Does it ever seem like some people really have their content strategy nailed down? Like how an article shared on LinkedIn, a well-timed Tweet, an engaging blog on Facebook, or a lovely photo on Instagram just magically appear on your timeline. That content was created with a strategy in mind and an organizational system to back it up.
Having an editorial calendar can help you structure your content so you can create a seasoned social presence for your business.
What Is an Editorial Calendar?
Every Christmas, my mom makes everyone in my family a calendar for the new year. They are always filled with adventures from the previous year– smiles from my cousins, wrapping paper covering the floor on holidays, family gathered around the table to share a meal. She even writes in each person in the family’s birthday, making sure we never forget anyone!
Similarly, an editorial calendar can help you schedule your time to ensure that all of the work you have to do gets done and that tasks are not forgotten. Anyone in the business of creating content can benefit from using an editorial calendar. It is a tool that helps you organize your day-to-day content for creating blogs, social media posts, email campaigns, and newsletters. Your calendar can also keep track of and be organized by keywords so that you are able to track specific keywords in your content.
In essence, an editorial calendar is a place to organize your ideas, ensuring your content is promoted in an efficient manner, and that it reaches your desired audience.
Write For the Masses
Shakespeare wrote his plays to be experienced, lived, and absorbed by the masses. Between 18,000 to 24,000 people went to the theater each week in Elizabethan England!
Write your content like Shakespeare wrote his plays: often and for everyone! All of this is to say, don’t write in a vacuum. I am passionate about getting my clients to tell their story and share it with the world. If you do not promote the wonderful content that you created, no one will be able to see it or interact with it which won’t get you any leads.
Your editorial calendar will be able to help you build out a strategy for organizing and promoting your content. Content marketing is more than writing blog posts and sharing it with your audience. It is about creating helpful and holistic content that your audience can engage with so that they learn something and most importantly get to know and trust you as a brand. This means that your content could range from blog posts to ebooks to social media. Having a strong editorial calendar will help in your task of strategizing, organizing, and promoting your content.
Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box with your editorial calendar, and incorporate other methods of organization to build a system that works for you.
Remove the Roadblocks
So many people worry that they won’t be able to come up with ideas, and that stops them from creating at all. If you find yourself strapped for ideas on what to write about there are many free tools available to help you generate blog topics. My favorite is Hubspot’s blog idea generator. It is really easy to use. All you have to do is input up to 5 nouns and the system will spit out a week’s worth of blog ideas. Keep in mind, the titles do not always make sense so use your best judgement and use this tool as a jumping off point for creating your next best blog!
Your editorial calendar helps to remove any roadblocks that stand in the way of you creating and sharing your best content. It also helps you to build a solid strategy that maps out your to do’s before you even reach them – no more “I don’t know what to write about/post about” moments!
Why wait? Start building your editorial calendar today and see how helpful it can be!
