Getting Started with Your CoSchedule Marketing Calendar

Implementation Chapter 7: Maximizing Your Social Media Strategy with CoSchedule

CoSchedule Marketing Calendar is the only marketing calendar that lets you plan all your marketing projects AND write, schedule, and publish your social messages in the same place. This chapter will highlight all the best ways CoSchedule Marketing Calendar will help you get proactive and quit wasting time with the painful and time-consuming parts of social media.

There are two different ways to create social messages in your CoSchedule Marketing Calendar – a stand-alone social message and a social campaign. Stand-alone social messages are great for one-off things that you want to post on social media. Social campaigns are several social media messages that get posted to your social channels over an extended period of time. Social campaigns are usually used to promote things like blog posts, videos, events, or webpages.

Step 2: Schedule a Stand-alone Message

To schedule a stand-alone social message, click to create a new project on your Marketing Calendar. Choose “Social” and then “Social Message”.

This will open the social composer where you can create a stand-alone social media message. Social media campaigns ensure that your audience is more likely to see your content, which drives more traffic and helps improve the return on investment for all your hard work. There are two ways to schedule a social media campaign in your CoSchedule Marketing Calendar.

1. Attach a Social Campaign to a Marketing Project

If you’re creating a social media campaign to promote another marketing project you have planned in CoSchedule, it’s best to attach that campaign directly in your project. In this example, you’ll learn how to create a social media campaign that will promote a blog post with CoSchedule.

Open the project on your calendar.
Add a “Social Campaign” attachment.

Next, click the plus sign to add a social message on a specific day.
Add the link to your blog post by clicking the link button on the top.

If you’re not sure how you should build out your first social campaign, here’s our best practice recommendation. Keep in mind that this can be tailored based on the social channels you use.

2. Schedule a Stand-alone Social Campaign

Maybe you need to create a social campaign that doesn’t promote a Marketing Project in your CoSchedule Marketing Calendar. This could be a campaign that promotes partner content, a recent news story that pertains to your business, or something like a positive customer review you want to promote. To create a stand-alone social campaign:

Click to add a new project to your calendar.
Choose “Social”, then “Social Campaign”.

Name your social campaign and apply any details — like color labels.
Click the plus signs to add messages just like you did in the previous section.

There are some advanced ways you can better manage your social media strategy.

1. Use the Social Media Optimizer to Write Better Social Messages

The CoSchedule Social Composer has a built-in optimizer that helps you be more strategic and get more engagement from your social media messages. Once you’ve written your social media message, click the “Analyze” button.

From here, you can fine-tune your message so it will perform even better on social media.

2. Add Alt Text to Your Social Messages

When previewing your content in full size using the Media Previewer, you will have the option to add Alt Text to your social messages. By implementing Alt Text, screen readers will be able to assist visually impaired individuals with image recognition within your CoSchedule Marketing Calendar as well as posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

3. Use Best Time Scheduling to Post at the Right Times

CoSchedule Marketing Calendar has built-in automation that allows you to post to your social media channels at the best times. With Best Time Scheduling, you can schedule with confidence, knowing your messages are being sent at the best time possible — according to research and best practices — for increased traffic, engagement, and followers. This takes the guesswork out of posting your social media messages. To use Best Time Scheduling, use the dropdown to select a “best time” timeframe. CoSchedule Marketing Calendar will automatically post your message on your behalf at the best time within the selected timeframe.

4. Use ReQueue to Get More Traffic to Your Content

ReQueue is the only social automation tool with built-in intelligence. It takes into account your entire social schedule, uses Best Time Scheduling intelligence to promote your messages at the most optimal times, AND intelligently finds the gaps in your schedule (so you don’t have to). When you’ve composed a social message that would be great to share more than once, simply click the ReQueue button in the bottom left corner from the social composer. From there, you can add this message to a ReQueue group or create a new group. You can also choose when you want ReQueue to expire the message.

Keep in mind that ReQueue must be enabled by visiting your calendar settings and turning it on under “Power-Ups”.

Social analytics reporting can be time-consuming, confusing, and difficult. With the Social Analytics Reporting feature in your Marketing Calendar, you can easily translate confusing data into an easily understandable report to fuel your social strategy in seconds. There are a variety of different reports you can use to gain insights on different channels and analytics.

Social Engagement Report

This report allows users to get a high-level overview of your entire social strategy. Use Social Engagement Reports to:

Identify top-performing messages
Download and share reports with stakeholders
Visualize trends across your social channels
Compare how different channels are performing

You can also dive in deeper using filters like social profiles, project types, tags, and color labels. This allows you to build reports that are specific to your initiatives, stakeholders, or clients.

Social Campaign Report

Use the Social Campaign Report to measure the success of specific campaigns and initiatives.

Social Profile Report

Social Media algorithms are always changing. This tool allows you to analyze each profile’s best times, days, and message types for your channels.

Social Message Analytics

Social Engagement Analytics will be tracked for messages scheduled to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Users can use this information to make small changes to their promotion schedule for better results.