How to Plan One Month of Social Media Content at Once

Lais Schulz

November 11, 2020

Planning and creating one month of social media content might sound like a dreadful task for most of you reading this. But, what if you could plan one month of social media content at once, in just a few hours? It is not only possible, it’s fairly easy.

Planning ahead like this is essential for business, not just because it saves time but also because it makes the content creation process so much easier – you batch everything.

Some of the secondary benefits of planning your content in advance is the ability to plan ahead for sales events like Black Friday and Christmas, for example. When you plan ahead, you don’t have to come up with your posts on the fly, which means better quality content and a more intentional strategy.

In this blog post, we’re going to show you how you can optimize your time and create a flawless and effective strategy to plan one month of social media content at once so you can be consistent and save a lot of time and energy while doing so. After you start using this technique, you won’t want to go back to your old habits again – a.k.a. creating everything last minute or going completely M.I.A for days from social media (which is never good for business).

Keep reading to find out:

Why Should You Plan Your Social Media Content Ahead?

Even if everyone tells you to plan your social media calendar ahead, you might not understand why doing it is actually so important. Of course, big organizations need to have a plan way ahead because they’re spending lots of money on new launches, teams and advertising. But, in the end, it doesn’t really matter if you’re a “solopreneur”, a small business owner or a big company. Planning your social media content ahead matters.

Even if you’re just using your calendar to plan out the one piece of social media content per day, it can help you keep your messaging cohesive and streamline your efforts. Of course, it doesn’t mean that just because you’re planning in advance you can’t change your plans. You can always test, adjust, and pivot if you notice something isn’t working or want to try something new.

You should also consider that a business owner, it’s important to be aware of the holidays and days of observance that are coming up so you can prepare content to post on behalf of your business. It’s also important to be aware of those since you don’t want any important dates to outshine your product launch.

Apart from that, besides the traditional holidays like New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas, there are many other days of observance that your business can use to celebrate or create a special offer. This is why planning ahead is so important.

Plan One Month of Social Media Content at Once: The Step-By-Step Guide

1. Set a Time and Date

The first step to plan one month of social media content at once is to set a date and time for your planning session about two weeks before the new month starts. Reserve a couple of hours to do that – and only that – because repeatedly checking your Instagram feed is not a great way to be productive. Make sure you pick a time that you know you can be 100% focused on this task so you can be the most efficient.

If you don’t feel like working on this for two hours straight is something you can do, use the Pomodoro Technique to do it in short shifts. In case you aren’t familiar, this technique divides the time into 25 minutes of focused work + 5 minutes of rest until the task is completed.

2. Prepare Everything

Preparing usually takes a lot of time and energy, especially if you’re hopping in and out of other tasks to prepare content one piece at a time. Doing it all at once will help you to spend less time and energy than if you were planning everything week by week or piece by piece. This is called “batching” your content which basically just means that instead of sitting down or pulling out your phone 4-5 times a month to post something on the fly, you’re only doing it once.

So here’s what you will need:

A monthly planner or a content calendar spreadsheet or template that works for you
A national holidays and days of observance calendar
Your brand’s calendar

Don’t neglect any of these three things. You need a planner or a spreadsheet to write down all your ideas and their corresponding due dates. You also need to look at the upcoming national holidays and days of observance in case you want to post on any of the big occasions, like New Year’s Eve, or any of the silly ones, like National Dessert Day. Last but not least, you also need to have your business’ calendar. This calendar should include the days you’re not going to be open, the special dates and events you plan to host or create sales around, as well as new launches for products or services.

You will also need a quiet environment. If you want to plan one month’s worth of social media content in just a few hours, you will need to be able to work without interruption. Resist the urge to do this from your bed, couch, or anywhere that is not a proper work environment. Your kitchen table is a much better place to do it if you don’t have an office.

3. Write Down Your Business’ Big Promotions and Holidays

The first thing you want to do before you start to actually plan this one month of social media content is to write down all the holidays for the month so you can map out which days are best for product launches and sales. You might want to do this on a spreadsheet or use a pencil to write as you might want to change things around.

