Remember those analytics tools I wrote about? Hopefully you have some statistics from your social media networks that have pointed at some posts that have performed well. Based on those numbers, now is a great time to create a social media content calendar if you haven’t already.

Not sure you need a social media content calendar? Here’s a few reasons as to why they are the most useful tool to your social media strategy.

1. You’ll know what needs to be posted

You don’t need to post every day of the week, but say there are days you want to post but don’t always have the time? Social media is about working smarter, not harder.
 
It’s Monday morning, and you need to post on your social media accounts for your organization. But what do you post? If you have a calendar, all you need to do is check out what’s on the schedule and get to posting.
 
If you have an upcoming event, this gives you an easy way to have reminder tweets scheduled in the days or weeks leading up to the event. And then the thank you posts scheduled for after everything is finished.
 

2. Going on vacation?

If you’re stepping out of the office for a few days (and don’t want to post on the road) your coworker can pick up the slack. By having a social media calendar, this gives your colleague a guideline to your social media. They can check the calendar you’ve set up and easily make their own post.
 

3. Hashtag Days

Every day of the week there’s a hashtag or two that people post to. Mondays are #musicmonday or #motivationmonday. Thursdays are #tbt or #throwbackthursday.
 
Daily hashtags are a great way to help structure your calendar if you post a lot on Instagram or Twitter.
 
Pick two or three hashtags for the week, and use those as a base structure. Maybe every week you’ll post to: music Monday (#musicmonday), women crush Wednesday (#wcw), and Caturday (#caturday). On these days you can easily do a photo to Instagram. And then on the off days, you can share articles, or have a blog post scheduled.
 

4. Advanced Scheduling

Don’t want to worry about some of your social media posts for a while? Content calendars make it easy to schedule content well in advance. After that, its just a matter of checking on the analytics to tweak posts based on those numbers.
 
Social media calendars make it easy to manage the variety of content you could post for your organization. Maybe women crush Wednesday outperforms music Monday by a landslide. Then you could adjust your calendar to highlight people instead of music.
 
Managing social media for a small business or nonprofit isn’t as scary as it might seem. These tips will take a huge burden off your shoulders. We’ve got your back.
 
HubSpot has a social media content calendar template available as a free download. Check it out here.