March 26, 2025 • 16 mins
On this episode of 1000 Ways to Market Your Business, Samantha Scott, APR, is joined by Tricia Mullis, Engagement Strategist at Pushing the Envelope.
The two discuss the essential do's and don'ts of content planning, covering the importance of balancing structured content calendars with the flexibility to adapt to trends and events. The discussion delves into creating a strategy that prioritizes high-quality content, using data to guide decisions, and knowing when to repurpose successful content.
Have a question or feedback to share? Visit www.getpushing.com or one of our many social media channels. We look forward to hearing from you.
#marketing #business #communication #strategy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Samantha (00:05):
Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to another episodeof 1000 Ways to Market Your
Business, a podcast brought toyou by Pushing the Envelope.
I am Samantha Scott, and today Iam delighted to be joined by
Tricia Mullis.
Tricia (00:16):
Hi, everybody.
I'm Tricia Mullis, and I'm PTE'sEngagement Srategist.
Samantha (00:21):
So she's underselling herself, she's a lot more than
that, but she's the perfectperson to talk about our topic
today, which is the do's anddon'ts of content planning.
So if you're not familiar withthat, we're going to dive into
all the different aspects of it,the good, the bad, the ugly, and
why you need this for successfulmarketing.
So Tricia, kick us off.
Tricia (00:40):
Absolutely.
So a lot of businesses eitherover plan and lose flexibility
or they under plan and they kindof end up scrambling.
So content calendars shouldreally be kind of structured
around what your target audienceis looking for but allow room
for those trends and timelytopics and adjustments.
Samantha (00:57):
Absolutely.
You don't want to be too rigid.
You know, we plan our contentideally two months in advance.
But if it's February now and I'mthinking about April, May, a lot
can change from world events,trends, all kinds of different
things can happen in themeantime, and it's so important
to make sure that you remainflexible, to your point, so that
(01:17):
your business can take advantageof those things, but also
capture moments as they happen,and plan for that.
And I'm sure you're going todive into more of that, but
absolutely, couldn't agree more.
So, it's really more than just aplan, it's a strategy, right?
Like, maybe you can kind ofenlighten our listeners and
viewers on why this is animportant element.
It's not just pumping outcontent to have it in the queue,
(01:39):
but there has to be a strategybehind it.
Tricia (01:41):
One hundred percent.
and that's kind of why we takethat two month in advance
approach.
To really keep that solidstrategy, but to the point of
flexibility, we're able to havefun with the trends or adjust if
needed based on the economy,timely things, you know, that
may impact restaurants orretail, whatever the business
might be.
And really, you know, itbalances out the evergreen
(02:04):
versus that timely content.
So I like to think about contentcalendars as kind of meal
planning for the week.
You have to have that structureso you have all your ingredients
that you need for your favoritemeals when you go grocery
shopping.
But you need that little bit offlexibility for when you're just
craving that pizza and you wantto order in delivery.
Samantha (02:21):
Right, exactly.
I love that.
I think that's perfect.
Like, you have to have all theright ingredients, make sure
you've got it on hand.
But, you know, if a craving popsup, we can be flexible.
Tricia (02:30):
Exactly.
And that's where we get into,you know, that evergreen content
is, you know, what does yourbusiness do?
Highlight your services,customer testimonials,
educational posts, what yourtarget audience is really
interested in.
And then all those timely thingsare things that we kind of talk
about with holidays, trends,news or industry shifts.
(02:51):
Those kinds of things that youcan't really plan ahead for, but
you have that flexibility andavailability in your calendar to
add those in when you need to.
Samantha (03:00):
Yeah, the whole point of this is making sure it's
strategic.
So you use the term evergreen,which we use to say like,
content that could beessentially shared any time
because it's not tied to aspecific time of the year.
It's important.
What problems can you solve?
What are the solutions that youoffer your audience?
And then it also helps youprevent those kind of knee jerk
or last minute situations whereit's like, oh, no, I don't have
(03:22):
anything to publish this week orI have to write a bunch of
content because in thosesituations you end up with
lesser quality, lower qualitycontent.
I really want to make sure thatthe content is consistently high
quality, well thought out,supportive of the brand and the
strategy overall, becauseorganic social media is only one
piece of the puzzle, or as welike to say, it's only one tool
(03:42):
in the toolkit.
