In the bustling world of small business, where every minute of your day counts, I've noticed a common thread in my conversations with fellow entrepreneurs and organizations in 2024–the quest for savvy strategies to save time. I feel you! We are all tired and need to find ways to shave down our budgets where we can.

And when it feels like social media can take hours and hours out of your day, it’s easy to let it fall to the back burner.

Before you know it, it’s been way too long since your last post!

As a social media strategist, I'm here to share a little secret: pre-planning your social media content is a game-changer. Imagine saying goodbye to doom scrolling for hours, and hello to a well-oiled content machine.

Ready to dive into why this is a must-do for every savvy small business owner? Let's roll!

1. Consistency is Key:

I’m sure this isn’t the first time you are hearing this, but what does consistency mean for social media? Whether it's posting three times a week or daily, finding your rhythm is crucial. Take a look at what content you have and what topics you can come up with—and also how much time you have—and decide on a posting schedule.

Maintaining a consistent posting schedule is crucial for building audience’s trust and loyalty. The more quality content you can create and post for them, the more they will come back for more and share with their friends and followers!

Pre-planning your topics allows you to schedule posts at optimal times, ensuring a steady flow of content to your audience.

2. Time Efficiency:

Raise your hand if you wish for you had an 8th day in the week. 🙋🏻‍♀️

I get it, being a business owner means wearing many hats and time is a precious commodity.

Pre-planning means you can batch your tasks (curious about batching? Let's have a chat!). It's about working smarter and giving yourself more time to work in your business instead of on it.

3. Strategic Messaging:

Planning your content in advance allows you to actually think about what you want to tell your audience and align your overall messaging to promote and educate your audience about upcoming events, holidays, new services or new promotions.

This strategic approach ensures that your social media efforts are cohesive and purposeful and not just randomly posting content, jumping on the current trend and crossing your fingers!

4. Quality over Quantity:

I say this ALL the time!

Think of your content as quality over quantity and if you have nothing of quality to post—it’s completely ok to not post for a day or two!

Rushed content often leads to a compromise in quality. Pre-planning will allow you to create well-thought-out and polished posts that resonate with your audience, reflecting positively on your brand.

5. Adapt to Trends:

‘Things change all the time, how do you keep up?’

This is a question I get asked all the time! Staying relevant in the ever-changing landscape of social media is hard. But by pre-planning your content and knowing ahead of time the topics and ideas that you will be speaking about, you’ll have more time for real-time engagement and research while still maintaining a strong content schedule.

6. Avoid Burnout:

We are all avoiding burnout in 2024, right? 😵‍💫

Social media burnout is a real thing and speaking from experience—avoid it at all costs!

I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to be online all day to have a successful business and a great online presence.

Pre-planning your content and knowing your content pillars will help alleviate the stress of last-minute content creation, which will provide a buffer to allow you to recharge without sacrificing your online presence.

7. Strategic Use of Resources:

Having a content calendar and knowing your topics in advance allow you to create better content overall.

This gives you time to plan photoshoots, design appropriate assets, find hidden pictures and experiences that are perfect for throwback pictures and give you time to actually think about collaborating with influencers or other local businesses more efficiently.

8. Storytelling Opportunities:

Pre-planning your content gives you the opportunity to ensure that you tell a cohesive brand story over time.

Whether it's showcasing behind-the-scenes moments or highlighting customer testimonials, a well-thought-out content calendar enhances your storytelling capabilities.

⏰ This gives you more time to engage with your audience, to create stories, reels and polls that we know are very popular and performing well!

9. Improved Analytics:

Analyzing and actually looking at your analytics is crucial for your online success and your overall strategy! How do you know what’s resonating with your audience and what they like if you don’t look at your analytics?

My suggestion is for you to check at least once a week and compare week to week what’s working, what’s not and rearrange your content accordingly.

With pre-planned content, you can better track the success of specific campaigns and adjust your approach based on data.

10. Crisis Preparedness:

Unexpected events and local situations can impact your business (2023 was a little rough in Nova Scotia!)

Pre-planning your content ideas and topics allow you to maintain control over your online presence during challenging times and change it up as needed. This ensures that your communication remains consistent and measured and that your business doesn’t get caught up in a mess because you weren’t organized or keeping up with what was happening.

Planning Your Content

So now that we've established the importance of pre-planning your content, I’m giving you five essential steps to effectively plan your social media content:

1. Define Your Goals: Clearly outline your social media objectives.

2. Know Your Audience: I cannot stress this enough! Your audience isn’t everyone and if you are tailoring your message to everyone, you are reaching no one!

3. Create a Content Calendar: I love creating content calendars! Not sure where to start? I created The 365 Days Of Prompts to help you out and save you so much time—because I did the planning for you!

4. Batch Content Creation: You’ve heard of meal prep right? Do that with your content!

5. Stay Flexible: While pre-planning is essential, leave room for flexibility. Things change, content and trends change and we need to stay on top of it and be flexible to adapt as needed!

Remember that the small steps you take every day will help you achieve your bigger goals. When you pick your big overarching goal for the year, try to break down some daily habits you can develop to move you toward your goals consistently.

Slow and steady really does win the race. Getting to check those small tasks off your list will keep you satisfied on the long road to achieving your big goals.

Pre-planning your social media content is not just a luxury but a strategic necessity for small business owners. By adopting this proactive approach, you'll find yourself better positioned to navigate the dynamic landscape of social media while building a strong and engaged online community around your brand.

Still shaking your head and wondering how to even start getting organized with social media? Let’s connect!