Your 5 Checklist Items to Planning Your Monthly Social Media
Today we are talking about those 2 big words that lots of business owners cringe at… social media. You know you need to do it, you’ve seen the power it has to help grow your business and you know you don’t always have the time to dedicate to focusing on what you’re going to post!
Let’s face it, time is so valuable and you’ve got a ton on your plate. From running your business, to growing it and offering new products and services, now you have to dedicate time to posting on social media. More often than not we see a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners put social media at the bottom of the priority list because it is so time consuming and confusing!
Well not anymore! The MeyCo Team wants to help you write your social media plan for one whole month in just 2 hours! That’s right, two hours of your month is dedicated to social media and then you are good to go! Nothing feels better than knowing you’ve got your plan set, you’ve checked all the boxes and can keep doing what you love on the daily instead of worrying about your social media plan.
The MeyCo Team has come up with a little checklist to help you sort out your process of planning and scheduling your monthly social media plan in just a few hours!
Your Monthly checklist to Planning Your Monthly Social Media:
01- Define Your Categories
The MeyCo Team likes to separate our social media content into categories for easier brainstorming, batch writing and planning. These should be a group of 5-9 post themes that encompass your business or who you are in your business (ex. Behind the scenes, your why statement, testimonial, team member introduction, family update, etc.)
02- Gather Your Photos
You might think this is a little out of order (some people think write first and then picture second) but you really want to make sure there is no disconnect between your image or video and your copy. It’s so much easier to be inspired by a visual and explain what’s going on or share your story in a video than it is to make an image fit what you want to say. We recommend planning out at least 20 posts a month and leaving some open for daily occurrences and updates that might come up as you are going through your week.
03- Plan Out Your Posting Plan
Now that you have your planned-out categories, start picking the days of the week you want to post about your specific categories. Whether you are talking about some behind the scenes work you are doing, a patient testimonial or even an update on some secret projects you are working on be sure to plan out each category to a day of the week. Trust us on this, organization is KEY!
*PRO TIP: We always recommend posting five days a week (and then signing off on the weekends to enjoy your free time) but if that’s a little much for you, start off with three posts a week and work up to the five!
04- Double Check Your Call to Action
No matter what, you want to guide your followers and new visitors to engage with you, to comment, maybe check out your website or sign up for an event you have coming up! We like to think of call-to-actions (CTA) in two different ways: simple CTA’s and complex CTA. A simple CTA keeps visitors on your social media platform, so a like, comment or even a DM on Instagram. A complex CTA is when the user is prompted to leave your site (ex. Read a blog post, check out a YouTube video, sign up for your newsletter). No matter what, you want 75% of your posts to have a good call to action, so make sure to think them through!
05- Hashtags
Ok, so for a lot of people hashtags can end up being the BANE of their existence, but they don’t have to be. Hashtags should be strategically used across all of your platforms as search tools to reach your ideal clients! With this being said, be sure to respect the hashtag rules for each social media platform. What we mean by this is, Instagram likes around 30 in total for post but will start to penalize you for reusing them constantly. Facebook, instead likes 5-10 per post and LinkedIn prefers around 3. Be sure to find a good mix of hashtags and be ok with adjusting them each week, so you get the best visibility possible across all platforms.
06- Posting Time and Engagement
Even though this is our last checklist item, this one may be the MOST IMPORTANT! Today more than ever, we are all seeking engagement on social media; so how do we up your engagement? Our team has upped clients’ engagement by 65% by utilizing this trick… Be sure to stay on top if when your post is going out so you can start engaging 15 minutes before and after your post goes out. Not only does this increase your ranking in the algorithm but you are reaching and engaging with more people in your industry who are more likely to engage with you!
The Skim:
Staying organized and planning out your social media weeks or months in advance is going to save you time in the long run, help you stay consistent with your social media strategy and take the stress out of every day posting. Being really thoughtful and strategic with your plan will help you in the long run and if you dedicate 2 hours a month to planning, categorizing, writing and researching, you will start to see the results in your engagement, follower count and sales!
For more questions and in depth reviews of your social strategy, feel free to contact us and we can set up a consultation call with you to help you achieve your social media goals!
