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Pinterest Influencers: Curating Pins

May 6, 2014 By 2 Comments

 

Pinterest Influencers: Curating Pins

Pinterest Influencers: Curating Pins

Pinterest, like other forms of social media, is somewhat like high school. Looks only get you so far; it’s the nature of your content, either good or bad, that will draw attention. But you may not always know what you should pin or not pin. And Pinterest, like Twitter, seems to reward those who post often, since it is through discovery that most people find others. But what should you pin? Here, then, are some ideas on pins that you could curate for your own brand.

Pin Your Own Content

For this example, let’s say that you are a garden shop. Your shop sells roses, fruit trees, and decorative plants of all kinds. Some boards you might want are: edible gardens, mulch, indoor plants, and flowers. You can pin your own pictures, you can post special garden events, and you can engage with those who comment on your pins. You probably want to keep your important boards near the top of your account, “above the fold” in website terms. Also, pay attention to making your board covers beautiful.

Do you have to keep all your pins limited to your own content, though? No!

Curate Pins from Strategic Partners

You can also pin from strategic partners. For a garden shop, that could mean a board about garden art, protecting honey bees, lotion for gardeners, and fancy-pants items such as special gloves. You want your followers to follow you because you curate the best pins–and those pins don’t have to be strictly about gardens or plants.

Amplify Your Message with Group Boards

Tulips One of Your Pinterest Boards Could be About Tulips

Tulips One of Your Pinterest Boards Could be About Tulips

You might want a group board shared by all your garden specialists, where everyone can add photos of successful gardens. Your clients can look at boards for ideas on which garden styles could work for them, too. Rather than looking at magazines, they can look at actual pictures from your own clients’ gardens. You can send pins or board locations to clients looking for a garden remodel. You might also want to join big gardening boards with lots of pinners, so long as they are active.

Sell from Your Website

Do you sell gloves, lotion, or greeting cards? You can pin right from your website or Etsy account. Be sure to fill out the pins’ descriptions completely, so that you can be found in search.

Secret Boards

Pinterest now allows you an unlimited number of secret boards, so why not use them to stage your pins? You may want to hold content back for pinning at optimal times or create boards for off-topic pins (rather than creating a personal account). And, if you’re pinning on a team, you can share secret boards with clients or team members.

Make it Pretty!

This might sound obvious, but make sure that your pins are beautiful. A beautiful image will make others want to follow you, repin from you, and want to engage with you more often. Curating the best content will keep people wanting to see more. And that’s good for you and your brand.

How Do You Curate?

Do you curate pins? How do you decide what to pin? I’d love to hear from you!

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Twitter Influencers: Deciding Who to Follow

May 1, 2014 By 8 Comments
Twitter Influencers: Deciding Who to Follow

Twitter Influencers: Deciding Who to Follow

So you’ve decided to become influential, eh? Your latest mission statement proclaims that you will be the King of Twitter, with a Klout score of 75 bajillion, and Starbucks will name a new drink after you. You’re deconstructing each tweet and how it affects your target audience, testing it, agonizing over each word, and tracking who retweets it based on complex algorithms and spreadsheets in order to attract the “appropriate” audience with the perfect hashtags. Is that the best route to take to become an influencer, though? Here’s my take. If you want to learn how to get more followers, that’s a whole other blog post.

Don’t Be That Guy

Have you ever been talking to someone at a party and had them look over your shoulder scanning the room to see if someone “better” had just entered?  How did that make you feel? Then, when they realized that you were the the best friend of the mayor, they suddenly became your best friend? Gary Vaynerchuk says it really well in his video! Everybody is relevant.