So making sure that it's alignedwith what you're doing from a
marketing and positioningperspective overall.
Tricia (03:50):
Absolutely.
Samantha (03:52):
So let's talk about some of the do's and don'ts.
Cause we talked about kind ofthe theory of content planning
and why this is important.
So of course, plan ahead andstay flexible.
I think we've talked about thatand people understand why that's
so important, but also balancingtrends and the evergreen
content, making sure that we'reusing data, you know, this is my
favorite, it's where my heartis, using data to guide your
(04:13):
decisions.
So your audience will tell youjust about everything you need
to know, what they're interestedin, how they want to get that
content, what channel, whattype, what day of the week, what
time of day.
So this is super important.
Paige on our team is our datanerd.
We love her and she goes overall the reports.
But it's important for peoplelike Tricia who are writing
content because you're lookingat that and saying, okay, this
(04:35):
type of content or thisparticular campaign, this
messaging performed really,really well, whereas this
didn't.
So let's do more of this andless of that.
We can talk about that as one ofthe key do's.
Tricia (04:45):
Definitely looking at metrics and, you know, like you
said, your audience is going totell you every single thing you
need to know.
You just have to know where tofind it and listen.
And that's from posting times,you know, when they're active on
social media.
Not every industry is going tobe the same, so you have to
really know what your audienceis, where they're at, what
they're doing.
(05:06):
And you know, same thing fortopics.
We actually track all the topicsthat we post about for our
clients, and when Paige, gottalove her, our data guru, she
tells us everything we need toknow about, you know, how much
we're posting about a certaintopic and if it's actually
getting the engagement weanticipated.
And if not, we can kind ofadjust our strategy based on
(05:28):
those metrics.
Samantha (05:29):
Yeah, and it's so important.
Look at that in real time.
You know, you can go into Metaand see how things are
performing or YouTube orLinkedIn, etc.
They all have these metricsincluded and you can watch in
real time.
So if I posted a video today, Ican look at it tomorrow and see
how many people have seen it.
Are they engaging with it?
How much of it have theywatched?
That will also tell you how longyour content should be.
Or if a picture in a post isperforming better than a video
(05:52):
in a post, or a link, etc.
And to your point, right, everyindustry is different, so make
sure you're paying attention tothat if you're in restaurant or
retail or professional service.
But also every channel is alittle bit different.
They're their own kind ofenvironment.
So the way things are going toperform on LinkedIn is different
than Instagram versus YouTube,and paying attention to that is
so important.
And diversifying your strategyas a result of that.
Tricia (06:14):
For sure.
Samantha (06:15):
And like we said, planning for the unexpected,
leaving space in your plan,making sure that you have
somebody available shouldsomething change or something
come up, that they can go in andpause a post, you know, great
example of that.
You know, we're based inSouthwest Florida.
Often we experience inclementweather, hurricanes, things like
that.
And if we're planning inadvance, we have to be able to
be nimble and thoughtful to say,Oh, hold on.
(06:37):
If this is coming up, we need tocancel this post.
It might be a little insensitiveor tone deaf, or maybe
something's not going to happenbecause of this weather.
So making sure you're doingthat.
And then also creating contentthemes.
You know, making sure that weavoid repeating ourselves the
same old content.
Keep it fresh.
Make sure it still speaks toyour brand, but make sure that
we're kind of keeping thingsinteresting.
Because we've all seen the adsor the posts or things that
(06:59):
we've seen a million times andjust scroll over it.
You want to avoid that.
Tricia (07:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
And to kind of get into some ofthe don'ts, a lot of them kind
of mirror each other.
The first one is you don't wantto overload your calendar.
The last thing you want to do isburn out your audience.
Yes.
So, you know, people are onlinealmost every day, if not tens of
times a day.
So, posting too often can kindof burn out not only your
(07:23):
audience but your team, andhonestly, it's really just not
recommended to post that often,because you're oversaturating.
You're going to get littleengagement across the board,
when really you want to focus onthe data backed content that's
going to perform really well.
Samantha (07:38):
So, that brings me to the point of our shift, where we
made the intentional change as acompany for our clients to do
less but best content, based onthat very idea of let's do fewer
posts, but really, really goodcontent, high quality, added
value and see how they perform.
And we've got tons of case studyexamples of that absolutely
(08:01):
working.
