How to Plan Your Social Media Posts

Always Keep Your Target Audience in Mind

Before getting into the logistics and strategy of planning your content, here’s an important note: Always keep your target audience in mind! The whole purpose of being on social media as a company is to interact with your audience with the end goal of growing your business and making sales.

To do this, your content has to speak to the people who are most likely to be interested in your brand. It can be tempting to create content simply because it’s funny or trendy, but make sure that the content you’re posting always connects back to your customers.

Create a Posting Schedule

One of the most foundational parts of planning social media posts is your content calendar. A content calendar is simply a calendar that shows when content is supposed to be posted. You could also include company events or important dates to create content for. Whether you’re using Google Calendar or a multi-use platform like HubSpot, you’ll want to have an organized, central place where your content is scheduled.

Before deciding when to post, you should be aware of your insights and analytics. When is your audience most active on social media? This information can help inform your posting times. Consistency is key when posting on social media, so try to stick to specific days and times.

Create a Visual Theme

When creating social media content, your brand should have a unique and consistent look. You should decide early on which colors and fonts you want to use in the graphics you post. This should align with your branding on other platforms.

You should also consider the kind of tone you’re trying to set and who you’re trying to reach. Who’s your target audience? The visuals you use should be appealing and engaging to them.

Create Copy

Just like with visuals, the text you use in social media posts should cater to your target audience and their needs. Who do you want to see your post? Will they find that post interesting or helpful? You should keep the 80/20 rule in mind. This rule states that 80% of your content should have the purpose of entertaining, educating, or informing your audience, while the other 20% should be dedicated to promoting your brand.

You’ll also want to remember to use Calls to Action (CTAs) in your posts. Consider what you want people to do after seeing your post. Some examples of CTAs that can be used on social media include directing people to click your website link, asking people to comment on your post, and asking people to follow you. You should always have some sort of CTA in your posts to try and convert views into action.

Create Visuals

Visuals are a huge part of social media and sometimes you’ll want to use very specific graphics to post with your captions. It’s important that your graphics are not too text-heavy and are designed in a way that catches people’s eye. When creating graphics, you should also find opportunities to include your company’s logo. This extra effort toward branding helps build the connection between your content and your company from the view of your followers.

Remember that all of the visuals you use should be designed with your target audience in mind. They should also be consistent with your visual theme, using the same colors and fonts.

Choose Hashtags

Hashtags are a part of how social media platforms categorize content. Because of this, it’s important that you use hashtags that are relevant to your content and your brand. For example, maybe you have a catchy hashtag that you want to associate with a digital campaign or with your brand as a whole. It has been shown that posts with at least one hashtag are 12.6% more likely to get engagement than those without.

Consider the topics that are central to your content and search hashtags associated with them. You’ll want to be looking for hashtags that aren’t overly popular. Once a hashtag reaches a million or more posts, it may not be as helpful to your brand because the volume of posts under that hashtag is so high that yours will get lost in the mix.

You’re Ready to Get Started

These tips should help you get started as you plan out your social media content. A content calendar is a great place to start, which can be followed by developing your own unique tone and visual design and applying your branding to posts. Most importantly, remember to stay consistent and focus on your target audience to create the best social media content possible.