Need to Fill Up Your Content Calendar?

We’re all living in the land of social media with our businesses so having a content calendar is a key element to being organized and prepared for getting our brand out there consistently. It is also key for infusing your business with a personality and to show that you’re not doing the same boring ‘ol things that business B is doing. Thus, creating more engagement. But as a business owner, there is nothing worse than struggling with creative block. You’re feeling pressure with all your client deadlines, your deadlines, you’re wearing too many hats and you’re in a slump as you just can’t think of any original ideas to post or even some eye-catching concepts for your next campaign. Your head hurts!

That’s probably why you are here today, reading this post! It’s okay, it’s easy to fall into despair. We all need a lift of inspiration now and again because you want the individuals who follow your social feeds to feel emotion regarding what content you’re posting and in such a way that they will respond (comment, like share, etc.) because your post(s) spoke to them. It “gets” them.

However, preparing weeks upon weeks, no months, of content doesn’t always come easy and take a lot of thought, time and preparation to make them “get you”. It’s not just researching relevant holidays/theme days or uploading quirky quotes from the rich and famous. It’s a bit more complicated than that. But no need to go hide under your desk rocking back n’ forth … I have some great tips, helpful ideas as well as some infographics to share with you today that will keep you (and keep you) well on your way to content marketing success!

“Good strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say no to a wide variety of actions and interested. Strategy is at least as much about what an organization does not do as it is about what it does.” – Richard Rumelt, Author of  Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

Let’s get started with are a few steps to help with creating and filling up your social media content calendar:

Set social media content goals:

Here is where your plan will come into play. The best way to keep your social content organized is on a calendar. IT will give you and your team full visibility into your social schedule and makes it way easier to plan in advance when time allows for it. But before you start filling in those blank fields with content you must define some goals for your brand. You must have some sort of strategy in place which will help you stay on-point so that every post, tweet, pin has a purpose and works towards your end goal. Having these goals set in place will also help you measure your audience impact and overall success. It will also help you maximize your time to the ultimate power!

“Doing business with advertising is like winking at the girl of your dreams in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.” – Anonymous

Decide on your content mixture:

When it comes to content, one thing business owners usually forget it that just because it’s your feed doesn’t mean the content you post should only be yours. Your content should also be relevant to shares of other really great content that has already been produced. For example: a combination of event promotions, industry news, tips n’ tricks, new programs, platforms and resources as well as industry news.

Now you should of course sprinkle your own content on your social feeds as well but adding in some curated content is a great way to bring some extra well-deserved attention to both parties (yourself and the content curator of what you’re sharing/commenting on). You should work to tie all things created by you (or your team) for your business as well as the curated content which will create some amazing results when it comes to audience engagement.

“Good content isn’t about good storytelling. It’s about telling a true story well.”
– Ann Handley, Keynote Business Speaker, Writer and Marketer

Create your own social media content calendar:

This one is the easiest tip of the bunch! I know, it can sometimes be a hassle to remember which content you shared when and on what platform(s). Especially when all platforms have different character counts and no option to pre-schedule (such as Facebook does – YAY to that, right?!?). So, having a social media content calendar will provide you with a great organizational advantage as you will be able to sort, organize and plan for days, weeks and months ahead. And, it honestly doesn’t require a crap ton of effort tog et one set up. I prefer to use an Excel spreadsheet, however some of my clients prefer GoogleDocs that way all members on their team can see what’s happening in live-mode and there is no cross-over of files being over-written. But if you’re looking for something a little more in-depth there are all sorts of platforms and free templates online.

P.S. If you’re looking for some assistance in this area, drop me a line as I’d be glad to help/create one for you or shoot you some resources! 🙂

Find and fill-in some key dates:

Okay, here is where the fun begins when it comes to putting holiday and event dates into play!

Okay, let’s get real … no matter where you live on this glorious rock, we call home, holidays ARE a big deal! So, why not show some holiday spirit by creating (or sharing) some holiday-related posts on your business social feeds. It could be as simple as a relatable image or video, or maybe even an article from your blog (or curated holiday content).

Now holiday posts aren’t the only beneficial way to bring up engagement. Think events too!

For example, this Sunday is #NationalSuperheroDay so I’m running a short, yet very special campaign (sweet discount deal on all retainer packages so stay tuned!) for all the special entrepreneurs out there using their superhero powers (through all the blood, sweat and tears, LOL) … The late nights, early mornings, endless cups of caffeine, running from here to there, mastering every piece of tech we can get out hands on, the endless meetings, long to-do lists …

Another good example, coming up very soon would be Star Wars May the Fourth …

Or how about some of these other special dates …

• Earth Day (April 22 – so maybe next year)
• World Password Day (first Thursday of every May)
• World Hunger Day (May 28^th)
• World Humanitarian Day (August 19^th)
• Mental Awareness Week (October 1^st to 7^th)
• World Mental Health Day (October 10^th)
• Giving Tuesday (first Tuesday of every December)
• International Human Rights Day (December 10^th)

Just a short list of examples as you can see but Hubspot has a really great free calendar template with all these special dates on it, and MORE! Or check out this link right from the source (National Calendar Day).

If you are going to succeed in the land of social media, you need all the right tools, right at your fingertips. And I’m in hopes that this post was just that …!

So, to end this very informative blog post with something fun, here are two of my favourite reference infographics to use for ideas when that gosh darn creative block hits! If you’re anything like me, sometimes visuals do more than words …

Now it’s time to share with us …

• What’s on your content calendar for the month coming up?
• What social media struggles are you dealing with right now?
• Do you need help keeping up but not sure where to find it?

If you answered YES to that last question, let’s chat!

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