So great, great point is first,don't oversaturate.
Make sure that you arepublishing just the right amount
of content and that it's reallygood content.
And I promise it'll perform.
Tricia (08:12):
Oh, for sure.
And a lot of that's trial anderror, too.
And we've kind of learned thatthrough our clients.
First you think, well, if I posthalf the amount of posts, I'm
not going to get near as muchengagement, when 99 percent of
the time you're going to see theexact opposite.
Samantha (08:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think if you're justgetting started with creating
your organic social mediastrategy, I would say take a
look at best practices.
There's tons of resources, youknow, Social Media Today, other
resources, even Meta gives youbest practices and details about
what they would recommend interms of post frequency.
But then pay attention to whatyour audience is telling you.
Are they engaging or are theypulling back?
And you'll be able to gauge howmuch is the right amount for
(08:48):
you.
Tricia (08:49):
Exactly.
And to the engagement point,another thing that you don't
want to do is ignore thoseengagement windows.
If you just post at all theright times, whenever you just
are kind of guessing, probablynot the best idea.
You know, find your audiencewhen they're engaging and post,
make your content be right infront of them.
Samantha (09:07):
Yes, we did that a number of years ago for the
Early Learning Coalition.
We were doing some work for themand we found that while we were
publishing based on bestpractices and recommendations by
channel, their audience wasactually really engaged between
like 6 and 8 p.m.
And at that time, scheduling hadjust come out, because we've
been doing this for a minute,and we told them like, we need
to be changing when we'rescheduling it, and we don't have
(09:28):
to be at the computer at 7o'clock at night to publish this
we can schedule that and theengagement took off to your
point because that was whentheir audience was online and
most engaging with theircontent.
Tricia (09:38):
Exactly, and even thinking about the channels that
you're posting on, you know,most people aren't on LinkedIn
at 10 o'clock in the morning or8 o'clock at night.
They're gonna be checking whenthey first get to work, when
they're on lunch break, youknow, things like that because
that's a really business drivenchannel compared to Instagram.
I'm doom scrolling at 9 p.m.
So really finding that timebased on your audience and the
(10:01):
channel.
And another thing with that isyou don't want to just follow
these trends blindly because notevery trend is a fit for your
brand.
Samantha (10:10):
Yes, exactly.
Ice Bucket Challenge, or whatwas that one where you did the
freeze mode?
There's all kinds of trends andthings.
I mean, and I'm kind of reachingback a little bit in the
archives there, but you'reabsolutely right.
You know, if you're aprofessional service firm, that
might not be the best look foryou.
If you're a fine diningrestaurant, maybe not the best.
There are some that you can takeadvantage of for sure.
Tricia (10:32):
Oh, for sure.
Even just some of the simplesounds that you can kind of
tweak with the visuals to makefit for your brand.
But certainly don't think thatyou have to jump on every single
trend just to get into the, inthe conversation.
Samantha (10:44):
And I think that brings up a great point is, what
is your intent?
You know, are you doing thatjust to get eyeballs?
Okay, great.
But then what does thatultimately do for your business?
You know, that's the question weshould ask with any content
we're publishing, if it'sorganic or paid, or if we're
getting on a trend is what's thepurpose of this?
What is the goal of doing this?
And does that serve my brand?
Tricia (11:03):
Absolutely.
Another thing that businessesdon't wanna do is don't forget
to repurpose content.
If you have quality content thatperforms really well, you don't
necessarily have to copy andpaste it and post the exact same
thing again, you know, causethat kind of just oversaturates
your audience, but repurposethat messaging, because that
message clearly aligned withwhat they're looking for.
Samantha (11:25):
Yeah, that's great.
Video is a great example ofthat.
If you produce a 20 or 30 secondvideo, you can take pieces of
that and make a reel, or astory, or something else with
it.
There's tons of ways you canrepurpose that, or even
repurpose it as b-roll, stufffor your website, a compilation
of different little shortthings.
Absolutely.
Or messaging, to your point,that can go to a blog or, you
(11:46):
know, any other kind of contentthat you're publishing.
If it resonated with youraudience, find ways to repurpose
and put that back out thereagain.
Tricia (11:53):
Exactly, and really you're going to do yourself a
favor in that too, because ittakes time to make quality
videos or quality content.
