Imagine! starting the year with making a Wishlist or a Bucket List to plan out the goals of the new year. And if for a content creator on social media, swapping these lists for a content creation planner.
Well, digital content creation is on the rise and a new trend to advertise on social platforms and establish a social media presence all around the globe. So, it is upon us the best content planners to create a high quality content.
X, Facebook, and LinkedIn ranked among the social media platforms most used for global content marketing. [Statista]
The key to good content creation lies in good planning, and the best social media management tool to manage these contents on multiple social media accounts of clients.
What does a Content Planner do?
A content planner organizes, schedules, and tracks content creation and publishing across social media channels. It ensures consistent messaging, aligns content with goals, and helps teams collaborate efficiently while saving time.
Steps to Create a Content Planner
A content plan is a structured roadmap for managing and scheduling social media content to enhance your social media presence and align with your marketing strategy. It organizes social media posts, timelines, content calendars, and platforms while ensuring consistency across social media accounts.
Let’s dive in detail about the steps of creating a great content planner.
1. Conduct a Content Audit
Analyze your social media posts and assess performance using basic analytics. Identify gaps by reviewing comments, user feedback, and the effectiveness of past campaigns. Use social listening to gather insights about how your social network perceives your brand.
2. Define Goals and Metrics
Set measurable objectives like increasing followers on Twitter, improving engagement on Facebook, or driving traffic from Instagram. Use KPIs such as click-through rates, audience reach, and shares to align your content strategy with your broader marketing strategy.
3. Identify Target Audience and Social Platforms
Create audience personas using demographic data from social media platforms. Identify key platforms (e.g., Google Business Profile for local businesses or Instagram for visual brands). Make strategies for multiple channels to align with user preferences.
4. Build a Content Calendar
Plan your posts in a social media calendar or tools like Google Sheets or RecurPost. Schedule posts by assigning specific days for different types of social media content, like visual content, blog links, or promotions. Use tools to post automatically for consistency.
5. Assign Roles and Deadlines
Incorporate collaboration tools like Trello to delegate tasks across your team. Assign specific responsibilities, such as drafting captions, designing social posts, or scheduling via a social media scheduler. Include approval deadlines for efficiency.
6. Review and Optimize
Use powerful tools with all the features like analytics dashboard in RecurPost to monitor the performance of your content. Refine your content planner based on what stands out with your audience, and keep adjusting to improve social media management.
Content Creation Tools
A content creation planner allows social media managers to effectively handle social media accounts and build a consistent social media presence. Here are the top social media content planning tools with key features to simplify your content strategy, improve team efficiency, and save valuable time.
1. RecurPost
A robust social media management tool that helps automate recurring social media posts. It is designed to simplify social media scheduling and content marketing for agencies. It allows users to organize their content calendar, schedule posts and create top content.
Key Features
- Social media scheduling for multiple platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
- Ability to create content projects and plan posts in advance.
- Content planner to manage content ideas, social media posts, and visual content.
- Task tracking and team collaboration with assigned tasks and progress tracking.
- Google Sheets integration for content organization and team collaboration.
2. Trello
Trello is a visual project management tool that organizes tasks into boards, lists, and cards, enabling teams to collaborate efficiently. It’s ideal for workflow tracking, task assignments, productivity metrics, calendars, and simplifying project timelines. Your team can also automate workflow with built in automation system.
Key Features
- Customizable boards for managing tasks and deadlines.
- Assign roles for creating and scheduling social posts.
- Great for small teams managing social accounts.
3. Ahrefs
A powerful tool for SEO-focused content creation and keyword research. It also facilitate rank tracking on mobile and desktop screens, also offers site audit feature for SEO related issues. It is a all in one marketing intelligence platform focused on giving its users a simplified solution to all their content needs.
Key Features
- Optimize blogs and social media content for search engines.
- Analyze competitors’ top-performing content
- Discover trending topics and post ideas.
4. Sprinklr
Sprinklr is a powerful content planning software that integrates various social media platforms and offers advanced capabilities in social media management, project management, and content strategy execution for larger teams.
Key Features
- Centralized dashboard for social media inboxes and multiple channels.
- Offers insights from social listening to improve your marketing strategy.
- Analyze user engagement with basic analytics
5. Brafton
Brafton created in-house and meant to streamline workflows for content marketers. The CMP stores every document and files all in one place, allows you to track the status of your projects on an auto-populated content calendar, gives you the power to plan content production and assign tasks simultaneously.
Key Features
- Custom content templates for content planners.
- Integrates seamlessly with social media schedulers.
- Helps generate new ideas for blogs and social posts.
