Ahoy, social media sailors. To navigate the choppy seas of social media, you need to do some solid content planning before you set sail.<\/p>\n
The most seasoned social sailors know that you must carefully chart your course before stepping on the ship. Without a content plan, you\u2019re blindly casting yourself into an ocean of content, with competitor sharks nipping at your bow.<\/p>\n
If you want the tides to turn in your favor, you need to map out your content plan. Follow the eight steps outlined below, and you\u2019ll make it through your journey safe and sound.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t OwlyWriter AI instantly generates captions and content ideas for every social media network. It\u2019s seriously easy.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart free 30-day trial<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n In social media, content planning is the process of strategizing and scheduling content. <\/strong><\/p>\n Content planning involves deciding what to post and when to post it. Social media content planning helps you to achieve goals like increased visibility, engagement, or brand awareness.<\/p>\n Well-planned social media content is:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve answered, \u201cWhat is a content plan?\u201d Now we\u2019ll answer, \u201cWhy have a content plan?\u201d Lucky you\u2014it\u2019s because we care about the Future You. A little bit of planning upfront will make your life easier in the long run, we promise.<\/p>\n Here are a few benefits you can expect from creating your own content plan.<\/p>\n Batching your content is way more efficient than trying to come up with a post on the fly every day or for a specific campaign. Batching means you\u2019re taking the time to specifically write a bunch of social media content at once.<\/p>\n Besides being a more efficient way to write content, you\u2019ll get more out of it. As you write each piece of content, extract pieces of it to repurpose. One post can quickly become five or more without much extra time.<\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n Content planning saves time and gets you the most mileage out of your work. Create a content calendar<\/a> (like the one below) to keep yourself on track and on time.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Hootsuite\u2019s FREE Content Calendar Template <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The best thing about a content plan is that it forces you to plan ahead. You\u2019ll be prepared for any holidays relevant to your industry or audience (hello, posts for National Puppy Day<\/a>).<\/p>\n More than the expected holiday observances, content planning ensures you do your best work. Planning ahead allows space for creative thinking and collaboration and avoids burnout. All are important for creating a positive workplace culture where employees become brand advocates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Plus, when you\u2019re prepared for the month ahead, you have more time to create posts on the fly for trending topics as they come up in the news cycle.<\/p>\n Planning social media content keeps your eyes on the prize. You\u2019ve got a formal marketing strategy and, hopefully, a content strategy, too. (No? We\u2019ve got a free social media strategy template<\/a> for ya).<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Hootsuite\u2019s FREE Social Media Strategy Template <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Your content planning process is what connects those big-picture documents to the day-to-day marketing work your team does.<\/p>\n Despite what your content creator may tell you, individual social media posts aren\u2019t that<\/em> important on their own. But all of your posts, working toward the same goal together, will determine whether your social media strategy will sink or swim, fail or fly, crash out or cash in. You get it.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve covered the what and the why of social content planning. Welcome to the how<\/em> to make a content plan.<\/p>\n The following will guide you through how to plan content for social media in 8 easy steps.<\/p>\n The first step in content planning is knowing what you\u2019re going to be posting about.<\/p>\n How many topics you have and what they are depends on your unique business, but as an example, Hootsuite posts about:<\/p>\n These topics will be your content creation roadmap. If a post isn\u2019t about one of the things on your list, you don\u2019t post it. (Or, if it\u2019s merited, you rethink your marketing strategy and add a new category for it.)<\/p>\n With your topic list in front of you, free-write a bunch of post ideas. Don\u2019t think about whether they\u2019re good or bad; set a timer for 15 minutes and jot down as many as you can.<\/p>\n Once you have a list of ideas, pare them down to meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n Need help with the above? We know it\u2019s not that simple to just \u201cthink of ideas,\u201d even for those of us who smash keyboards for a living. How you brainstorm is up to you, but here are a few ways I get inspired:<\/p>\n Source: ChatGPT <\/em><\/p>\n To know what\u2019s worked before, you need top-notch analytics reports<\/a>. Hootsuite Analytics<\/a> gives you a full 360-degree view of your performance across all networks. Custom reports will show you what you need to do more of and what you can leave out of your content plan.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got our why and what. Now we need the when. This leads us to the daily best time to post<\/a> on your social media platforms.<\/p>\n You\u2019re also going to want to keep an eye on your overall posting frequency<\/a>.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to experiment with how often you\u2019re posting every week and how many posts per day.<\/p>\n Hootsuite\u2019s Best Time to Publish<\/a> feature analyzes your unique audience engagement patterns to determine the best times to post across all your accounts.<\/p>\n It also recommends different times for different goals. For example, when to post awareness or brand-building content and when to push hard for sales.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Hootsuite<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Need to get your social marketing started quickly and hit the ground running? Add your posts, either individually or via bulk upload, hit AutoSchedule<\/a>, and Hootsuite does the rest. Boom\u2014your social media for the month done in under five minutes.<\/p>\n Of course, AutoSchedule is great for those pressed for time, but you should still experiment with different numbers of posts per week and times of day to find what works best for your target audience. <\/p>\n You can customize AutoSchedule to only post during set times or days of the week. Once you decide how often and when to post, either with Hootsuite Analytics or other tools, modify your AutoSchedule settings<\/a> and now you have effortless social media post scheduling. Nice.<\/em><\/p>\n Only want to post once a day at a specific time? No problem.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no need to reinvent the wheel daily. A successful social media and content marketing plan<\/a> contains a mix of original and curated content<\/a>. But what should you curate? Where from? How often?<\/p>\n Great curated content is:<\/p>\n How each piece and type of content fits in with your other social media content is more important than how much of it you share, but a standard content mix is 40% original and 60% curated<\/a>.<\/p>\n With tools like Talkwalker, you can easily add content from around the web to build a library of quality content to share later. Try some of our robust social listening tools.