If your brand has an online presence, having an effective social media content plan should be the core of your digital marketing strategy.

So, why is it worth putting time and effort into a content plan for social media?

In short, a social media content plan acts to foster engagement between you and your audience. Paired with a social media content calendar, it can guide you to deliver the right messages to the right people.

After all, a thought-out plan can spotlight your brand and turn potential customers into loyal clients. Content planning has never been so valuable.

The best plans for social media content begin with setting clear goals and conducting some investigation into what makes your audience tick. After that, you'll be on a path to creating content that both resonates with your audience and showcases your brand.

Once your content plan is in action, we'll look at how to analyze whether it's doing its job properly, and leave you with a few tips for changing course if required.

In this article we cover:

Understanding the social media landscape

First, let's cover some basics.

Before you get started on drafting a content plan for social media, it's important to have a wider understanding of the social media landscape. Consider the social media platforms available for you to use, and then think about which of these your target audience tend to gravitate towards. Which communities can you tap into? And which apps have the largest number of your target audience on them?

This groundwork will help you focus your efforts, so let's look at those steps in more detail.

Defining social media marketing

Social media marketing is essentially just using social media to tell people about your brand, products, or services.

It involves lots of different types of content – anything from straightforward text (for example, in a tweet) to carefully edited video or images.

As you develop your social media strategy, you'll be thinking about things like:

  • Which platforms your audience uses
  • What type of content your brand should be using to convey it's message
  • How often you plan to post on social media
  • How to encourage user engagement

The role of different social platforms

Different social media platforms cater to specific purposes and audiences. Unless you have a big social media team, you'll probably be focusing your efforts on creating content for a few social media channels, rather than every single one. Think quality over quantity.

For example, you might choose to build a presence on Instagram in the first instance, then add content for TikTok later as your brand grows.

If your brand does a lot of business-to-business marketing, you might decide that more LinkedIn activity would be useful. Alternatively, you might decided that Facebook has a place in your strategy.

Developing a social media strategy

Next up in the quest to develop your social media strategy, let's look at some factors like your current activity on social media, your audience, and your social media marketing goals.

This is also a good opportunity to have a closer look at what your competitors are getting up to on social media, too.

Assessing your social media presence

Before diving into a new social media content plan, take a moment to think about your current social media activity. A social media audit, of sorts.

Look at which platforms are performing the best in terms of engagement, followers, and conversions.

Cast a critical eye over the content you've published in the past to determine if it resonates with your audience. It's important to be honest here. If you spent months on a social media campaign that didn't work, then admit it didn't and learn from those mistakes.

Check, too, that you've been posting consistently across all platforms you have a presence on. This initial assessment will give you a better idea of where your current social media efforts stand.

Once you have these answers in mind, you can identify areas that need improvement.

Setting social media marketing goals

It's also good to have some clear and measurable social media marketing goals to guide your strategy.

You might decide to focus on things like increasing brand awareness, lead generation, driving website traffic, or getting more engagement.

Remember, your social media goals should match up with your overall marketing objectives.

Want to know more? Read our blog on social media management tips.

Identifying your target audience

Knowing your audience will help you create social media content that resonates and inspires people to click like, share, comment, or follow.

When thinking about your target audience, first consider their demographics (age, gender, or income), then consider things like geographic location, interests, and challenges or pain points.

By knowing your audience, you can learn how to create content that appeals to their interests, which in turn, will result in higher engagement and conversions.

Conducting a competitive analysis

A bit of competitive analysis can tell you all you need to know about your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

Start by listing your top competitors. This part is usually pretty easy, as you've probably been bumping into them online as they offer similar products or services in your market.

Next up, gather data that gives you information about your competitors’ social media accounts. Look at the types of content they are publishing, and how many people are engaging with them.

After that, draw a few comparisons between your social media performance and theirs. Look for patterns, trends, and opportunities for improvement.

With this information, you can brainstorm ways to differentiate your social media activity from your competitors and capitalize on the unique aspects of your brand.

Read our extensive Competitor Analysis guide for more info.

Crafting a content strategy

So, you should now have an understanding of the current social media landscape, have a few goals in mind, and know what your competitors are doing.

Now it's time to use all of this to create an amazing social media strategy.

There are a few techniques to cover here, so we'll dive right in.

Audience engagement techniques

Engagement is a really important part of a successful social media strategy.

If people don't engage with your social media content, then your posts will be hidden by algorithms that prioritize high engagement rates. So you want people to like, comment, save, or share your posts.

On the flip side, high levels of engagement will increase brand awareness, attract more followers, and boost conversions.

