Creating a content plan for social media: a step-by-step guide

Author of the article

Valeria, smm-manager at VAU Agency

A content plan is a base. A framework that helps you make your posting systematic, structured, and, as a result, achieve the desired results.

It does not have standard formats or templates - you can create it as a table in Excel, Google Sheets, or choose any other format that is convenient for you. The format of the plan is not important, the main thing is that you have it and use it.

The simplest format of a content plan that is mostly used is a table in Excel or Google Sheets.

In this article, I'll give you a step-by-step guide to creating one.

PREPARATORY STAGES

Before you start creating a content plan, it's important to consider a few preparatory steps:

Review your project's marketing strategy. Your content strategy should be closely aligned with your overall marketing strategy so that all your efforts are directed toward a single goal.
Understand your target audience. Find out what problems your product or service can solve, and find out the interests and preferences of your audience.
Define your business goals and objectives for the short and long term. This will help you better navigate the content you need.
Analyze your existing content and its effectiveness. This will help you understand what works well and what needs to be improved.
Identify channels for content. Once you understand where your audience is most actively interacting with your content, distribute your posts by channel.

To do this, divide the number of reactions by the number of subscribers or reach. It's better to divide by reach, because this way we take into account the actual number of people who saw the post.

ER by subscribers is suitable for comparing different posts with each other, as well as for assessing the level of engagement on competitors' posts.

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO CREATING A CONTENT PLAN

1. Define your content goals

Understand what you want to achieve with your content. These can be goals such as increasing brand awareness, attracting new customers, or maintaining the loyalty of existing customers.

And depending on this, form your content according to the optimal ratio:

40 % entertainment content;
30% of publications about the company, events, and situations;
25% of useful information;
5% of direct sales.

2. Plan the frequency of your posts

It's important to find a balance so that followers are waiting for your posts and not scrolling through a large stream of your posts and stories. The optimal number of posts is 3-4 per week.

And if you plan to post very little content, it should still appear regularly. It's better to release one post a week than three posts in a row on the same day and then be silent until the next month.

To keep your audience engaged, you need to remind them of yourself regularly.

For your convenience, please indicate the dates and times of your posts, the type of content, and the platform in the table.

3. Next, let's move on to the content of the content plan itself

And here I have collected the basic tips for you:

Find topics that are relevant to your target audience, otherwise you will not see the expected feedback: likes, comments, reposts, etc. Follow trends and take an interest in what is important to your audience.
Experiment with post formats. Don't just focus on longreads or short videos for Instagram. Give your audience the opportunity to gain different experiences: read posts, watch beautiful photos or videos, take part in a webinar, learn about a new case study, or take a survey.
Think about content for at least 2 weeks.
Make a separate content plan for stories and don't forget that they should be intertwined with the content in the posts!

4. Keep track of user reactions to your content

And here I have collected the basic tips for you:

One of the most important steps in creating a content plan is analysis. You should constantly monitor the feedback you receive from your subscribers and customers.

Do they like your posts? Are they shared or not? What do they write in the comments? Do they follow the link?

Measure metrics such as engagement, reach, conversions, and other indicators. And based on the data, adjust your content plan to achieve better results.

And don't be afraid to change and adapt the content in the process, taking into account audience feedback.