Thank you for joining this webinar from aweber
and featuring a guest from socialbee Anka pop She’s going to be talking all about what
a social media calendar is and how to save Time and get better results by creating one
she is covering a lot in the next 40 minutes But don’t worry this presentation is being
recorded and we’ll send you the slides after The presentation Anka has 10 years of marketing
marketing experience and five years specifically With social beats so she really really knows her
stuff I’m actually excited to learn a lot today Uh just a note for everyone we have pre-recorded
this presentation and we are going to be hanging Out in the chat answering questions so please feel
free to ask anything whenever you think of it and I appreciate all of you for being here today so
why don’t you kick it off Anka awesome thanks for The awesome introduction hi everyone nice to be
here thank you for the opportunity to share some Amazing knowledge with you all so as um you said
we are going to talk about creating a calendar For your social media and I’m gonna give you a
few tips a few tricks and then a proven template To go with it I just want to share a little bit
on why you should have a Content calendar so you Can see a few reasons on the screen already you
can broaden your perspective you can plan ahead You can work more efficiently generate more ideas
all of that pretty much what a Content calendar Does is that it gives you everything laid out
so that when you do the actual work it’s less Work to do and it takes you less time so that way
you can focus your energy on a lot more getting Done for your business and just a little time
for acing your social media so we’re going to Talk about a three-step framework in creating
a social media calendar and you can repeat this Monthly or however frequently you’d like in order
to prepare your content for the following period Um so you can see that this is organized in three
steps one before creating the calendar to in In the meantime or during when when you’re
actually creating the calendar and the third Step being after you create the calendar um this
is where you will learn how you can leverage Social media how you can plan ahead and work
with all of the tools that you have to bring Them all to your advantage and so I’m curious
if you’re ready to learn all of that are you I am super ready I’m really excited to learn this
today great awesome then let’s kick it off with This the first first first step um this is where
we’ll learn how you can determine uh the types of Content that you’re sharing it’s where um you’re
gonna look at what content brings you most most Value um who’s your target audience where are
they hanging out and all of that so first let’s Look at how you can determine the platforms
that will bring you most value based on your Audience first step is to look at who your target
audience is and I have a few ideas laid out there About kind of where each generation tends to go
for social media so we know Generation Z gen z Um they love Tick Tock they actually there’s
like studies that say that they use tick tock As a search engine more than Google on the other
hand Millennials and Gen X will not do that they
Will still will turn to Google so you can look
at your audience’s generational pattern to kind Of find the best the best platforms for each
um for each I’ll let you know as a millennial We’re kind of in the middle yeah you know most
of my friends probably still go to uh Google but I go to tick tock fairly often so we’re we’re
wild cards don’t try to sell much well we’re Everywhere you know it depends also what type
of millennial you are are you more towards the Gen X part are you more towards the Gen Z part
you know depends on what your Millennial you Were born I’m actually right in the middle I’m in
the 90s so I’m clear Millennial and I go for both Yeah it’s definitely I do like to point that out
though that um you know you don’t have to just be Selling uh you know lipstick to 22 year olds to
you know take a look at some of those platforms That you uh wouldn’t traditionally have looked
at in the past absolutely and actually that was My second point because you look at the audience
and where the generational pattern is but then You also look at the type of content and what
works best for that type of content you know Things that can be sold more visually um even if
it’s service like a spa therapy thing um coaching Things like that that could be more visual
work best with visual platforms even if maybe Um your target audience is not necessarily
the the generational target audience for that Specific platform but it works you know Tick
Tock works very well with educational content Um LinkedIn works well with B2B content things
like that so you can look at kind of like the the Industry that you’re in and how you can frame
that into each platform’s specifics kind of So once you’ve done that we can look at your
social profiles and what they’ve done so far What would you say to somebody who says you know
I don’t think that social media marketing is worth It at all you know not not even a single platform
it’s too much and I’m not seeing the return I Would say if you’re not on social media in this
day and age you’re dead as a business honestly Simply because everyone has access to a phone
these days everyone is going to look up your name Before they go into the shop or before they book
a session with you or before they do anything to Interact with your business even if you’re not
going to social media to promote your business Social media is a great way to keep customer
