Tag: Content Marketing

#PlanAhead – How Monthly Themes Will Keep Your Content Fresh & Current

Our advice for 2020? Don’t wing your social media marketing!

There aren’t enough words to adequately describe how beneficial it is to start the new year with a social media marketing plan. One of the best ways to do that is to sit down and figure out a content theme for each month of the year.

Monthly Themes

For example, if you are a carpet cleaning business, your themes could look like this:

  1. Clean Carpets in Winter
  2. Babies Need a Clean Carpet
  3. Clean Carpets & Family Health
  4. Should You Invest in a Carpet Protector?
  5. How Often Should You Clean Your Carpets?
  6. Carpet Cleaning Tips for Pet Owners
  7. What’s Lingering in Your Carpet?
  8. What to Look for When Investing in New Carpet
  9. Carpet Cleaning Myths
  10. Getting Your Home Ready for the Holidays
  11. Putting Together a Household Cleaning Schedule
  12. The Benefits of Regular Carpet Cleaning

This simple list gives you a whole year’s worth of content to talk about on your social media platforms. We’d also encourage you to create original content with these themes such as videos, blog posts, or podcasts. Original content can then be repurposed into social media content (such as quotes and tips) and email newsletters.

If coming up with twelve topics is intimidating or hard, spend some time researching your industry online. Seek out publications, blogs, or other websites to get inspired and see what others in your industry are talking about. Check out last week’s blog on how to not run out of things to say in social media for more tips.

Weekly Themes

If you are ambitious, we’d recommend breaking this down even further. You can take your monthly theme and break that down into weekly topics.

For example, if you are a Reiki practitioner, you could have a month of content that looks like this:

Monthly Theme: Reiki Energy for Busy People

Week 1: Reiki for Stress Relief

Week 2: Reiki for Better Sleep

Week 3: Reiki for Focus & Clarity

Week 4: Reiki for Energy Boosts

Setting aside a couple of days a year to focus on being strategic about your content will ensure that you always have something to post for your social media marketing efforts. It will also keep you from repeating yourself too frequently or having stale content.

If you’d like help creating themes, or becoming more consistent with your social media marketing in 2020, let’s chat!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

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.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

#BePrepared – How to Create Content in Social Media that Your Audience Loves!

You know what they say: Content is king.

But that’s really only applicable if you’re writing content that your audience loves. Otherwise, your content is relegated to the sidelines. It’s more court jester than king.

Churning out content just for the sake of churning out content will get your business nowhere. If you’re not producing quality material, it’s a waste of time for both you and your audience.

If you want to get noticed in this great big online world, your content has to be quality. It has to answer your audience’s questions, solve their problems, or at least be entertaining. It has to make people take notice.

Are your social media posts hitting the mark? If not, keep reading for a few simple ways to up your online game and write content your audience will love:

  1. Know your customers

We’ve talked before about your ideal customer, or “avatar.” By now, you should know them inside and out:

  • Who are they?
  • What do they do for work?
  • Where do they live?
  • Do they have kids?
  • What are their hobbies?
  • What challenges do they need help with?

Keep that person in mind every single time you write a piece of content – even if it’s just a simple Facebook post – and your chances of success will multiply a hundredfold.

  1. Check out the competition

All of the big-name brands monitor the competition to see what they’re up to. There’s no shame in that game!

If you see another brand in your niche that’s killing it on social media, try to figure out what’s working for them.

Maybe they’re sharing more video than you, or they post a lot of quizzes and polls to encourage interaction. Whatever it is, don’t be afraid to take their tactics and work them into your own strategy!

  1. Be responsive

When a member of the public makes a mention of your brand online, whether the comment is good or bad, respond.

Many business owners make the mistake of ignoring online interactions. They assume that if a comment is good, no further action is necessary, because that person is already a fan. If the comment is bad, they may not want to further aggravate the situation by engaging with the detractor.

But a quick response, either way, shows your audience that you care about customer service and value your clients.

  1. Optimize your posts

Last but not least: Do a little keyword research. Yes, keywords matter – even in social media.

Keywords reveal what people are talking about and what they’re likely to be searching for. Use those words in your posts, your social media ads, or your hashtags to ensure you get in front of the largest audience possible.

