Social Media for Small Business, Volume 1

4. Create a Content Calendar

Once you know where you want to post content, the focus and types of content you want to produce, and have determined the posting frequency, the next step is to develop a content calendar to schedule your posts. One person even referred to it as a "conversation" calendar. What I’m referring to is a calendar whereby you create a series of content entries for use on social networks.

Calendars can be created on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis and can be done using a spreadsheet or, preferably, a social media management application designed for that purpose.

Here is an example of a content calendar using a spreadsheet based on a monthly posting schedule. At the top of the spreadsheet is a field to include the name of the month, along with a field for listing the major theme for that month, should you choose to use one. This could include such themes as holiday sales, special product promotions, marketing campaigns, or anything else you choose to emphasize.

In the left-hand column are the social media channels that will be posted to. The subsequent columns set forth posting schedules on a weekly basis for each week during the month.

A better way to manage your social media engagement activities, including creating a content calendar, is through the use of social media management applications designed specifically for this purpose. I refer to these applications as “tools.”

These tools enable you to more effectively and efficiently manage every aspect of your social media engagement from content creation, to content syndication, to community management.

For example, rather than writing a blog post, then going to Facebook, Twitter or other social networks to repost the content, these tools automate the process for you. Further,