Over the years I have been adamant about using a social media content calendar and by doing this, I have been able to analyze our social strategy, pinpoint the posts that have been successful (and not successful) and identify the types of posts that resonate with our audience.
Benefits of a Content Calendar
1. It keeps you organized. This will keep you focused on talking to your audience on a regular basis (any gaps in social media posts will be glaringly obvious). It will also help you keep a good mix of posts that link back to your social media goals and objectives.
If you have four goals, ensure you are touching each of those goals once a week. If you don't track and document your content, you will tend to fall into the "we have this special tonight" over and over again. It will also remind you to distribute your posts across all of your social media channels and not default to Facebook only.
2. It can track your basic analytics. Of course, all content calendars are a little different, but the one I like to use has three columns at the end of each line that measures 7-Day Views, 7-Day Shares and 7-Day Clicks. I like to use seven days as my benchmark analytic measurement. You can go back and look at a post from two years ago and see the reach, which will keep going up and up, but to make an apples to apples comparison on post success, I put a reminder in my calendar to measure these metrics at the seven day point.
3. It's a RANDOM failsafe! One of the worst things you can do is randomly post on social media. Every post should have an objective and a purpose. By planning your social media posts out ahead of time, you can be thoughtful and deliberate in your posts.
If you know you have some chicken that is going to expire on Monday, why not run a special for your Chicken Risotto on Friday night to push that product. You don't even have to offer a discount, just tell people it's your extra special dish that night. You can also go back after the fact and check your Point of Sale (POS) system to see if you sold more Chicken Risotto than you normally do on a Friday night. That's another great success metric.
Is there value in posting some real-time videos, a fun Boomerang video or a Facebook Live post of things happening in the store today, yes .. of course. But those posts are icing on the cake. They are not heart of soul of your social strategy. The purpose of those is to make your store (and your team) human and genuine and to better connect with your followers.
Don't know where to start?
A social media content calendar can be something as easy as an Excel spreadsheet (for free!), or something as complex as a social media content platform (yes, that will definitely cost you money). Here is a copy of the Content Calendar we use with all of our clients.
Still need help, give us a call.
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