Writing great content can take time and effort, but if it gets more eyes on your page, it’s totally worth it.

Still feel lost? Check out our Social Power Program, designed to give business owners all the knowledge they need to succeed online – starting NOW.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

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.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

#BePrepared – How to Repurpose Your Content in Social Media

How long does it take you to write a really compelling blog post? Three hours? Four? More than that?

And what happens once you’ve posted it? Does it just sit there and languish, all of that effort wasted?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could take that content and repurpose it in other ways? Maybe get it in front of a different audience?

Well . . . why can’t you?

When you write a stellar blog post and you KNOW that it’s useful to your audience, why not share it across the board?

Keep reading for our favorite ways to take those old blog posts and repurpose them for social media, so you can get the most bang for your online marketing buck!

  1. Create graphics. Take short snippets of useful information from blog posts and turn them into quote graphics or take a list and turn it into an infographic. It’s a fun new way to display the same content and (as an added bonus) visual content often drives higher engagement than text alone.
  2. Build a social campaign. If you have a blog that includes a TON of useful information, you can easily break it down into parts and share each one as a separate social media post. Let your audience know that there is more to come and share a new tip or snippet each day. It will get them hooked and keep them coming back for more.
  3. Utilize your newsletter. It would be nice if everyone in your audience always logged on to read your new blogs, but that’s just not the case. Use your newsletter to get in front of fresh eyes by including links to your blog, writing up summaries of new content, or even sending out a “Top 10” curated list of your favorite posts.
  4. Get ‘em hooked on Twitter. Love a good one-liner? Consider Twitter. There, you can take the most impactful quotes, statistics, and facts from your blog posts and share them as punchy little snippets. Phrase them in a way that leaves your audience dying for more and, of course, link back to the original content.

You put a lot of time and effort into your blog posts. It seems silly to just slap them up on your website and then ignore them. By repurposing your content for social media and other outlets, you can gain a new audience and improve your ROI.

If you need help with brand engagement or building a presence on social media, consider our Social Power Program. We’ll give you all the strategies you need to get your business started on the road to online success.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

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.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

#PlanYourBusiness – Repurpose Your Content from 2018

You already know how important it is to create blockbuster content. You also know that it is not an easy job. That’s why you no doubt commit lots of resources to it.

Here’s a question for you, though. Do you have a plan for getting the most out of your existing content? If you’re like many of us, once you’ve clicked that post or publish button you wipe that particular item off the list. Instead of considering it done, why not queue it up to use it again? Yes – to get the most out of your content you should be repurposing it.

Repurposing content doesn’t necessarily mean you are recycling something old; it means you are taking something that works and giving it new life. Here are five ways to do just that:

Check your analytics – Before you get started, identify which items hit the mark. The most straightforward way to do that is by checking your analytics reports to see which content was the most engaging.

Try a new format – If you have identified a blog post that was popular or shared often, why not turn it into an email series, a video, an infographic, or a presentation? Of course, the proper format will depend on the type of information, but there are plenty of ways to repackage information so that it can find a new audience or reinforce the data to the existing audience.

Update and refresh – Perhaps the best way to use an old article or post is to update it with the latest statistics or give it a new perspective based on the latest thinking.

Bundle it – Have you ever thought of putting all the content you have on a particular topic into an e-book or white paper? Depending on the type of information you prepare, this may be the perfect way to offer it to your audience again. People love downloading free information and making it into a book may do the trick.

Repost it – In the content world we often hear the term “evergreen.” Evergreen content never gets stale. Identify content you have that is still fresh and simply repost it or put it on a different platform.

As you begin your planning for the New Year, make sure that you capture the value of your existing content by including repurposing on your to-do list. Not only will you make the most of what you already have, you are sure to generate ideas for ways to create new content that supplements what you already have.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

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.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Learn how to use social media to grow your business online with our video series!

  • Learn the fundamentals of social media
  • Learn how to build better brand engagement
  • Learn how to enhance your visitors' experience
  • Learn how to grow your business using social media strategies.

If you want someone to break down aspects of social media to get more clients and build your business using social media, this is the program for you.

Start Learning Today!

Follow me

Categories

Latest Articles

©2008-2023 Clere Communications / The Social Media Advisor