You Don’t Know Who They Know

So here’s a for instance. Let’s take me as an example. Because I’ve done lots of work for people in the trades, I know a million people in construction. Well, maybe a billion, actually. There’s a construction company, who will remain nameless, who refuses to follow me back because he believes I’m not part of his target audience. And yet, I live within 10 miles of his company, have many connections to people in construction, and ghost tweet for three companies in the trades. But none of my social media profiles says that I’m in construction. If he made the least effort to reach out, he could make connections to many more people. But since he won’t follow or engage with me, I’m not inclined to retweet his material or lift a finger to help him.

People Have Multiple Profiles

That “little account” that you refuse to take seriously may be responsible for an account with a million followers. They could know someone who works at the exact place where you’d like to apply for a job. They could be best friends with your mom, for all you know. So why not be respectful to everyone?

The Second Chess Move in Life

The Second Chess Move in Life

The Second Chess Move in Life

As Gary Vee says, if you open yourself up to people who are not your exact target audience, if you reach out and say hello to people and stop “strategizing” and act like a human being, you’ll find your exact right audience.

Gratitude

Instead of following someone based on their Klout score, how many followers they have, or whether they have the best hashtag, how about this? Follow based on conversations with others, whether they have interesting opinions, or if you have something in common. And then how about feeling grateful for the followers you do have? And by the way, here is my very favorite TedxSF talk: Louis Schwartzberg on gratitude.

How Do You Decide Who to Follow?

Is engaging with the “right” people important to you? How has that helped your cause?

 

 

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Content Creation: Like Hosting Out-of-Town Guests

April 29, 2014 By 8 Comments
Content Creation: Like Hosting Out-of-Town Guests

Content Creation: Like Hosting Out-of-Town Guests

One of my friends on Twitter, Tracy Blevins (@TracyBlevins), put content creation this way: “It’s like hosting out-of-town guests–it never ends.” Is that how you feel about content creation? On many days, I feel that way, too. What will I talk about? Will people be interested? Also, what will you cook that they’ll like and haven’t had before? I don’t want to keep serving up grilled cheese every day, after all! Here, then, are some ideas for content creation.

Curated Versus Original Content

Probably the toughest part of my job is discovering content that not everyone in the world hasn’t already seen one billion times before. Word spreads fast on the internet. How can I possibly post something new? Putting my own spin on curated content is possible, but the best thing is to create my own content and images. For instance, recently all my friends were griping about Facebook’s new algorhythm changes, so I decided to write about that.

Search Differently

Try looking for your search terms on both Google and Bing–the results will be different. You can also search for the most recent articles. Another trick is to search for your search term from within. By that I mean that if you want to know about Twitter, search from within Twitter. For Pinterest, search from within Pinterest. You’ll be surprised at what you might find. Pinterest has beefed up its search lately, too. Facebook’s search? Eh, not so much.

Non-Human Guests

Your guests aren't always human.

Your guests aren’t always human.

Another part of creating content is that your guests aren’t always human. Sometimes your guests are the little bots that roam around Google, looking for new content. So if you’re publishing twice a week, the bots will come back like little puppies waiting to be fed on those two days.

Writing for SEO and Ranking Well

Another one of your “guests” is the person who will be searching for your keywords. For instance, if someone did a Google search on quitting Facebook, my post asking if it’s time to quit Facebook might come up. Here’s a terrific article about writing for SEO, by the way.

Ideas through Random Discovery

Sometimes you can discover a good writing topic by looking online or listening to people around you at the grocery store or hearing what your friends are griping about. Is everyone ranting about Google Plus? Well, what else is new? Is there something they’re talking about that you disagree with? Sometimes I’ve started backwards with an image and written a post that way. Here’s one that I wrote after I saw the image. I loved the image so much that I had to write a post around the image.

Creating Content on a Team

If you work on a team, having a process, even if it’s simple, is very important. Who will edit? Will you have a style guide? How many cycles of editing will you go through? Where will you find images? What will your publishing schedule be like? Whenever I’ve tried to work on a team the schedule has been the trickiest part. People at startups are busy and they have other jobs. You’ll have the most success when you’re only responsible for your own schedule.

