Kayla Stuckart is a Communications Strategist for The Abbotsford School District. In her interview Kayla discusses the importance of having clear objectives to ensure the communications that are posted to social media have the desired impact. Kayla talks about how the need to share the right stories and learning experiences to create a culture and a sense of community for teachers and families of The Abbotsford School District. This is why content planning is foundational to being able to communication goals, regardless of the type of organization.
Michelle Martin, in her 2022 article Content Planning for Social Media, walks through the 8 vital steps to planning and executing on social media. Michelle’s 8 steps include: planning themes and topics, brainstorming ideas, deciding on timing, deciding on content, assigning responsibilities, creating posts, creating design assets and scheduling posts. According to Ms. Stuckart, there is a lot more to it!
Kayla goes back to the beginning, when planning what to post on social media you need to build a content strategy. You need to consider your mission, vision, values and brand guidelines. According to Stuckart, there are a few steps before getting to the 8 steps as described by Martin; know your identity, know your audience, and be consistent with brand application. Only after that can you start to create the content.
Content planning provides a documented strategy that answers, the 5 W’s. Building a solid content plan creates an easy and efficient way to make sure all the content you need to produce is done right and on-time. Marketers use content planning as a best practice to ensure they have the content needed to maintain a strong social media program, with topics the audience enjoys, and the kind of content that is most suitable for the media channel. Planning is what is required to get the most out of your social media campaigns and program.