For example, suppose you’re planning your November social media calendar. You know there is Veterans Day as well as Thanksgiving. Let’s say you have a product launch in the first half of the month – on the 10th – and also Black Friday ahead. You will want to write down what you’re planning on that day (e.g., 50% discount on all items).

So, your calendar now looks something like this:

November 10th – Product X launch
November 11th – Veterans Day
November 26th – Thanksgiving
November 27th – Black Friday (50% discount on all items)

4. Set Up Dates to Post Content to Warm Up Your Audience

For every special date you have written down, you will also plan content for the 2 or 3 days prior so you can warm up your audience. You don’t necessarily need to always come out and say that you’re going to be having a sale or discount in a few days. You could just share a “behind the scenes” post that shows you creating a new product, for example. This is a great way to build excitement without explicitly talking about an upcoming sale.

At this point, you don’t necessarily need to know exactly what the post itself is going to say. Right now, you’re just drafting; you’ll think about the content itself in the next phase.

So, let’s say you will post something about your launch on November 2nd (Monday), November 5th (Thursday), November 9th (the day before the launch), and then finally on the launch day (November 10th). Here’s what your calendar should look like now:

November 2nd – Product launch warm-up
November 5th – Product launch warm-up
November 9th – Product launch warm-up
November 10th – Product launch
November 18th – Black Friday warm-up
November 23rd – Black Friday warm-up
November 26th – Black Friday warm-up
November 27th – Black Friday (50% discount on all items)

5. Set Up Dates to Do Content Marketing

Step #5 is a very important step on this strategy to plan one month of social media content. There are no words to describe how important content marketing is. Sharing really great content helps to establish your brand as a leader in the industry. It shows people that you really know your stuff, without being pushy. And, when people share your content, your reach grows! Whether it’s done through video, photo, infographics, text, content marketing is a big deal.

So, what you’re going to do now is add some content marketing posts in between the dates you already set in your monthly calendar. So for example, if you’re launching a new product, you will probably want to create some content that addresses some of your customer’s pain points. Then, show how your product or service can address those pain points!

We will talk more about specific content topics in the next step, but for now, you want to make sure you are putting content marketing in your calendar at least twice a week every week for a full month before launching a new product or service.

On a side note, content marketing is extremely important for your brand all the time, not just during a launch period. Content marketing is meant to be helpful to your audience; it teaches them something, and this type of content is king because it makes people trust you more. Most of your content should be content marketing.

Okay, back to your calendar. Here’s what it should look like after you add your content marketing post slots:

November 2nd – Product launch warm-up
November 3rd – Content marketing (product launch)
November 5th – Product launch warm-up
November 6th – Content marketing (product launch)
November 9th – Content marketing (product launch) / Product launch warm-up
November 10th – Product launch
November 12th – Content marketing
November 16th – Content marketing
November 18th – Black Friday warm-up
November 19th – Content marketing
November 23rd – Black Friday warm-up
November 24th – Content marketing
November 25th – Content marketing
November 26th – Black Friday warm-up
November 27th – Black Friday (50% discount on all items)
November 30th – Content marketing

6. Define Types of Content

Before you start creating content, you need to decide what type of content you’re going to create. Ask yourself which social media platforms you’ll be posting to. This will usually help you narrow down the types of content you need. If you’re using only Instagram, for instance, you know that videos and visually attractive images work best there. If you use LinkedIn, you know that long-form content as well as in-feed posts are great, and so on.

Knowing what works well on each platform you use and what resonates with your audience is essential. So, if your audience loves videos and infographics, that’s the content you should produce and share.

Don’t let this intimidate you. There are so many great tools out there to make content creation a breeze. For example, Instagram Stories and Reels make it super easy to create attractive videos using just your smartphone. You can also create longer videos and post them on IGTV, YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Don’t forget, you can (and should) repurpose this content and create several shorter “teaser” posts from it, as well as a blog post and/or an infographic.

Once you define the types of content you want to create, map out when you’re going to post each type of content. Let’s say on Thursdays you will post a video on Facebook about a certain topic. This will help your audience understand the pattern of your content so they always know when to look for it.

