What mistakes are you making in your social media content strategy and calendar?

I think setting clear, actionable goals is fundamental to any social media strategy's success. Beyond mere follower count or likes, your goals should reflect deeper business or personal branding objectives, such as establishing authority in your niche or fostering community engagement. I suggest to implement SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals to provide direction and focus for your content, ensuring every post moves you closer to your overarching ambitions. Remember, a goal-oriented strategy transforms random content into a cohesive narrative that resonates with your audience and amplifies your brand.

• Lack of audience understanding • Ignoring engagement opportunities • Overlooking platform-specific content • Not analyzing performance data regularly • Focusing only on promotional content

A goal can help you with so many things when it comes to your content and branding: -creates focused content (no more "scrambling", trying to think of things to write -attracts a consistent audience - when you try to attract everyone with a "spray and pray" content strategy, you end up attracting no one. -you dial into your strengths and passions. Keep your goal in mind as you create your content strategy, and remember that your goals can change over time - its part of your branding evolution!

Knowing what audience is here for is the key. Once the key areas of interest of target audiance are identified, the success of a brand is to hit the areas right and leverage the opportunity by building profitable relationships.

There are a number of great ways to research your audience to dial into their needs, preferences and pain points: - informational interviews - chat with your existing audience members and ask good questions. Journal their responses and look for themes and alignment - network with them - whether online or in-person, find your audience members and listen in on their conversations. LinkedIn groups are a great place to start! - Use Google and ChatGPT - these tools, given the right prompts, can help you uncover a treasure trove of insights - weight them against what you collect in your other 2 areas, and you'll have lots of insights from which to draw your content!

My content calendar is my go-to resource, but the key to being consistent is starting small. Choose ONE platform to start, and get consistent there, before adding an additional platform to your content strategy. Each platform will recommend different posting frequencies as well. Find one that works for your schedule and your audience. LinkedIn is great for any B2B content creators, and we're seeing more B2C content creators use it as well. You need only post a couple of times a week to start to be effective with your LinkedIn content.

Value can be subjective. Ensure your content is adding value to your target audience, and meets them where they are at, by addressing THEIR needs, pain points and challenges. Vary up how you share your value - be it a "tips" list, or through storytelling. Selling your product or service may seem like value, you feel your product would add value to your audience member's life, but you need to bring them along to see the value first before you sell them on it. It's only valuable to them if it meets them where they are at. Don't sell the cart before the horse; nurture your community through selfless content first, before you sell. Cheers and best of luck!

1. Not bringing in new ideas 2. Adding your face to the brand. 3. Not being consistent 4. Not sharing value content. 5. Sometimes you can collaborate with other creators as well ⭐