Do You Need Help with Content Creation?

Have you tried to create your own content? What obstacles have you faced? Please leave me a comment below!

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Social Media Managers: 10 Ways the San Francisco Giants Can Improve Your Game

April 25, 2014 By 2 Comments
Social Media Managers: 10 Ways the San Francisco Giants Can Improve Your Game

Social Media Managers: 10 Ways the San Francisco Giants Can Improve Your Game

Recently, I saw the San Francisco Giants play at AT&T Park. You might not realize that the Giants have their very own Social Media Cafe, where you can see tweets about the game scroll across giant screens and see their awesome command center. Here are some of the ways I found the Giants’ social media effective, and some ways the Giants can improve your game as Social Media Managers (“SMMs”).

Engage Fans Before They Reach the Game

While waiting for our friends to arrive, my friends decided to visit the Giants clothing store in the park. I tweeted a picture of some t-shirts (below). And @CafeSFG not only heard me, but replied! So my experience of them being awesome began before we even got to the game. How awesome is that? For SMMs, your blog can be a way to “warm up” your possible clients before they meet you in person. If you need hints on engagement, you might want to read my post on being engaged and tweeting texts versus links.

The reply tweet from @CafeSFG, below.

Be Accessible

If you visit the the San Francisco Giants’ Cafe at AT&T park, you’ll notice a few things. You can walk right up to their social media team and talk to them. As in, “Hey, thanks for sending me that tweet!” accessible. They sit in a room, where you can see all the hashtags and accounts they’re monitoring on a huge screen. And you can get an idea of what it would be like to work there, how quickly the tweets fly by, and how fast-paced the job really is. As an SMM, how accessible are you to your fans? Meeting fans in person is always the best way, but if you can’t do that, then how about Google Hangouts on Air, responding to people on Twitter, or meeting people at conferences?

Be Accessible

Be Accessible

Allow for Spontaneity

If working for the Giants isn’t the most spontaneous social media position in the world, I’m not sure what is. Fans tweet and post Instagram pictures, which the team reposts, replies to, and favorites. Chosen tweets and Instagram pix appear on the big screen, so you can see your own words and pictures “up in lights” as it were. Sometimes being an SMM is the extreme opposite of spontaneity, with all the scheming that goes into planning posts, creating good content, and choosing images. But having spontaneity is what makes the job interesting, and for me, is what makes me want to get up and do it all over the next day.

Let Your Fans Create the Content

When your fans have interesting things to say, why not let them? When there is passion and excitement about the game, why not allow those opinions and images to flow freely? If you’re at all familiar with the success of ICanHazCheeseburger, you know that letting fans create content is a win times a million. Although this article about the popular cat meme is from 2008, I love the explanations (along with the charts and graphs).

Give Them the Right Drink

On a cold night, give your fans a hot drink. The Giants’ cafe has hot coffee, chocolate, and pastries from Peets Coffee. Are you giving your fans the right drink?

Create Branded Clothing

The Giants have worked with brands such as Victoria’s Secret to create their soft, beautifully designed and branded clothes. And I’ve heard the Giants are about to sign a deal with ZipzShoes for co-branded footwear. Maybe you don’t have a huge budget, but many places let you make one or two pieces at a time (including Zipzshoes).

Tweet from Zipzshoes saying they’re working with the Giants (guess who their first customer will be?)!

Let Your Fans Share the Spotlight

When a fan shares a really great photo on social media, that photo gets reshared on the big screen. At a Giants’ game, fans are watching taking pictures of their team, but also watching to see if that picture they took will show up and get reshared. Here are some tips on creating a good retweet, by the way.

Be A Leader

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a huge fan of the Giants in more ways than one. They really knocked it out of the ballpark with their social media engagement. While creating their own cafe and engaging with fans may not be the only things causing them to sell out their games, those things do cause many fans to want to return. What are you doing to knock it out of the ballpark for your clients?