So if that message really alignswith your audience, absolutely
find other ways to use it.
We don't want to skip reviewingperformance.
Data, data, data.
Because, you know, a contentcalendar isn't just one of those
things that you schedule it allbecause it's convenient, and
(12:16):
then you forget about it.
We're always constantlyadjusting based on what's
working, based on trends, youknow, when you review
performance, check what you havescheduled and see if you need to
adjust anything, add anything,remove anything, the list goes
on.
Samantha (12:31):
Yeah, great point.
Performance, obviously, is myjam.
I love data.
However, this is really, reallycritical, all jokes aside,
because if we're looking at theperformance report for February,
for example, once that's done,and I've already got content
booked out for two months, butI'm seeing that this particular
type of content is just notperforming, it's not connecting
with the audience, then we needto make sure that that's not in
(12:52):
the future content, andsometimes that means going back
and editing something that'salready done.
But it's preventing you fromhaving content that's not going
to perform as well as you wouldlike.
So, absolutely super important.
And to your point too, also,algorithms change, right?
Gotta love.
Tricia (13:07):
They change all the time.
Samantha (13:10):
And Meta doesn't give you a nice little memo that
says, Hey, by the way, wechanged this, so make sure you
make edits.
You have to be aware of that andlooking at the data to see how
these things are performing soyou can make adjustments going
forward.
Really incredibly important.
And of course, I'm a sucker fordata and I would tell you that
anyway, but, it really, reallydoes matter because ultimately,
every single part of yourmarketing, organic social media
(13:31):
included, should and can betested and measured and you can
definitively determine the ROIand anyone that tells you
otherwise is making it up.
Alright, so next let's thinkabout, it's a perfect world.
We've planned all of our stuff,but somebody moves the cheese.
Something comes up.
The unexpected comes up.
Now what?
Tricia (13:50):
Yeah, you know, like you said, based out of Southwest
Florida, you're going to havenatural disasters.
You know, just at the mostrecent year, election years,
there's gonna be outsidecircumstances that you have to
adjust with.
Samantha (14:05):
Yeah, and being aware of those and kind of trying to
plan ahead and also think aboutwhere your brand fits or doesn't
and what may or may not beappropriate to share based on
your particular target audience.
So you know, maybe commenting,you mentioned election year on
politics may not play well.
Maybe that creates divisioninstead of unity.
So maybe you should stay awayfrom that.
But also keeping in mind, youknow, natural disasters can
(14:26):
happen anywhere.
You know, recently there wasflooding, there's been fires,
there's been all kinds ofterrible, sad things.
Making sure that you're aware ofthat, cognizant of that,
thinking about how your brandshould or should not engage with
that.
And then if there's anythingthat you might need to change in
your content plan.
Tricia (14:42):
Exactly.
I mean, you know, we've had ourfair share of hurricanes and of
course, just an election year,and, you know, I think it's
important that even if yourbrand or your business might not
be directly impacted, the peoplein your audience are.
Right.
So they're not gonna be lookingon your Facebook page for the
(15:03):
newest menu item if you're arestaurant or, you know, the
list goes on.
They're worried about themselvesat that point, rightfully so.
So I think the biggest thing is,you know, it's okay to pause
content and just let it lie.
And then figuring out ways toeven just support your
community.
You know, can you adjust thattone, and can you start an
(15:24):
initiative that fundraises orwhatever the situation might be.
And even taking a shift fromorganic content, if you're
running paid ads, you're wastingmoney if you're advertising
through that, because peoplearen't looking for that, so
you're just throwing yourdollars away.
Samantha (15:41):
Yes, your content plan should include paid and organic
and be nimble.
I think we've emphasized thatquite a bit.
I mean, another great example ofthat is when TikTok went down.
And then people were scramblingbecause if they had all of their
emphasis on that one particularchannel and all of a sudden it's
gone, well then what do they do?
So making sure that your contentplan also includes diversity in
terms of the channels thatyou're using.
(16:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, this has been a reallygreat conversation, Tricia.
I am so grateful.
Everything from talking aboutwhy a content calendar is so
important, how to build onethat's strong, strategic, but
also flexible, and then makingsure that we are prepared to
pivot if things happen andsurprises come about.
Tricia (16:20):
Absolutely.
