Before jumping into action for doing anything, what we need the most is planning.
Similarly, it is not just about trips but also about marketing strategies that need planning into action. With planning using the right tools and templates, the whole scenario turns fruitful as per the requirements and more.
Tools to Plan Messaging
Content Calendar
Free
Marketers use Excel for making different reports and tasks. Now, Excel can be used for social media management with the given tool template as well. Get ready to plan out your template style and everything in detail in a quick way. Plan every social media post at any time and anywhere with anyone.
· Monthly Planning Calendar Tab -view content pipeline in a given month.
· Content Repository tab- add publishing content, keep track of promoted pieces.
· Social Network Update tabs- draft and plan social media posts.
Why this tool?
This template is helpful for marketers with small teams and loads of work. As a social media planner and tracker, this tool will be helping to share the social plan and repurpose it.
Google Drive
Content Calendar and Asset Organization
Free personal use and Google Workspace business plans at $6/month.
Google Drive has many features that make it easy for social media marketers to build an effective content calendar.
By Google Sheets, marketers can schedule social media posts, track content status, and assign tasks- all in one.
Users can keep comments in one place and collaborate on projects without emailing multiple times.
Why this tool?
Google has many products that together create quick workflows making it easier for marketers to manage time and keep track of all the tedious tasks, all at once.
Loomly
Content Planning, Creation, Publishing, and Calendar
15-day free trial and Base plan at $25/month for two users
Loomly offers tools for content scheduling and management with inspiring content creation. You can manage content assets, schedule posts, and analyze your posts.
The robust feature set provides collaboration and an approved environment to help efficiently streamline processes.
Why this tool:
Loomly helps with organic and paid social posts and avoid using an account for social media duties to respond to comments and replies.
Trello
Task Management and Content Calendar
Free individual use and Standard plan at $5/user/month.
Trello offers a full calendar view making it easier to visualize the content. Users are free to customize the calendar accordingly to create a board for social media posts organization.
Why this tool:
Trello cards can be customized with publication statuses for the team to see the progress of social media posts and schedule accordingly.
SproutSocial
Social Publishing and Content Calendar
Standard plan at $89/month.
This social media calendar and publishing tool helps plan, schedule all social media posts, tag each social post and add tracking notes. Use Optimal Send Times to analyze social media data and publish at the most engaging time.
Why this tool:
With Sprout Social’s social listening tool, you can join brand awareness conversations that your audience loves and grow your following
Evernote
Content Calendar, Task Management, and Asset Organization
Free Basic plan and Personal plan at $7.99/month for a custom template.
Evernote helps keep track of content publishing on social media when producing blog content that comprises a social media campaign and saves links to their Evernote Notebook for later sharing.
Why this tool:
The Evernote mobile app helps to keep the social content ideas straight that allows maintaining a content backlog.
Hootsuite
Social Publishing and Content Calendar
Professional plan at $49/month with a free 14-day trial.
Hootsuite helps create campaigns and identify publishing gaps. You can share content in advance and rest easy when it comes to collaboration and post approvals.
Content curation is made easy without account login.
Why this tool:
The built-in content library of Hootsuite serves as a help to the sales team with product feature cheatsheets and customer services looking for the latest product feature.
Agorapulse
Social Publishing and Content Calendar
Free individual plan and Pro plan for small teams at $79/month.
Agorapulse offers social publishing tools and a content calendar to manage social media accounts. Agorapulse also allows scheduling, queuing, and bulk post upload.
Why this tool:
The social inbox of Agorapulse lets you manage the interactions in one single place.
StoryChief
Content Planning and Distribution
Team pricing at $90/month
StoryChief allows you to assign tasks to collaborators and filter them campaign-wise, and plan content strategy across channels. The content distribution tool unifies analytics and helps with publishing across multiple channels. It syncs with HubSpot.
Why this tool:
Highlighting the areas of improvement, write clearly and more engaging content that will work for social media and blog/website.
ClearVoice
Content Creation and Management
Free consultation request for pricing.
ClearVoice offers content creation tools for workflow with features to approve, edit, and create projects for easier editorial management with a dashboard and dynamic editorial calendar.
Why this tool:
The tool helps to stay organized and maintain time management for those freelancing teams that do not work for big clients or agencies.
Zerys
Why this tool:
Content Creation and Management
$40/document and $49/month project management.
Manage content projects, plan keywords and blog content titles, hire writers. Get a view of all the activities on the calendar. Get timely quality work with Project management features.
Benefits of Social Media Content Calendar
With a social media content calendar, plan posts weekly/monthly for time management.
Grow your audience content curation. Take time to create custom messages for each network as the audience demands something different every time. Planning content using social media calendar will help with time management with you being thoughtful every time you post.
Optimize social media strategy by monthly content performance tracking. With a calendar, marketers can look back and analyze which content performed best that could not have been possible without the same.
Recreate the post that has significant views for a different topic and see the same success. Click To TweetTake advantage of social media holidays and plan to tailor content and engage with an audience.
Examples of Social Media Calendar
JotForm Social Media Calendar
The whole calendar is functional and visually appealing. The tabs help to reveal the social plan for the channels you have strategy execution.
Firefly Marketing Social Media Content Calendar
The worksheet has all the templates you might need at top-notch, and each tab is for every month. Rows are weekly separated to get easy knowing about time and post scheduling.
Best social media tool?
The best social media calendar tool is the one that helps you with time management, efficiency and lets you work smarter rather than harder.
Most of the platforms provide free usage or free trial for some time. Gear yourself up and get set on the journey of perfect social media planning and get your ROI increased. Good luck!