When it comes to social media, content is king. Posts need to be well thought out, curated and cohesive to help your brand succeed. While this may sound intimidating, it can actually be quite easy, as long as you are organized and succinct.Find your Tone & Voice sweet spotThis is important. You need to establish how you want to talk to your fans and how you want them to perceive your brand. Are you the cool older brother or the friendly, informative mom? Identify how your brand will talk to its fans and keep this in mind while organizing your calendars.Show your promotions some loveDo you have special offers running this month? Are there specific products you want to push? Are you running a contest or giveaway? All of these questions are important to consider when mapping out your calendars. You don’t want to oversaturate your page with one topic, so plan to post about each topic no more than once a week.Holidays or Bust!Don’t forget to mention any and all holidays that are coming up. While you may not have any special deals or promotions for Christmas or 4th of July, they are notable because they will likely be a trending topic, or something prospective fans will be searching for on social media. Coming up in searches is a great way to gain a few new fans.

Is National “Talk Like a Pirate Day” a fit?It’s always smart to check for “National Days” to add to your calendars. Does Talk Like a Pirate Day work for your brand? Look through the upcoming “non-holidays” and pull out what could work for you. It’s a nice way to diversify content, and get some eyes on your posts if the day ends up being a trending topic.Check your assetsGo through the images you have available for your posts. You don’t want to write copy that doesn’t have an image to accompany it. While your copy is important, a great post won’t perform well without a great photo.

Think first, post secondWhen looking for your general day-to-day posting topics, create some strategic ideas to fill in your non-promotion and non-holiday, days. Try using quote posts, whether you use the quote in the copy or overlay the quote on the image, this is a great way to generate shareable content. If you’re looking for engagement, try asking the audience for their opinion with this-or-that posts, or fill in the blank. Just make sure you keep track of you original content so you don’t repeat yourself throughout the month.

CM Cheat: Use a template!Creating a template for your calendar can make writing your calendars a much less daunting task. (For example: 4 quote posts, 4 this-or-that posts, 3 giveaway posts, etc.) Once you have established a structure for your calendar and thought through how you want to address your audience, you should be able to identify just what kind of posts you need and let the creative juices start flowing.Map out your calendarNow that you’ve established all of your talking points for the month, start adding them into your calendar. Fill in which promotion, holiday or strategy you’ll be utilizing each day. This will allow you to be sure you aren’t talking about the same topic or using the same strategy two days in a row. Also, aim to post no more than once or twice a day. You don’t want to spam your fans or encourage them to unfriend or unfollow you.Keep an eye on the competitionKeeping yourself well-versed on what other brands are doing is another great way to draw inspiration. Use other brands' posts as an opportunity to observe what’s working and what’s not, and then analyze how you can apply that key learning to your own client.Think like a consumerIf you were a fan of this page, what would you want to see? What posts would resonate best with you? This is a great perspective to have when drafting your calendars. Many community managers start to focus too much on the brand side. While you are trying to get the brand’s messages across, you need to consider whether it’s something your fans will get excited about.Want more tips and tricks for how to dominate social this year with Data, Creative and Amplification? Download our 2016 Social Media Survival Guide.