How to Plan Social Media Content

Posting on social media without a plan is like shouting into the void and hoping someone hears you. A solid content plan turns that random noise into a focused strategy that grows your brand and connects with your audience. This guide will walk you through a clear, step-by-step process for planning your social media content efficiently and effectively.

Start with Why: Define Your Social Media Goals

Before you create a single post, you need to know why you’re on social media in the first place. What are you trying to accomplish? Your goals will be the driving force behind every piece of content you produce. Without clear objectives, it’s impossible to measure success or know if your efforts are paying off.

Most social media goals fall into a few key categories:

• Brand Awareness: Getting your name in front of people who don't know you exist. This is about reach and impressions.
• Community Engagement: Building relationships with your followers. This is measured by likes, comments, shares, and saves.
• Website Traffic: Driving people from your social profiles to your website or blog. You'll track this with link clicks.
• Lead Generation: Capturing contact information for potential customers. This could mean getting people to sign up for a newsletter or download a free resource.
• Sales & Conversions: Directly encouraging followers to make a purchase.

Pick one or two primary goals to start. For example, a new online store might focus on Brand Awareness and Website Traffic. A service-based business might prioritize Lead Generation and Community Engagement to build trust. Once you know your destination, you can map out the content that will get you there.

Know Your Audience (Really Know Them)

You can’t create content that resonates if you don’t know who you’re talking to. Ditching generic demographic data and getting into the mindset of your ideal follower is what separates forgettable content from content that builds a loyal community.

Go Beyond Age and Location

Ask yourself these questions about your target audience:

• What are their biggest pain points or problems that your brand can solve?
• What are their aspirations and goals? What do they want to achieve?
• What kind of humor do they appreciate? Is it witty, sarcastic, or goofy?
• What other accounts do they follow? Look at competitors, complementary brands, and influencers in your space.
• What format of content do they consume most? Are they watching quick Reels, reading thoughtful carousels, or saving funny memes?

Spending some time scrolling through the comments section of your competitors or industry-related accounts is an amazing way to do this research. You’ll get a direct line into the language they use, the questions they ask, and what gets them talking. This intel is an absolute goldmine for content planning.

Establish Your Core Content Pillars

Content pillars are 3-5 high-level topics or themes that you will talk about consistently. Think of them as the main sections of your own brand magazine. They prevent you from straying off-topic and make sure your content always aligns with your goals and your audience’s interests. This consistency is what builds brand recognition and expert status.

Your pillars should sit at the intersection of what your audience cares about and what your brand stands for. Here's how to develop yours:

1. Brainstorm: List everything your brand could possibly talk about. Don't filter yourself yet.
2. Group and Refine: Start grouping similar ideas into broader themes.
3. Tie to Goals: Ask, "Does this theme help me achieve my goals?" and "Does my audience actually care about this?"

Example: A Financial Advisor for Millennials

• Pillar 1: Simplifying Investing. Demystifying terms like ETFs and Roth IRAs. (Goal: Lead Generation by establishing expertise)
• Pillar 2: Everyday Budgeting Hacks. Actionable tips for saving money on groceries or memberships. (Goal: Community Engagement by providing practical value)
• Pillar 3: Navigating Life Milestones. Talking about finances for buying a house, getting married, or having kids. (Goal: Building trust and relatability)
• Pillar 4: Mindset & Money. Addressing the psychology of spending and saving. (Goal: Create deeper connection with the audience)

Once you have your pillars, 80-90% of your content should fall into one of these buckets. This structure makes brainstorming a breeze because instead of asking, “What should I post today?” you can ask, “What can I post about simplifying investing today?”

Audit Your Existing Content

If you’ve already been posting on social media, you have a valuable dataset at your fingertips. A quick content audit helps you understand what has worked in the past so you can double down on it. Don't overcomplicate it. Just open up your native platform analytics and look for patterns from the last 90 days.

What to Look For:

• Top Performing Posts by Engagement: Which posts got the most likes, comments, shares, and saves? What was the topic? What was the format (e.g., Reel, carousel, single image)?
• Top Performing Posts by Reach: Which posts were seen by the most people? This tells you what has the potential to attract new followers.
• Common Questions: Revisit your old comments and DMs. Are people repeatedly asking about the same thing? That’s a content idea right there!

Jot down your findings. You might discover that Reels about a specific content pillar get 3x the reach, or that carousel posts explaining a concept get the most saves. Use these insights to inform your future content mix.