success because you can keep your customers Happy help them if they have any questions it’s
great to keep your audience engaged and to keep Your brand top of mind so you know if you’re
selling um something that does doesn’t really Work on a day-to-day basis I don’t know a massage
you don’t go to a masseuse every single day but You do it every once in a while you can keep your
audience warm by just reminding them that you’re There and then whenever they need that massage
they’re going to come to you instead of going to Your competition and that’s how social media can
help I love that and one of my favorite things About this um and and doing the content calendar
is you know you see all of these platforms and You’re like oh there’s like 80 million of them and
you know I don’t know what to do or where to go
Um but the the cool thing about this is you
know this is a presentation for uh you know Team of one and Anka understands and I understand
that you have so much other work to do including Doing the massages you know or doing whatever
work it is that you actually do but also all Of your other marketing efforts and financial
stuff and so that’s what’s so cool about the Content calendar is that it can help you approach
social media in general without uh having it be The only thing you have time for exactly you can
just take one day out of your entire month to Focus your efforts on your content calendar and
your plan and then you’re all set and the the Following month you don’t even have to take
a full day you just need maybe four or five Hours to plan ahead the content for the entire
month and then you’re all set and you have you Don’t have to keep keep it top of mind and just
stress about oh my God I don’t have posts for My Facebook I don’t have any reels for Instagram
oh my God what am I gonna do you don’t have that All right so I’ll stop interrupting you to tell
everybody on what they already know they need uh And let you keep telling us how to do it right
awesome so let’s talk about how you can look At what your profiles have done so far look at
your content and see what has been working for You look at engagement look at shares comments
likes things like that but also look at content That hasn’t worked for you that’s a very good
indicator of what your audience does not want To see so if you have any posts that don’t have
any traction they don’t have interaction those Are actually good insights to have on what not
to replicate in the future next up once you have All of that audit going on you can look at the
types of content that are relevant to your app To your actual audience and here I have two
questions for you what do you want to achieve Through posting on social media this will be the
goal that you have that helps you create that Strategy you create the strategy to work towards
a goal so if you want ten thousand dollars in Sales you create the strategy with actionable
points to get you to that ten thousand dollars Um the the one thing that I should mention here
is that you don’t want as I said their increase Sales that’s too generic you won’t be able
to measure that in any way you want something Specific that you can do within the within the
next year the next 12 months things like that And the second question that I have here is
what are the interests of your target audience Um again with this target audience thing you
can do like a template target audience name Them Anna Paul whatever you want um and kind
of create like a a person that would be the Ideal person the ideal buyer um and think what
they would like to see what they as a person Would follow on social media would it be memes
would it be infographics would it be educational Content what type of person are they use that
to your advantage to create your content types What do I mean by content types well there’s
a lot of content that you can share out there Um and if you just share promotional content
where you promote your business over and over
And over again it can lead to something called
audience fatigue that’s where your audience gets Bored of seeing the same thing over and over
again and then ignores you completely and you Don’t want that so what you can do instead is
that you can create a balanced content mix by Using different types of content to kind of create
a little Hive like we have here and balance it out I I like comparing this to a balanced diet where
you you know you want your greens you want your Carbs you want your protein you want your fat
all of that together to make it balanced and Healthy the same thing goes for your social
media content and I just want to take a few Moments to go through each type of content that I
have in there to just give you a few ideas on how You can use that to your advantage so starting
with promotion no content this will be the core Of your strategy this will promote your business
I advise you to not go over 20 of your content With this type one uh with this type of content
because it can quickly lead to fatigue if you’re Promoting promoting promoting and not adding any
outside value that can bore your audience we don’t Want that so keep it on the 20-ish percent Mark
of your entire content I said here you can use Offers events launches demos tutorials things
like that to promote your business whether it’s A service a product anything like that here are a
few examples of promotional posts that you can see Um throughout the internet I just used a
few there then I’m going into Evergreen Content this is the type of content