Give ‘Em Fireworks!

Give 'Em Fireworks!

Give ‘Em Fireworks!

Not just fireworks, but fireworks! The SF Giants’ fireworks display was bigger and better than many displays I’ve seen on the fourth of July. You can walk outside the ballpark onto the dock and see everything overhead–one of the best displays I’ve ever seen. Again, maybe you don’t have the budget for a fireworks display, but how about an unexpected gift? Flowers and chocolate, anyone?

Be a Winner

Last, but not least, the SF Giants won the game! Of course they did! What are you doing to create a win for your fans or business?

Be a Winner

Be a Winner

 

 

 

 

 

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Is it Time to Quit Facebook?

April 1, 2014 By 51 Comments
Is it time to quit Facebook?

Is it time to quit Facebook?

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of rumblings about how bad Facebook is for brand advertising. I’d always heard grumbling, but this was something different. The grumbling has now turned into action: my social media manager (“SMM”) friends have been leaving Facebook to spend time elsewhere. Some of them have told their clients not to waste their money.

Behind the Scenes with SMMs

Then, a couple of days ago in one of the SMM groups I’m in, someone posted Eat24’s goodbye letter to Facebook. It was hilarious (and by the way, @Eat24 rocks on Twitter, so go follow them there!). It also made me think. Yes, we all know that Facebook is a business. Yes, we all realize that at some point we’d probably have to pay to play. But is it worth the cost? And what about for personal use? If we can’t see our friends’ posts because of an algorithm change, should we just ditch Facebook and head over to Google Plus or Twitter or Instagram?

Facebook’s Response

In response to Eat24’s goodbye letter, Facebook rep Brandon McCormick posted a defense (not really a defense in my opinion but that’s another post), and the story was picked up by Huffington Post.

Transparency

I don’t have all the answers to what’s happening with Facebook, but I can tell you that my reach has dramatically decreased. I have 959 fans on my page, and of those, very few see my posts any more. There has been a big change since January of 2014. Of my SMM friends who are bailing, they’re not all managers for tiny brands–some of them are rewriting strategy for huge brands, too, and drastically cutting back on their Facebook use.

Reactions to the Change in Reach

Eggs in One Basket

Eggs in One Basket

Some of my SMM friends have decided to post more, some have quit Facebook, and some have decided to spend money on promoted posts. Personally, I’ve posted a bit less now–just once daily, and hardly ever twice a day. But I’m not taking all my eggs out of the Facebook basket just yet. I don’t think this story is over, since just about everyone is on Facebook–including my friends, your friends, and your customers if you’re managing Facebook pages.

What’s the Bottom Line?

If you’re willing to spend a few dollars on Facebook to ensure that people see your posts, it’s still a good value. Consider a small fee, like a dollar a day. If your business has no budget, then spend your time somewhere else. But Facebook is still a behemoth with a massive audience, and there’s nothing else like it. Agree? Disagree? Please leave me a comment!

 

 

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Pinterest Place Boards: Tell a Story

March 27, 2014 By 4 Comments
Pinterest Place Boards: Tell A Story

Pinterest Place Boards: Tell A Story

People love stories. Stories are a way of making time stand still. All the world falls away when you’re listening to or reading a story. Did you know that you can create a story using a place board on Pinterest? Think back on those Day in the Life coffee table books. A Pinterest board can be used the same way. Here’s how.

Brain Dump

For this example, I’ll use my own Santa Cruz Daycation board. Write down everything you’d like to do in a single day. Put all the parts of the day in chronological order–I used a numbered list in a Word document to do this. Search for each item online and make sure that whatever you’re going to do is available and open for business. For instance, is the restaurant open? Can you zipline at that time of the day? Can you do yoga early in the morning?

