Nicola Balkind

Community Leader

Spring Clean Your Content: Part II, Content Mix

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content mix

 

Welcome to Part II of Spring Cleaning Your Content!

Last week, we looked at the “media mix” – or the type of media you’ll be posting and where to post it.

This week, we’re talking about the “content mix” – how to organise your content strategy and how to keep your content consistent, varied and interesting.

 

Your content should be…

1. Informative

2. Valuable for your readers

3. Community-driven

4. Targeted

Informative content gives your customer a place to go to gather the information they need, whether that’s how to buy your product, how to use it, or just a way to get them involved in your area of expertise. All of this content must add value to your readers’ lives. In time, they’ll build trust in you and, eventually, invest their money in that value.

For those who are already part of your online community, and those who wish to join it. To inform and add value to your customers’ experiences, your content should be accessible and inclusive. That also means it will be targeted towards those who need it most. The more you can niche down, and the more specific you can be, the better.

Remember: online content is not just about sales: it’s providing a valuable resource, or even a place for people to hang out and share their interests. Build their trust, build your brand, and sales will follow.

 

Defining your content mix

Now that we’re familiar with what your content is seeking to accomplish, and which platforms are best suited, it’s time to think about what you’re posting and when.

Your content mix might include…

  • Company news – like a new product or an upcoming event.
  • Industry or customer-related news – e.g. an exciting innovation in your sector, or new technology that’s exciting for your customers.
  • Seasonal posts, holidays and tie-ins – like Spring Cleaning (duh!), a UN day of interest, or a Fashion Week tie-in – whatever is relevant to your business and your audience.
  • Content partnerships – content in collaboration with industry specialists or thought leaders like bloggers. This could include partnered giveaways and other types access to someone important to your audience.

No matter the topic, make sure your content mix is relevant to your audience. You can also include lots of evergreen content that you can share time and time again.

You may emphasise one of these content types over others, but as a general rule you should talk about yourself in a minority of posts. I like to use the 80:20 rule – so roughly only one in five posts will be about my own products and services, while the rest provide things like news, relevant but fun content, or guest blogs.

 

Content themes

We’ve talked about planning your content calendar before, and these tips still apply.

As long-time readers might have realised, I have a themed content mix in place here on nicolabalkind.com. Most of my posts share knowledge and advice, with the occasional post about a relevant event or a piece of industry news. I post once per week, and these tend to fall under the following categories:

  • Social Media and Content – practical guides like the one you’re reading, or like this post.
  • Microbusiness Interest – sharing resources that have helped me, or posting about topics around small businesses.
  • Recommendations – like tools, apps, and processes.
  • Notebook or Links posts – sharing the best industry-related posts I’ve read each month.

As I hinted above, the goal is to create a healthy mix of content that provides value, teaches your audience something new, and shares what you’re doing without boring them.

For more tips on varied content on social media, take a look at my tips for content curation.

 

Your turn

How do you keep your content varied and interesting for your readers? I’d love to hear your plans in the comments, or you can email me or tweet me anytime @robotnic.

How Often?

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How Often Should I Post on Social Media?

 

One of the most common questions that I”m often asked when consulting with a new collaborator is a big one:

“How often should I post?”

 

It’s one of the easiest questions to answer, but one of the hardest questions to answer well.

 

The short answer?

As a rule of thumb, I usually say something like:

For blogs, at least one per month, but up to one per week
For Twitter, 1-20 times per day plus retweets
For Facebook, at least 3 times per week
For Google+ and LinkedIn, at least every time you post a blog

If these guidelines sound vague, it’s because they are totally vague.

 

The long answer?

There’s only one way to find out how often you should post.

START POSTING.

 

Maybe it wasn’t so long after all.

The only way to learn what’s right for your audience is through good old trial and error. Try things out, gather your results. Then throw out what isn’t working and focus on the things that are working.

This goes for all types of content, but it also goes for how frequently you post.

As you interact on your social media platforms of choice, listen in. Pay attention to the times of day that are working for your audience. What are they discussing, and in what format? Are they liking pictures first thing int he morning and having debates at lunchtime? These things all factor into your social media and content strategy.

The same goes for blog posts. Are you dragging yourself over the coals to produce 3 blog posts per week that nobody reads? Try scaling back and see if one longer, more content rich blog post per week performs better.

Remember: there is no point in creating tons of content that adds zero value. People have limited time, and it is up to you how much of that time you can encourage them to devote to your output.

Weigh and measure the value your offering against their time until you have a recipe for how often to post. Then keep tweaking.

 

Your turn

How often do you post on your blog and social media channels? What works for your audience?

If you haven’t started yet, what’s holding you back?

Advanced Techniques for Content Planning

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Last time we looked at why you should schedule your social media updates, and tools to do so.

Today, let’s look at some more advanced techniques for content planning.

 

Schedule The Time In!

Schedue-ception!

Make time in your diary to schedule your updates.

It gets the busy-work out of the way and frees you up for other tasks.

Then, midweek, all you have to do is check in for the fun stuff: mentions, replies and chat.

I also find that planning blog topics ahead of time breaks the barrier to entry for actually getting the blog post written.

 

Make a Calendar

 

An example of what my content calendar looks like.
An example of what my content calendar looks like.

 

My secret weapon in defining social media strategies, and for day-to-day activity, is the content calendar.

This can be a simple spreadsheet with the dates laid out in on one axis and the channels on another.

This gives a clear view of your content – long-form and short – and how these updates fit together.

For example, each blog post might need an immediate tweet and Facebook post, and a secondary tweet the next day. Plot these out on the calendar for a clear view.

Having a monthly schedule also gives you the opportunity to outline bigger events, like a holiday or industry day. You can also include seasonal content here.

See Twitter’s #OwnTheMoment calendar for examples.

You can download an example of my social media content calendar here.

 

Create a Note-Taking System

If you’re using an organisational tool like use it to save any links you want to share and to make note of any blog posts or other important updates you need to share on social media that week.

For example…

Evernote

A peek at my Reading Week link list notes on Evernote.
A peek at my Reading Week link list notes on Evernote.

Evernote is a great place to store all your internet bits and bobs.

Saw a link that you loved and want to refer back to? Stick in Evernote.

Got a blog post idea while on the go? Draft it up in Evernote.

Having a system for keeping all of this internet ephemera can make your content planning really easy.

 

Pocket

Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 13.25.37
A peek at my Pocket Favourites – which I use as a link archive for content planning.

I do this using Pocket – which is my read it later app of choice.

When I like an article, I star it.

Then, when it comes to writing my Friday link list (it’s Reading Week – sign up here) I can jump into my favourites and quickly add them to the piece.

The same goes for sharing them via Buffer.

––

&…

If you’re super organised, you can also write a comment as you save the note, to make quick work of slotting these items into your social media calendar.

Easy peasy!

 

Your Turn!

How do you organise your content? Are you a pro at content planning?

Leave me your tips or queries in a comment, tweet me @robotnic or email me with your thoughts/questions!

 

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