that you can reuse over and over again Um this is something that doesn’t have any time
sensitivity so if there isn’t any date mentioned Any special event any seasonal event nothing
like that you can use it with testimonials Reviews case studies guides things like that and
this is something that you can set and forget Pretty much you create a category with all
of your content testimonials for instance And queue it up and it just goes in a rotation
so that you don’t have to do anything but maybe Add a new one when a new testimonial pops
up and that’s it can you give uh do you Mind giving well I guess you’re going to give
some examples right now but uh just like you Know a couple of examples of uh what that
content might look like for a real business Sure so a testimonial could be um something
I don’t know if you can see my my mouse Uh on screen but a testimonial would be like the
one from gather up here that’s a review it’s like Um putting more authenticity into the business
because it brings a real person who actually Benefited from that service into the equation
and it gives more authenticity to it I love this Um when I when I worked with small businesses
on their uh Google profiles which is the first Job I ever had in marketing you know I was
always saying like go out get reviews get Reviews get reviews and what I love about
this is it’s just a screenshot of a review So you’re already working to get reviews and
you should be and then in order to create this Content for social you just have to screenshot
you don’t have to write anything you don’t have
To design anything it’s great yeah and if you if
you do want to style it a little bit you can work With canva and just copy the text in there
and work it into a template or something so That’s not a big deal as well but yeah you can
definitely just screenshot it put it out there Covered it with some color and
that’s it so it’s easy to do Moving on to some entertaining content because
social media has to be entertaining you I’m pretty Sure that all of you have your phone at some point
during the day and you’re just scrolling through Facebook through Instagram through Tick Tock
whatever it is you’re scrolling there and if it’s Not me I I only work at my computer um I put my
phone away I definitely don’t get on Tick Tock and Instagram after work or at any time during work
so but most other people do I think yeah pretty Soon I never get on Facebook to write a post and
then end up 20 minutes later still on Facebook So this must be referring to other people but yeah
of course not yeah well entertaining content funny Um memes challenges trending videos you know Tick
Tock is a lot reliant on on Trends and you know It’s so easy to do like a trend on Tick Tock you
just use that sound and you make a video making a Fool of yourself and it works it actually works
people actually like that because it brings in Some you know Charisma it brings in all of
that and here’s our here are some examples That you can use so you can use memes you can
use um you know Special Events St Patrick’s Day Christmas Saint Valentine’s whatever it is
that you know that works for your business Um we use with social B we use the International
Day for bees of course um so that’s you know it Can be so random and it can be so fun and exciting
for your audience to see something like that Entertaining content is different from interactive
content because you know with entertainment you Laugh and you scroll away with interactive
content you actually answer a question you Join a contest the giveaway you talk and argue
in a debate or you know you fill in the blanks You answer a poll you do something to engage
this is the type of post that will help increase Your engagement with your audience and you we all
know engagement rates are going down so whatever You can do to keep them as high as possible do
it these are a few examples I have fill in the Blanks here I have polls I have would you rather
um some of my favorite giveaways are great ways of Um uh engaging your audience you know you can
give a free massage for keeping with the theme Um you can give a free bottle if you’re selling
water bottles I don’t know I’m just throwing Random examples into into the mix but pretty much
you can use whatever you have it doesn’t have To be costly um to create engagement next up is
educational content which is another big piece of Um content on social media people if they’re
not going to look for entertainment they are Going to look for education so tell them
how your service or your product helps them Um makes it better tell them um industry best
practices tips and tricks how you can use Um specialty industry terms and things like that
so for instance I recently used the water bottle
Example and it’s one that I use all the time
if I were to sell water bottles I could use Educational content like 10 tips to help you
drink more water and that’s something that I Can find outside on the internet I think that I
think it’s like a sea of that type of articles But there’s also like something that I can do
like I can say you know what just set a reminder To drink more water throughout your day use a
water bottle that you like to kind of make it Interesting you know things like that it doesn’t
even have to mention the product to be effective Here are a few examples of that
um I have one Shameless plug here Um just so that you know you can um get a better
idea on how you can educate your audiences And then you can also motivate your
audiences as well use success stories Motivational quotes advice interviews things
