Kick Start Your 2019 Social Media Content Strategy

If your family is anything like mine things get nostalgic during the holidays. My sister-in-law loves bringing over old pictures of the family and trying to recreate them; my mom is all about pulling out home videos of me singing in the Christmas pageant when I was 4. Do you dread those memories each year? Or love them? Either way, I am challenging you to turn that nostalgia into social media content.

How can you use these memories to tell your story? These steps can kick-start your 2019 social media content strategy:

1 – Decide on the story you want to tell
Being on social media is not just tactical; it is strategic. Understand how your social media accounts can help you meet your business goals. Reflect on how to use social media to showcase your personality and reach out to your target markets. Think about the type of content that gets your attention online, and what draws you in to learn more.

2 – Create your own weekly schedule
Create a chart with the days of the week and map out a theme for each day. This is where you really start to change your mindset to being proactive on social media.
Our audio store client did exactly this. When he was getting nostalgic in his shop (showing us old concert tickets, albums, and photos) his social media content schedule became easy. On Monday’s he would feature his favourite albums, on Tuesday’s photos of the evolution of his store, on Thursday’s he would showcase concert tickets from his past, and on Saturday’s he would share family photos related to their love of music. On the other days, he would share customer reviews and highlight his products and services.

3 – Find content that already exists
Once you have your weekly schedule it should become clear what you have and what you need. Start organizing content by days of the week. Think about holidays, times of the year, and your business cycle as you select what to slot in each week.
Our audio store client had what he needed for four out of seven days. Not a bad start!
Your vintage photos and mementos become engaging content. People love interacting with photos and videos – and they become even more engaged if you tell a story alongside the shared visual.

4 – Schedule it on your downtime
Stop scrolling through your social media feeds aimlessly on Boxing Day. Be strategic on social media instead of wasting time. Now that you have organized the content use a tool like Hootsuite to proactively schedule it so that it automatically posts on the days you have mapped.

A few caveats – check in on your scheduled content regularly to make sure it is still populating, to make sure it is still applicable (your target audience and business may evolve), and that it is still sensitive to current events (you do not want to advertise a ‘fire’ sale during an unexpected, tragic incident in the community).

So, before grandpa rolls out the slideshow start to get organized – decide on your 2019 story, create daily topics that can help guide your content, and, then, use your downtime to start proactively creating and scheduling content.

We would love to see those holiday photos – share them with us at @CIPRComs – and follow us because we might share a few too. Use the hashtags #PRPower and #FernieSuccess to let us know how your 2019 social media strategy is shaping up.