Hands up if you wish you could spend less time creating content for your social media channels? 

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States

Creating a blueprint content plan for your social media means you’ll create content faster, be clearer in your intentions and connect better with your audience. In this blog, I’ll take you behind the scenes to reveal the steps to follow to create a social media content plan, so you can stop wishing and start planning!

Create your own social media content plan

1. Foundations

Start at the beginning and take time to really think about your business and your ideal audience:

• What makes your business unique?

• Why would someone pick your business over another similar one?

• Who do you want to connect with?

• What problems are they experiencing that you can resolve? 

Based on the answers to the above think about what content you want to create. Group the different content ideas you have and write down the key 5-7 content ‘buckets’

You can check out this blog if you’d like more help and I recommend having a method in place to capture content ideas as they come to you. I often get my best ideas whilst showering –  anyone else?

2. Strategic long term view

Often new or smaller businesses struggle with long term planning, but it’s important to be clear about your business goals before you create any content. Take a piece of paper and divide it into 4 sections – one for each quarter of the year. Now, thinking about your own product or service and start to fill in any important dates within each quarter when you might launch a new product or run your signature course again. Also, consider industry events or awareness dates that are important for you (e.g. if you have a pet-related business then Crufts might be an important event you want to create content around, so you would make a note of this in Q2).

Aim to have 3-5 bullet points for each quarter.

3. Quarterly plan

The next step is to start to drill down on a specific quarter. Carry across the relevant key dates from the previous step and think about the content you need to make in relation to those dates.  Depending on your content creation process, perhaps you write a weekly blog or record a video – make a note of a key message or ‘theme’ for each week in the quarter by drawing on your content pillars.   

You should end up with 12 themes (one for each week) to drive your content.

4. Create your monthly and weekly plan

Depending on how you like to work, the next step is either to focus on a single month or a single week with the aim being to fill in the details of your quarterly plan so that you know:

• When you’re going to share your key ‘themed’ content each week 

• When to include regular promotional and personal posts

• What content you need to create when (including images and regular template posts)

The aim is to be in a place where you have a detailed plan in place for at least the next 2 weeks.

5. Plan ahead

At this stage it might be tempting to sit back and enjoy the hard work you’ve put in, but if you’re not careful you’ll lose the momentum. For this reason, I recommend scheduling time in your diary to work on your content plan throughout the year. For example, block out time in the middle of March to work on Q2, in June schedule time for Q3, etc. Don’t forget to also allow time each week to update or amend your weekly plan.

6. Continue Sharpening Your Content

Now you know how to create a blueprint for your social media content plan, you can spend more time sharpening the specifics of that content, making sure you’re really creating content in the ‘sweet spot’ for your perfect audience.

My Social Media Planner

Looking for a way to plan your social media with ease and style? Visit mysocialmediaplanner.co.uk to browse Digital Women Founder Lucy Hall’s social media planner collection, read helpful articles and more!

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