Social media is a powerful tool to grow your brand awareness, engage with your customers, and generate leads and sales. But managing your social media presence can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially if you have multiple platforms and content types to consider.

That’s why you need a social media content calendar. A social media content calendar is a document or tool that helps you plan, organize, and schedule your social media posts in advance. It helps you to:

  • Align your social media content with your business goals and marketing strategy
  • Create consistent and relevant content for your target audience
  • Save time and resources by batching and automating your content creation and distribution
  • Track and measure your content performance and optimize your results

But creating and managing a social media content calendar can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t have the skills, tools, or time to do it yourself. That’s where a virtual assistant can help you.

A virtual assistant is a remote professional who can handle various tasks for you, such as administrative, creative, or technical work. By working with a virtual assistant, you can:

  • Delegate the tedious and repetitive tasks of creating and managing your social media content calendar
  • Focus on your core business activities and strategic decisions
  • Leverage the skills and expertise of a qualified and experienced social media professional
  • Save money and hassle by hiring a flexible and affordable service

In this blog post, we will show you how to create a social media content calendar with your virtual assistant in five easy steps.

Step 1: Define your goals and audience for social media content

The first step to creating a social media content calendar is to define your goals and audience. You need to know what you want to achieve with your social media content and who you want to reach with it.

To set your goals, your social media VA will use the SMART framework, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, your goal could be to increase your website traffic by 20% in the next three months by posting engaging and informative content on Facebook and Twitter.

To identify your audience, you and your virtual assistant need to understand their demographic, psychographic, pain point, and preference profiles. You can use tools or methods such as surveys, interviews, social media analytics, or buyer personas to conduct your audience research and analysis.

Step 2: Choose your social media platforms and content types

Choose your social media platforms

The next step is to choose the best social media platforms and content types for your business based on your goals and audience. You don’t need to be on every platform, but you need to be on the ones that matter to your audience and your industry.

To choose your platforms, you can consider factors such as the size, reach, and engagement of the platform, the type and tone of the content, and the features and functionality of the platform. Depending on your goal, different platforms may suit your needs better.

For example, if your goal is to showcase your products and services visually, you might want to use Instagram or Pinterest, which are popular for sharing images and videos.

On the other hand, if your goal is to share industry news and insights, you might want to use LinkedIn or Twitter, which are more suitable for professional networking and information sharing.

To choose your content types, you need to consider the format and style of the content, the purpose and message of the content, and the preferences and expectations of your audience.

Take this as an example, if your goal is to educate your audience, you might want to use blog posts, infographics, or webinars. If your goal is to entertain your audience, you might want to use memes, videos, or podcasts.

Some examples of successful content for each platform are:

  • Facebook: Live videos, stories, polls, user-generated content, testimonials, contests
  • Twitter: Tweets, retweets, hashtags, GIFs, quotes, links, news, trends
  • Instagram: Photos, videos, stories, reels, IGTV, hashtags, filters, stickers, influencers
  • LinkedIn: Articles, videos, slideshows, infographics, podcasts, webinars, groups, events
  • Pinterest: Pins, boards, stories, videos, carousels, shopping, trends, guides

Step 3: Plan your social media content themes and topics

The third step is to plan your content themes and topics. You need to brainstorm and generate content ideas that align with your goals and audience and that are relevant, valuable, and engaging.

To plan your content themes, you can use categories or buckets to group your content ideas based on the topic, purpose, or message of the content. For example, you can use categories such as:

  • Educational: Content that teaches your audience something new or useful
  • Inspirational: Content that motivates your audience to take action or achieve their goals
  • Entertaining: Content that makes your audience laugh or have fun
  • Promotional: Content that showcases your products, services, or offers
  • Conversational: Content that encourages your audience to interact with you or each other

To plan your content topics, you can use tools or resources to find content inspiration and trends. For example, you can use:

  • Keyword research tools, such as Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest, to find popular and relevant keywords or phrases related to your industry or niche
  • Content curation tools, such as Feedly or BuzzSumo, to find and share the best content from other sources in your industry or niche
  • Social media listening tools, such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social, to monitor and analyze what your audience and competitors are saying and doing on social media
  • Content calendar tools, such as CoSchedule or Loomly, to find and schedule content ideas based on holidays, events, or seasons

You can also check out 23+ Best Social Media Management Tools For Small Businesses

Step 4: Create your content calendar

The fourth step is to create your content calendar. You need to use a template or tool to create your content calendar and to schedule your content in advance and optimize your posting times.

To create your content calendar, you can use a spreadsheet, a document, or a software to organize your content by date, time, platform, content type, content theme, content topic, content title, content description, content link, content image, and content status. You can also use color codes, labels, or filters to categorize and prioritize your content.

To schedule your content, you can use social media post-scheduling tools such as Buffer, Later, or Planoly to automate and streamline your content distribution across multiple platforms. You can also use tools such as Facebook Creator Studio, TweetDeck, or Tailwind to manage your content on specific platforms.

To optimize your posting times, you can use tools such as Followerwonk, Iconosquare, or PinFollow to find the best times to post on each social media platform based on your audience’s activity and engagement. You can also use tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Twitter Analytics to track and measure your content performance and adjust your posting times accordingly.

Some tips and best practices to create engaging and effective content are:

  • Use catchy and clear headlines and captions to grab your audience’s attention and interest
  • Use high-quality and relevant images and videos to enhance your content and convey your message
  • Use hashtags, keywords, and tags to increase your content’s visibility and reach
  • Use emojis, GIFs, and stickers to add personality and emotion to your content
  • Use calls to action, questions, and polls to encourage your audience to take action or engage with your content
  • Use analytics and feedback to evaluate your content’s impact and improve your content strategy

Step 5: Delegate and collaborate with your virtual assistant

delegate and collaborate

The final step is to delegate and collaborate with your virtual assistant. You need to communicate and assign tasks to your virtual assistant and to use tools or systems to track and manage your content workflow. You also need to provide feedback and evaluation methods to measure and improve your content performance. If you want to know when to delegate, this blog post “How to Know When It’s Time to Start Delegating?” can help you.

To communicate and assign tasks to your virtual assistant, you can use tools such as Slack, Skype, or Zoom to chat, call, or video conference with your virtual assistant. You can also use agile tools such as Trello, Asana, or Monday to create and share your content calendar, tasks, deadlines, and instructions with your virtual assistant.

To track and manage your content workflow, you can use tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive to store and access your content files and documents. You can also use tools such as Airtable, Notion, or Evernote to organize and manage your content ideas, notes, and resources.

To provide feedback and evaluation methods to your virtual assistant, you can use tools such as Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or Typeform to collect and analyze your audience’s feedback and satisfaction with your content.

You can also use tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Twitter Analytics to measure and report your content’s performance and results.

Conclusion

A social media content calendar is a document or tool that helps you plan, organize, and schedule your social media posts in advance with the help of your virtual assistant.

It can help you to achieve your business goals and marketing strategy, create consistent and relevant content for your target audience, save time and resources by delegating and automating your content creation and distribution, and track and measure your content performance and optimize your results.

Should you require assistance in creating your social media content calendar, you can engage our cost-effective virtual assistant today. Invedus is a leading provider of social media virtual assistant services, offering quality and affordable solutions for your social media needs. Whether you need help with creating, managing, or optimizing your social media content, Invedus can help you achieve your goals and grow your business.

To get started, you can submit your request for a free consultation.

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About Ankit

Passionate about researching and writing on marketing, advertising, e-commerce, and developing high-energy, highly skilled, and highly driven branding strategies.