Content Creation Planner: Build Your Social Media Strategy

Imagine starting the year by 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, you can swap 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 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 with a reliable content creator planner app and the best social media management tool to manage this content on multiple social media accounts of clients.

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 walk through 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 tools 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 content calendar software for simplified scheduling of content.

To learn more about the creation of a content calendar, visit this link How to create a content calendar?

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 an 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.
• With monthly social media calendar ideas, one can get new ways to post on a social media calendar, especially on holidays.

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 the 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

Ahrefs is a powerful tool for SEO-focused content creation and keyword research. It also facilitates rank tracking on mobile and desktop screens also offers a site audit feature for SEO-related issues. It is an 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

• A 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 was created in-house and is meant to streamline workflows for content marketers. The CMP stores every document and file in one place, allows you to track the status of your projects on an auto-populated content calendar, and 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

Asana is 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 tasks 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 platforms 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 social media post ideas and audience pain points.
• Analyze user behavior on social channels to craft content that resonates.
• Use basic analytics 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 to 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 plan template or 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 that involves planning, creating, and publishing content on social media using tools like social media calendars, marketing calendars, and other platforms that offer features to create engaging content.

The planning phase depends on the type of content being created, whether it’s blogs, articles, or social media posts. It’s easy to fall into the trap of procrastination, staring at a blank page for hours. To overcome this, push yourself to write without editing. This applies to all types of content, including podcasts, images, and videos for platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

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

Shubham Agrawal

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.