Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten years, you’ve probably heard one consistent business-growing message repeated across countless podcasts, articles, and business consultants: build an online presence for your brand!
Easier said than done, right?
As a social media marketing company who specializes in content creation, we’re going to share some concrete tools to help your brand gain traction online and improve social engagement on all platforms.
First step? Create a social media gameplan. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of 10 tools and resources for creating amazing (and effective) social media content calendars on a regular basis.
Let’s dive in!
10 tools and resources for creating amazing (and effective) social media content calendars
1. Hashtag research
As a patron of all things social media, you might not think about hashtags in a very significant way. After all, most people don’t even read them. But as a business? Hashtags are game changers when it comes to brand visibility and awareness.
Use the right hashtags, and your posts are more likely to be seen by new people, giving you the opportunity to show off your amazing content and gain new followers and brand supporters with minimal effort.
When you’re ready to utilize all that hashtags have to offer, we’ve got the perfect tool for you. Hashtagify will help you find the right hashtags for your target audience and business, but it will also keep you at the front of people’s feeds by analyzing hashtag performance and popularity as trends continue to change.
From one social media marketing company to another, it’s time to take a closer look at your hashtag strategy.
2. Photo finders
Over the years, social media has taken a sharp turn toward visually appealing content and posts. This can pose a challenge for many small businesses lacking photography resources.
The good news? There are tons of free and inexpensive stock photo sites to use! Some of our favorites include:
3. Post creation tool for social media content calendars
To avoid stagnant or stiff, cookie-cutter social media content, we like to add a little variety to our posts. A video or gif here, a photo collage there, and still photos throughout. Basically, you should switch up your content type to keep your followers interested!
If you’re looking for a simple way to create still image posts, gifs, designs, videos, and more, you should definitely look into the Canva design tool. Whether you’re new to social media content creation or you’re practically an expert, Canva is a great resource to have bookmarked on your browser as it’s easy to use and full of untapped potential.
4. Creating real content that sticks
You don’t have to be a professional social media marketing company to curate amazing content. Here’s what we’ve learned: regardless of your target age demographic, people like to keep it real. Many brands like to use memes and gifs to create a funny and relatable way for users to connect with their content.
Not sure how? Following these Instagram meme accounts is a great place to start. When you’re ready to create your own graphics, you can visit sites like Giphy and Meme Generator for inspiration.
5. Gather UGC & increase brand trust
Creating social media content calendars can be tough, but you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting yourself. A great social media manager knows how to use the resources available!
Regularly incorporating UGC (otherwise known as User-Generated Content) will help you give your community a voice and connect with people on a more personal level. The best part? It’s less work for you!
Search any social platform by location, hashtag, brand concepts, and more to discover what people are already saying about your community! When you find something you like, simply ask for the user’s permission to share and always give credit where credit is due!
Check out this blog post for more creative ways to find and utilize UGC in your regular content calendars.
6. Follow inspo accounts!
You’re not recreating the wheel here – or at least, you shouldn’t be. Inspiration can come from any number of places, and you can always pull content ideas from other similar (and thriving) accounts.
Check out some of our favorite social media accounts to get the creative juices flowing. Browse with your social media manager hat on and keep your brand in mind when reviewing inspiration accounts. You might come up with a great idea after studying your competitors and learning from their successes and failures.
7. Social Media Content Calendars Pro Tip: Customize content for social channels
While your brand voice shouldn’t change, your tone might need some adjustments when you approach cross-channel posting.
For example, your Instagram caption should not read the same as your LinkedIn post. You’re reaching different audiences, and the captions should reflect that.
Consider why each platform is used, and try to speak to that purpose. Some posts won’t be relevant across the board, and that’s okay!
8. Content Creation Pro Tip: Balance your content
Nobody – and we really mean nobody – likes to follow a preachy account that only ever promotes their business and products. That’s just not how people use social media, and good social media managers know it.
When you’re creating your social media content calendar, keep your audiences’ interests in mind. Show them you care about what they care about, and they’ll be more likely to listen when you start talking about your brand.
Improve brand credibility by creating variety in not only content types, but also post types. People like to see a combination of videos, gifs, graphics, and photos, so make sure that you deliver!
9. Plan ahead – Scheduling software
One super simple way to ease the stress of creating social media content calendars is planning them out ahead of time. By creating and scheduling your posts early, you save yourself time and improve efficiency!
There are tons of social media scheduling software out there, but we recommend you start with one of these:
- Sprout Social (a Brindle favorite!)
- Buffer
- eClincher
- Social Pilot
You’ll want to find the right program for your brand, budget, and purpose. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, check out some of the most popular scheduling options available.
10. Analytics manager
Social media is constantly changing and so should your content calendar creation methods! Make sure you use an analytics manager to assess your current efforts and adapt methods as necessary.
Many scheduling software tools will offer an analytics report in addition to posting tools, but you might want to look into some of these external options as well.
- Sprout Social
- HubSpot
- TapInfluence
- BuzzSumo
- Snaplytics
- …and so many more!
Creating the perfect social media content calendar is not going to be easy, not right away. However, there are definitely ways to make the process simpler for everyone involved! The 10 resources and tools discussed above are a great place to start.
As an experienced social media marketing company, Brindle has helped a number of clients improve brand awareness and traffic with custom social media content calendars. Interested in handing off the social media responsibility? Set up a free discovery call today!