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Editorial plan Why should content be planned?
Many smaller companies start posting on social media to gain new customers and to encourage their current customers to purchase new products. But the communities they develop don’t want to be spammed with ads or repeatedly shown the same posts.
As the target audience is different on each platform, your posts also need to be tailored to the respective platform. To reach a specific target group, you first need to analyse where exactly the relevant group can be found. Are they on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok? Or would they prefer to read a newsletter?
The posts can then be planned for the different platforms. It’s best to plan out a full year in advance, while also leaving some space for spontaneous posts – for instance, if a new product comes out sooner than expected.
However, social media platforms and newsletters should primarily be used to share tips and tricks or to answer questions such as “Who are we?” or “What do we do?”. Only occasionally should a post about a product be published (for example, a new product or a bestseller). After all, these are social media platforms and not sales platforms.
Why should posts be planned in advance?
- It gives you a lot more time, as you don’t need to write a post at short notice.
- The posts can be visually coordinated to create a nice aesthetic.
- Posts can be planned for regular intervals – so you don’t have five posts in one week and then nothing else for a month.
- The platforms use an algorithm and posting regularly increases the chances of posts being shown more often, as compared to posting at irregular intervals.
- Information about news, events, etc. is not forgotten as it is planned in advance.
The following example shows an account that was initially managed without planning and with a heavy focus on product and sales content.
This second image shows the set-up of the account following an overhaul and after the content was planned in advance.
What belongs in an editorial plan?
Different checkpoints are required depending on the size of the company, the number of publication platforms, the target group, the size of the editorial team, the interval between posts and many other factors. A simple editorial calendar usually includes the following elements:
- Theme of the post
- Planned publication date
- Author of the post
- Submission date
- Publication platform (where the post is published)
- Current status of the post / content
- Keywords / hashtags
- Insights (calls to action, downloads, likes, comments, etc.)
A more complex editorial plan may also list each campaign together with the related insights. For this type of plan, it’s a good idea to add the following elements:
- Campaign duration
- Campaign expenses / costs
Online tools for scheduling publications
Paid tools:
- Canva ➔ Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube thumbnails
- Hootsuite ➔ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest
- Falcon ➔ YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook
Free tools:
- Creator Studio ➔ Facebook and Instagram
- Business Suite ➔ Facebook and Instagram
These are just a few select tools. Of course, there are countless other tools available for planning content.
Excel as an editorial plan
Some teams still prefer to use a trusty Excel sheet to schedule their posts.
The biggest advantage of Excel is that you can decide for yourself what to list in your overview. You can add, remove or hide fields at any time.
However, a big disadvantage is that there is no automatic evaluation; everything has to be manually listed in the table and evaluated.
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