Content plan for social networks

The regularity of publishing posts on social networks is one of the secrets of account popularity and brand trust . Spontaneously produce interesting and high-quality posts without a certain system is unlikely to succeed. Planning is an important part of building an effective brand strategy. In this article, you will learn how and why to organize planning in your company, as well as what services will become your faithful assistants along the way.

What is a content plan

A content plan (CP) is an organized publication schedule indicating the topic of the post and time, and it is also an integral part of competent content marketing . Most often, it is used when working with SMM, but it is also used when blogging and when launching targeted advertising, for example. You can structure the CP in different ways, but its essence remains the same - and this is planning. Agree, ideas rarely come suddenly. Few people can sit down and immediately write a post that will “go to” the target audience.

In order to prevent a creative crisis, it is better to spend 1-2 days preparing a content plan in advance. Usually they prepare a CP for a month or a week, this is a matter of convenience. In addition, you can write posts in advance and use the automatic posting system to save time. You can cope with such a task on your own or contact a strategist, copywriter or SMM manager.

Types of social media content

In total, there are five main types of content in social networks. Each of them fulfills its role and cannot be ignored. The specialist should distribute the posts in the content plan so that they alternate and the readers do not get the impression that they are constantly being told the same thing.

Selling

This type of publication is the most important in terms of doing business, but also the most dangerous. If the reader sees a call to purchase in almost every post, then he will probably never subscribe to your group. Users go to social networks to relax and chat, solid advertising scares them away.

However, you can’t do without selling posts either, because what’s the point of aimlessly entertaining people or giving them information. Loyalty will grow, but it is also important to somehow monetize it. Selling posts should not occur too often, it is better to do it unobtrusively. For example, talk about a new model of shoes, show its advantages, but do not indicate the price, only a link to the product. In addition, you can write a semi-selling post, this could be an offer for the first free lesson at a music school.

educational

This type of publication educates your subscribers. It is important to present information as structured as possible, without unnecessary water. Such posts should not come out too often, anyway, the client will not be able to study the entire amount of information and use it on his own.

It largely depends on the activities of your company. For example, for a camping equipment store, various hiking life hacks can be offered as tutorial posts. Such things are often saved or reposted to share with friends. However, they don't get bored.

Entertaining

Perhaps the most popular type of content. Social media is for fun and entertainment. Post themed funny videos and pictures. There should be a majority of such posts, the main thing is that they should fall into the values and remain on the wave of their audience.

Involving

This type of content is designed to enter into a dialogue with subscribers. Contests, polls and voting are what encourage a person to interact with you. You can always go to the trick and fish out the objections of the target audience. The questions and fears of the audience should be used to draw up a content plan for the next month. This is the best option to continue to post quality content that is interesting to subscribers.

Also, engaging posts are more likely to be commented on, which allows you to increase coverage. Various contests will allow subscribers to attract new customers with their hands.

Informational

This type of content is often confused with educational content. But that's not the case at all. In order not to get confused, it is better to call it news. That is, periodically it is necessary to publish up-to-date news about the achievements of the company, for example, in the format of case studies. It largely depends on the type of activity of the company and the target audience. A good specialist will analyze your activities and the interests of the target audience, on the basis of which he will draw up a content plan and select topics that will interest potential customers.

Only a specialist can create high-quality content in social networks. The business owner is unlikely to cope with this on his own and he faces completely different, more responsible tasks. The effort simply will not be justified, since each post should bring readers closer to a purchase, and not just collect likes, as many still believe.

How to make a content plan

The development of a content plan begins with the collection of information and the selection of ideas for topics and headings. Then the information is structured and posts are prepared on its basis. Let's consider in more detail all the stages.

Step 1: Gathering Ideas

Before you start searching for topics for social networks, you need to analyze the target audience and published posts, if they already exist. This will help you understand the preferences of subscribers and save you time. The more readers interact with the content, the more often your post will be shown, and accordingly, the reach will also increase.

If you are just starting to maintain a page on social networks, it is important to analyze competitors first. Many make the mistake of novice copywriters and start writing right away. However, prior research is the foundation of a successful content plan. This will help you understand what the target audience likes, what its pace is and what gives the best result. Your task is to determine why subscribers put the most likes on this particular publication, how it stands out from others, and so on. As a result of the analysis, you will get enough ideas and hypotheses that are worth adding to the content plan and testing. Any assumptions should be checked at least on two or three posts. Record everything that is somehow related to the content, here are a few traditional formats:

Feel free to peep options for posts from competitors. Of course, you should not rush into complete copying of information. Just look for inspiration, study accounts with similar topics, YouTube videos and specialized forums. Keep notes of anything that seems interesting, and then analyze the information and enter it into your planning sheet.

