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in Writing & Blogging · August 15, 2016

Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar

Social media is a huge part of online presence, especially if you are a blogger or have an online business of some kind. Most people know this and have various accounts where they promote their business or blog, but you should do more with your networks than promoting your own work. I’ve been using a social media content calendar since October of last year, and today I’m going to talk about what it is and why you need one.

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Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar

What It Is: It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like – a calendar for social media content, or rather a schedule of social media posts according to category and purpose. Most are created in Excel rather than an actual calendar.

It’s Purpose: They’re used to make the most of social media networks, and to help grow them. By scheduling posts throughout the day to share posts from a variety of topics, you can ensure that you don’t use your social media networks to post things that are only about getting traffic to your site. Social media is fun and all, but one of the main purposes for bloggers and online business owners to have social media accounts is to grow reach and gain followers to then drive traffic.

Why Bloggers Need One: You already know that you need social media networks to promote your posts or business. There are a couple reasons why this helps. One, people are more likely to follow you if your networks provide more than promotions. Two, if you share other people’s posts (something I’ll get to later), then they might follow you, and other people are more likely to follow because you share helpful and/or great things. Three, by scheduling posts ahead of time, you can worry less about growing your networks if you don’t have time to be on social media much. Of course, you should also post things on your accounts that show your personality and who you are, but that’s a topic for another day.

[bctt tweet=”Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar” username=”kmitchellauthor”]

Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar

How To Do It: Since I’m not an expert on how to create the best social media calendar, I’ll leave that to the posts I refer to when I work on mine (Creating an Effect Social Media Calendar, Organizing an Effective Social Media Calendar, 11 Tips & Ideas for Filling Your Editorial Calendar). However, there are a couple of things that I can help with. Before you start creating any kind of calendar, you need to decide which networks you’re going to make your calendar for. For the rest, decide which you’re going to post regularly on but not have an organized schedule for and which you’ll automate without a calendar.

For example, my social media content calendar is for my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I post on Instagram 1-2 times a day, and I try to post things at times that will maximize exposure and engagement, but I don’t plan it ahead of time. I try to post on Snapchat and Instagram stories, but that’s even less organized since I just try to share my life on there. I run my Tumblr on queue, and that’s more because I enjoy Tumblr but just don’t have the time to be on there regularly. I do something similar with my Pinterest; I use Tailwind* to post pins at certain times of the day. Keeping my Tumblr and Pinterest running like this – sharing things just for fun 90% of the time and not focusing on blog things – builds followers and therefore a larger audience for the 10% of the time that I share things that are for the blog.

Tools needed: Microsoft Excel or Google Docs; social media scheduling account like Hootsuite*, Tailwind*, Buffer, or Board Booster*; and a way of finding the things you share (I use Pinterest).

Do you use a content calendar? Do you have any tips for creating or using one?

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.

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Comments

  1. Rach Martin says

    August 15, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    I haven’t started using a social media calendar, yet! I finally, recently made the switch over to having an electronic editorial calendar, so baby steps, amirite?! I will definitely be pinning this for later when I decide to put my big girl panties on – GREAT POST!

    Rachel / http://www.seashellsandsparkles.com

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    • Kate Mitchell says

      August 17, 2016 at 11:20 am

      Thank you! I can’t advise having a social media calendar enough, even if it’s just a commitment to yourself to post a certain number of times on each network per day or week. At the very least, I suggest automating some accounts, or setting reminders to post on them at certain times of the day.

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  2. Tiffany M. Zwieg says

    August 17, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    Yes! I made one in Excel and then I use Hootsuite. Due to my day job…I am not always able to keep up with it…but I am absolutely trying! 🙂

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Trackbacks

  1. Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog - 8 Tips To Get More Twitter Followers | Kate the (Almost) Great, Boston Lifestyle Blog says:
    January 27, 2017 at 8:01 am

    […] Do more than share your blog posts: Similarly, you don’t want to only post your content. Yes, people will follow you to see your content, but fewer will follow than if you share other things, as well. This is especially true for bloggers – some might use Twitter as the primary way to access your content, but if you’re on Bloglovin‘ (shameless self-promo), they won’t have a reason to follow you on Twitter. For more information about this, see Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar. […]

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  2. Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog - 9 Reasons Why You Should Use Tailwind To Schedule Social Media Posts on Pinterest says:
    March 28, 2017 at 8:09 pm

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    […] schedule 90% of my Twitter content in the day(s) before it goes up. I’ve written about social media content calendars before so I don’t want to repeat everything. I’ve recently switched from Hootsuite to Buffer […]

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4. My kindle for wait time” 
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3️⃣ I got dressed up! ⁣
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5️⃣ And then I had to be a person again for an appointment!⁣
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On the one hand, you should always believe what pe On the one hand, you should always believe what people tell you about their bodies.⁣
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On the other hand, I’ve had so much ridiculous and unconnected health things happen that I do understand why people might not believe me.⁣
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Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how systemic autoimmune arthritis can be. But something else that surprised me was how much pain can be caused by small things.⁣
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In this picture, I was getting ready to have an MRI on my knee. It has been bothering me a fair amount the last 6+ months, so I'm trying to do something about that. ⁣
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2️⃣ … Which means I am overheating! ⁣
3️⃣ A quick view of NYC on my travels ⁣
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If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ... ⁣
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I tell her how things would get worse before they got better. ⁣
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I'd tell her to stop eating gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs immediately (although that would have been a lot harder in 2010, more than it even is now). ⁣
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I'd tell her that she still needs to keep advocating for herself. ⁣
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I'd tell her that having a diagnosis unfortunately doesn't mean everything automatically falls into place. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she'll develop many more illnesses but her quality of life will actually get significantly better. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she would eventually have to get her right foot fixed, although she does expect that.⁣
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I'd tell her that using a cane is not a sign of failure, but a tool to make life better.⁣
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(I did a sort of tongue-in-cheek post about this a while ago and thought I'd post a more serious one).⁣
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The thing that surprised me the most about autoimm The thing that surprised me the most about autoimmune arthritis is how systemic it is. ⁣
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Like with most things, it's one thing to know the fact and it's something else to experience it. ⁣
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Yes, my joints are affected (a lot). ⁣
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But I've had enough serious infections thats I have to see an immunologist because we need to be aware of my antibodies and I sometimes need help recovering from illnesses. ⁣
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And, yes, I see pulmonology because of my asthma, but we also have to keep an eye out on developing rheumatoid nodules in my lungs. (So far so good!)⁣
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Not to mention that, when I developed POTS, the hospital admitted me to run every heart test to make sure that, at 26, I wasn't experiencing heart failure. ⁣
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Plus, when I developed endometriosis, I also went through a number of GI tests because one theory was that I had ulcerative colitis. ⁣
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Anyway, RA is so much more than "just" joints. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have to kill my immune system every 3 months like I am in this picture.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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