This year has produced one of the most accelerated shifts to digital that we’ve ever seen, which means a lot of small and medium businesses are scrambling to establish an effective online presence without much experience. You’ve probably already learned that Facebook is an invaluable and essential digital tool for your business and as part of your social media content strategy.

The good news is you don’t have to be an expert to create Facebook content that will produce substantial returns for your investment of time and resources in 2021. All you need is a well-developed social media content strategy.

1. Research Your Facebook Audience & Content Strategy

Posting to Facebook without having any insight into what works for your audience is a great way to waste your time and resources. That’s why it’s so important to start your content planning with research. Start by checking out your previous content to identify what performed well and what didn’t. Check out your competitors’ pages too. What works for them? How often do they post? Any information you gather can be used later in developing a more successful content calendar for your business.

2. Determine Your Facebook Content Style

Facebook has a way of really showcasing the personality of a brand, so it’s important to strategize your style before you begin to post. If you have an established brand personality, clearly define it for the content creator(s). If not, take the time to develop and define a brand personality that relates well to your Facebook audience, as well as your audiences around and off the web.

3. Establish Goals

Set clear and realistic goals for your Facebook page. Your goals should be centered around trackable metrics like your reach, your website traffic, revenue, leads, etc. Set dates for your goals, but give your page plenty of time to gain momentum. Building a following doesn’t happen overnight.

4. Choose KPIs

Once you have clear goals established, circle back to your trackable metrics and define concrete key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’ll use to track your progress and define your success.

These metrics should be frequently monitored to identify and correct weak areas in your content strategy and to build strong areas that drive engagement. Remember that the KPIs for a content strategy are more long-term than other types of marketing because content takes time to build a loyal audience via Facebook content campaigns.

5. Valuable KPI’s for Your Facebook Content Strategy

• Impressions
• Reach
• Video engagement
• Engagement rate
• Followers growth
• Facebook reactions
• Facebook comments
• Facebook shares
• Click-Through Rate
• Followers Demographics

6. Outline Your Buyer’s Journey

You want your Facebook strategy to be as refined and effective as possible, and for that, you need to understand the consumers’ mindset when they encounter your content. The buyer’s journey is the process a consumer goes through when they realize they need a solution to a problem. It starts with awareness of the problem, transitions to consideration of the possible solutions, and ends with a decision to purchase or not purchase.

Figure out where your content fits into the buyer’s journey and tailor your content to guide readers from that point to the purchase decision. Don’t try to sell the solution with the content. The goal of the content is to provide value for this stage of the journey, not the end stage, and fortify your funnel against leaks by building relationships with your followers.

7. Carve Out a Place for Your Content

You’re probably familiar with your regular competitors in your industry, but when you’re trying to grow a following for your content, you might find yourself competing against entities whose sole purpose is to deliver content to your audience. If you want your content strategy to be successful, you’ll have to find a place where you can thrive without straying from your target audience and the buyer’s journey.

Start by defining the various pain points your audience faces and use that to identify what content they want. Then identify the content that they’re already getting. If there are any gaps or areas where the existing content isn’t as strong, consider how that niche fits into your buyer’s journey and whether it can function as an effective piece of your sales funnel.

8. Create a Content Calendar Specific to Facebook

Based on the behavior and preferences of your target audience, create a list of engaging content ideas that are specific enough to be quickly turned into content as needed. Next, you’ll need to decide how often you’ll be posting. Depending on your schedule, you might want to make a plan for the week, the month, or even longer. It can be difficult to fill a content calendar when you’re just getting started, but some of the most popular content trends will help make it easier.

• Create seasonal and holiday posts, even for the lesser-known or regional holidays that are relevant to your brand.
• Use weekday hashtags to boost consistency and engagement
• Sneak in your adverts and promos
• Share your blog content with creative infographics and quote graphics
• Publish relevant tutorials
• Share customer testimonials regularly
• Run a contest or giveaway periodically

9. Create Your Content

Once you have everything planned out, it’s time to create the content. For most SMB leaders, it’s not practical to assume you’ll have time every morning to sit down and write social media posts for all your platforms, not to mention gather the images and video you’ll need for many of them.

It’s much more efficient to collect your graphics, images, and video and develop your copy in large batches known as content batching. Create your content ahead of time and publish posts automatically with a content scheduler.