Step 2: Organizing Ideas into Topics and Categories

Carefully consider and structure all the thoughts that you wrote down during your market research. Break them down into categories: entertaining, about the company, trends, interactive, etc. After marking the headings, start sorting and divide what you find into posts. For example, a content plan for a camping equipment store might include the idea of ​​"talk about tents." Here you can immediately highlight a series of posts for a week: “How to choose a tent for a winter trip”, “The best demi-season tents”, “TOP 5 best models of light tents” and so on.

Step 3: Posting frequency

When the topics of the posts are ready, you need to decide on the frequency of posting. This is largely due to your time resources, but the main thing is to post regularly. Increase the number of posts gradually - it is better to publish less, but in the expected schedule. This will help your followers to expect posts from you at certain times and maybe even anticipate your upcoming new article on Thursdays.

Step 4: Transfer the plan to a spreadsheet

At this stage, you can already proceed to the direct process of creating a content plan. It is optimal to plan in the form of a table. Here you can enter the dates of publications and approved topics. Your CV should include all the information, including a brief introduction, what to write about, sources, references.

In most cases, the following is indicated:

Why you need a content plan

For the success of the account, you need to constantly work on the quality of the content, and without planning this is impossible. Here are a few reasons why you should take the time to create a content plan.

Product promotion

Ideally, the company page should directly or indirectly increase sales, and not just be filled with anything, just because other companies also have social networks. The purpose of the posts is to acquaint potential buyers with the range of products and unobtrusively lead them to purchase. This path begins with the formation of interest, all the objections of a potential client are gradually removed and he turns into a buyer.

Using a content plan allows you to:

Time saving

To publish another post, you do not need to think about the topic, just look at the plan. This will allow you to quickly create material that interests the audience. It is optimal to plan immediately a month in advance: this will help to prepare in advance. Posts can be added to the automatic publishing system, so you get enough free time and you do not have to constantly depend on the publishing plan.

Quality

Only high-quality material allows to interest the target audience. In a hurry to create a good post is unlikely to succeed. Preparing the text in advance will give you more time to work on the content.

If you are maintaining the page yourself, then it will not be superfluous to re-read the finished post in a day, or even a week. So you look at it with completely different eyes. When working with a copywriter or SMM manager, you also need to keep track of the content. Even the coolest specialist does not know all the nuances of the company as well as the owner himself. A fresh perspective will help improve the quality of your posts. A post written half an hour before publication is unlikely to be very good. A content plan eliminates this possibility, since the topics and often the posts themselves are prepared at least a couple of days in advance.

Regularity

Planning ahead makes it possible to publish articles regularly. This matters, as regularity will not let customers forget about you. In addition, the consistency of publications can increase audience reach. It can be difficult to interest and involve the entire audience at once, it must be segmented and posts written for different target audiences. An organized approach allows you to collect all the information and correctly distribute the time for the release of new materials.

Although this work requires some effort, it will help save time in the future. You will have ready-made topics, just look at them and issue a post for a specific segment.

3 best services for designing a content plan

Google Sheets

The most convenient and simple service for collecting together data about posts. The table works online and offline, is available to all the users you need via the link and is updated automatically - you don’t have to worry that the plan can be accidentally deleted or forgotten to be saved. It is also very easy to use when compared to scheduling and auto-posting services.

Trello

This task scheduling service is quite suitable for working with a content plan. Of course, not everything is as clear and understandable here as in the tables. But the service has a number of advantages that make it possible to organize a team under each card and collect many resources together. The main thing is to create stacks in accordance with the internal processes of the company, place task lists, set deadlines, responsible people, and so on. To get started, you can use the principle in the image below, and over time, add various additional elements. The basic capabilities of Trello are enough to maintain a publishing plan and store data.

Evernote

This service works on both smartphones and laptops. All data is synchronized, so you can always add new ideas from any device.

The data is stored here in note format. You can add not only text to them, but also links, signs, pictures. For convenience and clarity, mark the post itself in different colors. The content plan can be placed on individual cards or put together.

Developing a CP takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. In the process of studying the target audience, you will receive enough data to select topics for publications for at least a month. As you work, you can always add new ideas and come up with topics for future posts.

A content plan is a kind of account strategy that you will follow. Constant analysis will help to build communication with the target audience more competently and increase sales. You can also leave space in the table and immediately enter analytical data. This way you will understand which topics are most interesting to your readers.