Yeah, the key is just beingflexible, and listening to your
audience for sure.
Samantha (16:26):
Thank you so much.
Thank you for listening, fortuning in, for watching.
If you have questions aboutcontent calendars, suggestions,
tools that you use, we'd love tohear about it.
Make sure you comment and tunein to the next episode of 1000
Ways to Market Your Business.
Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to another episodeof 1000 Ways to Market Your
Business, a podcast brought toyou by Pushing the Envelope.
I am Samantha Scott, and today Iam delighted to be joined by
Tricia Mullis.
Tricia (00:16):
Hi, everybody.
I'm Tricia Mullis, and I'm PTE'sEngagement Srategist.
Samantha (00:21):
So she's underselling herself, she's a lot more than
that, but she's the perfectperson to talk about our topic
today, which is the do's anddon'ts of content planning.
So if you're not familiar withthat, we're going to dive into
all the different aspects of it,the good, the bad, the ugly, and
why you need this for successfulmarketing.
So Tricia, kick us off.
Tricia (00:40):
Absolutely.
So a lot of businesses eitherover plan and lose flexibility
or they under plan and they kindof end up scrambling.
So content calendars shouldreally be kind of structured
around what your target audienceis looking for but allow room
for those trends and timelytopics and adjustments.
Samantha (00:57):
Absolutely.
You don't want to be too rigid.
You know, we plan our contentideally two months in advance.
But if it's February now and I'mthinking about April, May, a lot
can change from world events,trends, all kinds of different
things can happen in themeantime, and it's so important
to make sure that you remainflexible, to your point, so that
(01:17):
your business can take advantageof those things, but also
capture moments as they happen,and plan for that.
And I'm sure you're going todive into more of that, but
absolutely, couldn't agree more.
So, it's really more than just aplan, it's a strategy, right?
Like, maybe you can kind ofenlighten our listeners and
viewers on why this is animportant element.
It's not just pumping outcontent to have it in the queue,
(01:39):
but there has to be a strategybehind it.
Tricia (01:41):
One hundred percent.
and that's kind of why we takethat two month in advance
approach.
To really keep that solidstrategy, but to the point of
flexibility, we're able to havefun with the trends or adjust if
needed based on the economy,timely things, you know, that
may impact restaurants orretail, whatever the business
might be.
And really, you know, itbalances out the evergreen
(02:04):
versus that timely content.
So I like to think about contentcalendars as kind of meal
planning for the week.
You have to have that structureso you have all your ingredients
that you need for your favoritemeals when you go grocery
shopping.
But you need that little bit offlexibility for when you're just
craving that pizza and you wantto order in delivery.
Samantha (02:21):
Right, exactly.
I love that.
I think that's perfect.
Like, you have to have all theright ingredients, make sure
you've got it on hand.
But, you know, if a craving popsup, we can be flexible.
Tricia (02:30):
Exactly.
And that's where we get into,you know, that evergreen content
is, you know, what does yourbusiness do?
Highlight your services,customer testimonials,
educational posts, what yourtarget audience is really
interested in.
And then all those timely thingsare things that we kind of talk
about with holidays, trends,news or industry shifts.
(02:51):
Those kinds of things that youcan't really plan ahead for, but
you have that flexibility andavailability in your calendar to
add those in when you need to.
Samantha (03:00):
Yeah, the whole point of this is making sure it's
strategic.
So you use the term evergreen,which we use to say like,
content that could beessentially shared any time
because it's not tied to aspecific time of the year.
It's important.
What problems can you solve?
What are the solutions that youoffer your audience?
And then it also helps youprevent those kind of knee jerk
or last minute situations whereit's like, oh, no, I don't have
(03:22):
anything to publish this week orI have to write a bunch of
content because in thosesituations you end up with
lesser quality, lower qualitycontent.
I really want to make sure thatthe content is consistently high
quality, well thought out,supportive of the brand and the
strategy overall, becauseorganic social media is only one
piece of the puzzle, or as welike to say, it's only one tool
(03:42):
in the toolkit.
So making sure that it's alignedwith what you're doing from a
marketing and positioningperspective overall.
Tricia (03:50):
Absolutely.
Samantha (03:52):
So let's talk about some of the do's and don'ts.
Cause we talked about kind ofthe theory of content planning
and why this is important.
So of course, plan ahead andstay flexible.
