How to Create a Content Calendar or Publications Calendar? = How to be a happier blogger?

Since I am not naturally ordered, on the contrary, highly dispersed, I want to share with you my recent successful (it would be seen) challenge achieved: use  a calendar content.

In today’s article, I’ll tell you how to create a calendar content or schedule posts for your blog (you can also apply these tips if you want to create a calendar of publications for Facebook, Twitter or any social network)  , the advantages of using one , and even included some ideas for posts.

My goal is to take advantage of this article to avoid making the same mistakes I did , and if they like the idea, use this resource that is essential for anyone who works with content , whether a content manager a community manager , a professional blogger or not.

A- Why is it important to create a calendar or calendar publishing content?

I will not lie: on the Internet, you may discover that there are many items with lists of reasons why use a calendar, its advantages, scopes, etc, which will include unfailingly at this point (because they are valid).

But there are other reason s notice that no one reveals and consider it more in line with the daily reality of any writer or person administering, create, edit or live content, like me. Then, continuing with sincerity, I share with you the reasons that I think are the ones that actually justify the use of a calendar or calendar content publications:

• Reason 1:  Optimizes times .
  
  When not administered well the time and it’s time to decide whatwrite, I assure you that the pressure of that situation does not help to generate ideas, and basically this happens:

• Reason 2: Asresult of point number one, having no ideas when the time of the meeting with your boss, editor, or who pays the salary arrives, is very likely to happen something that is not only extremely uncomfortable, but we It makes is unprofessional if we have nothing intelligent to say:

• Reason 3 : Besides being very unprofessional nothave a list of good ideas for future articles, or without goingfurther, for the current week, having to tell your boss that you find backward and you get to hardly deliver item in time , generate a reaction similar to this:

• Reason 4: Asresult of the above, you must work against the clock and therefore most likely not you produce good quality content , and that’s even worse, because in addition to disappoint your readers,could happen something like:
  
  
  Before to follow, I wantclarify that I am very lucky, and do not say because my boss is reading this, but because really we have not gone through any of the above, but I had previous experiences that allow meassurethat it is worth using a schedule of content.
  I continue with the last point, because the problems do not end here, some I understand:
• Reason 5: Having to accept that lack of organization, notuse and create a calendar, the article should be published outside the stipulated day, in some sensitive women like me, you may endmeeting delivery,this:

• Reason 6:  You start to lose authority and confidence in front of your boss, so it is very probable that he start lookingsomeone else to take care of your work:
  

These reasons will not be manual, but I think we all agree that are real and truly these are the things you want to avoid, because it’s what we live every day .

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you now review with other more theoretical points but are also equally important to consider when making the decision to create a calendar content or publications:

• A calendar content, can plan in detail consistent content and aligned with the whole business strategy and brand communication or organization .

• A good publishing schedule ensures a steady stream of content in different social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc).

• A schedule of publications, optimizes the coordination of work with other partners.

• Schedule content, increase your productivity.

• The planificaicón, can develop in advance, content that fits a calendar of key events beneficial for positioning the product or brand.

• Having a schedule, you can expand the range of content, since in advance can produce other formats that can not be created spontaneously: Webinars, slides, infographics, ebooks.

• Strengthens the engagement and blog traffic : plan ahead, provides assurance that there are no blank spaces between one article and another, can feed the blog and keep active audience

• The schedule contents of your blog , ss the basis of the strategy of social media marketing company, and therefore the timing of publications on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc .

• Planning the content and calendarizarlos, can cover all those key topics for the audience and for the company or brand.

These were also just some of the reasons why it is very necessary to use this resource, if you really want to build a serious and productive communication channel.

B- How to create a Content Calendar?

First, I would like to clarify that there is no right way to do this , nor is there a form that is better than another. The important thing is that either way you go to design it , has to serve you and your team, should work with partners.

Another important question is: is likely to take time writing “you” or “” blog, but before we go, if you really want this to work really, you should stop right now, and define basic questions that will structure your strategy communication and as a result you will publish the content you.

