What is the one thing to do for social media marketing success?

Create some sort of content calendar.

Sure, you can check out our deep dive into a detailed planning process for creating a social media content calendar, but is there a super-simple way to create one, especially for beginner marketers, or overloaded Mighty Teams of One or Two People?

You bet.

Every week, I pull out a blank sheet of paper, or draw a line and work with the open space on the sheet I already have in progress.

I write Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri down the side.

(You can add a weekend day and maybe drop a weekday, if your analytics tell you that weekend posts work well for one or more of your social media accounts. Of course you can do this document electronically if you prefer.)

I post on the Tourism Currents Facebook Page on Mondays and Wednesdays, so “TC FB” goes next to those days.

I post on the Tourism Currents LinkedIn Page on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so “TC LI” is scribbled next to those days.

I post at least once a week on Tourism Currents Instagram, so after I check IG account analytics to see the day and time that our followers are most active recently, I add “TC IG” to the appropriate day.

Friday is a bonus day if I have some nugget of wisdom, or a fun discovery to share.

Then I spend a little time – usually on Friday afternoon for the following week – filling in what I’m going to post on each day.

This is simple and basic, but I cannot TELL you how much it helps me in posting consistently.

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri.

Something next to each day.

If I don’t have fresh ideas for one of the days, I scan my phone for photos or videos I’ve forgotten about, or I re-share one of our blog posts as long as it is 6 – 9 months old.

Algorithms don’t like you posting the same thing over again too soon, in my experience, or a whole bunch of posts on one day (text-based platforms like Threads and Twitter / X are much more tolerant of that.)

I do often share the same content on more than one account, but on different days at different times to catch different audiences.

Always craft the content to fit the platform. For example, hashtags are useful for discovery on Instagram, but they’re not a thing on Facebook and merely add visual clutter to posts there.

Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri.

Something next to each day.

An actual plan that supports your marketing goals consistently over time.

You’d be surprised by how many smaller DMOs and tourism partners don’t even do this much planning, then they wonder why social media isn’t working for them.

How do you set up your social media content calendar? Let me know in the comments.

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