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August 12, 2015Editorial Calendars12:00 pmChristy Mannering, University of Delaware Web Developer

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Editorial Calendar

To organize your print and digital media

A little bit about me

Facebook:www.facebook.com/scrink (personal)

www.facebook.com/UDcanr (professional)

Twitter: @bringmeupmusic (personal)

@UDCANR (professional)

Christy Mannering

Web Developer,

University of Delaware

cmanneri@udel.edu

Quick laugh

Editorial calendars

▪ Why?▪ To organize and schedule the publication of content

across different media outlets.

▪ Blog posts

▪ Twitter

▪ Facebook

▪ YouTube

▪ Instagram

▪ E-newsletters

▪ Press releases

Editorial Calendar Uses

▪ You want something you’ll use consistently, not something you will look at for one month and then forget about.

▪ Editorial calendars provide a tangible, visual way of organizing which you can print out and tack up, keep online or send off to your supervisor every quarter as a report of what you’re doing.▪ Providing a work flow to collaborate can help

minimize duplication and help to share content across networks with other markets in your niche category.

Editorial calendars

▪ These are not meant to be steadfast or concrete, they are meant to guide you as a content manager.▪ You won’t forget any important dates around the

corner.

▪ Since this is planned ahead you know you’ll always have something in mind to post about even if you come in on a Monday and are completely blanking on ideas.

Items for your calendar

▪ Dates you plan to do a task (having this in a calendar accessible to your team allows for collaboration and allows for you to go on vacation)

▪ Dates to create content for themed purposes. ▪ Your calendar can include holidays, special days in history, even gardening

cycles for when certain items are typically planted or harvested.

▪ Specify what outlets to post on (ie. Twitter or YouTube or Blog, etc.)

▪ If you choose to you can assign certain people to the tasks with an assignment column in the calendar.

▪ You can also develop relationships with other bloggers and schedule time on your calendar for sharing their content.

What do you hope to achieve?

▪ Each post should have a purpose. Even if the purpose is light hearted and you just want to share a beautiful photo you captured in the garden of a honey bee on a flower.▪ The purpose here is to connect with your audience outside or

typical fact sheets or research articles.

▪ Think about how you might measure the post. Do you want to obtain more likes or more follows? Are you looking for people to sign-up for your newsletter?

Sample Calendars

Ways to create an editorial calendar

▪ There are plenty of software packages and online tools available to help with creating an editorial calendar.

▪ Here is an example of a WordPress plugin called CoSchedule.

▪ $15/month (free trial)

Other WordPress Plugins

▪ Editorial Calendar (free)▪ https://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/

▪ Edit Flow (free)▪ https://wordpress.org/plugins/edit-flow/

▪ Press Forward (free)▪ https://wordpress.org/plugins/pressforward/

▪ This one collects content from other sources online into a tool on WordPress which allows you to discuss and collaborate with team members.

Editorial calendars offline

▪ A sample of an editorial calendar we use in our office will be available for download at the end of this presenation.

▪ Hootsuite offers a free template:▪ http://blog.hootsuite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Editorial-Calendar-

Template.xlsx

▪ Curata (a content marketing site) has a bunch of examples available:▪ http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-editorial-calendar-templates-

the-ultimate-list/

Which platforms should you post on regularly?

▪ Trying using Google Analytics to help you with this part.▪ You can look at insights and

analytics across platforms but Google Analytics can also give you an idea of how people to your content.

▪ Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals

How often should you post?

▪ The chart below offers some basic guidelines.

▪ However, this is dependent upon how much content you have and how often your audience refers to social media.

Populating your editorial calendar

• Content doesn’t always have to link to your own materials or website.• Create new content by

adding your own commentary to relevant third-party content. #thisdayinhistory

• Ask experts to contribute guest blog posts or Q&A interviews on relevant topics.

• Share content from places which you feel your audience will appreciate.

Ideas for populating your editorial calendar

• Feedly

• This is an aggregate resources which funnels popular content into one area based on tags and keywords. You can easily find what other people are talking about pertaining to areas or fields in which you specialize.• You can share their posts (creating new relationships)

• Or you can see what areas are trending and create a post of your own.

Using different types of media

• Link to blog posts

• Link to syndicated news articles pertaining to your field

• Use video, images and infographics to help tell your story visually.

Infographics

▪ Infographics▪ I use infographics a lot to explain things. They can be posted online and shared

or printed out and given to people.

▪ Venngage is the best infographic maker I have found online. There is a free and a premium version.

Images

▪ Memes and quotes are often shared a lot across social media. You can make your own.

▪ Have a customer testimony worth sharing or a new tip from an expert you think your audience would enjoy?▪ Create a “quote image” using these tools:

▪ Recite - http://recitethis.com/ (Just plug your quote into the box they provide and choose a template.)

▪ QuotesCover - http://quotescover.com/ (The site allows you to create quote designs for Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.)

▪ Collages of your latest garden tour or hands-on training?▪ Use Fotor - http://www.fotor.com/features/collage.html

▪ Photovisi - http://www.photovisi.com/

Example quote (because I like it)

YouTube

▪ Some research and articles greatly benefit from video explanations.

▪ Remember to keep it simple, videos longer than 5 minutes are usually not necessary.

▪ Always film horizontal, never ever vertical.

▪ Make sure your audio is clear if you are filming an interview with an expert, while grasshopper frequencies can be cut from video it’s very difficult to do.

Following Up

▪ Now that you have a calendar and you have content you need to make sure to follow-up with any extra engagement.▪ If people share your content or ask questions just be sure to take time to thank

them for sharing or by finding an answer to their question.

▪ If you ever tease something online, “Stay tuned for our Friday gardening tip.” Make sure to actually post something on Friday.

Quarterly Reporting

▪ Go back into your editorial calendar to measure how items did.

▪ Create a column which allows you to input data about how much engagement or how many clicks something received. This will help you to see trends of what your audiences like so you can create similar content in the future.

▪ So if you post on National Ice Cream Day and it does well then you have a post planned for next year!

Time for Questions