Managing Social Media Guided by an Editorial Calendar
The time people spend communicating and seeking information online and through social media is increasing. A 2021 Pew Research Center study revealed that 31% of American adults report they are online “almost constantly.” For Americans age 18-29, that number increases to 48%. Overall, 85% of American adults are online daily. To connect with consumer audiences, organizations have to effectively manage social media.
After all, if your organization isn’t engaging on those platforms — offering accurate messages— people will get (potentially inaccurate) information about you from someone else.
Keeping up with online communication can be daunting, given the time and effort it takes to create content, post it and respond to comments. So, how can you show thought leadership, sharing content on important research topics without monopolizing all of your time? An editorial calendar is your tool for efficiently managing social media to do just that.
Plan ahead.
You use a regular calendar to plan out your everyday tasks and activities from doctor appointments and work trips to important phone calls and family reunions. Why not plan out the content for your social media channels? A visual representation of your upcoming content will help you see what still needs to be created, what has already been posted, and how different content overlaps. As the saying goes, it is better to be proactive than reactive – this is especially true with social media content.
Multiple sources of content.
As you plan, you’ll quickly find that overlapping events, departments, and other content compete for attention, and various sub-brands or different parts of your organization compete for space. Organizing with an editorial calendar allows you to see the time frames and overlaps. This visual representation makes it easier to see the big picture, while keeping the content separate and easy to access.
Prioritize.
Whether you’re running a school, business, hospital, or a household, specific tasks get priority. Using an editorial calendar displays your content from multiple departments, events and campaigns in one location, allowing you to decide on priorities that best fit the day, week or month. You also can make sure your content is distributed in a way that gives the appropriate attention to each of your content priorities. This capability is useful across any industry: education, health services, business, and more.
Customize and adjust.
All the planning in the world doesn’t mean unexpected challenges won’t arise. However, when those issues happen, you can more efficiently adjust your content if you clearly see what lies ahead. If an adjustment is needed due to an unexpected challenge, having easy access to content will help save time and effort when getting the correct message out to your audiences.
Social media management doesn’t have to be daunting, when you have the right tools. Using an editorial calendar will simplify your content planning and frees up time to focus on engaging in online conversations with your stakeholders. What are you waiting for? Get planning!
Published on: April 8, 2021