Planning Your Social Media.

Is your social media activity consistent?

Does everything run smoothly, or do you find yourself panicking because you need to think of something clever to share on social media at short notice?  The secret to consistency and quality of content on social media is planning.

A Social Media Calendar

If you are not already using one, you should consider creating a social media calendar. This allows you to plan ahead, ensuring that you have content ready in advance for sharing.  It’s easy to do, you can create it using a simple spreadsheet each month.  Decide on the days you will share content, pick a theme or subject for each date, and then enter it on your spreadsheet.  Start creating the blogs, graphics or videos in advance so they will be ready for sharing when the day comes.

Evergreen Content

Creating some evergreen content is a great idea.  This is content that is not time or date sensitive and will be relevant for the long term.  Having this ready means you are never stuck for something to say.  Plus, it means that you can reshare it every year or even a couple of times a year which will save time and effort.

Here are some popular content ideas to give you inspiration for evergreen content:

FAQ: Think of the popular questions your customers tend to ask, then create the answer.

Pro tips:  You are the expert here, share some valuable tips with your followers.

Behind the scenes: Take lots of photos and some videos, store them on your phone for use later.

Themes: Motivation Monday or Wednesday Wisdom could be a theme for you, create graphics to suit.

Numbers: If you have some great statistics share it by using an infographic.

Quotes:  A saying you love, or an inspirational quotation can make great content.

The two challenges that the small business faces when it comes to social media are these:  Firstly, it’s so time consuming and secondly having to try to think of new content ideas.  Using the simple ideas in this article should lessen the burden for you.  Planning ahead saves time and eliminates the panic.  By using these simple concepts for evergreen content, you can create it well in advance and always seem to have something to share.

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