Assignment#7 : Social Media Content Calendar
Description
In this assignment students will complete a provided template to map out 3 weeks of content for their accounts. Both tabs of the worksheet need to be filled in fully and then a third tab needs to be added to the Excel file to show a screen shot of the student's Hootsuite account and their scheduled tweets (need to show at least 3 are scheduled).
Rationale
This assignment will evaluate the following course learning outcomes:
1.
Develop and maintain a dashboard that outlines and measures key analytics for an online brand.
Directions
You will complete the speadsheet tabs of the
Social Media ContentCalendar
as you work through the course notes this week.
Check the
An Overview of Our NextAssignment
page for more specific details. Once you have the template filled in (first tab includes 6 lists, second tab shows your content for each day and you have added a screenshot of your Hootsuite scheduled messages tab) you will submit it to the submission folder.
Please, find all videos that I am attaching here to help you to do this assignment well:
https://youtu.be/yHp3dy6qFIk
https://youtu.be/yHp3dy6qFIk
https://youtu.be/Dvchg0E8O7E
https://youtu.be/xoeEqMkHIVc
Also, I am attaching a template in excel that you will use to complete this assignment and a word document that will support you in more detail about the assignment.
Editorial Overview Editorial Overview My Target Markets My ObjectivesInternal events and topics for the MonthExternal Events This Month Content Sources Content Types 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 1010 NOTE - each of these is a stand alone list. The list of target markets has nothing to do with the list of External Events and visa versa. This page will show me 6 different lists that you have developed Content Calendar DayDateTimeTarget MarketObjective #Twitter CopyCharacter CountLink to external media if applicable Monday 19-NovYour actual Twitter content will go here. You will see I added a Character count by using the LEN function in Excel116 0 Tuesday20-Nov3, 5, 1if your tweet is going to be too many characters, the charater count column will turn red for that tweet - to set this up I used Conditional formating - how cool is that?! Well I think it is cool but I just updated it to check for 280 rather then 140 so it will only change to red for REALLY long tweets 305 0 Wednesday 21-NovBet you will save this nicely formated worksheet to use in the future 70*This tweet will be sent as a Canva Graphic 0 Thursday 22-NovClients love it when you have smart formatting like this 57 0 Friday 23-Nov0 0 Saturday24-Nov1, 4 Check out this video of me setting up a great Excel Template: 62I don't actually have a video of this but if I did I would put the link here 0 Sunday25-Nov0 0 Monday 26-NovDid you know that you can easily change the dates that you want to set up your content calendar for? Just change the first date in B2 and the rest will follow158 0 Tuesday27-Nov0 0 Wednesday 28-Nov0 0 Thursday 29-Nov0 0 Friday 30-Nov0 0 Saturday1-Dec0 0 Sunday2-Dec0 0 Monday 3-Dec0 0 Tuesday4-Dec0 0 Wednesday 5-Dec0 0 Thursday 6-Dec0 0 Friday 7-Dec0 0 Saturday8-Dec0 0 Sunday9-Dec0 0 Read each part of the assignment as you spend time developing strategic content. 1. Tab 1 of the Template: Tab one of the template is called Editorial Overview and asks you to complete 6 lists. Note that each list is a stand-alone list. The lists have nothing to do with each other, so please don't try to read this tab like a standard spreadsheet. 2. Target Markets and Objectives: Your first two lists are easy to complete. We have already agreed on these two lists. First, list your target markets by name in the list in the “A” column. You have this list from your Goals and Objectives Assignment. Be sure to use any feedback given to you by your instructor in your assignments feedback prior to moving the target market to this spreadsheet. Next, do the same with your objectives. Again you already have this list from your Goals and Objectives assignment, and you have already listed them on your dashboard as well. Be sure that if your instructor gave you any additional objectives or tweaked any of yours that you are using the version that they have sent back to you. 3.Internal Events: The next list you need to create is Internal Events (shaded blue). For this, you need to think of 3-5 events that you are taking part in during the three weeks we are trying to develop content (see tab 2 for the dates). These events are anything relevant to your account that you will be a part of in the three-week period that we are developing content for. Things that would be of interest to your target market and on-brand for your accounts For instance, for my Packing Kids Lunches Account, some internal events that will be happing over the next three weeks might be 1. Going grocery shopping for sandwich ingredients on (I will input the date here). 2. Baking Banana bread for lunches on (again, I will put a specific date here). 3. Shopping for a new thermos for my kid on (date here). All three of these things are things that I will be doing, which happen to be related to my account. They are each unique. I will come up with 3-to 5 of these. What are you doing that is related to your topic? Are you a video gamer and plan to try a new game feature? Are you inviting a friend over for a gaming night? These would all be internal events. Are you a fashion lover on your Twitter account? Maybe you will read a new issue of a magazine or visit a store to try on some pants. These are both internal events. 4.External Events: Our next list on the template (shaded purple) is External Events. For this, we are looking for 3-5 events that are happening during the period we are creating content for that are relevant to our topic from anywhere in the world. The key is that we are not participating in these events. For my packing lunching account, perhaps a nutritionist is speaking at an event that I am not attending. Or perhaps there is a farmers market that is hosting a special weekend event in Ottawa. I am not a part of either of these events, but they would be of interest to my followers and on-brand for me to discuss. 5. Content Types and Content Sources: Our final two lists are easy to complete. The first one, Content types, is a list of the types of content that you have noticed to date that your target market likes. You would find this either in your Twitter analytics or perhaps in your Goals and Objectives assignment when you researched three brands that were targeting your same market and writing about what worked for them. Is your target market most likely to engage with videos? With polls? With articles that you share with them? List their top 3 favourites Then, your final list is your content sources. You have been getting your content from many different places to date, and we want to list those here. Is there a great blog that has helped you develop content? Another Twitter account? A TV show or a podcast? List them here. Be specific when you list them (for example, list the specific Twitter account, don't just say Twitter account). 6. Looking at Tab One Overall: When tab one is filled in, you will have 6 individual lists on the page. We will never read this page left to right but instead, review it as 6 individual lists. 7. Moving Content Into the Calendar: With the Editorial Overview complete, it is time to start creating content and putting it in our content calendar tab. We will end up with 42 tweets drafted for our account. The way we will fill this in may surprise you. Here is a quick video to show you how to fill it in. 8. Target Market and Objectives for Each Post: As you input content into your spreadsheet, be sure to indicate which number of the target market(s) and which number of objective(s) each piece of content supports. If you have a piece of content that addresses your primary target market, then put a number in the target market column. Same for your objectives. 9. Filling In Any Holes: Once you craft 3 tweets per event (pre-sell, during and back-sell), you will have a good portion of your content calendar complete. However, there will still be some holes. You want to look at the Target Market and Objectives columns now. Which target market do you speak to the most? Do you ever speak to your 2nd or 3rd target market? And what objectives are your content focusing on? Is there an objective that you never meet? Once you see what target markets and objectives are not addressed consistently in your calendar, use the empty spaces to fix that. Do you have an objective to ask a certain account to follow you or to hire you to speak at an event? If you don't have any content that is driving towards that, add it to the calendar. Craft the message asking that account for what you need in one of the empty slots. You will continue to do this until all 42 messages are crafted 10. Timing of Messages: When using a content calendar and pre-scheduling content, we don't want to let the target markets know that we are not sending these messages live. To help us try to ensure that people don't find out that we are pre-scheduling our messages, we ensure that we are scheduling our content for various points in the day. If your account sent a tweet every morning at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., your followers would likely, with time, catch on. With that in mind, schedule your tweets for various times. You can pick any time in 5-minute increments, e.g. 10:35, 11:15, 12:55.