So you have started a website and now you want to start writing, blogging, sharing, etc? I believe creating a content calendar for this is a must! This will better organize you, your blog and your social media efforts. A lot of articles cover what a content calendar is and why you should be using one but in this post I will be sharing a quickie on how to whip up your first content calendar.
First off, you need there is no wrong or right way to do a content calendar. If you want to do one for editorial content on the blog and mimic that on your social media content calendar, then by all means do it. As long as you are doing something to figure out what may work for you and your goals and what doesn’t, then you are taking many great strides in the right direction.
Schedule
Something to consider is how far ahead you want to plan. I would say take baby steps. Remember if this is something that is new to you so you are going to want to figure out what works best FOR YOU! Lets say you are planning just a month ahead for right now.
We need to get a schedule in place:
When you are working on your own it is a bit more work but should be fairly organized and easy to figure out what you want posted on your blog or social and on what day. When you have a team that is larger than one then it may get a bit messy you can divvy out the days if you need but make sure everyone is on the same page.
Building your calendar
What will your format be? It can be as simple as a paper calendar with post it notes. Or you can geek out on spreadsheets. Just make sure it is something that can be changed later on. Anyone online knows that trends likes and dislikes can change often. You are going to see that you are changing your calendar often especially when you are learning. So never go at it with the thought of making anything permanent.
Content
So, what is going to go on your Calendar?
To make things easy lets start with Holidays. I like to include major holidays along with the silly “national” holidays. Here are a list of the federal holidays to include.
Federal Holidays:
- New Year’s Day
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- George Washington’s Birthday
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Columbus Day
- Veterans Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
Check out this site and see what fun holidays you want to include in your calendar!
Why? This stuff makes for the easiest base for content on both your blog and social and with minimal effort.
For instance: It was Groundhog Day. So, on social media we used this as one of our posts for the day:
Not only did it play off of the holiday but it also got people to our site with the purpose of building their own.
Or for instance this one on Thank A Mailman Day
Doing this should not only help you get some easy content on your calendar but it could also help you brainstorm some additional posts.
Personal Holidays
Now consider those holidays specific to your business. Such as, your companies anniversary, any annual events you have, etc.
Our anniversary is in April and we always say thank you to our customers by offering a killer bundle. You can see the blog about our anniversary bundle here. That fills up a good amount of time on our calendar.
Trending Days
What about those days on social that are trending.
Such as:
- Motivational Mondays
- Transformation Tuesdays
- Hump Day
- Throwback Thursday
- Flashback Friday
You can use these as well!
PROTIP: Dont go too crazy and use all of those days in one week. While they are all enjoyable there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
TIME TO BUILD THAT CALENDAR!!
Got questions or feedback? Sound off in the comments section below!