Write Captions

Say something about each step of the day. If you love shoes, and you get to the shoe store 10 minutes before they close, that’s a “SQUEEE!!!” for sure. Rinse and repeat for each event. Add these to your Word doc. And when you’re writing those captions, consider how people search on Pinterest. Here are 18 Tips for Optimizing Your Images to Improve SEO, from Pam Dyer.

Repin or Use Your Own Image

Find Images or Use Your Own

Search within Pinterest, find already-existing photos, or use your own images. And remember, Pinterest is about beautiful images, so make it pretty!  Here’s a blog post I wrote about creating beautiful Pinterest covers.

Start Pinning!

Pin in reverse order from the end of the day to the beginning because the first pin will be at the bottom.

Location, Location, Location

For each pin, first click “Add to Map,” then choose the city. A map appears and will zoom into the city you just selected. Once you’ve found the city, click in the “What’s This Place Called” spot to find the location, and press enter to map it. Some locations will appear instantly while others may require more searching.

Review Your Captions

You can edit the text for each pin later if you like. For instance, I wanted more of a timeline for my place board, so I made sure to add that I was having breakfast, lunch, or dinner, without being too regimented with the times.

Have You Created a Place Board Yet?

What story would you like to tell? Leave me a comment below! And thank you.

 

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What I’ve Learned from 100 Blog Posts

March 14, 2014 By 17 Comments
What I've Learned from 100 Blog Posts

What I’ve Learned from 100 Blog Posts

If you’ve been reading my blog, first of all, let me say how much I appreciate you. I am very blessed that I’ve gotten so many comments, and learned so much from all of you, out there reading these words. Because I’d heard all kinds of horror stories about people blogging for YEARS and never getting one. Single. Comment. I’ve been lucky enough to have extremely engaged readers and comments on nearly every post.

Now that I’ve written 100 posts, here’s some stuff I’ve learned. By the way, thanks for the inspiration to Randy Clark and his What We’ve Learned From 300 Posts.

Use Beautiful Images

Images are one of the most important aspects of a blog. Some people, I’m convinced, don’t read at all, but skim the headings and look at the pretty pictures. So I make an effort to use Flickr’s Creative Commons or my own photos whenever possible. Maybe in the future, blogs won’t even have words, just images. When I began, I stuck to the formula of two photos per post, but now sometimes use more.

Mistakes Were Made

I once made the mistake of using someone’s photo and got a “takedown notice.” Since then, I make sure to check in Creative Commons by using the Advanced Search and only using those available for commercial use so that doesn’t happen again! Wow. That was embarrassing.

Secret Killer Aliens from Outer Space!

Headlines matter. A lot. And stacking the important (read: SEO-centric) words towards the beginning of the headline is important. For instance, rather than saying “Most Important Hashtags on Twitter,” say “Twitter: Important Hashtags.” And shorter is better on headlines, too, for ranking. Not that every headline has to follow a formula, but it’s something I’m more aware of now. I learned about the SEO-centric headlines from friend Pam Aungst Marketing.

WordCamp!

Going to WordCamp provides inspiration and inspiration is the juice that keeps your blogging engine fueled. So I highly recommend finding a WordCamp and attending. I’ve gone to both WordCamp Orange County and WordCamp San Francisco (the mother ship!). And each time have made numerous new friends, as well as meeting online friends like Peter Woolvett and Ruby Rusine!

My Secret Weapon

My Secret Friend

My Secret Friend

Yes, I have an editor friend. See? There she is behind that tree. She promised me I could take her picture–and she didn’t really lie. She is a real person, and she has helped me when I’ve painted myself into a grammatical corner many times. She doesn’t help me with every single post, but you can definitely tell when she does help. Because those posts make a whole lot more sense (and also contain more references to clowns)! Also: subject-verb agreement For The Win!

Syndication

My blog is syndicated on Business to Community, sometimes appears in Yahoo Small Business! and Women of Technology. That has helped with traffic and probably brought me more followers and fans.