7. Define The Topics

Now onto topic selection! Consider your audience and what they want from you as well as what’s going to help you gain their trust and sell your products and services. I know it’s a lot to consider. But there are tools to help.

If you don’t already know your audience very well, you can use Instagram Stories to interact with them and ask them about their preferences and what kinds of things they want to know from you. Use the question sticker to pick their brains… and don’t forget to take notes!

In order to create content that is going to get good engagement, you need to know your audience and their problems. With that in mind, and with your calendar drafted, it’s time for you to start thinking about the topics you’re going to talk about in all of those posts you’ve been planning.

Choosing Overall Content Marketing Topics

You should always talk about things that are useful to your audience somehow – and of course, it should all be related to your business and area of expertise. Let’s say you’re a hairdresser. Your audience sees you as an authority in the hair industry. They want to check out your work, but they would also love some tips on how to take care of their hair or learn about the newest trends in the hair industry. There are lots of things you could post about on these topics!

Maybe you’re an expert in highlights for blond hair. Consider sharing some weekly tips on how to take care of blond hair, the best shampoos and conditioners, how often they should go back to the salon, etc. Besides just helping your clients, this useful information brings them closer to you as you seem to know exactly what they need.

Choosing Content Marketing Topics for Launches

As you plan your topics, you should also consider any upcoming launches – as we mentioned previously. Let’s say you’re creating a “Spa at Home Kit” because you know your target audience (your clients) are not leaving their houses because of COVID-19.

So, in the weeks leading up to the launch, you’re going to share useful information about how to plan a nice spa day at home. Brainstorm a bunch of topics related to this idea and make sure you’re tapping into specific problems or needs that your audience has. Ideally, you want to bring it all back to your product and how it can help them.

In this example, you might touch on the fact that your product is cheaper than a day at a spa, and it’s also safer than a spa in a time when everyone is worried about COVID. These are just two potential pain points (problems) that your product solves.

To take it a bit farther, here are a few topics you can touch on that don’t outright promote your product. These are topics that you can use before your product launch as part of your content marketing strategy:

The benefits of having a spa day at home every month
How to prepare your house for a spa day at home
5 rituals to include in your spa day at home
7 self-massage practices to make you relax at home
5 essential oils for massage and their effects
10 products you should use on your spa day at home
How to create a spa day at home on a budget

These ideas tap into the problems your product solves by showing your audience the advantages of having a spa day at home (creating the need), how to make a spa day on a budget, and showing the products people need to have a spa day at home (which is also solved by your kit because it’s practical, people can have everything the need in one kit). You’re promoting your spa kit without even mentioning it, and that’s the beauty of content marketing.

Choosing Topics to Warm Up Your Audience to Product Launches

The most elaborate pieces of content should be your content marketing pieces. This is the content that will warm up your audience before a product launch, but don’t worry. It doesn’t need to be over the top or complicated. All you need to do is give your followers a little sneak peek to make them curious about what’s to come.

You can create a simple post in your feed or utilize Instagram Stories to show a little bit of what you’re working on. You could mention that there’s something new and exciting about to come, and show a little piece of the “mysterious” product or service.

Use content to start to create a buzz around your new product or service. Oh, and don’t forget to use Instagram Stories’ cool countdown feature so people can get notified when you officially launch your product, service, or offer. This is a great way to make sure no one misses out.

Choosing Topics to Holidays and Days of Observance

Holidays and days of observance are important, and you should consider posting something, especially for the most important ones. On Thanksgiving, for instance, you should definitely post at least an Instagram Story that thanks all your customers for their support during the year.

Of course, you can also create something more elaborate like an Instagram Giveaway or a big sale or event. It’s totally up to you!

Do you need some more content ideas for your posts? Click here and check out the post we created that features 18 social media post ideas for small businesses. You will love it, promise!

Are you ready to star to plan your one month of social media content?! So, let’s do it!

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We can’t wait to see what you do. Please tag us using the hashtag #GrowingMyBiz so we can see and share your work!

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