There are so many official ‘days’ that are celebrated on social media nowadays, it can be difficult to keep up.

Black Friday, World Mental Health Day, International Women’s Day… and not forgetting ‘National Pickle Day’.  (Yup, that’s a thing.) There’s a date on the calendar for everything.

The easiest way to keep pace is with a social media calendar like the one we make monthly at Biteable. Our social media calendar is full of ready-made videos to make your social planning and content creation easy.

You may think that what your business does isn’t necessarily relevant to all of these days, and you’re best off skipping most of them to focus on your own promos and sales.

But that’s a mistake.

Every day is an opportunity to make your brand more visible to customers and maximize ROI.

The importance of having a social media marketing calendar

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

How does an architect build a house? With perfectly primed plans. And as you’re building your business, a social media calendar is going to be the equivalent of having those plans, a birds-eye view of your online success.

Without a carefully measured social media execution, your plan may fall by the wayside.

Having a social content calendar allows you to:

• Create and plan content for specific goals
• Remember important dates
• Have a balanced variety of posts
• Make your posts consistent and relevant throughout the year
• Make your team more cohesive

The great thing about having a calendar is that it can kickstart your creative juices, especially if you’re stuck for ideas.

Implementing a calendar means that you are keeping your content at the very top of your audience’s mind.

So where do you start? Well, you can use pen and paper, an online excel spreadsheet, or a content calendar tool - anything that allows you and your team to brainstorm ideas and have visibility of your marketing campaigns on social over a given week, month and year.

Having a calendar will ultimately make your team more cohesive and your marketing messages more strategic. It can bring you peace of mind, too — no more last-minute scrabbling around, wondering what to post!

How video can boost your social media efforts

You probably won’t be surprised to know that out of all the types of content out there, video is king when it comes to engaging your audience.

Here at Biteable, we know a thing or two about making compelling video content. By incorporating regular video posts and ads into your social media calendar, you will up your chances of scoring engagement.

The internet is a fickle place — if you’re not immediately compelling, customers just scroll on by.

Think short, snackable, bite-sized content. Something that hooks your audience in under 5 seconds.

We suggest using video as often as possible in your social media efforts, sticking to the following tips:

• Use an attention-grabbing title
• Keep the content short
• Include a call to action at the end
• Don’t make it a sales pitch - focus on adding value
• Add a custom thumbnail
• Make multiple versions of your video
• Publish content natively - on each specific platform

It’s not all about videos that push your business, either. Try and think in ‘thirds’, so ⅓ of posts promote your business, ⅓ of posts are interacting with your audience, and ⅓ of posts are relevant shares that will be inspiring or entertaining for your followers.

Each social post, therefore, needs to have a clear goal - don’t try and mix messages in the same post. Also do not forget the smart use of hashtags.

Ultimately, your aim is to build a community - to be a brand that offers value, inspiration, knowledge and great products or a trusted service.

At the end of the day, social media is simple- it’s about sharing your love and passion with other people.

Keep your content visible

Keeping your content top-of-mind is the main goal for many businesses, and having a calendar is the best way to forward plan.

Consistency is key. Posting daily on your favorite channels at the best time is one of the best ways to build a loyal and engaged following. Customers will be less likely to check in on your feed if you forget to post for weeks at a time. And posting ten times in one day to make up for lost time is not a good idea — Facebook and Instagram reward regular posting.

If you’re forgetful, or simply have too much on, then use a scheduling tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer, which will seed out your content to all of the social platforms, varying the timing to match the territories and the most popular times online.

How to make your calendar content

When it comes to making regular content for social media, you can either lean on a pre-made calendar or cook up your own. Both approaches have their advantages.

Using pre-made content is by far the most efficient way to go and is guaranteed to save you time. But, the content you’re posting may not feel perfect for your business.

Creating a custom content calendar, along with custom content, is a far slower way to get things done, but you can be sure that you’ll have the right content.

Given how busy the average social media marketer is, and the number of other hats they wear, we recommend doing a little of both.

Look ahead, where possible, and make custom content for the days most applicable to your business.

For the rest of the year, save yourself some time, and let the Biteable social media calendar do all the heavy lifting for you.

The great thing about the Biteable social media calendar is that it syncs with your Outlook, Google, Apple, or other online calendars, so there’s no excuse to ever miss a social media post again.