Social Media Content Planning: Organize Your Year in One Sitting
Organizing your social media content can feel daunting, but not when you have a system in place. Planning a year's worth of content in one sitting is done in two stages; the 1:1:1 Content Bundle Method generates a base of posts followed by categorizing your remaining filler posts. Let's dive into a step-by-step guide on planning a year's content in just one sitting.
Step One: Implement the 1:1:1 Content Bundle Method
This method starts with deciding how often you will blog—weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Depending on your choice, this will determine how many days of social media posts you have covered. For example, a bi-weekly blogging strategy means you'll have two blogs a month, translating into eight distinct social media posts. This approach ensures consistent messaging across all platforms and enhances your brand's presence and engagement on social media. I like to think of these as your base posts. To learn more about the 1:1:1 Content Bundle Method check out our how-to blog: Your Content Marketing Systems Needs the 1:1:1 Content Bundle Method
Step Two: Outline Additional Social Media Posts
Once your blogs are set to cover part of your social media calendar, it's time to plan the remaining posts. If you aim to post four times a week and your blogs cover half of this, you need to plan for the additional eight posts per month. Here's how to structure these effectively:
Value/Education (50%): Posts that educate and add value, reinforcing your position as an industry leader.
Post Options: Lead magnet promotions, tips, facts, etc.
Connection (25%): Personal stories or behind-the-scenes insights that deepen the audience's connection to your brand.
Post Options: Personal posts, holiday posts, etc.
Selling (25%): Direct promotions of your products or services.
Post Options: Testimonials, serviced promotions, etc.
Balancing these elements ensures your content strategy supports both engagement and business objectives.
Step Three: Build Your Idea Batching System
To manage this efficiently, set up a system where you can organize and batch content ideas. Whether you use a sophisticated tool like Notion, the project management tool we build our Marketing Operating System (MarketingOS) with, or a simple app like phone notes, the key is consistency and ease of use. Here's an example of how you'd organize these categories into the title and number of ideas you'd need for a given year.
Blog Topics (24): Based on your content pillars, plan 24 blog ideas for the year if you are posting a blog bi-weekly
Shared Articles (12): Choose an article to share each month.
Inspirational Quotes (12): Select a quote for each month.
And so on. You'll want a list and correlating target number of ideas you'd need in a year based on frequency for each category of post type you plan to share on social media.
Step Four: Fill in With Creative Ideas
Populate your batching system with ideas for the entire year in a single session. This might seem like a heavy lift at first, but by batching similar tasks together, such as selecting all your quotes or articles at once, you streamline the entire process, making it more manageable and less time-consuming. If you don't do it all at once, this still gives you a streamlined system to organize your ideas into your overall pre-planned structure for your posts.
Step Five: Pull and Use Ideas as You Create Content
When it comes time to create content, whether you're batching monthly or quarterly, simply pull from your pre-organized lists. Choose the necessary topics or themes, mark them as 'used' or cross them out, and integrate them into your content schedule. This ensures your content is always fresh, relevant, and engaging.
Turning Strategy into Action
While planning is invaluable, execution is where success is realized. Our Marketing Operating System (MarketingOS) ensures that your well-laid plans are effectively implemented, keeping your content dynamic and aligned with your marketing objectives. Ready to take your social media content planning to the next level? Let's connect and see how our MarketingOS and Quarterly Content Activation Kits can make your content planning and execution effortless. Book a call to learn more.
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Our Simple Marketing Systems will streamline your content marketing to be more effective and efficient. You can engage with this framework with two different levels of support:
Custom Content Strategies: Custom annual editorial calendars and 90-day detailed content calendars tailored to your brand complete with trainings, ChatGPT prompts and Canva templates.
Creative Agency OS: End-to-end operating system for your creative agency to guarantee profitability and scalability. Includes project management, time & people management, client boarding, quoting, job costing, staff training & onboarding, and more.