like that that would keep the momentum going Um a few examples here are um I think that’s
a real uh from Dove and then UNESCO as well Curated content this is one that people tend to
have a a side eye too they um might say something Like and I’m sure some of you are doing this
already why should I share someone else’s content Well because it brings you more authenticity if
I’m saying drink more water water because I’m Selling the bottle it doesn’t give much value but
if you’re saying that and I’m sharing it and you Have no affiliation with me it just keeps
me top of mind and whenever they read that Using a bottle might help you with drinking more
water first person they’re gonna think of is me Um you can share news articles tutorials
speeches videos things like that you can Share all of this information that doesn’t
mention any specific product so it doesn’t Have product placement in it it just helps with
information it brings you Authority as I said And it also saves you a lot of time because you
don’t have to do the work and that’s amazing Here are some examples on how you can do
that um honestly my best advice here is To get RSS feeds from different sources and
keep them somewhere where you can actually Um filter through them and quickly share them
so that you don’t waste a lot of time on it So we’ve done all that part we’re
looking now at how you can create Your content calendar this is the second step
that we’re doing and it’s going to talk about Building your calendar using elements
that are common as well as planning your Posts according to the best practices and the
best times to post according to each platform So when we’re structuring the calendar these are
a few elements that we want to look at we want to See um the the social network that we’re posting
on first of all let’s say we focus on Instagram We want to look at Instagram best practices
specifically which right now are Maybe video and Image they don’t like links they don’t have links
so we’re not going to focus on links right now Um for Instagram we are going to think about the
visual elements of the post as a primary thing For Facebook maybe not so much Facebook has a
lot more text and a lot more links options so
You can think about it that way obviously also
think about the copy of the post and all of that Um I’m sharing this screenshot of social B here
because I wanted to show you exactly what a Content mix looks like um up close and personal
this is actually our schedule and you’ll see That we have different categories that are color
coded and we have um them scheduled at different Times and so that way when I go in to create
content I look at it and I know okay so I need To add one news piece I need to add a blog post
I need to add something educational I need a help Video that’s a tutorial on how to do something
and I also need some posts for Instagram you Know so that way I can build my calendar by just
looking at the schedule that I have laid out there Next up you have to look at how and when you’re
publishing your content and here you’re gonna Look at three things as I said here the ideal
number of posts in a week for each platform Um Tick Tock allows and accommodates a lot more
posting than Instagram does for instance so you Can look at those um in comparison you can look
at the general best practices for each platform As well as when your particular audience
is online and I’ll show you how to do that Here are some best practices and take some
time to get to screenshot this if you want to Um yes we will share the the slides
with you afterwards but here are a few Ideal posting frequencies and posting
times for the main four platforms that Um are top platforms at the moment right now
um you’ll also be able to do so for tick tock Google my business and Pinterest as well so
as you can see there’s quite a few differences Um with Tick Tock there’s a lot of optimal
posting times with Facebook it’s typically Just a few for instance so you can see the
major differences between platforms as well Um after creating the content step three this is
where you track you analyze your content you look At what worked what didn’t and then of course you
do a celebratory dance because why not let’s see How you can track your social media analytics so
you can look at three main things reach engagement And conversions and I gave you a few examples
of kpis that you can track with each one’s um Each one of these areas with reach you can look at
post reach Impressions shares followers gained and Things like that with engagement you can look at
comments shares mentions clicks things like that With conversions you can look at click-through
rates you can look at costs if you’re sharing Them boosting the posts and um creating ads
you can look at your analytics to see how many People from your social media came over to your
website and generated traffic and things like that And of course do the celebratory
dance this is something that we Do every single time because you have
to you it’s a win take it celebrate it Cool so we’ve gone to we’ve gone through the three
steps and we’ve reached the end we have created Our calendar so here are a few tips on how you can
optimize it and make it even better for for your Social media and for your time first of all don’t
spread yourself too thin I’ve seen this over and
Over again where people are struggling because
they’re trying to do so much in so little time Start small go with a few platforms go with a
few posts I always say that you don’t have to Post every single day best practices for Instagram
