Your Guide to A Content Calendar
Want to maintain an online presence and put out content for your audience regularly? It can be hard to think about what content to put out and when, but knowing how to create a content calendar can be an extremely useful skill. Let’s learn how to do that today.
1. Create a Template
A content calendar keeps your content consistent. regular and organised. Hence, coming up with a template which works for you is the most important first step. There are plenty of content calendar templates online, so referencing those templates and tailoring them to your needs is a great way to start. Some of the elements to have in your template include the social platforms your content will be posted on, the frequency of content creation and content uploading, the dates and timings, as well as the person in charge. Colour coding your content types can aid in organisation and allow you to gather information about what kinds of content and how frequently your team is uploading them at a glance.
2. Types of Content
At the core of a content calendar is the need for a variety of new content. Using your pre-existing content and some new ones, analyse what your audience likes to see and what’s trending online across competitors. Don’t be afraid to create new categories of content and to hop on trends in order to keep your brand relevant. Some common types of content that most brands put out include festive and seasonal content, interactive content to boost engagement and regular advertisements to capture the eyes of their audiences. Think about what sets your brand apart and whether you can value add by creating new content pillars to draw upon to generate content. For example, a kitchenware brand may be able to garner more audience engagement should they put out interesting and new recipes on their page that consumers can utilise alongside their kitchenware.
3. Plan Ahead
While social media trends move fast and you may find yourself needing to churn out fresh content on the go, it’s good to have a stash of content that’s relatively general which you can draw upon should there be nothing interesting to tap upon on certain days. Planning ahead provides you with the buffer time to ideate fresher and trendier content whilst not missing out on posting on a single day just because there may not be a trend to hijack or a recent topic to comment on. Having foresight also means that you get more flexibility moving content around should you find something more suitable to upload earlier to later as you can easily make the swap to another piece of content you’ve already created.
Maintaining a good content calendar requires discipline, skill and forward thinking. Here at BCD, we’re all about that. If joining a team which prioritises such values sounds like something you’d enjoy, feel free to contact us. At BCD, our focus is YOU.
