So this is a big one and something that we need to go over in depth. The utility of the content calendar shouldn't be something that I need to sell you on - even if you don't follow it to a T it can be helpful just to give you inspiration. I personally like to schedule all of my content on Sundays and have it roll out over the course of the week while I update Instagram daily since you can't schedule on that platform. While I don't always follow the schedule, having ideas for what to post makes the content creation/curation/procurement part a whole hell of a lot easier.
The key for this section to have a list of ideas for the type of content that you can create. For most bands this includes things like: m usic videos, behind the scenes videos, unboxing videos, posts with direct engagement, shots of fans, significant band achievements that grow the brand, various formats of ads, tours both of our bands and general cool ones and band social media takeovers. I like to map this all out with a list of core content ideas. Here's a fairly generic one I built recently. It's a bit broader than what a normal band might use, but I wanted to be able to offer the maximum amount of ideas. Simultaneously, you should create content based on your personal interests, regardless of their musicality
Core content ideas
- Behind The scenes
- Bands signing CD's etc
- Selfies from meetings both with labels and with other bands
- Shots of stuff about to be shipped
- Posed shots
- Shots from practice
- Tours
- Upcoming tours with the band
- Cool tours in general just to tie into the scene
- Shots from the road
- Band takeovers of social media during tour.
- Proposals for cool ideas for tours. Judging fan reactions.
- Music news/The scene
- Relevant news for labels/industry.
- Cool tours from non band affiliated stuff
- Relevant music news from within the scene, asking for reactions
- Sharing photos from major supporters of the band
- Share photos from major supporters of the scene in general
- Questions directly engaging with fans
- Band achievements
- Band getting added to festivals
- Band getting KEY opening slots
- Band putting together cool non musical pieces of content
- Band putting out releases not totally related to the band/side projects
- Music videos
This all should be uploaded as native content. That is to say directly to different social media channels. Stuff uploaded via Youtube and then posted to Facebook for example will never do as well as something just put straight on Facebook. That's simply how the algorithm works. These are all things that seem to work fairly effectively in terms of getting fan engagement and boosting your brand on social media. A lot of them have also been ideas tweaked based off of observations of various social media algorithms Before you ask, none of this information about algorithms sharing content is posted anywhere - you just have to infer it from trial and error.
You also need to come up with a list of the types of content you want to share. This can include stuff like: relevant reviews, fan shots, pro shots, news about our bands, reviews, news about the scene, news about the industry, content from your friends bands and flyers. I usually don't build out as big a plan for these but what I DO do is try and keep a file of relevant links and whatnot so that I can have this content ready to go when the time comes to schedule posts. Again a lot of this stuff is done pretty off the cuff, I just make sure to note what I find interesting. It doesn't take me that long but it also makes the pages I handle look a helluva lot bigger than they are.
The final thing to note when looking at creating a content calendar can feel very peripheral but is still important - and that's posting time. You generally want to post things between 1-3 PM since those are the biggest hours for social media followed by 9 AM when people start to get their day going. These are based on EST for global brands but obviously should be edited if you are more regionally oriented Simultaneously - Thursday through Sunday are much bigger for social media than Monday-Wednesday. Engagement is highest on Saturdays and Sundays however it's often wisest to wait for Monday for an announcement based on how much people share. Of course you can use Facebook analytics to optimize your times as well. For Instagram since you can't schedule there I just generally try and post at the same time every day so I can keep in a routine.
When it comes right down to it, being able to have a calendar for yourself to do these things is of paramount importance. It makes the whole process a lot easier when you know both the type of content you want to create and when it is due in for. When that starts to happen you quickly find yourself at the top of your game and able to create more social media content for less effort and if that isn't an admirable goal for the writer of this article to be trying to help you get towards then I don't really know what is.
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