Don’t Worry That You Won’t Have Topics

I’m convinced that writing has helped me with my listening skills. Now I’m always listening for the question that someone might have. Many posts are inspired by my followers or fans. And I’ve been surprised at how many friends I’ve made among other bloggers, too. It’s a little community.

Unexpected Results

Blogging has helped me to go to cool places in my own imagination. I very often start writing and don’t know where a post is going. Some of my favorite posts have come out of times when I really didn’t feel like writing, but forced myself. What do you get out of blogging? Do you have a secret friend who encourages you to write about clowns?

 

 

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Deflective Armor Online

March 6, 2014 By 8 Comments
Deflective Armor Online

Deflective Armor Online

Recently, I was in a Google Plus Hangout about “Deflective Armor,” and how we all encase ourselves sometimes to avoid difficult feelings. Sometimes this armor is a thin shell and sometimes we wear a mask to hide what we’re feeling. I can really get behind this topic. Online, as an introvert, I very often don’t want to share what I’m feeling. Sometimes describing how I’m feeling is too complicated, and it’s easier to just say “everything is fine.” Other times, I simply don’t want to share. As I get more followers, too, sharing with thousands of people is very different than sharing with just a tiny group of close-knit friends. I may not be close enough to the person to want to share, even though sharing would of course make me feel closer. In any event, it’s a lack of trust (in a stranger) that is often at the heart of why I might not want to share.

How Do You Really, Really Feel?

Sometimes knowing how we feel can be a complex puzzle in that it requires processing to get to the heart of the matter. It’s complicated enough to talk about our feelings–and what about those times when you don’t know what you’re feeling, or you haven’t decided how you feel? Sometimes I have to think through and process for some time before knowing–maybe that’s part of being an introvert.

Barriers Can be Physical or Psychological

Some of the physical barriers we might put up include a costume–anything from big shoes, to a wig, to fake eyelashes–all of which can hide who we really are to psychological barriers (being too busy to get into one’s real feelings). Although revealing our true selves can always make us closer to others, we might not want to make the leap of faith to get there, especially if you’ve ever been hurt by someone online.

Lead through Revelation

Let Some of Your Secrets Loose

Let Some of Your Secrets Loose

Often I’ve found that being the first one to reveal what you’re truly feeling gives everyone else permission to be honest. Sometimes people “trade” a piece of truth for another piece of truth. Revealing a secret makes someone else reveal a secret, like it’s a form of currency. As kids in school, we like to tell each others’ secrets. “Shh! Don’t tell anyone!” we’ll say, even while we are betraying someone else’s secret. But if it’s our own secret, is it a betrayal? But how about as leaders? Don’t we want to be able to lead by being honest? A full 40% of executives say that they are introverts, as reported by Forbes.

How Do You Choose What to Reveal?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers here. Being honest can be a difficult dilemma online. How do you choose what to reveal and what to hide? Please leave me a comment! I’d love to know what you think!

 

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Pinterest: Secrets to Better Board Covers

February 27, 2014 By 14 Comments
Pinterest: Secrets to Better Board Covers

Pinterest: Secrets to Better Board Covers

One way to get more people to see your Pinterest boards is to change the board covers occasionally. Changing the cover image is a fairly easy way to get a whole new look, and you can still keep the same content on your boards. Here are some ways I like to make mine look fresh. By the way, if you’re a startup just getting started on Pinterest, you might want to read my Pinterest Tips for Startups.

Change Your Covers Every Month

I like to change board covers every month. You might have a favorite pin that isn’t getting enough traffic. Why not make that pin the cover for your board? While you’re at it, edit the text so that it’s easier to find in search (I love Pinterest’s search, by the way). Give some thought to your board covers–your pins might not go viral, but you’ll be rewarded with more likes and repins.