So, it's a good idea to include some specific techniques for increasing engagement in your content plan.

This might look like asking questions that encourage people to share their opinions, experiences, or suggestions in the comments. You could also try polls and quizzes. These can to be quite irresistible to audiences – a lot of people will click just to see the results. Of course, the results also double up as data about your audience for you to use elsewhere in your strategy.

Video content and livestreams are another way to drive higher engagement rates, as they often bring more views than still images.

Finally, educational content can bring more eyes to your posts as your audience will look to you as a knowledgeable source and come back to learn more.

Remember, if you're not seeing engagement rates go up after putting your strategy into action, you can always change course when needed.

Incorporating user generated content

Sharing user generated content (UGC) is another smart way to boost your social media content strategy.

For example, a clothing brand could share a reel from a style influencer featuring products that were gifted from their brand.

We love UGC. Not only does it save time and money by making the most of existing content, it's also exciting for your customers to see their content on your social media account.

You could try contests and giveaways to encourage UGC. Give users who share content related to your brand a chance to win prizes or recognition.

Testimonials and reviews can also count as UGC, endorsing your brand's authenticity.

Finally, if you share your audience's experiences or stories related to your brand, this will help to build a sense of community and trust.

Remember to always ask for permission before using someone's content, and give proper credit when sharing it.

Planning for diverse content types

A well-rounded content strategy includes a mix of evergreen content, engaging content, and educational content. By mixing things up with different content types, you keep your social media channels fresh and provide opportunities for users to find something that resonates.

A carefully curated social media content calendar can help you plan for a variety of content, and analytics will help you understand which which content types perform best.

Keep an eye on trends too, in case you want to tap into them yourself!

Operations and management tools

Part of planning your social media content is knowing how you will be able to put it into action.

Here's our top tip: the easiest way to action your plan is to use a social media planning tool, or management tool.

In this section we'll take a look at the options available, and we'll also share some advice about choosing the right tool to oversee all your social media campaigns.

Choosing social media management tools

A social media management tool is the perfect partner for your social content strategy.

Some popular options include Brandwatch, Buffer, and Sprout Social. Remember though, it's a good idea to research and compare a few tools to find one that suits your needs.

Think about factors such as the platforms supported, ease of use, team collaboration features, and pricing.

Want to know more about Brandwatch? Learn how to master social media management with us!

Scheduling and automation

A consistent posting schedule is vital to keep your audience engaged and maintain your brand's presence on social media.

This can help you plan and prepare your content ahead of time, and ensure that content is shared automatically according to your plan.

Most social media management tools offer automation features that enable you to schedule posts across multiple platforms from a single dashboard, which can be super useful for social media marketers.

Tracking performance with analytics

To check if your content plan is bringing in results, it's a good idea to keep an eye on performance using social media analytics.

By monitoring engagement metrics and assessing things like follower growth and reach, you can check how your content is playing with both existing followers and new audiences.

A good social media management tool will come with built-in analytics, allowing you to easily measure the success of your posting efforts and make data-driven decisions.

Building an actionable content calendar

Creating a social media posting schedule will involve categorizing your content and strategizing the timing and frequency of posts to bring maximum eyes to your content.

Here's a bit more detail to help guide you through these tasks.

Structuring your social media calendar

An organized social media content calendar is a must-have in any social media content strategy. There are many digital tools available to help transform your social media calendar dreams into a reality.

We suggest using a management tool like Brandwatch with a built-in social media calendar to keep everything in one place.

Simply categorize your content and tag accordingly, then make sure that different content types are spread across multiple posts.

Timing and frequency of social posts

Social media algorithms tend to favor accounts that post consistently.

For this reason, it's important to consider the timing and frequency of your social posts.

In order to increase post visibility, you should find out when your audience are most active on social platforms and use this information in your social media content calendar.

Aim for a steady flow of content to keep your followers engaged, but avoid flooding their feeds. Balance is crucial.

If you need help with this, your tool may offer you AI-led optimization. This means you can post at a time when your audience is most engaged. AI is now used is most top social media calendar tools, so look out for it!

Implementing your social media content plan

Now that you have a content plan and a social media content calendar to guide your publishing schedule, you can start to push your content out into the world.

Here are three areas you need to focus on:

Content publishing best practices

When rolling out your content plan, there are a few best practices to keep in mind.

First, stick to a consistent posting schedule to maintain your appearance on social media and keep your audience engaged. Remember, your content calendar can help guide you through this.

