Tips to create a great content calendar for your business
With your busy life as a business owner, juggling family, career and everything else under the sun, social media is probably the last thing on your list of priorities but it is actually one of the most integral parts of being successful in today’s technology driven society. Planning and strategizing your social media marketing makes things a LOT easier and you do this by creating a content calendar.
Content calendars help reduce stress, keep you consistent and save you a ton of time from having to search daily for what to post where. Think of them as a road map for your content which allows you to stay focused on all your daily tasks throughout your workday because you aren’t scrambling for random posts at the last minute. A content calendar will help your audience remain engaged as you’re being purposeful and they will notice that you are providing fresh and valuable content that is catered to their needs.
How to create a content calendar
When you’re planning out your week, think about what you’re trying to convey to your followers. You definitely want to brainstorm about content that fits your brand and products along with how you can help others and provide services to them. You want to be personable, interesting, funny, and educational so that they keep coming back for more of what you have to offer. Remember to stick to the 80/20 rule of sales. 80% non-product pushing posts (but related to your overall business) and 20% product focused posts (this is where you get to show off your products and biz opportunity in a non-spammy way). Use engagement posts that ask questions, do a poll, have a contest, offer business related hacks, share a funny video – keep things fresh and upbeat!
Think back to what you wanted to know about when you first came across your products. What piqued your interest? That is what you want to focus on for your content!
Content calendar must-haves
• Share your life – it’s so important for you to let everyone know WHY you love your products and do what you do! Include posts that are either FB Lives or video about your journey and how you got to where you are today, or post a personal photo of yourself with your family to share how your business has improved your lives. Don’t be afraid to be yourself!
• Be a resource – people love to learn, it’s our nature! Provide your audience with content that will teach them in a friendly and positive way. They will come back time and again to see what interesting tidbits of info you have to share! This can be in the form of articles, blog posts or video. Remember that you can share User Generated Content but it’s important to give them info that YOU create so that they see you as a valuable resource, not just outsourcing other people’s content – think about what your customers and audience need help with and be the solution!
• Give them variety – get creative and come up with theme days that encourage, educate, inspire and are uniquely branded to you. Everyone will know that they can come to your page/group/IG etc. to see what you have to offer and you can really create a strong community through Call to Actions that will have them all engaging with your posts.
Find and create your content
After you have your calendar planned out then the fun begins! Start out by finding content that is of interest to you – think back to what made you follow your upline, what did you enjoy seeing and learning? Search by topic on Pinterest, YouTube, blogs and of course you can see what your company has to offer. We love “hunting” for content on Flipboard where you can customize your search. We suggest designing as much of your own content as you can using great DIY tools such as Canva and PicMonkey or WordSwag. CinchShare even has Canva built right in so you can design and schedule your image in one place. Use CinchShare’s Save feature to store your content as you find it and then once you have compiled your content for the week you can break it down into how many posts per day and where you’d like them to go according to your calendar. Remember to stagger posts so they aren’t seen at the same time on different platforms and stick to each platforms’ suggested frequency (i.e., 1 to 3 posts a day on your FB business page, 10-20 tweets to Twitter, etc.)
And that’s really all there is to it! See? It’s not all that bad! There’s a sense of freedom and security when you have a content calendar. Even better, if you have a CinchShare account, you can schedule your posts months in advance which gives you more time to look for amazing content to create and post. Take one day a week and make it your “Content Day” so you can plan ahead and relax. We’re all about spending our time how we want and that’s our goal for you too!
