You set up a company Facebook page. You’re tweeting more than a Kardashian. You’re sharing cat memes. Now you just have to sit back and let fans and followers turn you into the next social media success story, right?

Sadly it’s not that easy. While the buzziest brands in social appear to rack up engagement with random and spontaneous posts, you can bet that their strategy is always rooted in a carefully developed content plan and editorial calendar.

Your editorial calendar is the foundation for compelling social content. It organizes your content strategy and ensures that every post, image, link and video you share is connecting with your target and advancing that important relationship.

Once you’ve picked your social media platforms, bring order to your strategy and craft your editorial calendar in three easy steps:

Step 1: Select Topic Buckets

List the 6–8 topic buckets that all your content will fall into. While these topic buckets should represent your brand expertise, make sure they’re relevant to your target and not all about company news. For example, if you’re a health care organization, consider a “success stories” topic bucket that allows you to spotlight patient testimonials.

Step 2: Plot Your Content

There’s a reason why we call it an editorial calendar—the best ones literally give a day-by-day snapshot of the content you plan to post. Are any holidays or special events coming up that are applicable to your brand? Add them to the calendar. Is your organization planning a major announcement or campaign? Get the word out via social by planning for posts before, during or after the big event. Just make sure you don’t set it and forget it—while your calendar is the foundation of your social content, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the others were made for in-the-moment communication too.

Step 3: Lean on Your Team

Your employees are great sources of content, but without an established timeline and plan, contributing to posts will fall to the bottom of their to-do list. Hold a monthly meeting with your core content creators and collect their ideas for your calendar. This is also a perfect time to assign any blog articles, photo shoots or research you might need to make your social content shine.

Get that thoughtful social game plan together so you can capture your target’s attention, drive them to interact with your content and make an impact that actually boosts your brand. And don’t forget—a few cat memes are still okay.

Now that you have a social media content strategy, empower your Subject Matter Experts to craft compelling content with PR and Social Media Director Dana Arnold’s 5 Surefire Steps to Give Your Brand Experts a Voice.