One of the more frequent questions I get is, “What am I supposed to post to social media?”
I’ve seen frustration over and over about this question.
First and foremost, the objective is much deeper than social media.
It’s about building your online presence and creating a place for your readers, a place they will feel special and valued.
And that is all about your brand. Take the time to develop your brand.
Then creating content will be easier.
Creating quality content online requires a plan, and a good idea of what attracts users.
- We’re building community for readers to get to know you and your work.
- People jump on social media to be distracted by what they’re interested in.
- A content calendar is a list of everything you will post online .. blogs, social, whatever… as part of a content marketing strategy.
So, what can events do for your content calendar?
Give you tons of ideas for content.
- Highlight the Hispanic heritage of one of your characters
- Discuss your favorite way to celebrate the culture
- Show a video of you making your favorite margarita or taco
- Explain what Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates
The possibilities are endless for just about any holiday. So which ones should you include in your content calendar?
All of them! It gives you more to choose from throughout the year. You may not use them all but at least you have them.
Holidays
Not just US national holidays.
- Include holidays from your city, your county, your state, from other countries, from your family, your organization, your friends.
- Anything that could remotely be used.
- You may not know how just yet but include it because you can decide later.
- I include the Chinese New Year, my college graduation date, my Air Force commissioning and the first time I went rappelling.
Anniversaries & Birthdays
Same here. Not just wedding anniversaries or your own birthday, any and all of them.
- Down at Cape Canaveral, we use all the space anniversaries to include shuttle launches, the moon landing and other cool astronaut dates.
- You could use book launch dates, book idea dates, character birthdays and anniversaries.
Conferences & meetings
Professional conferences, deadlines for proposals or presentations, even if you aren’t attending them but would like to.
- INFOWar Conference is an Information Operations conference in DC every year in May, I always include that one.
- Pikes Peak Writers Conference is in April. It goes on the list too.
- Mark Twain Festival in Hannibal, Missouri, is also always in May. You get the point.
Concerts
Of all genres.
- You never know if you’ll be in the mood for Blake Shelton, Mozart or Third Eye Blind.
- Music can always be included in some part of your plan.
The idea is to pack your content calendar full of events so you’ll have enough to choose from. You also want to include any themes or messages you’d like to focus on for the year. And then consistently post content. Whether to social media or a blog or a podcast or video channel, pick a day of the week and create one piece of content. Then repurpose that for all your outlets.
For example, if you write a blog, turn pieces of it into tweets. Pick your favorite line and post the link to your Facebook Page. Create a graphic to go with it and post it to Instagram. Shoot a three minute video giving the highlights and put that in your Story or on a YouTube channel.
No matter what you decide to post, build the content calendar and be consistent.
To get your Writer Nation list of national, weird, crazy and fun holidays, click here.