Social Media Calendars

The most important benefit is that you’ll be able to get more out of your content With social media, consistency is key. A content plan and social media schedule (calendar) will not only help you maintain a regular flow of content, but it'll also simplify your process and save you time.

Specifically: Creating a social media content calendar will help your nonprofit plan and schedule social media posts in advance. A content calendar will help you stay on top of planning campaigns and preparing materials in advance. You won’t be caught right before a fundraising event and realize you hadn’t told your followers about it. It also will get you in the habit of posting consistently. And your audience will appreciate that consistency and be retained. (They’ll check back every week for that Thursday tip). You won’t be in scrambling panic mode trying to figure out what to post each day. It prevents you posting poorly researched and written posts. Even if you’ve just got one person on posting duty, your entire team benefits when everyone is able to see what’s coming down the line and help when needed.

Ensures variety. Ensure cohesion. Not posting the same thing, multiple times. Helps you develop a brand story: connect content dots you may have not realized were even there before.

4 steps to creating a social media calendar 1) Figure out what content resonates (you should know this from your social media audit and report or simply looking at the analytics) 2) Decide how often to post/posting frequency. If you’re looking for some basic standards, though, Constant Contact wrote a post containing guidelines on how often to post to social that suggests 3-10 times per week on Facebook, and multiple times daily on Twitter and Pinterest. Instagram is 1-3 times a week (I think that’s a little low now). *Also remind them that stories is the most popular function of Instagram now There’s a great chance your post frequency will depend on the amount, experience and authority of your social media team, so don’t feel like you have to send out less than stellar content to meet these guidelines.

3. Create or Source Great Content to Share: If you don’t have enough of your own content to fill your calendar, use these tools to curate relevant content. Buzzsumo or Mix allows you to type in any website domain or keyword string and the platform returns the most socially shared content around that subject. Highlight this to your nonprofit. Not everything they share do they have to create. You might even suggest some sights for them to frequent/how to find material to share.

For example, someone with a lifestyle blog can write about many different aspects of their life, with the objectives of building up an email list, growing their social channels and driving traffic back to their site. *NOTE the use of goals to decide WHAT to publish Content themes for them may look like: Monday – Blog post with link back to blog Tuesday – Post about local happenings Wednesday - Share from a related brand Thursday – Open Friday – Mailing list push Saturday – Lifestyle post or quote Sunday – Off

4. Fill Up Your Social Media Calendar. First step:

Then fill up the rest. You can find templates online (here’s another) or use a shared Google calendar.

Here’s another example:

Hootsuite’s new planner

Provide some sample posts to your client You don’t have to do the whole month, but maybe do a few for them, let them see what you are proposing. (Especially if you want to highlight changed in something they have been doing) See NCHI strategy report.