Trying to up your brand’s social media game? It can be hard to consistently post, and what do you even write in the captions to engage viewers? Maybe you just want to organize your website or blog better. You may look at other businesses’ pages and wonder “how do they do it?” or “I wish my Instagram looked like that”.
Engaging potential customers with your content couldn’t be easier in today’s world. Follow along as we discuss 5 steps for building a consistent brand content schedule.
5 Steps For Building a Consistent Brand Content Schedule
1. Define Your Goals and Audience
What is the objective of your brand? An objective is basically the goal of your brand; what do you want to do to promote your company? What do you want others to get out of it? Determining your brand’s objective will simplify the process of deciding when and what to post on social media, your website, or your blog. The objective could be brand awareness, increased sales, or product promotion, to name a few.
Next, who is your audience of your objective? Who do you want to engage with your brand? You may already know this if you have been building your brand for some time. Target your desired audience with your content for the most success.
2. Choose Content Themes and Frequency
What do you want to post? Experiment with types of content on your social media pages or website to see what works best. When you find what brings in the likes (and customers, of course), keep going with those types of posts. Here are some ideas:
Highlight Products or Services – simply posting photos or videos about what you are trying to provide to the consumer works wonders. Experiment with lighting when taking photos, or editing software after the fact.
Example: a soccer coach posts photos of his team playing games. He edits the photos before posting them to Facebook to correct the lighting and appear more visually appealing. By posting photos, he has many interested participants asking about the next season’s team.
Tutorials – if your company provides products or services that require instruction, creating tutorial videos for those will be helpful for consumers. Partner with a video production company that specializes in business and branding videos to film and edit video tutorials that can be used on YouTube, TikTok, your website, and more.
Example: a brand that creates craft kits for children reaches out to a local videographer to help film and edit tutorials for children to follow along with if they prefer to watch videos than read instruction manuals. The videos are available on their website, and families can scan the QR code on their craft kit package to access the tutorials.
Behind The Scenes videos – BTS videos help consumers relate and resonate with your brand. Roll the camera, and film some authentic clips of the process of creating whatever your brand does best.
Example: a video production company has one of their team member’s film clips during a music video shoot to show the process of creating a music video. Shown are equipment used, interviews with the musicians and crew members, and any hiccups along the way. The video clips are edited and posted to the brand’s YouTube channel.
Customer Testimonials – Testimonials are valuable for brands that heavily rely on customer service. A testimonial is like a customer review that goes further. Testimonials can be written or verbal, in the form of a text post, video, or audio. Testimonials often highlight success stories of the business.
Example: after a management masterclass course, an attendee posts a Google review about the company who hosted the event. The company reaches out to the attendee for a more detailed testimonial that they can post on their website. The attendee praises the masterclass in several short paragraphs, perfect to post online.
User-generated Content – if any influencers or regular customers post about your products or services, you can repost their posts with their permission. Some creators may have a note on their social media pages or website highlighting their personal rules when it comes to reposts. You can always send influencers a message asking if you can repost their content; often, they are more than happy to allow you. It provides recognition for not only your brand, but for them.
Example: a popular, local influencer posts a story on Instagram talking about her new favourite candle from a local boutique. The boutique notices her post, and message her asking if they can repost it on their own story. She says yes, and both the influencer and the boutique gain more followers and engagement from promoting each other.
Seasonal Content – promoting around specific holidays or events can garner more interest in your brand. Get familiar with the demographic in your area.
Example: an esthetician provides her services in an area with a large Jewish population. She learns about the many Jewish holidays celebrated, and promotes her services online before these holidays for anyone wanting a special pampering for their celebrations.
Infographics – creating easy-to-digest visuals on services such as Canva is a great way to convey information, such as statistics, to potential clients.
Example: a website builder creates a pie chart to run as an ad on social media, stating that 90% of his clients garner more “clicks” after building their website with him.
Now that we’ve looked at some types of content, how often do you want to post? You don’t want to spam your viewers, but you also don’t want to be silent. Determine what is a viable option for you: do you have time to sit down, create, and schedule content for multiple times a week? For many brands, it’s vital for them to post daily to keep their customer base engaged. For others, they may need to only post once or twice a week. Again, you can play around with post frequency until you find what’s right for your brand.
On many platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and many website hosts, you can schedule your posts ahead of time. If it’s easier, you can create a bunch of content at once and schedule when you want them to be posted, rather than doing one at a time. Scheduling posts can be very helpful when it comes to time management.
You also want to think about how often you want to post certain types of content. It’s probably not possible for you to post a tutorial every single day. Switch it up; if you see a certain type of content performing well, post it weekly/monthly/whatever!
3. Plan Around Key Dates and Campaigns
If your brand is planning a new product or service to offer, you will want to plan your content around those key launch dates. Think about when you want to start hyping up the new thing your company is offering, as well as when it will launch publicly, and jot down those dates.
