Being a community manager is a challenging job. There are various aspects wherein you have to constantly engage with the members to keep the community vibrant and relevant. The below graph displays the different frustrations any community manager can have. Do you agree with the same?
This is where a content calendar comes into the picture. It makes creating high-quality content organized and keeps you consistent. It is one of the most effective tools to keep your members engaged. Keeping this in mind, in this article, we will go through the basics of a content calendar and how you can use it to your advantage. Read on!
Advantages of creating a content calendar:
- It is systematic and allows you to generate high-quality content
- Keeps your internal team accountable and responsible
- Aligns internal goals with the overall community goals
- Gives you a chance to unleash your creative side
- Being consistent ultimately leads to a higher engagement
- You can plan for events in advance, thereby not missing out on anything
- It helps you to analyze your activity and compare your goals
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Content and its types:
Content is definitely the most important aspect of anything you do. It is what will drive your audience to your community. Therefore it is crucial that you perfectly plan whatever you intend to put out there! Having one kind of content is not advisable. We recommend that you broaden your horizons! Now, there are different kinds of content and they all seem to go well with different kinds of audiences. Some of them include:
- Webinars
- AMAs (Ask Me Anything)
- Blogs (short-form and long-form)
- Insider peek / behind the scenes
- GIFs
- Videos
- Expert articles and guest blogs
- Press releases
- Holiday greetings
Keeping in mind the kind of audience you have, you can choose content/s that will work out efficiently for you. It should be decided after analyzing your goals and requirements.
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How to implement the calendar?
- Planning: Once you plan your calendar, ensure that you analyze the kind of traction and engagement you receive. This will help you alter your planning in the future based on the results.
- Test and optimize: No content calendar is final, it is a continuous process. The metrics you choose to decide if your calendar has been successful or not will help you weed out the content that does not seem to be working out for you.
Some tips from our side!
- Define your goals clearly: There are short-term goals and long-term goals for any community. It could be producing new leads, directing users to your website, brand awareness, and so on. For any successful content calendar, defining your objectives clearly is the first time.
- Create a template: It should include different tabs such as the topic, the type of content, the person responsible, the posted link, and so on.
- Delegate: Don’t try to do everything by yourself! Delegate tasks to members and ensure clear responsibility. This will ensure a consistent routine and pave way for seamless execution.
- Keep evaluating: If you have made a long-term calendar, it is a good practice to keep checking how it is being received by your members. According to your research, you can upgrade your current plan to cater more to your audience’s needs. To put it simply, track what works, and improve what does not work!
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Conclusion On Boosting Community Engagement
In today’s digital world, content is everything! We highly recommend that you start creating a calendar in advance if you want to boost content and keep your community alive. A calendar is an essential tool for any community manager.
We hope this article has been helpful to you. Thank you for reading and all the best!
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