Social media activity must be thoroughly planned and prepared to serve a business's promotion plans. However, the difference between a professional presence on social networks and a mediocre one lies in the engagement of the public. So, good SMM requires a keen sense of communication, a genuine connection with the target audience, empathy with their problems and difficulties, an accurate perception of the audience, and genuine engagement with them in the messages broadcast on social networks.
Also, social media is a place that needs creativity, uniqueness, and the ability to surprise the public with authentic content. All of this requires organization in advance to avoid repetition.
For this very reason, we suggest you prepare weekly and monthly post plans and schedule posts to be published automatically on certain days at certain times (for example, on Facebook). All these goals can be easily achieved if you have a well-thought-out editorial plan.
Steps to Building a Good Editorial Plan:
Determining the types of content your target audience will resonate with.
Grouping types of content into several major categories: curiosities, news, jokes, commercial messages, promotion of a product or a category of products, etc.
Establishing the calendar of events and major holidays of the year to which you will rally.
Setting up video and photo content production sessions.
Creating the actual content (photos, videos, infographics, texts, and the harmonious combination of these formats).
Organizing the content and scheduling it a month (usually) in advance.
An Editorial Plan for Social Media Would Consist of:
- Establishing a suitable style and a tone of voice specific to the brand – depending on the chosen target audience, we determine the language, the most impactful keywords to use, and the way to approach the audience – more seriously or, on the contrary, using light words and a friendly tone.
Establishing several categories of posts – it is necessary to define the general directions, such as news, images or videos of the products while they are being used, impressions/testimonials from other buyers, content from influencers, useful tips on how to use products, promotions, contests (recommended for brands that are just starting), entertainment videos, and various innocent niche jokes.
Communication rules – words that cannot be used, logo usage rules, products that cannot be displayed, backgrounds and styles to use in images.
Editorial calendar – determining the optimal days for posts, the time slot for posting, and what type of content to post each day. The calendar must also show the frequency of posting, divided by days of the week.
How Do You Ensure That the Editorial Plan Implemented Is Successful?
Brand communication on social media plays a key role in building a strong brand image. Thus, tracking the monthly results of promotional activities and reporting the monthly increases—both in audience engagement metrics and in micro and macro conversions, sales, and customer return—will help you understand if the calls to action, open questions, and content types used resonate with your target audience. This, in turn, will help you re-plan your content so that you can easily achieve your promotional goals in the near future.