This month’s theme is mapping out your monthly social media calendar and we’ve already gone over how your business can get more out of social media and some great ways to create more effective content by focusing on themes.

Once you’ve established the type of content you’ll be focusing on, it’s time to take a look at the upcoming month and forge the right plan. In particular, you’ll want to look at time-specific events, trends, and other elements that can make your content timely and stand out.

In this video, I give you some ideas on how to add time-sensitive subjects, trends, and holidays to your social media calendar to create major buzz and build a rock-solid brand.

(Don’t forget the downloadable I mention in the video – the link is below in the Resources section.)

This months’ theme is mapping out your monthly social media calendar and we’ve already gone over how your business can get more out of social media and some great ways to create more effective content by focusing on themes.

Once you’ve established the type of content you’ll be focusing on, it’s time to take a look at the upcoming month and forge the right plan. In particular, you’ll want to look at time-specific events, trends, and other elements that can make your content timely and stand out.

Why Month-Specific Content Matters

Evergreen content, which is content that doesn’t go out of date and that you can use year-round, is always great to have, but at least some of your social media content needs to be related to relevant events to truly reach a broad audience. Furthermore, month-specific content helps complement the content themes you’ve worked on in the previous lesson. Planning out your social media calendar demands a holistic approach, and content relevant to the time of year is an essential ingredient.

Holidays

National holidays are perhaps the clearest case where you can combine date-specific events with your social media content, so plan accordingly. Also take note of international holidays, which have become more well-known over the years. I had a client who would do a summer promotion for International Yoga Day, if you are an author, you can celebrate International Literacy Day. International Computer Security Day is this month, so if you provide computer security products or services, you can build a promotion around that.

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day have always been popular but this year I saw a lot of social media posts for daughter’s and son’s day. Holiday-related promotions are a great way to add a bit of easy-to-remember time pressure.

In the resources section, I will post links to popular calendar sites.

Fun Holidays

In recent years, a growing number of fun and quirky holidays have swept across social media. World Chocolate Day, as an example, offers you a fun way to add some sense-stimulating content to your social media calendar. As a solopreneur, you probably know the importance of self-care, so use your experience to show how your offerings can help potential clients better balance their lives. These quirky celebrations occur frequently, so make sure to see what’s coming up, and have fun flexing your creativity.

Industry Events and Conferences

Industry events provide people in nearly all fields an opportunity to gather together and exchange ideas in a fun environment, and the news that comes from these events and conferences will shape their fields for the following year and beyond. Take a look at which events are coming up in the next month and make sure your social media calendar incorporates them. You may also want to budget some time to read news related to industry events and post relevant content. If your business deals with fashion in some way, for example, you’ll definitely want to have a few posts addressing New York Fashion Week.

Current Events

Is there a national election in the upcoming month? Have some fun by hosting polls or other content on your social media feed. Is a new superhero movie set to come out? Encourage your followers to be heroes in the real world while explaining how you can help. People love using social media to keep up with current events, and your planning will help you get in on the action.

Fill in your social media calendar with the most obvious holidays and events you want to incorporate, then fill out those ideas by doing a Google search for “social media holiday calendar [plus the current year].” You’ll find thousands of ideas but don’t let this become a distraction. Go one step further and create your own holiday with a customized hashtag for added fun.

Looking ahead to the next month is important for making your social media feed fun, engaging, and relevant. Make sure to fill out your calendar in a way that’s easy to see visually. Each month will present various opportunities, but you’ll inevitably have some gaps that need extra care. By planning ahead for the month, you’ll be better equipped to make your social media feed content consistent.

I made it really easy and added a link to a downloadable in the resource area. 

Stay tuned, next week we go over how to plug in promotional content the right way.

Catch up on other episodes + resources mentioned in the video:

• [Video] How to squeeze the most out of your social media moving forward
• [Video] Choosing Crave-Worthy Content Themes
• [Video] How to plug in promotional content the right way to capture attention, drive interest, and produce sales
• [Video] Choosing the right social media calendar to help your unique business boom
• Fun, Weird, and Special Dates for your social media calendar by Angie Gensler
• [Downloadable] Visual Calendar to track your month-specific content

Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Grab this kit!