How To Make A Great Content Plan For SMM Activities

• By Mia Lewis
• 27-08-2021
• SEO

Social networks have an important impact on business development. They help to represent the services and goods to a large auditory of people, which influence the purchase decision-makers and indirectly increases the number of buyers and the company's profit. For proper management of social networks and increasing the audience, a content plan is necessary.

Read this post from the expert marketers to set your own content plan and order your unstructured work into a brilliant content strategy. Check some trendy blog posts to strengthen your horizons.

A content plan is a monthly publication schedule. Ideally, you need to create an individual content plan for each channel so that the posts are adapted to a specific social network.

The content plan will help you remember which posts and in which social networks will be published and what needs to be done: prepare the text, video, choose a photo. It is recommended to make a content plan at least two weeks in advance.

How often do I need to publish posts?

In order for the account to look active, it is necessary to publish at least one post per day on each social network. This way, you won't be too annoying, but you won't get lost in the feed either. If you need to post something unplanned, you can also publish two posts in one day or shift the publication schedule.

When publishing two posts a day, it is better to spread them by time. The intervals of at least five hours will make the post recognizable by both those who go to the social network in the morning and those who scroll through the news in the evening.

What posts should be included in the content plan?

Posts in your account should correspond to the interests of your target audience. Therefore, you need to know and understand it well. For example, who do you have more: men or women, what age, where they live, do you know what their education and interests are. Analyze the target audience to understand what subscribers are interested in.

Based on the analysis, make a content plan. Please note: all posts must be at least indirectly related to the subject of the company.

Do you think that you have exhausted all the topics for publications? Ask open-ended questions. You can directly ask in stories (if the company's profile is maintained on Instagram) what subscribers are interested in. Follow the comments and discussions in the posts — you can often find an interesting topic there. And spy on your competitors!

What kind of content is working in social networks?

1) Useful content
The goal is to provide useful information and solve the current problems of subscribers and potential customers. If you want your post to be added to bookmarks or reposted to your wall, publish useful content.

The useful ones include:
- Training content, for example:
"Step-by-step configuration of Google Analytics"
- Answers to questions related to the subject of the company, for example:
"How to choose the right bank for a mortgage? We are answering your question."
- Life hacks and tips, for example:
"10 ways to remove a greasy spot on trousers"
- Collections and lists, for example:
"10 books about psychosomatics"
- FAQ-post

A list of questions and answers to the most frequently asked questions.

2) Selling (advertising) content

The goal is to increase the company's sales. You should not post selling posts more often than one in five. This frequency, most likely, will not bother most subscribers. But at the same time, you will be regularly reminded that you do not just keep a company account here.

The selling content includes:
- Messages about special offers that are valid for a small part of the target audience or for a limited period of time,
- Messages about promotions,
- Information about discounts.

3) Reputational content

The goals are to increase the loyalty of the audience to the brand, confirm the company's expertise, or explain the company's unique trading offer.

Reputation content includes:
- Information about the advantages of your company over competitors.
Tell us why you are better, and convince us to buy from you. Remember that you can not use the names of competing companies — you may be accused of unfair competition.
- Working out objections.
For example, explain why the price of your product is higher than the average on the market.
- Working off the negative.
You posted a post - subscribers reacted negatively to it in the comments. Create a new post (no, no, you don't need to delete the previous one) and work out the negative.
- Reviews about the company or its products and services.
- Company news.

For example, your company is engaged in the production of handmade Christmas toys. You can make a video that shows how they are made.

- Photos of satisfied customers.

Do not forget to ask about their consent at least verbally. For example, you can post photos of participants of events. If you manage to collect reviews, post them under the photos of the participants.

4) Engaging content
The goal is to increase the engagement of subscribers and their number. You should create content that you want to like and comment on.

Engaging content includes:
- Contests and sweepstakes.
- Games.

The participants of the game must complete the task. The winner receives a prize.

- Surveys.

In Instagram, it is most convenient to conduct surveys in stories (there is simply no such possibility in the profile). On Facebook — on the community wall.

- Discussions.
For example, you can create a post-discussion on a social network and ask your community subscribers what colors of jackets they want to see in the summer collection.

- Collecting reviews.
Ask subscribers who have bought your company's products to leave feedback. Post positive reviews in the company's account or community, and work out negative ones.

5) Entertaining publications

The goal is to increase loyalty and cause positive emotions. A subscriber logs into your company's social network to relax and take a nap on the pictures. Entertaining posts are not only humorous but, in general, everything that is easy and pleasant to read, watch or listen to.

Entertainment content includes:
- Articles and stories,
- Comics, memes, funny pictures,
- An entertaining video,
- Riddles and puzzles,
- A selection of music, audiobooks and audio lectures.

How to create a content plan

1) Create a table in which you specify on which days what types of content you will publish.

If the company has several social networks, you can maintain both one common table and separate tables for each social network. It is not necessary to post selling posts on weekends, but there are exceptions here. For example, if you need to announce an action that will start on the 1st, then tell us about it on the 1st (or earlier), even if it is Sunday.

2) Come up with a theme for each type of content.

Analyze previously published posts in your account, follow the content of competitors and news related to the company. This way, you will understand which content is better "coming in" from your target audience.

3) Write the text of the post, create a video or photo for it.

It is desirable that the posts are ready at least a week before publication.

4) Do not forget to publish posts on the right day and time.

In any social network, there is a section "Statistics". There you can see at what time users most often visit your account or community page and are active there. Based on this data, publish posts during the greatest user activity.

14 recommendations for creating a content plan

1. To save time, limit yourself to maintaining one or two social networks.

To choose the right one, analyze the target audience and determine which social network it is located in. See which social networks have accounts or communities of competitors. Pay attention to the activity of their users and the number of subscribers in each social network. Also, in the advertising cabinets of social networks, you can see how many registered users of certain parameters (age, gender, status, interests, and others) are in each social network.

2. Make a content plan for at least two weeks in advance.

3. Create a separate content plan for each social network.

4. Post at least one post per day, but no more than three.

5. Every fifth post should be selling. Distribute the remaining types of content approximately evenly.

6. If you see that some type of content is more effective, use it more often than others, but do not abuse it. Subscribers will quickly get tired of reading the same type of posts.

7. Is it not possible to create unique content for each social network? Optimize it for each social network. If you want subscribers to click on the link, place it in the profile header, and write in the text of the post: "Useful information is available via the link in the profile header". On Facebook, the link can be opened in a post, so there will be no need for such tricks.

8.Create your own content plan for stories. Please note that it must link to the content in the company's account or community. For example, you are playing a book in your account. In this case, in stories, you must tell about the draw and give a link to the post in your account.

9. To understand the reach of subscribers in Facebook stories, regularly post stories on these social networks for two weeks. Is coverage less than 20% of the total number of participants? Don't waste your time on these stories.

10. Publish tests, answers to frequently asked questions, surveys, announcements about price changes, discounts and promotions in stories.

11. Promotions and discounts should be linked to all social networks.

12. It is recommended to create and regularly publish posts related to the categories. Each category refers to a specific type of content.

13. Please note: the post should be useful to the majority of subscribers.

14. In selling posts, write an offer — this will increase the chances of selling.

Conclusion
A properly compiled content plan increases the growth of subscribers, their activity, increases sales and audience loyalty to the brand. It may take a lot of time at the beginning to create the content plan that is convenient for you to work with. But then you will save a lot of time.