say posts once a day sure but you don’t have that Time yet you don’t have the experience you don’t
have the knowledge yet because you don’t have the Calendar build up yet once you do that you can
start small maybe three posts per week maybe One post per week that’s okay as long as you’re
consistent with your schedule it’s perfectly fine To reduce frequency so Anka you’re saying quality
is more important than quantity if you look at my Screen you can see that direct your attention
to creating quality posts and not quantity Yeah although I you know I will say while you’re
trying to figure put put some time and effort into The post but while you’re trying to figure out
which ones are going to work the most you know Don’t be afraid to try absolutely things yes um
but also just don’t throw it out just because You have to post you know that’s kind of what I
meant with the quality type so if you’re gonna Have 30 minutes uh a week to create content maybe
don’t spread yourself thin and try to create seven Posts in those 30 minutes because it’s not
going to be quality create one Post in those 30 minutes and that post you’re gonna be happy
with I like that and I like that in general as a Um time management for small business owners don’t
think about how much you’re going to produce think About how much time you have to spend on it I
have on Friday afternoons I have 30 minutes that I can spend on this I’m going to block that time
off and I’m gonna spend my time making the best Post that I can and then I’m going to do the same
thing next Friday and then as things get easier Maybe in that time you can essentially learn more
yeah exactly or who knows you might have found a New passion with doing that over time and you can
allocate a little more time because I one thing I Noticed is that some people dread social media so
much because they don’t have inspiration but what They don’t have is a plan absolutely yeah and you
know I I think about this Lots in terms of my own Productivity where I think through stuff and all
you know writing a blog post or a social any kind Of social media I’ve got an idea and then I put it
off till the next day and then oh maybe I should Do it this way or that way but at some point you
got to put pen to paper and just make something And I think that social media is one of the best
ways where you can make imperfect absolutely even If you try hard but it’s okay to be imperfect
because it’s so temporary exactly yeah it’s it’s Super easy to just set it forget it and then take
it all over again next week um the second thing That I have here on my list is to use a balanced
mix and I have my favorite rule the 80 20 rule Where 80 of your content is used to inform educate
and entertain your audience so remember the types Of content that we talked about before use those
80 of your week’s worth of content and then 20 to Promote your actual Services let’s say you have
time to create six posts per week that would be Four posts to inform and educate and entertain
maybe one post that has some um soft selling
Skills like a a review or a testimonial or things
like that and then one Hard Sell post that would Go through the benefits of using your service
or your product and that would be all that you Need in a week’s time and repeat that formula
every single week and you’ve done it that’s it Um the third thing and this is something that
me as a visual person adores is to create a Color-coded system that works for you so with
social B you can see it in the screenshot here We have a category based system so that each type
of content that you share can have its own little Home um and its own little space so that you can
cue the content up inside and you don’t have to Worry about dates and all of that so you can color
code that to work with whatever color system you Have in your mind and it’s simple because this
way you just look at this and you know oh purple That’s activism that’s what I have to work on so
you don’t have to um sit and think too much it you Know you’re efficient making your your system more
efficient that way last tip that I have Shameless Plug again is to use a tool to create and schedule
your content from one place and of course I’m Going to be talking about social D here because
honestly it’s the sweetest thing in the world Um I cannot get enough of how many features we
have in Social V and let me just show you a few of Them first of all let me tell you what actually
is social because I just realized I never did Um where is social media management tool so
we can help you with creating scheduling and Analyzing your content for social media so you can
connect your social profiles in Social bee just as You see on the screen there and then you create
your content right there share it to all of your Platforms you don’t have to move from platform to
platform schedule it all at once and then look at The analytics once a month and that’s it this is
what the content categories look like this is what Posts look like in Social B so this is what this
is what a category would look like and you can Add your post from the add new post button at the
top there and your posts can be either approved or Set to draft so if you’re working with a team you
can set them to draft and have the manager approve Them or the client if you’re a freelancer that’s
also something that works so you have all of this Um amazing um these amazing tools to to work at
your disposal you can save your hashtags you can Automate content flows and all of that this is
what the post editor looks like this is where you Can create your content particularly and there