You may want to build mystery and intrigue around the new product or service by posting “coming soon” graphics or “sneak peek” photos in the weeks leading up to the official announcement. These teasers should not fully reveal what you are offering, but instead show aspects that will intrigue customers into sticking around for the full announcement.
Example: a bakery wants to tease their new key lime pie that they’re launching by posting a graphic that includes a picture of limes and the text “New product coming soon!” a few weeks ahead of the launch.
When release day arrives, post any info consumers may want to know, or direct them to where they can find more info. What you are producing should live up to any hype you’ve generated, so be sure to not go overboard when it comes to promotions. Stay true to your brand message and style. You don’t want potential clients going into this new release with too high of expectations for your brand. Authenticity is key, so don’t claim what you can’t actually do.
Other key dates to plan content around are holidays or local events. It’s important to keep customers up-to-date on if your business will be open or closed for important holidays, or for events that may impact your office or storefront, such as parades, festivals, or demonstrations. Additionally, you may want to offer special discounts or services for holidays or events. Winter holidays are the most popular to run sales around, as many people are shopping for Christmas or other celebrations and want the best price possible. Posting about any discounts or offers around special seasons will garner new interest in your brand.
4. Optimize for Platforms
You’ll want to optimize your content for each platform you are posting to. This may take time if you have to tweak your photos or videos to work for each platform. Set aside some time on the day you want to post to ensure everything posts correctly online, and that there is time for changes to be made if needed.
How do you optimize your content for every platform? Well, think about what each social media site does best: Meta (Facebook and Instagram) pushes both photos and videos to users, you can post photos, videos, text, and links on X (formerly Twitter), short videos are best on TikTok, longer videos should be saved for YouTube, and you can put just about anything on your own website with SEO features implemented. Let’s go a bit more in-depth on some popular platforms:
Meta (Instagram and Facebook) allows you to post photos and videos, as well as text-only posts on Facebook. Both photos and videos perform well, but there has been a push of videos since their Reels feature was announced. Both platforms also allow you to post multiple photos and videos in one post. You can also pay a small fee to run your posts as ads to users who align with your brand’s vision, which will show your content to more people. The best content to post on these two platforms are multi-photo posts and short-form videos (ideally 1 minute or under). You will also want to use relevant hashtags in your caption to promote further.
TikTok allows users to post videos and photo slideshows, often with copyrighted music or audios that have been cleared to be used on the app. Note that if you use a copyrighted song on TikTok for your video, you may have to change the music when uploading the same video to other social media sites, as other sites (Meta) have stricter policies when it comes to copyright. You can also pay to run your videos as ads on here. Content will be shown to users based on several factors, including hashtags, audio used, and filters used. The best type of videos to post on TikTok are short-form (under 1 minute).
If you need to post longer videos, such as tutorials or testimonials, video hosting platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo are your best bet. You can link to these videos on your other social media pages or website. Be aware of your usage of copyrighted materials when posting on these sites, though.
X (Twitter) allows you to post many types of content, which can all generally do well regardless of form when used in conjunction with hashtags. However, many big brands are moving away from X in favour of other platforms due to recent controversies with the CEO. If the values of any platform don’t align with your brand, you may want to avoid posting on it.
Your own website is your best friend, as you can post whatever you want on it. Your website is one of the key reflections of your brand’s online presence. Often, when people Google your brand, your website will pop up before any social media pages do. There are many website hosting platforms that make it easy for anyone to create a website, such as Wordpress and Wix. Often, there are tips and tutorials integrated into the website builder to help you attract more clicks through search engine optimization (SEO), no matter what you put on there.
5. Track and Adjust
You’ve posted a few things consistently online, and the likes are rolling in. Now it’s time to sit down and examine what works for your brand and what doesn’t. Set aside a portion of your day to do this, and take notes.
Is there a type of post you’ve noticed draws more views than others? Do more of that kind of content. Is there a time of day you notice you get more likes? Post around that time. Many platforms have features to help you post the “right” kind of content based on several factors. Write down what you’ve noticed works, what doesn’t work, and what you want to try next.
It’s ok to try new things and not necessarily gain from them. There is always room for improvement. Having some sort of online presence for your brand is better than not having one. Play around and find what works for you and your company’s success.
We hope these 5 steps for building a consistent brand content schedule help you in your journey into the realm of social media and online presence!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Scheduling Content Important for Branding?
A content schedule helps maintain regular posts, aligning each piece with brand goals and ensuring a cohesive message across platforms.
How Can I Choose the Right Content Frequency?
Experiment with posting frequency to find what resonates with your audience while balancing engagement with quality.
What are Effective Content Types for Social Media?
Content types include tutorials, product highlights, testimonials, and user-generated content. Rotate types to keep posts varied and engaging.
How Do I Determine the Best Time to Post?
Analyze engagement patterns on each platform. Many social media sites offer insights to help identify peak engagement times.