I think we've talked about thatand people understand why that's
so important, but also balancingtrends and the evergreen
content, making sure that we'reusing data, you know, this is my
favorite, it's where my heartis, using data to guide your
(04:13):
decisions.
So your audience will tell youjust about everything you need
to know, what they're interestedin, how they want to get that
content, what channel, whattype, what day of the week, what
time of day.
So this is super important.
Paige on our team is our datanerd.
We love her and she goes overall the reports.
But it's important for peoplelike Tricia who are writing
content because you're lookingat that and saying, okay, this
(04:35):
type of content or thisparticular campaign, this
messaging performed really,really well, whereas this
didn't.
So let's do more of this andless of that.
We can talk about that as one ofthe key do's.
Tricia (04:45):
Definitely looking at metrics and, you know, like you
said, your audience is going totell you every single thing you
need to know.
You just have to know where tofind it and listen.
And that's from posting times,you know, when they're active on
social media.
Not every industry is going tobe the same, so you have to
really know what your audienceis, where they're at, what
they're doing.
(05:06):
And you know, same thing fortopics.
We actually track all the topicsthat we post about for our
clients, and when Paige, gottalove her, our data guru, she
tells us everything we need toknow about, you know, how much
we're posting about a certaintopic and if it's actually
getting the engagement weanticipated.
And if not, we can kind ofadjust our strategy based on
(05:28):
those metrics.
Samantha (05:29):
Yeah, and it's so important.
Look at that in real time.
You know, you can go into Metaand see how things are
performing or YouTube orLinkedIn, etc.
They all have these metricsincluded and you can watch in
real time.
So if I posted a video today, Ican look at it tomorrow and see
how many people have seen it.
Are they engaging with it?
How much of it have theywatched?
That will also tell you how longyour content should be.
Or if a picture in a post isperforming better than a video
(05:52):
in a post, or a link, etc.
And to your point, right, everyindustry is different, so make
sure you're paying attention tothat if you're in restaurant or
retail or professional service.
But also every channel is alittle bit different.
They're their own kind ofenvironment.
So the way things are going toperform on LinkedIn is different
than Instagram versus YouTube,and paying attention to that is
so important.
And diversifying your strategyas a result of that.
Tricia (06:14):
For sure.
Samantha (06:15):
And like we said, planning for the unexpected,
leaving space in your plan,making sure that you have
somebody available shouldsomething change or something
come up, that they can go in andpause a post, you know, great
example of that.
You know, we're based inSouthwest Florida.
Often we experience inclementweather, hurricanes, things like
that.
And if we're planning inadvance, we have to be able to
be nimble and thoughtful to say,Oh, hold on.
(06:37):
If this is coming up, we need tocancel this post.
It might be a little insensitiveor tone deaf, or maybe
something's not going to happenbecause of this weather.
So making sure you're doingthat.
And then also creating contentthemes.
You know, making sure that weavoid repeating ourselves the
same old content.
Keep it fresh.
Make sure it still speaks toyour brand, but make sure that
we're kind of keeping thingsinteresting.
Because we've all seen the adsor the posts or things that
(06:59):
we've seen a million times andjust scroll over it.
You want to avoid that.
Tricia (07:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
And to kind of get into some ofthe don'ts, a lot of them kind
of mirror each other.
The first one is you don't wantto overload your calendar.
The last thing you want to do isburn out your audience.
Yes.
So, you know, people are onlinealmost every day, if not tens of
times a day.
So, posting too often can kindof burn out not only your
(07:23):
audience but your team, andhonestly, it's really just not
recommended to post that often,because you're oversaturating.
You're going to get littleengagement across the board,
when really you want to focus onthe data backed content that's
going to perform really well.
Samantha (07:38):
So, that brings me to the point of our shift, where we
made the intentional change as acompany for our clients to do
less but best content, based onthat very idea of let's do fewer
posts, but really, really goodcontent, high quality, added
value and see how they perform.
And we've got tons of case studyexamples of that absolutely
(08:01):
working.
So great, great point is first,don't oversaturate.
Make sure that you arepublishing just the right amount
of content and that it's reallygood content.
And I promise it'll perform.
Tricia (08:12):
Oh, for sure.
And a lot of that's trial anderror, too.
And we've kind of learned thatthrough our clients.
