and-time-the-post-will-go-scaled.png\")
<\/p>\nWhy is a calendar crucial for social media success?<\/h2>\n
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How do you create a social media calendar?<\/h2>\n
![\"To](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/To-set-up-your-social-media-calendar-gather-your-network-data-centralize-your-visual-assets-decide-what-to-track-start-populating.png\")
<\/p>\n1. Gather all your social network data<\/h3>\n
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2. Keep your visual assets in a centralized database<\/h3>\n
3. Decide what your calendar will track<\/h3>\n
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4. Start populating your calendar (finally!)<\/h3>\n
Social media calendar examples<\/h2>\n
![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Example-of-Similarweb\u2019s-social-media-calendar-on-Miro..png\")
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Social media calendar template<\/h2>\n
![\"Social](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Social-media-calendar-template.png\")
<\/p>\nSimilarweb\u2019s social media calendar tools<\/h2>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Image-representing-Similarweb-Seasonal-Keywords-as-a-crystal-ball-that-knows-exactly-what-your-audience-wants-to-see-in-the-future-f.png\")
<\/p>\nGet planning!<\/h2>\n