5 reasons you need a content calendar to manage your social media marketing

Social media plays a critical role in customer acquisition, retention, and growth. And, with so many social media platforms available to us, it can be difficult to plan and manage all of our business’ content effectively across each channel. A successful social media strategy begins with the mighty content calendar – an essential tool that all expert social media strategists and managers use to plan and deliver their clients’ content. Have you explored the idea of using a content calendar but still uncertain of its benefits for you and your business? Here are our 5 reasons why you need a content calendar to manage your business’ social media marketing strategy.

Plan In Advance + Get Organized

Get your team all on the same page and organized with advance content planning. Content calendars allow you to curate and schedule your content on a weekly or monthly basis (and longer!), giving you the peace of mind that your content will be published when you want it to be. Looking at all of your content laid out visually in a calendar format provides for easy strategizing, ensures that you aren’t making any errors or omissions, and allows your team to collaborate with one another more effectively.

Keep All Of Your Social Media Assets in One Place

Many content calendar softwares provide large amounts of cloud storage for all of your social media assets. Upload videos, images, and graphics all to one place, so that your team can access your social assets easily when they need them.

Evaluate and Monitor Performance

A large majority of content calendars have integrated functions to evaluate analytics and track performance. Monitor how your social media posts resonate with your target audience, so that you can determine what social content is working and what isn’t serving your business anymore. Many content calendars allow for weekly, monthly, and yearly comparisons, giving you many options to track your business’ performance over customizable periods.

Track Lead Generation

Wondering where your new customers or clients are coming from? Want to know if your social media ads and posts are drawing new leads to your business? Many content calendar programs provide access for tracking your leads. Tracking URLs can easily be added to your social content, whether it be ads or posts, then monitored to determine the success of your content for customer and client acquisition.

Allows Virtual Assistants to Manage Your Content Effectively

If you’re working with a virtual assistant to manage your social media accounts, then getting your business set up with a content calendar is essential. Giving your virtual social media assistant access to a content calendar will allow them to plan out all of the copy and associated visual content in advance. This allows for greater efficiency for both you and your assistant, gives you easy access to review all posts before they go out in a clean and organized format, and allows for last-minute modifications to be made quickly and conveniently.

There are dozens of reasons why having a content calendar for your business’ social media is essential. Managing, evaluating, and improving upon your marketing strategy across multiple networks is a huge challenge for any individual or team, without the correct software in place.

Still unsure how a content calendar can better serve your business’ marketing needs? Many programs provide free trials or inexpensive subscriptions, giving you time to explore if working with a content calendar is right for you.