Planning social media content

Social media content refers to any content that you create and share on social media platforms such as photos, videos, blogs, graphics, and so on.
To ensure content is effectively engaging and shareable, it’s worth understanding the nature of each platform and its unique audience: Facebook is generalist, Instagram is visual, Twitter is immediate and LinkedIn is professional.
Understanding target audience behaviours is crucial. For instance, knowing when they are most active online can influence when to post.

Planning social media content helps maintain an organised, consistent, and impactful social media presence.
It allows for strategic sharing of material, such as syncing content with topical issues or events, or running coordinated social media campaigns.
Allows you to maintain a balance of different types of content, ensuring a mix of informative, promotional, entertaining, and user-generated content.

Set clear goals: Understand what the organisation is trying to achieve on social media - this could be increasing visibility, driving engagements, or encouraging specific actions (donations, sign-ups, shares, etc.).
Understand your audience: Research demographics, platforms they engage with, topics they are interested in.
Create a social media content calendar: This should plot out what will be posted and when. It helps manage deadlines, keep track of what’s been posted, and ensures content is spread out and varied.
Create engaging content: Use eye-catching images, compelling captions, hashtags, and user interactivity (polls, challenges, Q&As) to increase engagement.
Evaluation and adjustment: Regularly review performance data to understand what content is performing well (and why), and adjust the strategy accordingly.

Consistent branding: Ensure that all content reflects the tone, visual style and core message of the brand or organisation.
Authenticity: Sincerity and honesty in your communications helps to build trust with your audience.
Consider your impact: As a media producer, be aware of the potential influence of your content on audiences and ensure your content is socially responsible and ethical.
Legal and ethical considerations: Ensure you respect copyright, privacy and defamation laws, and consider content sensitivities (offensive material, triggering topics, etc.).

Social media calendar tools like CoSchedule, Buffer Publish, and Sprout Social, can help you schedule and organise content.
Tools like Canva, Adobe Spark, and PicMonkey can assist in creating visually compelling content.
Use social media analytics to evaluate your content’s performance, available through the platform itself (e.g. Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics) or through external tools like Hootsuite or BuzzSumo.