MASTERING SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: Resources, Templates, Calendars

Social media is the backbone of marketing- be it a website, or any social media platform like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. With the vast amount of tools, content, media, and information available, navigating these waters can seem daunting at first glance, but not to worry! As a digital marketing and advertising agency, we have discerned that proper planning and organizing can make your social media journey not only easier but also enjoyable!

Here, we discuss the three tools you need for planning your content- resources, templates, calendars- all you need for ideating and planning your social media strategy. Let’s begin with understanding what these terms mean.

1. Social media resources

These refer to tools, platforms, and websites that provide valuable information, assistance, and support for managing social media accounts. They may also personalize certain resources to match your needs. 

Some resources are:

• Content Creation Tools: Creating visually appealing and engaging content is the primary concern of any content creator since the performance of any post depends on its visual appeal. Graphic design tools like Canva or Adobe Spark, video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro or iMovie, and photo editing apps like Adobe Photoshop Express or VSCO can be used for creating captivating content. These tools provide templates, stock images, filters, and editing capabilities to enhance the quality of your content.

• Social Media Management Platforms: Platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social can significantly ease your content management. They offer features like post-scheduling, content curation, analytics, and team collaboration.

• Hashtag Research Tools: Hashtags play a pivotal role in expanding the reach of posts, as people can discover your content from the relevant hashtags. Tools like Hashtagify, RiteTag, etc. can help you find relevant and popular hashtags in your niche. These tools give insights into performance, and engagement rates, helping you add the most discoverable and trending hashtags.

2. Social media templates

They are pre-designed layouts that provide a standardized structure for creating content. They include placeholders for text, images, captions, hashtags, etc. Templates are available for posts, stories, cover photos, ads, and performance tracking. All templates have different features based on their purpose. For example, an ad template has a Call-To-Action button, whereas a story template may have engagement stickers, and post templates may have options for captions and hashtags.

3. Social media calendars

It is a tool that helps organize and schedule social media content in advance. It provides a strategic overview of posts, campaigns, and important dates. It helps you brainstorm ideas, establish themes, and organize your content strategy. It also helps you identify opportunities to repurpose and recycle content. There are many kinds of calendars you can refer to, but two main ones used are- Editorial Calendar (an overview of your content plan, including themes, topics, and publishing dates) and Content Calendar (specific social media platforms, outlining post captions, hashtags, images, and links). 

What can you gain from using these resources? While it may seem trivial work to use these resources, it provides multifold benefits in the long run. The importance of these tools is-

1. Organization and Planning- They provides a bird’s-eye view of your content strategy, enabling you to visualize your upcoming posts. They help organise the myriad of ideas and information you use everyday, making the work clearer and easy to access.

2. Consistency and Cohesion- Consistency is vital in establishing your brand’s voice and maintaining audience engagement. Showing up everyday is only possible if content is readily available and well-managed. It also allows you to create a cohesive narrative, aligning your posts with your brand’s values, motto, and vision.

3. Efficient Resource Allocation- By planning your social media content in advance, you can allocate resources more efficiently. These tools help you identify content gaps, allocate resources to create new content, and avoid last-minute rushes. This saves time, reduces stress, and ensures that your feed is strategic and well-executed. 

Given below is an example of a social media calendar template, with important dates and posts blocking out days they have to be posted on. You can refer to this and make your own calendar using apps mentioned above to get started!

A social media calendar, along with other resources and templates, is a crucial component of a successful social media strategy. By leveraging these tools, you can manage your content creation process, maintain consistency, plan ahead, and allocate resources efficiently.

This behind-the-scenes process is as important as what happens on the screen. Social media is a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape, so planning and management gives it the discipline and the structure it requires. Being a digital marketing agency, we strive hard to strike the perfect balance between this flow and structure, while making sure your brand lives up to its values with only top-notch content!