Map Your Content and Formats to Each Platform

Not all content belongs on all platforms. While cross-posting is efficient, it’s best done with a little strategic tweaking. Each platform has its own unwritten rules and user expectations. Planning your formats alongside your topics is the final layer of your strategy.

Here’s a general breakdown:

• Instagram: excels with high-quality visuals. It's built for short-form video (Reels), multi-slide educational carousels, and personal connection through Stories.
• TikTok: The home of authentic, short-form video. It's driven by trends, timely audio, and highly engaging, often unpolished, content.
• LinkedIn: The professional network. It favors text-based posts with stories, industry insights, company news, and thought leadership articles or carousels. Video also performs well, but with a more polished, professional tone.
• X (Twitter)/Threads: Perfect for short, text-based updates, quick thoughts, real-time conversations, and sharing links.
• Facebook: A versatile platform that welcomes a mix of content, but community-building posts, videos, and links to external articles tend to do better.

Using our financial advisor example, a "Simplifying Investing" topic idea could be adapted like this:

• Instagram/TikTok: A 30-second Reel explaining "What is a Roth IRA?" using trending audio.
• LinkedIn: A text post or carousel detailing 3 common mistakes first-time investors make.
• Threads: A quick thread asking followers, "What's the #1 investing question you're too afraid to ask?"

Build Your Content Calendar

Your content calendar is where your strategy becomes an actionable plan. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as sophisticated as a dedicated social media management tool. The goal is to get a visual overview of what’s publishing and when, so you can stop posting on the fly.

Key Elements of a Content Calendar:

• Date & Time: When the post will go live.
• Platform(s): Where the post will be published.
• Content Pillar: Which pillar the post belongs to.
• Format: Reel, Carousel, Static Image, Story, etc.
• Caption & Hashtags: The full copy ready to go.
• Visuals: A link to the approved image or video.
• Status: A simple tag like “Idea,” “In Progress,” or “Scheduled.”

Spreadsheet Example for a Simple Calendar:

A simple Google Sheet or Excel file is a great place to start. Create columns for each of the elements above.

| Date | Platform | Content Pillar | Format | Caption | Status |
|------------|------------------|---------------------|-------------|--------------------------------------------|-------------|
| 10/15/2024 | Instagram, TikTok| Simplifying Invest | Reel | "ETFs don't have to be complicated..." | Scheduled |
| 10/16/2024 | LinkedIn | Life Milestones | Carousel | "Buying your first home? Don't forget..." | In Progress |
| 10/17/2024 | Threads | Everyday Budgeting | Text Thread | "My top 5 budgeting apps for 2024:" | Idea |


Start by plugging in key dates first - seasonal holidays, company milestones, or product launches. Then, fill in the rest of your calendar by rotating through your content pillars to maintain a balanced and interesting feed.

Batch Your Content to Stay Ahead

Planning makes it all strategic, but batching is what makes it all manageable. Content batching is a productivity method where you group similar tasks together and do them all in one focused session. Instead of trying to ideate, create, write, and schedule a post every single day, you do it all at once for the week or month ahead.

A Sample Batching Workflow:

1. Day 1 (Research & Brainstorming): Spend a few hours filling in your content calendar with ideas for the next month based on your pillars and research.
2. Day 2 (Creation): This is your studio day. Film all your videos, design all your graphics, and take all your photos.
3. Day 3 (Writing & Scheduling): Write all your captions, select your hashtags, and schedule everything in your publishing tool.

When you batch content, you free up your mental energy during the week to focus on what matters most: engaging with your community in real-time. You're no longer scrambling for ideas at the last minute, and your consistency will skyrocket.

Final Thoughts

Planning social media content takes you from being a reactive content creator to a proactive strategist. By setting clear goals, understanding your audience, and building a structured yet flexible calendar, you can create a consistent, engaging presence that delivers real results for your brand.

With a solid plan in place, the next step is execution. At Postbase, we built our platform around the idea that social media planning should be visual and straightforward. Seeing all your scheduled posts across every platform in our content calendar makes spotting gaps and rearranging your strategy as simple as dragging and dropping. It’s exactly the bird’s-eye view we wished we had when we were managing social for our own businesses, helping you turn your plan into reality without the headache. Give Postbase a try, and see how much easier it is to stay consistent.