What are the benefits of using a social media content calendar and why do many brands find this to be an effective marketing tool?

A content calendar is a working document used to schedule out the content you’ll share across your platforms for the coming month. It provides the detail for what will be shared by the week, day, and sometimes even by the time of day. The larger the organization, the more content calendars for social media marketing you may operate with.

Table of Contents Show

Why have a content calendar?
Importance of a Social Media Marketing Calendar
Final Thought

A well-maintained content calendar keeps you on track to match your marketing goals across the board. It allows you to view all of your campaigns together and ensure they are working together to tell the same story. This allows you to create a more solidified brand. It allows you to analyze data across platforms and better understand your efforts and your audience.

Why have a content calendar?

One of the biggest benefits of using a content calendar is to plan your marketing efforts and visualize what your social media strategy will look like over a period of time. It allows you to stay organized and stay focused on the goal. It helps you plan your marketing efforts around events or important dates in your industry and see where there may be holes. It gives you a chance to assess weaknesses in your content and gives you a chance to fill in the gaps.

Imagine viewing your social media strategy with your email campaigns, your postcard campaigns, your radio and television advertising. How do they work together? Are you talking about the same things? Are you sharing content that works together? When you view your calendars side by side, it can help you take advantage or areas of overlap that you might have missed out on otherwise. Maybe a line from an email would make a great tweet. Or a graphic from your print ad would convert well to an infographic for your Instagram.

A content calendar is more than just a tool to help grow your business. It’s a tool that makes your life easier by reducing your need to dig for information at the last moment. It makes it less likely that you’ll forgo a piece of your marketing because you simply don’t have the time.

As you’re writing a social media post or scheduling your next blog post, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about how to bring all of your marketing together into one cohesive unit.

Spending time on social media platforms has become almost second nature to many marketing professionals and professional services firms. As the world has rapidly moved more and more into the digital marketing space, many of the best possibilities for engaging your network of business connections exist on social media platforms.

Hinge’s latest research on the fastest-growing professional services firms supports this sentiment. When we studied High Growth professional services firms, we asked them which marketing techniques they have invested the most resources and time. As you can see in Figure 1 below, the second answer included social media marketing.

Professional services firms are interested in getting the most out of their organic social media marketing efforts. And not unlike other marketing initiatives, to do so effectively involves using tools that help you stay organized. The most powerful tool we recommend using is a social media content calendar.

If the thought of building a social media calendar seems like a daunting task, do not worry because it is not complicated. Your social media content calendar should be a core tool utilized on a daily to weekly basis by your marketing team. Tracking when posts are published and who is responsible for posting them.

Here are five reasons why your firm needs an organic social media content calendar:

1. Your Social Media Content Calendar Will SAVE TIME.

Using an organic social media calendar can help your firm ensure that it is allocating resources in the best and most efficient manner. In addition to tracking what you will post and when the social media content calendar can also double as an “assignment board”. This will inform individual team members when they are supposed to write content for social posts. It can also double as a source that triggers team members to engage with existing posts in a timely fashion.

This would be particularly helpful if your firm has an employee advocacy program or when your firm has a talent recruiting program.

Planning ahead with a social media calendar also allows you to save time on any future research needed for potential topics and posts. You’ll know well ahead of time what you need to prepare in order to stay on schedule, so there will be no last-minute scramble.

2. Your Social Media Content Calendar Will Keep You ORGANIZED.

This is perhaps the biggest reason for keeping any kind of calendar, but especially a content calendar. Keeping your processes organized and easy to see helps you know what content you’ve published and when.

Having a formal record of your posts allows you to see a snapshot of topics so you can maintain a fresh perspective and keep a balance between the different types of content you post.

By mapping your calendar to specific social media platforms, you can stay organized across each of the channels you utilize. And don’t forget: for most professional services firms, LinkedIn and Twitter are the most important social networks to have a strong presence on.

3. Your Social Media Content Calendar Will Allow You to BE TIMELY.

An editorial calendar keeps you on track to publish content in conjunction with relevant campaigns and events. This ensures you don’t miss out on creating important content for specific occasions or launches.

For example, what new blog posts or other content are you publishing that needs to be promoted on social media? What news is going on in your industry that your firm should be weighing in on? Or what upcoming events or conferences are you attending?

You can easily include prompts or reminders for time-sensitive content to make sure your social media activity remains timely with the goings-on of your firm.

4. Your Social Media Content Calendar Will Allow You To BE RELEVANT.

When you plan out your social media content in advance, you have the advantage of getting feedback from your team members. Your calendar can be easily shared for further input, so you can make sure you’re putting out the best and most relevant social media posts to achieve both your firm’s marketing and business development goals.

Team members from different departments can use their unique knowledge set to inform the choices you make on each platform. For instance, your Business Development team can add their insight on current trends and client pain points to make sure your posts are on par with what’s going on in the marketplace.

Staying plugged into the market and up-to-date on what’s important to potential buyers will help you to remain relevant and increase your ability to close the sale.

5. Your Social Media Content Calendar Will BUILD CREDIBILITY.

Maintaining consistency on your social media accounts is one of the first ways you can build trust and credibility with early prospects discovering your firm. New followers will quickly learn that you’re sharing educational content and that your firm has the depth of expertise to help them.

Since followers like to know when they can expect posts from you, maintaining a consistent calendar enables you to set and meet their expectations. Your audience will soon be able to anticipate your posts, which can make them feel more connected with your firm. This can help with engagement as you build your following and establish your credibility on each platform.

Whether you’ve been holding off on creating a social media content calendar because you weren’t sure you needed one or didn’t think it would be worth the effort, it’s time to think again.

The advantages and benefits of creating a social media content calendar can help take your media strategy to a higher playing field. Your firm can post, tweet, share and comment more effectively and efficiently with just a little extra planning.

Final Thought

Social media is just like other proven marketing techniques—if you are not consistent and don’t implement your plan, then it won’t make a difference. The benefits that come from using your content marketing calendar to track your social media activity safeguard against half-implemented plans. It keeps your entire team accountable for your goals and allows you to make swift adjustments when plans need to change.

Social media marketing should be a core component of your firm’s overall strategy. Hinge’s Visible Firm℠ is the leading marketing program for delivering greater visibility, growth, and profits. Based on 8 years of research into high-growth firms, this program gives firms like yours the practical tools and approach used by industry leaders.