6. Asana
A highly flexible project management tool for managing social media content. With this tool you can create custom workflows without any requirements for coding. It also offers a ready to use template facility to help the team work in a seamless flow with real-time data.
Key Features
- Creation of actionable task and social media inboxes for users to comment and communicate on projects.
- Manage complex content creation workflows with ease
- Track progress for each social media channel
7. Google Sheets
For agencies with simplified operations, it may make sense to build a blog content plan in a simple Google sheet with basic conditional formatting to show stakeholders the progress of each asset.
Key Features
- Create and share a social media calendar.
- Organize content schedules across multiple platforms.
- Ideal for small businesses looking for a free plan.
Content Creation Planning Strategies
A content creation planner is a vital part of building a strong social media presence. It helps social media managers simplify processes, schedule social posts, and maintain consistency across social accounts. Let’s dive into key strategies for using a content planner effectively.
1. Create a Content Plan
Your content strategy should include a mix of formats and essential elements to make your social media posts and other content stand out.
Types of Content:
- Blogs and Articles: Include new ideas, optimized headlines, and actionable takeaways.
- Images and Videos: Use visual content like infographics, product demos, or reels optimized for social media platform and other social media accounts.
- Podcasts: Plan episodes around trending topics with structured outlines.
There should be a clear call-to-action (CTA) for every type of content.
2. Finding the Right Topic
- Use powerful tools like Ahrefs and social listening to identify trending post ideas and audience pain points.
- Analyze user behavior on social channels to craft content that resonates.
- Use basic analytics from social media management tools to prioritize topics.
3. Find the Right Social Channel
- Not all social channels work for every agency. Focus on channels that align with your audience and content format.
- Use Google Business Profile for local businesses or Instagram for visual-heavy brands.
- Keep track of competitors’ performance across social accounts to guide your decisions.
4. Schedule in Advance
- Use a social media scheduler for automate posting and manage multiple channels seamlessly.
- Content Calendar: Plan weeks ahead using tools like Google Sheets or RecurPost to save valuable time.
- Optimize post timing for each social network to reach the highest engagement.
5. Measure the Results
A. Social Media Content:
- Track engagement metrics like likes, shares, and comments on your social media accounts.
- Use tools like RecurPost to review how your posts on multiple platforms are performing.
B. Blogs and Articles:
- Measure organic traffic, bounce rates, and time-on-page with basic analytics tools.
- Check backlinks and keyword rankings to evaluate content performance.
C. Podcasts:
- Analyze downloads, listens, and user feedback for each episode.
- Encourage listeners to post directly or tag your social accounts to measure community impact.
Content Creation Planner Template
A content creation planner template organizes your social media posts and helps manage social media accounts efficiently.
Key Elements of Content Template
- Campaign Name: Clearly define the focus.
- Goals: Align with your marketing strategy
- Target Audience: Include demographic and behavioral details for social media accounts.
- Customization: Modify the template based on platform and client requirements.
- Responsibilities: Specify team members responsible for writing, designing, and scheduling social posts.
- Iteration: Adjust the template based on data like reach, clicks, and engagement across social platforms.
- Free Templates: Offer downloadable options for immediate use.
Conclusion
Content creation is a structured process of planning, creating, and publishing social media content using social media management tools like social media calendar, marketing calendar and other tools with so many features to create engaging content.
Planning of the content depends on the types of social media contents, be it blogs or articles where it’s easy to procrastinate and stare at a blank page for hours. Combat this by forcing yourself to write without editing, be it podcasts, or images and videos that supports Instagram and Facebook etc.
But remember: don’t fall into the trap of creating content without a solid content strategy. That’s a surefire way to waste time, money, and resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Update your content creation planner monthly or bi-weekly to align with trends, user mentions, and analytics. Frequent updates ensure relevant social media posts and maximize engagement.
Content monetization is the process of earning money from digital content created by an individual or organization. This can be achieved through various strategies such as advertising, affiliate marketing, selling digital products, and offering premium content plan plans by charging costs to manage on social media.
Encourage clients to post ideas or approve drafts using collaboration tools like Trello. Involve them in brainstorming sessions to ensure the planner reflects their goals and priorities.
Social media management platforms like Sprout Social and RecurPost offer all the features for managing multiple platforms, including automated scheduling and seamless integration with social accounts.
Social media management ensures consistency in social media presence, organizes social media channels, and simplifies workflows. It helps social media managers track user engagement, analyze social network trends, and optimize posts for multiple channels.
Shubham Agrawal is a passionate content writer, with over a year of experience in this field. He excels in creating content in informative and creative way that aligns with readers. He juggle with words to create an engaging content.