Being a professional writer in any capacity comes with a side of marketing, whether we like it or not. Whether we are traditionally published or self-published, all authors will be expected to do their own marketing. Social media has become almost essential for writers. If you don’t have a following, how will you reach potential readers? While it seems like a scary concept – putting yourself out there on social media, especially if you’re more introverted – it can really have a great pay off for your writing career. But being on social media means you have to come up with interesting and varied content to share with your followers. And I have some tips for how to plan out a whole month of social media content. 

Use a Content Calendar

The best way to start planning content is to get organized. And you can get organized by using a spreadsheet or Google Calendar to list out your entire publishing schedule. That way you can see when you have a book launch or promo event coming up, and from there you can begin planning out your content for the month. 

Pick Your Social Networks

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be on every single social media network that there is. However, whichever ones you do chose to promote yourself on, you should be frequently active and engaging with your readers. And if you are using more than one social network, it is advised that you make a space on your calendar for each social media profile that you’re planning to post on, that way you can keep track of your content. 

Posting Frequency

It is entirely up to you if you’re going to be posting once a day, twice a week, or several times a month. Either way, try to be consistent in your posting schedule. Also, don’t be afraid to repurpose your content across different platforms in order to save yourself time and energy. Granted, you will want to use an organizational tool to help you plan out your strategy.

Content Pillars

Content pillars are basically the subcategories for your social media posts. These can be such things as behind the scenes, book promotions, writer memes, etc. Once you’ve come up with what these content pillars, you can go about planning out your calendar for the month. Usually it’s a good idea to have at least 3 to 5 different ones that you share across different social media platforms according to your publishing schedule.