First you think, well, if I posthalf the amount of posts, I'm
not going to get near as muchengagement, when 99 percent of
the time you're going to see theexact opposite.
Samantha (08:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think if you're justgetting started with creating
your organic social mediastrategy, I would say take a
look at best practices.
There's tons of resources, youknow, Social Media Today, other
resources, even Meta gives youbest practices and details about
what they would recommend interms of post frequency.
But then pay attention to whatyour audience is telling you.
Are they engaging or are theypulling back?
And you'll be able to gauge howmuch is the right amount for
(08:48):
you.
Tricia (08:49):
Exactly.
And to the engagement point,another thing that you don't
want to do is ignore thoseengagement windows.
If you just post at all theright times, whenever you just
are kind of guessing, probablynot the best idea.
You know, find your audiencewhen they're engaging and post,
make your content be right infront of them.
Samantha (09:07):
Yes, we did that a number of years ago for the
Early Learning Coalition.
We were doing some work for themand we found that while we were
publishing based on bestpractices and recommendations by
channel, their audience wasactually really engaged between
like 6 and 8 p.m.
And at that time, scheduling hadjust come out, because we've
been doing this for a minute,and we told them like, we need
to be changing when we'rescheduling it, and we don't have
(09:28):
to be at the computer at 7o'clock at night to publish this
we can schedule that and theengagement took off to your
point because that was whentheir audience was online and
most engaging with theircontent.
Tricia (09:38):
Exactly, and even thinking about the channels that
you're posting on, you know,most people aren't on LinkedIn
at 10 o'clock in the morning or8 o'clock at night.
They're gonna be checking whenthey first get to work, when
they're on lunch break, youknow, things like that because
that's a really business drivenchannel compared to Instagram.
I'm doom scrolling at 9 p.m.
So really finding that timebased on your audience and the
(10:01):
channel.
And another thing with that isyou don't want to just follow
these trends blindly because notevery trend is a fit for your
brand.
Samantha (10:10):
Yes, exactly.
Ice Bucket Challenge, or whatwas that one where you did the
freeze mode?
There's all kinds of trends andthings.
I mean, and I'm kind of reachingback a little bit in the
archives there, but you'reabsolutely right.
You know, if you're aprofessional service firm, that
might not be the best look foryou.
If you're a fine diningrestaurant, maybe not the best.
There are some that you can takeadvantage of for sure.
Tricia (10:32):
Oh, for sure.
Even just some of the simplesounds that you can kind of
tweak with the visuals to makefit for your brand.
But certainly don't think thatyou have to jump on every single
trend just to get into the, inthe conversation.
Samantha (10:44):
And I think that brings up a great point is, what
is your intent?
You know, are you doing thatjust to get eyeballs?
Okay, great.
But then what does thatultimately do for your business?
You know, that's the question weshould ask with any content
we're publishing, if it'sorganic or paid, or if we're
getting on a trend is what's thepurpose of this?
What is the goal of doing this?
And does that serve my brand?
Tricia (11:03):
Absolutely.
Another thing that businessesdon't wanna do is don't forget
to repurpose content.
If you have quality content thatperforms really well, you don't
necessarily have to copy andpaste it and post the exact same
thing again, you know, causethat kind of just oversaturates
your audience, but repurposethat messaging, because that
message clearly aligned withwhat they're looking for.
Samantha (11:25):
Yeah, that's great.
Video is a great example ofthat.
If you produce a 20 or 30 secondvideo, you can take pieces of
that and make a reel, or astory, or something else with
it.
There's tons of ways you canrepurpose that, or even
repurpose it as b-roll, stufffor your website, a compilation
of different little shortthings.
Absolutely.
Or messaging, to your point,that can go to a blog or, you
(11:46):
know, any other kind of contentthat you're publishing.
If it resonated with youraudience, find ways to repurpose
and put that back out thereagain.
Tricia (11:53):
Exactly, and really you're going to do yourself a
favor in that too, because ittakes time to make quality
videos or quality content.
So if that message really alignswith your audience, absolutely
find other ways to use it.
We don't want to skip reviewingperformance.
Data, data, data.
Because, you know, a contentcalendar isn't just one of those
things that you schedule it allbecause it's convenient, and
(12:16):
then you forget about it.
