Rethink how you categorise your social media content, and you’ll find it way easier to post incredible content on a regular basis
When I worked in BBC Local Radio, every morning we’d have a planning meeting about what content would be in the breakfast show the next day.
We split the content into ‘on the day’ stories which were only relevant that day, and stories that can ‘hold’ to another day.
I use the same principle for organising my business social media content planner – and it’s helped me go from positing weekly, to three to five times a week.
When I say ‘content planner’, it’s just a simple calendar spreadsheet, where I add a ‘headline’ into each day which reminds me what I’m going to post about.
So all I need to do is open the diary, see the content idea, and post it. It removes the scrabbling around of ‘what on earth shall I post about today?!’
When initially filling up your planner, the first thing you need to do is add in your content ideas, split up into ‘on the day’ content and ‘evergreen’ content.
Add your on the day content into your social media planner
Just because ‘on the day’ content has to be posted that day, it doesn’t mean you don’t know about it in advance of that day.
For example, I might have made a video for a crowdfunding campaign that is being launched on a certain day, so I can add into my planner that on launch day I’ll post about that.
Or I might be going to a business event, or have an on-site client job – I know in advance that I can post about these things on that date.
So your first task is to put all of your’ on the day’ content into your social media planner.
Fill in the gaps with your evergreen content
I just use ‘evergreen’ content to mean content which isn’t time specific. It wouldn’t matter if you posted it today, tomorrow, or in six months’ time – it’d still be relevant.
This could be a promotional video about one of the packages you offer; an explainer blog answering a common question you get asked; or a social media graphic with a customer testimonial.
Slot these pieces of content around your ‘on the day content’.
You might have one day where you were going to post some evergreen content, but something has cropped up and there’s something else you need to post NOW.
That’s absolutely fine. It’s evergreen content. You can just move it to a later date.
That’s why I like making my planner on a computer. When it was written down, it was all scribbles and arrows as I moved content around. The planner stays much clearer on a computer.
Don’t just post evergreen content once
Social media algorithms can be a nightmare, but the main thing you need to understand is that social media sites don’t show your content to all of your followers when you post it.
They first trial the content with the people who interact with your posts most. And if it does well with them, it then puts it onto more of your followers’ feeds.
Which means a lot of the time, people won’t have seen the content you’ve posted. So post it again in a few months! Again, it’s evergreen content, it’s still relevant.
How quickly you re-post is up to you. I’ve got enough blogs that I’ll probably repost them six to nine months later.
But sometimes, if a blog gets particularly little engagement the first time I post it (and I know it’s good content!) I’ll line it up for two to three months’ time.
Evergreen content takes the pressure off posting
You might be looking at this and thinking ‘that’s all well and good, but I don’t have any evergreen content’.
I’ll give you some tips on producing that next, but the first thing I’d say is that when you take away the time pressure of ‘oh god I have to post something today’, the ideas flow much easier.
I have post ideas on the train, when I’m going to sleep, when watching TV. Inspiration can strike anywhere, so just jot down the bare bones of your idea, and you can flesh it out at a later date.
Three ways to trigger evergreen content ideas
With that out of the way, the first thing to do is jot down questions clients ask you about your work. For me, this might be ‘what should I wear for filming’.
Content like this makes excellent blogs or explainer videos, as they show off your expertise, and also show up well in Google as other people are likely to be searching for answers to those questions.
Posts about work that you’ve done and clients that you’ve worked with also make good evergreen content. So that’s case study videos; written customer testimonials; portfolio blogs going in-depth into the work you did.
Finally, content promoting the products or services you offer can be posted again and again.
Tracking your content production timeline
I’ve also produced two ‘production trackers’ so I can keep an eye on what content I need to develop, and the deadline for doing so.
Again, these are simple excel spreadsheets, and I have one for blogs and one for videos – since these are the main two types of evergreen content I produce.
Simply add in the title of your content, and ticks for the different stages of production, so you can see at a glance how close a piece of content is to being published.
You can also add deadlines; so if you know you want to post a blog on the 15th July, add a 14th July deadline to your production tracker.
Want some help with content ideas, or want to generate some awesome ‘evergreen’ video content? Get in touch for a free 30 minute video marketing review.