are several tools to use to your advantage here Um you can use Integrations you can use
mobile reminders if you want to share to Some outside profiles like Facebook
personal profiles for instance where You can really schedule things you can add
variations to your content to kind of create Um you know a countdown for the event for instance
or um just you know rephrase that testimonial a Little bit the benefits of the service a little
bit you can customize the post for each platform To make it work best as best as it can for that
platform you can add posting times add a category Set your content to expire and all of that in
one place the schedule setup this is where you
Work with categories and sorry and with different
um platforms to kind of create your content mix And one thing you’ll see here at the bottom
you can’t really tell it but you also have Some statistics the schedule stats that
are um right there that’s actually a table Um with the percentages of how much content
you’re sharing from each category in a week’s Time so that will help you balance out
your content mix that was a lot wasn’t it Um let’s yeah so everyone um go out and do all
of these things right now uh uh no there was some There was a lot there and I think no matter where
you’re at in your journey uh this you know you Could take something away from this absolutely in
in The Next Step you know whether it’s even just Putting that 30 minutes on your calendar to start
thinking about this or start figuring out a tool Or something like that yeah totally it doesn’t
have to be all done at once you can take the small Steps um and just you know today work a little bit
on figuring out what your goal is tomorrow work a Little bit on figuring out what platforms are best
for you the next week work on your audience the Next week after that maybe start working on the
content strategy on all of that so step by step Small steps and you’ll get there eventually
look at your content look at your platforms Um focus on what types of posts already resonate
with your audience create a balance mix and look At when the right time to post is and I did
mention and I forgot to say um when looking At your audience you can look at when your
audience is online for each platform from your Phone typically when you’re scheduling content one
thing I notice is that most people go for on the DOT hours so it’s going to be 7 A.M it’s gonna
be 9 A.M it’s gonna be 1 p.m but if you go 103 That already looks more authentic to your audience
so use a random minute to schedule instead of a on The dot sharp hour I’m really hoping that you’re
all ready to schedule um your content in your Calendar um you can see I’m a millennial
from all the GIFs that I’m I’m using right Cool so if you’re ready to start your calendar
um Journey you can use social B to do so and we Do have an offer for everyone who has been paying
attention today and taking notes so you can use The code aweber50 when you purchase your social
B license and that way you’ll get 50 off on your First three months well this was so amazing thank
you so much for all of this information obviously There’s a lot to do here if you’re just getting
started or if your social media marketing hasn’t Been working to date you know you’ve been doing
you feel like you’ve been doing a lot of work or Intermittent work this is a really great place
for you to start start thinking about you know What kinds of content to do slow it down a little
bit who are you targeting where are they hanging Out and I also urge everybody to you know keep
trying on this like we mentioned at the top you Have to do it yeah to have a business these days
and so and and you know it’s it’s so easy to see A presentation like this and then think oh my
gosh but I tried a few things and it didn’t work You have to just keep powering through until
you find the thing that really does work for
You experiment experiment and experiment some
more and if this doesn’t work try something else And if that doesn’t work ask someone for their
opinion and see what they think works and try that Um and hey if if at the end of the day
you don’t have the time you don’t have Um the the knowledge you don’t want
to there are people who don’t like This you can always find a way to Outsource
this with an intern with social even with Um hiring someone so there are ways to to make
yourself present on social media if you really Really don’t want to do this I typically urge
every business owner to dive into social media At least a little bit so that they have a clear
knowledge of what their their positioning is All right well thank you so much for coming
on Anka I really really appreciate you Um this is the first in uh last week we did a
couple of presentations about um marketing for Podcasters but they’re actually really relevant
to any content creator or small business owner So please go take a look at those uh I will put
the links to that in um in the chat and also in The description of this uh presentation also um we
are doing this as a series throughout the fall so This is called a mastering marketing series and we
are going to be doing one again next Wednesday so Please sign up to come join us next week or um
you know watch out for that presentation after That we’re really looking to help you get ahead
of your marketing you know we’re already in the Holiday season and so we’re looking to help
you get ahead of your marketing right now so I appreciate everybody for coming and everybody
for joining us and we will see you all next time
