5 Tips to Plan Your Social Media Content

Last week, we posted an article on the best times to post to social media in 2016. By following these times, and accounting for factors such as your genre and target audience, you will increase the likelihood of your post reaching a larger audience.

But what about content? Unfortunately, there are still many authors (and publishers) who continue to flog their book on social media and do not put much thought behind their content. It’s important to remember that your content should engage your followers (i.e. What kind of cover should I have for my new book?) and not drive them away (i.e. Buy my new book).

One of the most effective ways to ensure your content is engaging is to sit down and plan it in advance. Not only does this alleviate stress, but it also allows you to focus on more important things such as writing your next book or spending time with your family. To help get you started, our book marketing experts have 5 tips on planning your social media content.

1) Create a Content Calendar

Before you start to create your posts, we recommend creating a monthly calendar that you can easily re-purpose each month. For example, if you know that you want to do one Facebook post and two tweets every Monday, create a templated calendar with these slots so you can fill in the specific messaging.

2) Look Up the Best Times to Post

As you create your templated content calendar, add a column that includes the optimal posting time for each post. Returning to the example from our first tip, using our blog from last week, the best times to post to Twitter on Monday are between 12:00 – 3:00 p.m. So, you may put 12:00 p.m. for your first tweet and 2:45 p.m. for your second tweet in your content calendar.

3) Create a “Theme Day”

To make things easier on yourself, you may choose to assign a specific day each week to a single topic. This works particularly well for non-fiction authors, but it can work for fiction authors as well. For example, if you have a self-help book, each Wednesday post can be on “The New You” and you can call it #NewYouWednesday on social media.

4) Plan Your Graphic Content in Advance

If you intend to post graphics along with your content, it’s best to plan these far in advance, as graphic work can be very time consuming. For example, if you know you’ll be posting about #NewYouWednesay for the next few months, ensure you create enough images to accompany these posts in advance.

5) Conduct Regular Content Reviews

As you plan for future months, conduct a regular review of your previous posts to see what is resonating with your audience. For example, if #NewYouWednesday is resulting in a large number of shares or re-tweets, perhaps you introduce another theme day and follow the same principles as above!

If you need assistance planning or creating your social media content, let us know. Contact us today so we can help you share your story!