The challenge of consistent content delivery

What’s the challenge?

Not enough businesses plan ahead.

What topic do you want to discuss today? How about tomorrow? Next week? Next month? How do these topics help you achieve your overall business goals? Did you write them down?

Many business owners feel they have to sit down for X amount of time per day and “do” social media. While I think setting a dedicated time to check in is a good thing, it’s not necessarily the best time for you to scramble to put a blog post together, promote it on Facebook, Twitter et al and then try to squeeze in some actual social interactions. 

Instead, why not block off a half day once or twice a month to bulk schedule your foundation content? Does that sound overwhelming? Here are three steps to make it painless.

1) Create and use an editorial calendar.

Your editorial calendar is where you can decide whether you want to have themes to focus on - monthly, weekly, and/or daily. Here’s a sample of our editorial calendar:

See how organized it can make your process? Sign up for our newsletter and I’ll send you the Excel file!By taking an hour to plan out about 6 months of themes, you will create a plan that guides your work.

2) Write the content.

Set aside a fixed time when you can sit and write uninterrupted. Use this time to write blog and other social media posts that fit your themes. Don’t forget to update the editorial calendar as you do the writing. 

3) Schedule the content.

Since you’ve already put everything in your editorial calendar, scheduling it all out is a pretty quick process. I recommend scheduling no more than 1-4 weeks in advance so you can easily make adjustments. Sometimes things happen that can change the focus you want to take. That doesn’t mean that content isn’t still good - it just means that it may be put off for a bit.

Bonus tip: Be present.

Scheduling your content is okay, even though some have differing opinions. However, scheduling content does not mean that you set it and forget it. I’ve met with clients who do this and they’re very unsatisfied with the results of their efforts. Get on social media and be social. You don’t have to tell your life story, but don’t push out content you want people to read without being there to talk to them about that and other things as well.

What other tips do you have for organizing and minimizing the time you spend on social media?

Content management tip: schedule!

One of the best ways to manage your online content is to create a lot of content at once and then schedule it out to last for awhile.  In today’s video we talk about why that’s a good idea, even though some disagree.  

Watch it and then leave a comment below letting us know if you schedule content, if you’ll try it now, or if you’ve had any issues with it!

Anna Belanger conquers Facebook

One of the things we are always looking to do is to empower people so that they can create their own authentic online presence using social media.  

A friend and client, Anna Belanger of Anna Belanger and Associates, wasn’t using her Facebook page to its potential. After some regular proding from me to post more often (every day!) we finally agreed to have me create a list of Facebook status updates and she committed to posting daily for a month.

What happened next is exactly what I want to see happen with all of my clients.  Anna got into the groove. She realized that coming up with regular content wasn’t as hard as she thought and that content didn’t need to be all “important announcements”, but more engaging and varying things that would entertain and give value to her audience.

The growth on her page in the three months since she started posting regularly and engaging with her audience on a personal level has been incredible (a 50% increase!).

I asked Anna a few questions to share her perspective on how things happened:

Going back to the Fall, what were your Facebook habits?

I would post a status here and there. Usually I would only post if I had something to announce.

Did you find the idea of coming up with daily posts overwhelming?

At first I couldn’t imagine with a post everyday. I thought that I would be overwhelming my audience. However, now I look forward to the challenge and it’s interesting to see which posts get the most response.

What changed so that you no longer found it difficult?

Originally what changed was the list of posts you sent me. I didn’t think to look up stuff on pinterest or from other sites. I also found it less difficult when I saw my audience responding positively to the daily posts.

What changes have you seen since you started posting daily?

My following has grown immensely! We also started including our clinic openings and have found that last minute booking has increased.

Have you seen any direct impact on your business?

Absolutely, posting our openings and course availabilities has increased our booking. I also find that others on my page share our openings and courses and have increased visibilitiy to the clinic!

All it took was creating a list of 30 Facebook updates and scheduling them for a month to get into a habit and realize that creating content wasn’t nearly as difficult as she had feared.  

Take some time today and write down 30 status updates for your page.  They can be images, links, tips, quotes, things you like to do with your family or a million other things.  The key is to provide value or entertain your audience.  You know that audience best - what do you think they’d like to read about? 

Share some of the things of status updates you find work best on your page in the comments.  

Will you go write a list now?