Creating content, researching hashtags, writing captivating captions every single time you want to post can be quite a hectic task for any influencer. Without a strategic plan, you can be overwhelmed and fail to deliver as you’d want to. 

How then, can you make your content creation process more delightful?

Create an influencer content calendar.

An influencer content calendar can help you plan out content for a specific period of time, saving you the last-minute pressure to create quality content.

 Before we get to how to create one of these, let’s look at …

What is An Influencer Content Calendar?

An influencer content calendar is a resource that is strategically organized to help you plan and schedule when and which content will be posted.

You can personalize your own content calendar on a piece of paper or a Google sheet or use a template to optimize the content you want to put out. There are a variety of templates online that you can use.

Your content calendar needs to have some variables to ensure its effectiveness. So… 

What Should An Influencer Content Calendar Include?

These are elements that, when thought and planned for beforehand, will save you time when you want to post content.

• Date. The exact date and time a post will go live should be indicated on the content calendar.

• Social media accounts involved. Different posts work better on different platforms. For example, photos with a beautiful aesthetic would work best on Instagram and Pinterest while Facebook would be a great platform to create content that pushes for engagement. Ensure your content calendar indicates which social media account each content will be posted on.

• Hashtags. Ensure you research the various hashtags that your target audience might search for and find you. Have various ready-for-use hashtags that are pertinent to your brand. Remember to always be on the lookout for the hashtags that perform better than others and rotate them.
• Captions. Writing captivating captions can be daunting sometimes. Writing captions for each scheduled post can save you the pressure and give you the flexibility of just editing it when you want to post. 

• The photo/video to be added. Ensure you edit the photo or video you intend to put on your calendar for a well-curated social media feed.

Benefits of Having an Influencer Content Calendar

• Saves you time. 

As we’ve seen above, your content calendar should include hashtags, captions, and photo/video content to be posted. Having all these prepared beforehand saves you the time it would take you to prepare a caption for each post, hashtags, and editing of each content. 

For example, a month worth of content can be prepared in one or two days. This includes the shooting of the content, editing, hashtag, and caption research. This is way easier than doing it every day or every time you need content posted.

• Helps you in consistency.

As an influencer, to increase your engagement on any social media platform you need to be consistent. Constantly creating content can wear you down. Having already scheduled content can help you show up consistently on your pages. 

Having a content calendar also allows you to maintain a consistent brand image which can help you increase engagement and trust from your audience.

• Ensures a reduced risk of mistakes.

Working under pressure can result in making some mistakes such as typos in captions or hashtags and incorrectly titling videos. Planning out your content ahead of time allows you to edit such mistakes in advance to avoid embarrassing situations and maintain professionalism. 

• Monitoring analytics is easier.

If you can measure it, you can improve it. Having a record of your content in one place allows you to monitor what strategies work for your brand and which ones don’t. It gives you a chance to know what format works best, understand what posting frequency is best and what time of day works best to post content.

 Your content calendar also serves as a reminder of content posted before, which helps you not repeat content similar to what you had posted.

• Helps you not miss out on important dates.

As you post content regularly, you may forget about an important event/holiday that your audience may engage in. Instead of panicking and creating content out of pressure, you can look at your calendar of events prior and plan out the content for the occasion.

How To Create an Influencer Content Calendar

When creating an influencer content calendar, you need an effective strategy. It is not a matter of just writing down what to do and when to do it. You have to consider your brand marketing strategy and the goals you want to achieve with the content.

Here are some steps to follow when creating an influencer content calendar that works for you.

1. Identify your audience.

It is important to identify your persona. The main person you’re speaking or selling to. They may have different traits but they most probably have the same reason why they chose to follow you. By understanding the people you are speaking to, you get to set goals around what they would resonate with.  

2. Identify the social media channels you’ll use.

This is one of the steps that one may overlook yet it is very important. You do not have to use every single social media platform especially if your target audience does not hang around there often. 

For each platform you choose to use, find out the form of content that works best for it and create accordingly. You can also customize one type of content to use across all platforms but in a form that is appropriate for each of them. 

Identify the demographic of each platform, where your audience is most active, and plan content suitable for them.

3. Understand your goals.

Before creating any type of content ask yourself what goals you want to achieve with it. Some of the common goals to have are; is it meant to generate leads, visibility purposes, or increase engagement with your audience.

These set goals will help you decide which platform to focus more on and how often to post. If you work with a team, ensure that they all know what the key performance indicators are and the expected results for each content.

4. Use a template for the calendar.

Many sites offer templates that you can use to set up your content calendar. Choose one that best suits your brand. You can also create your own template to use for your platforms. You can easily create one on Google Sheets which is free.

 If you happen to work with a team or a social media manager, ensure that the template you use has an option where you can share and the other person can edit some information.

5. Define the frequency of posting.

The frequency of posting is mostly determined by the goals you set at the beginning. Remember that posting too often can also be detrimental. Pick one frequency schedule and try to maintain it. It should also not be too rigid. Allow it to have some sense of flexibility to post some fresh content that may come up.

6. Create posts around events.

Now that you have set your goals, you’ve found out which social media channels you’ll focus on, you know your audience and you have a template, it’s time to now start creating the content. You can start by creating content around events/holidays that you’d like to focus on. This will ease your workload and ensure you don’t forget to put out a post on these important occasions.

7. Create your own posts.

Once you’re done with the holidays/events dates, you can start creating your own brand content. Mix things up with your content to ensure that it is interesting. It’s time to put down all the ideas you had.

 Remember to research the relevant hashtags and captions for the posts you decide on. Ensure you leave flexibility room for times you want to post content that just came up, breaking news, or a trending topic. 

You can also remodel previous content for moments you have no inspiration. Also, have content put aside for some slow days that you have no content planned. For example, you can add a few motivational quotes.

8. Review your workflow.

There’s no standard time that one should plan out their content. You can create a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly plan. It’s important to note that planning content for a longer period of time ensures that the content flow remains uninterrupted. 

You can always change up what you feel does not suit your brand anymore. If you work with a team ensure you also give them a chance to give their reviews on the content and ensure that everyone understands what is planned out. 

9. Publish your content.

Now that you have your content planned out and you’ve reviewed your workflow, it’s time to post your content. Remember to be flexible with your plan.

10. Monitor your strategy

Remember the goals you set up in step 3? It’s time to see if your strategy worked. Examine which posts did best, which had the most engagement and which were the most shared. For those that didn’t perform as expected, find out what you could do better and adopt the strategy that worked. 

You now have a better understanding of what content your audience loves more. Take note of that as you plan your next influencer content calendar.

Summary

Influencer content creation doesn’t have to feel like a chore you have to do every day. With a well-thought-out strategy, you can plan content and have a smooth ride as an influencer. Whether you have a team or work independently, having an influencer content calendar is absolutely essential in executing your influencer goals.

Create your template now, plan your content and have a delightful content creation process.