Secondly, prioritize creating quality content over the quantity of content. Great social media posts published in a steady flow will always win over substandard content that's posted in a rush.

Finally, don't forget to optimize your social media content for each platform by using the appropriate image sizes, character limits, hashtags, and keywords. Your all-in-one software might have a tool that resizes posts to fit each platform, making the content creation process a whole lot easier.

Employee advocacy and involvement

You could also use your own employees as brand ambassadors – this is called employee advocacy.

To do this, simply encourage your team members to share your company's content on their personal social media channels. This will expand your reach and create a more robust, authentic social media presence.

A few guidelines can help employees feel more confident in this area, as they can access to a content library with ready-to-share posts, images, and articles.

You could also try recognition and rewards for employees who consistently demonstrate brand advocacy.

Learn how to leverage employee advocacy for social media success here!

Responding and adapting to feedback

As your audience interacts with your social media content, you'll want to monitor their feedback and adapt your plan accordingly.

The most important thing here is to respond to comments, messages, and inquiries in a timely manner. This will build trust and establish a positive relationship with your audience.

Adjust your content planning habits, posting schedule, or social media strategy as needed.

Measuring success and optimization

Once you've polished up your social media plan and put it into action, it's time to check that it's bringing the results you hoped for. This is where social analytics come into play.

Understanding analytics and KPIs

To measure the success of your content plan, it's essential to look at analytics and set relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Your social media metrics will give you an idea of how well your content is performing.

Pay attention to KPIs like engagement, reach, impressions, and conversions. Of course, there are more KPIs worth tracking than just these three.

The KPIs you choose should align with your social strategy and overall goals, such as increasing brand awareness or driving website traffic.

Continuous improvement process

Once you've gathered and analyzed your data, it's time to tweak your social strategy to make it even better. This is known as a continuous improvement mindset.

Start by pinpointing top-performing content – in other words, the posts that received the most engagement. If you understand why it performed well, you can create more content with similar qualities.

You could also test various content formats such as images, videos, polls, or links to articles to see which ones resonate the most with your audience.

If nothing is sticking, you could try adjusting your posting schedule to different times of the day.

Be prepared to make changes and test new ideas to see what works best for your brand.

Maintaining a dynamic social media approach

A brand's social media presence can quickly sour if the company doesn't appear to be evolving or doing anything new or exciting.

In order to maintain a dynamic social media approach, you should keep a close eye on your audience's preferences and the latest social media trends.

Keep things fresh by trying a new social media platform where your audience may be active.

You should also take advantage of new product features in your existing social media accounts.

Four actions to create a social media plan with meaning

But how do you do all this in practice? Below are four actionable steps you can take to broaden your content and create a social media plan that meets your audience's interests:

1. Plan content on a channel-by-channel basis

Remember that not all stories will work on every social media channel, so adapt and customize content accordingly.

Some careful reading of your analytics will also reveal which of your posts are working well and which aren't.

You might find that your LinkedIn posts fails to match the audience interests found on your Facebook channel. Use this information to plan future content that really strikes a chord with your audience.

2. Stay creative with visual content

A picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure your visual content is compelling and eye-catching. Even better – a video that keeps viewers hooked until the final second will play well for the algorithm.

This is particularly important for TikTok and Instagram, while Facebook and X favor content on how much engagement it receives.

Experiment with different formats such as images, infographics, and videos, and tap into your social media team for fresh ideas.

3. Optimize your content with relevant hashtags

Depending on the platform, relevant hashtags or keywords in your posts can increase their visibility and reach.

LinkedIn, for example, is a surprisingly useful platform for industry leaders. You can easily create your own unique hashtags and make an impact in a space that not all businesses are aware of.

So, be sure to research popular hashtags and maybe have a few industry-specific ones in your back pocket, too. Tread carefully here, though – too many hashtags or irrelevant tags could be seen as spammy.

4. Engage with your audience

A dynamic social media approach involves more than just posting content.

Take time to interact with your followers by acknowledging their comments, questions, and reactions. This not only strengthens your relationship with your audience but can also tell you a little more about their needs and preferences.

It can also help you with your overall social media goals by driving more interest to your brand, when other users see their friends interacting with you.

Roundup

And there you go – you did it! You created a content plan to boost your brand's social media activity. Don't forget to check that content plan regularly. In particular, keep an eye out for any new social platforms or trends that you might want to add to your publishing rota.

Perhaps your brand has pivoted, and the social marketing strategy needs some adjustment, too? Remember to update your content ideas and social media content calendar as the brand naturally evolves.

Keep it fresh and you'll stay ahead of the competition.