So your blog and social media pages have been up and running for about a couple months now. At first, things were exciting, ideas were flowing, it almost seemed effortless, because you’re passionate and love what you do.
But now we’ve reached the third month, you’ve seen some traction, people are loving your content, but the well is starting to dry up.Â
Well, we’re here to tell you it’s completely normal, every writer and even publications with panels full of them face moments when they don’t feel particularly inspired.
The key…being organised! And here’s how you get there.
1. Find Your Voice
How do you expect to appeal to your audience on a regular basis if you haven’t given the topics and your tone the consideration it deserves.
If content is king, consistency is queen. And noting down your key content topics and subtopics are (mentally or in hard copy) for future reference is essential to just that.
Yes, you’d like to create a DIY channel, but what will you be creating? Is that gaining traction at the moment? What is the overall tone of your channels?
Once you have the answer to these questions, everything should be a 100 x easier already.
2. Prepare Editorial Calendars
Once you have these in hand and mind, you can start jotting down some ideas for content. But don’t just store them in your memory bank and put them together as and when they occur to you.
What’s trending today might not necessarily tomorrow. And you never when things might interrupt your time to produce. So plan ahead!
Here’s where the editorial calendar comes in, putting this together will ensure a steady drip of quality and brand-consistent content on your page.
Here are some general tips to consider when coming up with ideas:
- Stay true to your brand image and content pillars
- Monitor trends and see what can place your own personal spin on. Use tools like BuzzSumo, Feedly to find them, and subscribe to channels like BuzzFeed, and more industry relevant publications.
- Not every piece is going to be a ‘’banger’’ but try and introduce as many of these as possible
- Don’t forget the holidays and special occasions; these are great opportunities for time relevant and really fun content. Get creative and be involved!
- Keep in mind the channels you’re trying to build – explained in point 3
3. Social Media Content Plans
While this may be tedious in preparation, you’ll be thanking us down the line… and you’re welcome in advance. You’re probably thinking ‘what’s 1-2 posts a day’, light work right? But remember what we said about consistency.
Not to mention, by planning your channels’ content in advance you can get an idea of how your page/timeline would appear, whether the same is on vision, if there’s enough variety on there, and most importantly if it appeals to every segment of your audience.
Yes, so put together a quick excel, nothing fancy, for a month’s worth of content on each platform.
Few extra tips:
- Throw some variety in there i.e. infographics, videos, memes, gifs, etc
- Curate some of it if necessary (check out our guide on the same if not familiar with how).
- Don’t make the same mistake so many brands do and overdo it with the monologue, it’s great that you want to educate, but people like to feel involved. Keep things lively, use contests, giveaways, host Q&A’s, polls, and even just ask them what they’d like you to talk about.
- Make sure your content is platform specific. Each operates on their own set of rules. Lucky for you, everything you need to know about each of these is right here on our site.
4. Schedule & Implement
Make your life easier and automate the process…to some degree at least by scheduling those posts, tweets, even images/videos for Instagram (yup, you can do that now). Hootsuite and Buffer would be our favorites. Buffer even offers the optimal times for posting…imagine that.
Once done, keep the point below in mind and work on your content for the upcoming month.
It’s still important to keep a close ear to the ground though. Why? To capitalise on any opportunities that may arise, whether some interesting news you could curate or a trend you could put your spin on.
Not to mention, throw in some personal and informal posts using ones that make you more relatable to your audience.
5. Give Them What They Want
Another reason you shouldn’t plan too far in advance, learn from what you’re working with!
See what people are responding too and let that determine what you produce more or less of down the line. This applies across your blog and your social channels.
Keep these in mind and you should have some really lively pages on your hands.