We're always constantlyadjusting based on what's
working, based on trends, youknow, when you review
performance, check what you havescheduled and see if you need to
adjust anything, add anything,remove anything, the list goes
on.
Samantha (12:31):
Yeah, great point.
Performance, obviously, is myjam.
I love data.
However, this is really, reallycritical, all jokes aside,
because if we're looking at theperformance report for February,
for example, once that's done,and I've already got content
booked out for two months, butI'm seeing that this particular
type of content is just notperforming, it's not connecting
with the audience, then we needto make sure that that's not in
(12:52):
the future content, andsometimes that means going back
and editing something that'salready done.
But it's preventing you fromhaving content that's not going
to perform as well as you wouldlike.
So, absolutely super important.
And to your point too, also,algorithms change, right?
Gotta love.
Tricia (13:07):
They change all the time.
Samantha (13:10):
And Meta doesn't give you a nice little memo that
says, Hey, by the way, wechanged this, so make sure you
make edits.
You have to be aware of that andlooking at the data to see how
these things are performing soyou can make adjustments going
forward.
Really incredibly important.
And of course, I'm a sucker fordata and I would tell you that
anyway, but, it really, reallydoes matter because ultimately,
every single part of yourmarketing, organic social media
(13:31):
included, should and can betested and measured and you can
definitively determine the ROIand anyone that tells you
otherwise is making it up.
Alright, so next let's thinkabout, it's a perfect world.
We've planned all of our stuff,but somebody moves the cheese.
Something comes up.
The unexpected comes up.
Now what?
Tricia (13:50):
Yeah, you know, like you said, based out of Southwest
Florida, you're going to havenatural disasters.
You know, just at the mostrecent year, election years,
there's gonna be outsidecircumstances that you have to
adjust with.
Samantha (14:05):
Yeah, and being aware of those and kind of trying to
plan ahead and also think aboutwhere your brand fits or doesn't
and what may or may not beappropriate to share based on
your particular target audience.
So you know, maybe commenting,you mentioned election year on
politics may not play well.
Maybe that creates divisioninstead of unity.
So maybe you should stay awayfrom that.
But also keeping in mind, youknow, natural disasters can
(14:26):
happen anywhere.
You know, recently there wasflooding, there's been fires,
there's been all kinds ofterrible, sad things.
Making sure that you're aware ofthat, cognizant of that,
thinking about how your brandshould or should not engage with
that.
And then if there's anythingthat you might need to change in
your content plan.
Tricia (14:42):
Exactly.
I mean, you know, we've had ourfair share of hurricanes and of
course, just an election year,and, you know, I think it's
important that even if yourbrand or your business might not
be directly impacted, the peoplein your audience are.
Right.
So they're not gonna be lookingon your Facebook page for the
(15:03):
newest menu item if you're arestaurant or, you know, the
list goes on.
They're worried about themselvesat that point, rightfully so.
So I think the biggest thing is,you know, it's okay to pause
content and just let it lie.
And then figuring out ways toeven just support your
community.
You know, can you adjust thattone, and can you start an
(15:24):
initiative that fundraises orwhatever the situation might be.
And even taking a shift fromorganic content, if you're
running paid ads, you're wastingmoney if you're advertising
through that, because peoplearen't looking for that, so
you're just throwing yourdollars away.
Samantha (15:41):
Yes, your content plan should include paid and organic
and be nimble.
I think we've emphasized thatquite a bit.
I mean, another great example ofthat is when TikTok went down.
And then people were scramblingbecause if they had all of their
emphasis on that one particularchannel and all of a sudden it's
gone, well then what do they do?
So making sure that your contentplan also includes diversity in
terms of the channels thatyou're using.
(16:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, this has been a reallygreat conversation, Tricia.
I am so grateful.
Everything from talking aboutwhy a content calendar is so
important, how to build onethat's strong, strategic, but
also flexible, and then makingsure that we are prepared to
pivot if things happen andsurprises come about.
Tricia (16:20):
Absolutely.
Yeah, the key is just beingflexible, and listening to your
audience for sure.
Samantha (16:26):
Thank you so much.
Thank you for listening, fortuning in, for watching.
If you have questions aboutcontent calendars, suggestions,
tools that you use, we'd love tohear about it.
Make sure you comment and tunein to the next episode of 1000
Ways to Market Your Business.
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