#PlanYourBusiness – The Benefits of Themes (Daily, Weekly, Monthly)

Keeping marketing materials fresh can be a challenge. When it comes to social media, it can be all the more difficult since the landscape changes rapidly. Nevertheless, it’s essential that your content stays on-brand, relevant and timely. While that may sound like a tall order, there is a way to simplify the task of developing content — creating themes.

When you design a series of themes to use on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, you provide yourself with a framework for your content. This enables you to focus on specific topics and to spread that focus across all the platforms you use. Focusing on specific themes can help jump-start your creative juices.

Before you start to develop a series of themes, remember that the most effective social media is consistent, engaging, and authentic. That means that your themes should work together with your entire business objective. It also means that you need to know who your audience is and what type of information will be most useful to them.

Before you start, take a quick inventory of:

• Your audience: If you don’t know who your audience is then this is a great time to find out. Even the best content will miss the mark if it doesn’t target the right group.
• What your goals and objectives are: For your content to be consistent and authentic, it needs to fit in with your overall messaging.
• What tools you will use: Knowing how you will develop your content can help guide you in selecting themes that you can execute. It can also help you develop a plan for how to go about the job of actually creating the content.
• What platforms you take advantage of: Each platform has unique requirements. Understanding how you will present the content can help you work more efficiently.
• What your budget is: It doesn’t do much good to create a list of daily themes if you don’t have the resources to produce daily content. Be realistic about what your limitations are. Remember that you want consistency. If you only have time to post monthly, then be honest and open about it.

What themes are best for you will depend on your audience, your business, and your resources. Regardless of what your constraints are, focused themes can provide a valuable framework for developing your social media; they can jump-start your creativity and help you fully utilize each platform.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

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