Use Seasonal Colors

February Pinterest Board Covers

February Pinterest Board Covers

I particularly like using the same color for board covers. For February, for instance, I used green. Since I’m a nature lover, I like to incorporate seasonal changes. Here in California, spring really begins in February, so I chose green for all my covers. Some people love black and white photography, so they always choose black and white. Winter could be white, Easter could be pastel, and so on.

Make Your Covers Tell a Story

What story would you like to tell? If you’re an animal lover, maybe you could have closeups of animal faces on your covers. You could make a visual story that moves from top to bottom, left to right. If you sell books about Python (the language) your covers could include a giant snake, that winds around the board covers, with the head at the top left and the tail at the bottom right. Or how about a simple white line across a black background? Pinterest is a visual medium, so there’s lots of room for creativity. Think of how Google changes up their Google doodles.

Create an Uncluttered Look

How about using similar imagery across all your board covers? A simple image, perhaps a circular theme, would be wonderfully zen. What if you took a simple texture from Flickr’s Creative Commons and wrote the name of your cover on it, and did that for each cover? For instance, Love, Simplicity, Organizing, Play?

Use Your Most Popular Pins

How about choosing your most repinned pins as your board covers to give your fans an idea of what they’ll find on a board? This is like crowd sourcing in a way.

Do You Change Your Board Covers?

What do you want your Pinterest account to convey?  Leave me a comment below!

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Social Media Calendar: Six Ways

February 20, 2014 By 10 Comments
Social Media Calendar: Six Ways

Social Media Calendar: Six Ways

What do you think of when you consider creating a social media calendar? Would it be a complex document, filled with charts and graphs, passed around at long meetings? A calendar is simply a tool to help you, a structure that can assist you with your overall goals (including your time management)–nothing more. You don’t even have to follow it all the time. And if you want to know why you need to create a social media content calendar, this Sprout Social article has plenty of reasons.

Keep it Simple

First, create a very high-level, daily structure. So for example, say you are a new zoo. Your schedule could go something like this: Monday: Monkeys, Tuesday: Toucans, Wednesday: Warthogs, Thursday: Tortoises, Friday: Flamingos. You can always revisit your daily calendar later and tweak it to suit yourself or your team.

Decide When to Post

Let’s use Facebook as an example. If you’ve set up a business page, you might want to post once a day to begin with (two or three times a day is fine). So, keeping with the above example, find content that matches your strategy of Monday Monkeys. What do they eat? Where do they live? You might start your search with Google and then find more specific sites to search.

Find a Model

Monkey See, Monkey Do Could Work for Your Editorial Calendar

Monkey See, Monkey Do Could Work for Your Editorial Calendar

Say your zoo is in Sydney, Australia. Find another zoo in a different part of the world to model your account after. (Maybe the San Diego Zoo?) Then find two more. Examine what the zoos are posting. What posts are getting the most traction, likes, comments? How often do they post? Adjust your schedule. “Monkey see, monkey do” could work for your social media editorial calendar.

Learn from What Doesn’t Work

You may not find another account you like, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from someone else’s failures. You can often learn more from someone’s failures than their successes. If you had to write the headlines for someone else’s Facebook posts, what would you do differently? What makes you want to comment on a post? Is there a particular writing style that you like?

Use Analytics Combined with Common Sense

Try using analytics, but also experiment with posting at different times. For instance, you may see that everyone is online at 5:30 pm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re active then–lots of people leave their Facebook accounts open while they watch TV or eat dinner. Also, your followers may not be online on holidays.

Track Good Sources of Content

You might have your own blog, but you may also need content from other places. Could you share content from another zoo? Or is there enough going on at your zoo that you can post every day? When you find a good source, record it somewhere. I like to throw everything into a Word doc, so if I’m half-asleep looking for content, I’ll have some ideas. Images are becoming increasingly important in posts, so make sure to have a good source for images. Huffington Post has a great article on how to create engaging images.

What Else Goes Into Your Calendar?

What has helped you create your content calendar? Please leave a comment!

 

 

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