<\/a><\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Talkwalker<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Psst<\/strong>: Hootsuite is set to acquire Talkwalker VERY SOON<\/em>. This means that you will get access to Talkwalker social listening and analytics directly in your Hootsuite dashboard!<\/p>\n Setting clear expectations around who\u2019s doing what is essential for content planning (and, so I hear, life). Social marketing teams with writers, designers, customer support peeps, and so on need a clear delineation of responsibilities.<\/p>\n A social media workflow<\/a> will define who does what and how the content process will move from content planning to creation to publication. A well-done social media approval workflow<\/a> will have your content planning process zipping along like a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n Bonus<\/strong>: Within Hootsuite\u2019s Business and Enterprise plans, you can assign permissions <\/a>to different accounts. This way, only those who are responsible for publishing can actually publish a post, and so on. This avoids confusion and mistakes when it comes to content publication.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Everything you need to make engaging content. AI support for captions, an AI hashtag generator, and access to Canva in Hootsuite.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet 30 days for $0<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n Whenever possible, it\u2019s best to write your social media post content before the campaign goes off to the design team (the next step).<\/p>\n This has a few key benefits:<\/p>\n Hootsuite comes with OwlyWriter AI, a built-in creative AI tool that saves social media pros hours of work. You can use OwlyWriter to:<\/p>\n To get started with OwlyWriter, sign in to your Hootsuite account and head to<\/span> the Inspiration<\/strong> section of the dashboard. <\/span>Then, pick the type of AI magic you want to see in action.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, if you\u2019re not sure what to post, click on <\/span>Get inspired<\/b>. Then, type in the general, high-level topic you want to address and click <\/span>Get ideas<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n OwlyWriter will generate a list of post ideas related to the topic:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Click on the one you like best to move to the next step \u2014 captions and hashtags.<\/span><\/p>\n Pick the caption you like and click <\/span>Create post<\/b>. The caption will open in Hootsuite Composer, where you can make edits, add media files and links, check the copy against your compliance guidelines \u2014 and schedule your post to go live later.<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s it! OwlyWriter never runs out of ideas, so you can repeat this process until your social media calendar is full \u2014 and sit back to watch your engagement grow.<\/p>\n This is often where content plans get bottlenecked. You can think up all these amazing campaigns, but without the creative assets that get them noticed, like graphics and videos, you can be stuck in your drafts forever.<\/p>\n This is why a social media workflow is important. Having a dedicated person and a specific timeline for each part of the content planning process keeps things moving along.<\/p>\n With Hootsuite Planner<\/a>, you can collaborate with other team members on specific campaigns, view the overall calendar, and map out your content to identify opportunities and gaps to fill. Plus, approvals are a snap with the built-in approval process, so the only content that gets posted is the content that should be.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/OwlyWriter-AI-blog-CTA-box.png?ssl=1\"\/)
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCraft perfect posts in seconds\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is social media content planning?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Why content planning is important<\/span><\/h2>\n
Social media content planning keeps you organized<\/h3>\n
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![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Content-Planning-620x255.png?resize=620%2C255&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nA social content plan helps you avoid last-minute pressure (and writer\u2019s block)<\/h3>\n
A content plan connects your social media activity to marketing goals<\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Content-Planning-1--620x463.png?resize=620%2C463&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nHow to plan content for social media in 8 steps<\/span><\/h2>\n
Step 1: Plan themes for your content<\/h3>\n
Step 2: Brainstorm campaign and post ideas<\/h3>\n
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![\"Chat](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Content-PLanning-2-620x625.png?resize=620%2C625&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Advanced](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AdvAnalytics-screens-collage-620px-2x.png?resize=1240%2C930&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\nStep 3: Decide when you will post<\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Content-Planning-3-620x357.png?resize=620%2C357&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"edit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/content-planning-6-620x346.webp?resize=620%2C346&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"account](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/content-planning-3-620x424.png?resize=620%2C424&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"account](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/content-planning-4-620x422.png?resize=620%2C422&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nStep 4: Decide on your content mix<\/h3>\n
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![\"Talkwalker](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Screenshot-2024-04-23-at-10.34.42-AM.png?resize=1208%2C936&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Screenshot-2024-04-23-at-10.14.41-AM.png?resize=1406%2C202&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\nStep 5: Assign responsibilities<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Content-GTM-Inbound-Blog-Ad-02.png?ssl=1\"\/)
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe formula for going viral\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\nStep 6: Write post captions<\/h3>\n
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![\"OwlyWriter](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/01-OwlyWriter-AI-Main-view.png?resize=976%2C998&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Generating](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/02-OwlyWriter-AI-Get-ideas.png?resize=900%2C508&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n![\"AI-generated](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/03-OwlyWriter-AI-List-of-generated-ideas.png?resize=888%2C850&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n![\"AI-generated](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/04-OwlyWriter-AI-Captions-generated-based-on-ideas.png?resize=850%2C1174&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n![\"AI-generated](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/05-OwlyWriter-AI-Generated-caption-in-composer-620x316.png?resize=620%2C316&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\nStep 7: Create (or source) design assets<\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Content-Planning-5-620x337.png?resize=620%2C337&ssl=1\")
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