Content Planning

When it comes to content planning, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, know your brand.

Know your general topics – what areas will you be focusing on?

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For Example,

for Just Joss’n, my main focus is lifestyle with the following sub-topics: fashion/design, health/wellness, healthy eating/cooking, and travel. Each sub-topic can be broken down more, but as long as you have a general focus, you'll be able to create content around those main areas.

 

Then think of your weekly release. Do you want to have a set order?

For example:

  • Saturday – Newsletter Goes Out

  • Monday – Ingredient of the Week

  • Tuesday – Recipe(s)

  • Wednesday – Tip/Trick/How-To

  • Thursday – Food Safety

  • Friday – Family Mealtime

*Content Release Example from Dinner Tonight (Past Weekly Schedule)

If you have a set order, this can help with audience recognition. Your subscribers/followers will know your daily release…. or do you want more freedom? Sometimes, this way of thinking is good to start with but then becomes restricting when your brand starts evolving.  Thus, if you expand your content to a monthly breakdown, it provides more freedom with content creation.

If it helps, you can create monthly themes with sub-topic weeks. Each week would focus on a sub-topic, and each daily post would be supporting content.

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Example:

Monthly Theme (content curation)

- Week 1 – Sub-Topic 1

* Daily Supporting Content (SC)

- Week 2 – Sub-Topic 2

* Daily Supporting Content

- Week 3 – Sub-Topic 3

* Daily Supporting Content

- Week 4 – Optional Sub-Topic or Promotion Curation

* SC or promotional advertisement opportunity.

 

Supporting content can vary depending on the social media platform. Each platform has a different audience reach, and optimization differs; therefore, when creating, think about meaningful metrics.

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"Meaningful Metrics"

Are analytic insights of how well your content is doing by the following areas: views, comments, clicks, search, and reach. You should be checking analytics at least once a month to help plan and strategize your content.

 

To optimize your content – separate it by each social media account.

Here's the fundamental breakdown for each social media platform for optimization:

  • Facebook: Videos (Lives & Edited) and Curated content like blog posts.

    • Curated content is a series of three or more images posted on the same post. It is something someone would have to click or swipe on to see the rest of the photos.

  • Instagram: High-res photos like product photos and behind the scenes. As well as user-generated content (regram), quotes, stories, and reels.

    • Stories optimization:  storytelling, share how-to tutorials, promote a blog post, share a list, announce limited-time offers and promotions, offer giveaways and discount coupons, share data (research & statistics), share quotes/inspiration, introduce an Instagram takeover guest, share announcements, news, and updates.

    • Reels - think TikTok trends, how-to’s, quick tips, funny/humor clips, dance, and animal (cute) content.

  • Pinterest: infographics and step-by-step photo guides (DIYs).

    • Infographics – create more visually appealing than text filled.

  • YouTube: content-focused and how-tos.

    • Content Focused: topics around your brand.

  • Twitter: news, blog posts, and GIFs

    • News relevant to your followers – company/industry news & product news.

    • GIFs can be created using Canva (my go-to for all my content creation).

“Video Content in General– just experiment! Followers tend to like video content on Facebook and YouTube; however, Twitter has been showing some interest in video content as well (short clips). Oh, don’t forget about Instagram with their InstaTV and Reels.”
— @justjossn

Overall, plan it out!

 

Here’s a weekly social media planner to help you focus on content by the social media platform.

Visit the “Printable” tab for more useful handouts.

 
 

Don’t forget to schedule it out! You can schedule posts/media in advance.

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SCheduling TOols

For Facebook and Instagram - you can use Business Suite. YouTube also allows you to schedule videos and create premiers.  Twitter and Pinterest are a little tricky, but you can utilize other scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Canva, HeyOrca, etc. These scheduling tools may charge a fee, so do some research and see which is more feasible for your budget.

*GOAL: Schedule a month in advance.

 

References:

E-MarketingJocelin Villarreale-marketing, content planning, Dinner Tonight, Social MediaComment