Mother’s are really good at creating calendars to keep track of kid’s schedules, family appointments, the comings and goings of the husband’s business trips and scheduling family vacations.  Men relate to calendars so they know when their favorite sports teams are playing and how to plan their appointments.

So creating a calendar to plan your marketing strategy should be easy,  and yet few business owners do it.   This ends up creating chaos and lots of last minute, not well thought out marketing.

There are benefits to creating a calendar, here are a few;

1.  You communicate your clear marketing message consistently

2.  Your time is more effectively utilized when the plan is already set, you simply follow the map

3.  You are able to focus your content and beef up the value driven aspect when you know the primary theme or topic

4.  Build promotions around holidays and observances.   Here’s a resource site to find those dates and create themes:  http://www.brownielocks.com/

5.  Write blog posts in advance and schedule them out to coincide with your monthly marketing campaign

Ideas on what to include on your calendar;

1.  Theme for the month – can be related to a national holiday observance, a social cause or simply topics that relate to your products & services

2.  Create blog posts – schedule out on calendar what day they will post

3.  Date newsletter or email marketing campaigns will go out – support monthly theme/topic

4.  Social media posts – jot down each day how many tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts you will create. These can be created in advance and scheduled along with blog posts

5.  Add any events you participate in or attend on the schedule

6.  Press Releases – Send out 2-3 weeks prior to and eve

Scheduling Social Media –

this is the #1 question I get asked, so here is a guide, you must know your own audience to tweek this schedule according to when your peeps are actually on social media sites. Whether your company is a one-person business or a large organization, your commitment to social networking should be consistent, compelling and informative.

Statistically speaking…

Facebook in the workplace – 1 in 5 global companies block social networks in the office, which means at least 20% of professionals are engaging outside of the 9 to 5. If this is your audience, post after 5pm

Research shows the end of the week and weekend are prime engagement times especially on Facebook.

Twice Daily in the Morning and Afternoon

  • Check Twitter via a program like HootSuite. Respond when necessary. Follow the @replies that make sense.
  • Check LinkedIn. Reply to emails and comments when appropriate.
  • Scan Twitter followers for relevant conversations to join.
  • Check your business’s Facebook Page for questions and respond when necessary.
  • Scan Google Alerts for brand and company mentions. Respond as appropriate.

Weekly or on Weekends

  • Build Twitter Lists to better organize ongoing discussions and special interest groups. Set up saved searches in Hootsuite to find out if people are talking about you or your company.
  • Scan LinkedIn questions from network connections and respond when appropriate.
  • Catch up on LinkedIn discussions. Add to discussion when appropriate.
  • Send LinkedIn invitations to connect with clients when beginning a new assignment.
  • Ask for LinkedIn recommendation after successfully completing a project or engagement.
  • Add new content to Facebook like videos or photos.
  • Think of ways to repurpose this content and energy to reach a larger audience with the social networking gospel.
  • Keep an eye open for new social networking venues, tools, and functionality that will make the social networking experience more enjoyable and easier to traverse.
  • Identify new social networking influencers and build relationships where appropriate.

Through the Week

  • Mondays: Schedule tweets through HootSuite to go out three times per day at regular intervals.
  • Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Join one hot trend conversation on Twitter, if appropriate, and add new content to Facebook (new items you are selling, photos, discounts and other promotions).
  • Tuesdays and Thursdays: Respond to blog comments.
  • Fridays: Check traffic at your blog or website.

*(some schedutips from Entrepreneur magazine)

Tools & Resources:

  Google has a great online calendar.  Create one specific to marketing. You can easily update &          make changes as well as print out a hard copy.

 

JoAnne Funch

So you’ve created your marketing calendar but don’t have time to implement all the pieces?  You can outsource that to me.  Give me a shout and we can talk about how I can implement your marketing plan easily & efficiently.