Tuesday Tips: Use an Editorial Calendar

Last week, the Wednesday Word explained what an editorial calendar was.  This week, we tell you to put it to use.

Editorial calendars are especially handy when you have multiple individuals working on your social media accounts.  It allows them to see what has been planned out for future days (like questions to be asked, blog posts to be shared etc.) so they make sure they don't post something similar the same day or a day close to it. It also allows for planning posts for holidays or when vacations hit so that posts are planned and scheduled ahead of time.

Of course, there are always surprises that pop up and that can allow you to change things up a bit if you have a calendar in place to see where to move it to.

Editorial calendars are especially useful if you maintain multiple pages/twitter accounts for various parts of your business.

How far out you set up your editorial calendar is totally up to you and your team.  Some folks say 30 days is good, others say 60, some say 90 (I say 90 is just way too far out there).  Figure out what works best for your brand then implement it. You will find it saves you time and energy in figuring out what to post when and where each day.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better. You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Wednesday Words: Editorial Calendar

Today's word is a term you may have heard a few times in previous blog posts here, but is useful for more than just social media and that word is editorial calendar.  An editorial calendar is a calendar used by anyone involved in blogging or maintaining social media accounts and is used to plan and control publication of content across different forms of media, including social media outlets.

There are many different ways to create an editorial planner.  If you are the only one using it, you can go with a day planner or a regular calendar.  If you want to share it, Google Calendar, Hootsuite or even GoogleDocs Spreadsheet works well for collaborative purposes.

This is especially useful for planning posts out in advanced for holidays and for when you are going o be gone, but still need things to post.

WordPress even has an editorial calendar plugin available.  Next week we'll talk more about using editorial calendars.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Tuesday Tips: June is National Safety Month - Plan Accordingly

As part of Tuesday Tips, I will provide an occasional guide on relevant things you can potentially post about during the week.  As May comes to an end, looking at June provides us with a bunch of things to potentially post about.

If you own a business where working safely is important, there are a lot of safety tips that can be shared from the National Safety Council.  All you have to do is sign up to receive a weekly email that provides tips and hints that you can post.

Some things may be good reminders for non-industry environments as well - it all depends on who your audience is.

Check them out and see what they have to offer when you're planning out posts you can schedule ahead of time for June.  Never know what might be of use.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Tuesday Tips: May is National Bike Month - Here's Some Ways to Talk About It

In the past we have encouraged posting about events going on in the community or around you on your pages to help gain interaction.  Today, we offer a tip as to what topic could be covered for the month of May.

May has a number of topics that can be covered, including the fact it's National Bike Month.  The League of American Bicyclists has a neat media kit available for anyone who is looking for things to post, including pre-generated Tweets to copy and paste, Facebook cover photos, Facebook posts and more.

Check out their social media toolkit which provides facts, figures, customizable tweets and more here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mu-Ju5x-yO3m7A-UC-MA02Ct6h1b7dQYsALPbc1n-88/edit

You may be able to find pre-made media kits for other events too.  Google to see what you can find, or be creative and create your own - provided you have the time to do so.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.