The days are getting longer, the weather warmer, and the last thing many of us want to do is spend time inside on our devices. We want to spend more time enjoying the summer and less time doing our social media right?
Well, now you can! Here are my 5 steps to create your content, organize it, and schedule out your social media for the entire summer in one week!
Step 1: Plan Your Content Strategy Calendar With Themes
First, you have to make a content plan! An hour of planning can save a ton of time trying to come up with content last minute every day. Plus a strategic plan is more likely to bring you ideal followers and engagement. Create a social media calendar and map out when to post, where to post, and what the content will be.
Need a social media calendar template to organize your plan? Here’s the Social Media Calendar I use to organize content for myself and my clients including how often to post on each platform and a place to organize your themes!
Now that you have a calendar to map out your plan. Make content easier to come up with by having themes. In your social media calendar, choose a theme for the month or even one for each week (there are places to input these themes in my free calendar). Then group content around that theme instead of trying to come up with something from scratch every day.
For example, I might choose Instagram growth as the month’s theme for my business, then week 1 is Instagram basics, week 2 is Instagram Stories, week 3 is Instagram Reels, and week 4 is Instagram Engagement. That way I know exactly what I need to post about and it helps my audience know what to expect and they’ll want to check back for more instead of just random posting.
Another way to help group content is to choose themes for days of the week. Again this makes it so much easier to come up with content. You can get away with the same weekly theme for a few months. Perfect for the summer and then change it up come September.
For example, Monday motivation quotes, Tuesday Tips (give tips about your industry), Wednesday Questions (ask your audience something or have them ask you), Thursday Share (share something personal or behind the scenes from your business), Friday talk about your service/product or a promotion, and on the weekend post something your audience would find funny.
You can choose any kind of theme you want but mapping out monthly, weekly, and daily content ideas can cut way down on the time you spend on your content each month.
Step 2: Create Your Content
Block out chunks of time every day for a week to create the posts. Only focus on creating the content from your calendar and be laser focused. When creating posts in themes you’ll find it will go much quicker because you’re not bouncing around from topic to topic.
My favorite tool to create social media graphics is Canva! It has great templates for graphics, its editing tools for photos/videos are easy, and they have amazing stock photo options.
Make sure to think about the copy you write to go along with your graphics. It should speak to your ideal audience and have a consistent voice. If you need more guidance on how to speak to your ideal audience, grab my free Ideal Client Masterclass.
Step 3: Schedule Your Content
You can schedule your content as you create it or do it all at once after your content is done. When you have time only to focus on scheduling, you might be surprised how quickly you can get it done! Here’s how I schedule everything out for each platform:
Facebook & Instagram Scheduling – Stories too!
I always schedule directly in Facebook. You can schedule both Facebook and Instagram in Facebook’s Creator Studio or Meta Business Suite (which one depends on the version you currently have). Either way, it’s easy to schedule and I rarely have issues with things not posting like I do with 3rd party apps.
Pinterest Scheduling
Tailwind is a lifesaver when it comes to scheduling out Pinterest. Not only is it great for scheduling your own content (you can even stream your Instagram to pin live as you post!), it’s a great place to curate your content too and see your Pinterest schedule layed out. If you don’t want to spend money for Tailwind, you can also create pin graphics and schedule them to go out right in Canva!
For other platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google My Business, there are many options for schedulers. Some I have used are: Later, Metrocool, and Hootsuite. They all have their pros and cons so check them out and see which is right for you.
Now you can take your social media calendar, your content, and sit down to schedule all your content for the entire summer!
Step 4: Set Time For Social Media Engagement
Now that you have a content calendar and your post ideas mapped out for the entire summer, you have already saved yourself hours of time! If you’ve also scheduled it out, kudos to you!
Now choose a time during the day that works for you to engage on your social media posts, answer comments, and check your DMs. Put that in your calendar and treat it like an appointment. You should engage close to the time a new post will hit. For example, if you post 3x week on Instagram at 4pm – put an appointment from 4pm-4:15pm those 3 days to hop on and engage.
Check in on all your platforms 5-6 days a week. Look at your posts and messages, respond to comments, and engage on other accounts during that time. It usually takes 20 minutes and you can do it on your phone from anywhere. Make sure to keep up with it so all your hard work on creating and scheduling content does not get wasted.
Step 5: Enjoy Your Summer!
Once it’s all scheduled out, you are free! Just check in daily to engage and answer comments/ messages from anywhere on your phone. Then don’t worry about it for the rest of the day! Doesn’t that feel freeing? Enjoy your summer from anywhere!
If you need more social media and marketing tips – here are a few ways I can help:
Grab my free 2022 IG Guide – Explode Your Instagram …. It’s FIRE!
If you don’t want to wait each month to see the calendar, you can download the entire 2022 Social Media Holiday Calendar.
Want to learn to simplify Instagram and attract your ideal clients? Join my free group: Instagram Success Community
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