5 Steps to Create a Social Media Content Strategy

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You’re sitting there staring at a blank screen trying to figure out what in the world your social media content strategy is. I hear you! It can be super frustrating. But, what if you knew what your social media content calendar would look like a month in advance?

I follow 5 steps when creating my social media content calendar and I’m sure to share the juicy, doable, and fun process with you! Let’s do this.

Step 1: You’re not a robot.

It’s so important to humanize your brand and draft copy with purpose. To do this, you need to go through a brand voice exercise.

Head over to my previous blog post HERE to learn how to craft your own personal brand voice.

• Character/Persona
• Tone
• Language
• Purpose

Step 2: What’s the point?

Each piece of social media content you post should have a purpose. To create that purpose, I do an activity that makes me go back to my mission statement. What is the reason for my organization to exist? From that, what should my content promote?

For Positive Equation, I am a digital consultant for nonprofits and purpose-driven organizations providing relevant and engaging learning resources.

I outlined four buckets that my content needs to fit into:

1. INSPIRE
2. EMPOWER & CELEBRATE
3. CONNECT
4. EDUCATE

If my content doesn’t align with one of the content themes, it’s off-brand and I need to reevaluate.

Step 3: Are you talkin’ to me?

Who’s on the other end of the phone, tablet or computer screen looking at your content? OR even better…who do you WANT to be on the other end?

Identify who your target audiences are and think about videos, images, and copy that will resonate with your audience. Are they male or female, ages, interests, what content are you seeing the most engagement with? Lean into all the information to create your content strategy.

The top-performing social media content from 2018 was filled with humor and top cultural moments.

Like the Walmart Yodeling Kid…

Step 4: What’s coming up?

Look ahead and determine what upcoming events, activities or products you’ll need to be highlighting in your social media content strategy.

Don’t forget national holidays or hashtag holidays that might be relevant to acknowledge. Most national holidays will trend across all channels, so if it makes sense to insert your voice, plan ahead for those moments.

Step 5: Create a weekly content schedule.

Thinking about content for a month can be overwhelming. Breakdown your content process into a weekly cadence that you’ll repeat. Based on your topics above, upcoming events, cultural moments, company updates, etc. you’ll have a great base to start from and plug-in content that works.

Here’s a sample week:

Monday: #MondayMotivation – A national trend to jump on with a relevant quote or image that relates to your business

Tuesday: Share a Story – This is broad, but could be a story about a staff member on your team or someone the organization has served.

Wednesday: Educate – Share a fact about the work you’re doing, the lives you’ve changed, # of products sold to help x.

Thursday: Make an Ask – Ask for volunteers for an upcoming event, to purchase a gala ticket, donate, buy a product.

Friday: Highlight – Feature someone or an organization that’s doing something great!

Once you have a basic week outlined, you can start to pull images and videos that align with that daily theme. This makes the process much easier to plan in advance and schedule two-weeks to a month out at a time.

Don’t forget to use analytics to go back and see how your content is performing! Social media changes and evolves ALL the time. What may work for a few months, might change down the road. Always look at data to make informed content decisions.

Looking for customized help putting together your social media content strategy? Learn more about my one-on-one workshops here!