So:

1. Leave behind old habits and get ready to start, let’s say … zero.
2. Define yourself with your boss or team’s goals per quarter or semester blog, which in turn will guide the production of articles: What do we get the next semester ?: brand positioning? Sales? I increase traffic? Can we increase the number of subscribers to our blog? ¿Positioning of our site in search engines?
3. Define your audience , what you want from it, and how you want to get to it. Who plays for us part of writing, this point is crucial as this part and directs all our work. From what tone is used for writing, language, verbal time, person write, what kind of pictures to accompany the text will look, what kind of information may include, color, typography, etc, etc, etc.
4. Define the routine posteo : set the schedule of days and times to be published is essential to organize the schedule of content and publications of your individual work and that of other employees, not to mention that this will also help define how many columns will create in our payroll
5. Defined categories or topics of interest to your audience: health, beauty, technology, launches, etc.
6. Defines the types of posts : lists, “how to”, interviews, infographics, long post, post slides, tip posts, etc.
7. Establishes who the  authors – contributors.
8. SEO : along with the categories, and the audience, SEO is also important for the publication schedule because the selection of keywords or phrases so structured and positioned each item. Therefore, if we want to position ourselves in some particular word, this will help us. Do not stop reading this article where I explain how to optimize each article for SEO.

At this point, we can consider that over 50% of job creation calendar, is covered . Well, we are far from the world ends:

C- What to include in the worksheet Calendar Publications?

If research on the web about models calendars sheets content for your blog or social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc), you will see that there is an endless variety and quantity.

Also, surely they will check, most are too elaborate, with hundreds of columns, filters, colors … in short, so complicated that you need a person to help us understand. What should be a solution, it turns out to be a problem.

To spare that frustration, below I share with you a “sample template” that I built for you, and that is very similar to that used in Postcron . You can see it is very simple, but super effective, as we like: fast, simple, practical and without laps. A real tool to save time.

Before showing our example, I would like to suggest the following list of items, which would be the basic points that structure a calendar. Anyway, I remind you that there is nothing or yes or no need to go into a table. This is a resource that should serve who uses therefore is under his “free will”.

• Date of publication of content

• Title / suggested titles for each item

• Author of the post

• Keywords (important for SEO)

• target audience

• Status: draft, scheduled, published

• Type of post (How do such a thing, Interviews, 7 tips for …, success stories, etc.)

• Links: that which serves us inspiration for the post, investigations, other articles, infographics.

• Notes: ideas, everything is an extra.

• Where will publish: guest blog, news site, online journal, social networks.

• Metrics – Objectives

And here is our example! You can check it on line, from this link:

D- Calendar Publications What use?

As I said earlier, on the web there is a wide range of tools, spreadsheets, plugins, etc. to create calendars. There is none good or bad, it depends mostly on the volume and complexity of work. Not the same someone who does individually, an online magazine, which has a publishing department to coordinate.

If I could offer you my opinion, I’d say Google Calendar and Drive Goole sheets are more than enough to work either individually or on a computer. It is free, is collaborative, you do it to your needs and syncs with the other elements of the package Google, among other benefits.

Anyway, I share other options so they can compare:

• google Calendar

• Stresslimit Editorial Calendar

• Edit Flow

• Future Posts Calendar

• CoSchedule

• Websearchsocial.com: here you can download a free form.

• Divvyhq

•  Our calendar, of course: )

E- Without many ideas to create posts and articles?

To end this article, review with you some good ideas where to get an ace up his sleeve, if creativity take a vacation: surveys, interviews, rankings, listings, reviews, tips posts, “how to” posts, manuals, e-books, etc.

You can also transform posts with lots of information on infographics, update old posts, create videos explaining the “step by step” of a new tool, invite other bloggers, and if you need more ideas, you can use the feature : ” recommended content “ or the ” Gallery Content ” of Postcron for ideas or schedule posts directly to your social networks and automatically complete your calendars published on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all your social networks.

final words

I hope you find them very useful my previous experience, and they can be encouraged to create their own content calendar .

Remember that a calendar is to organize, but not to stagnate.  You must be aligned with the overall marketing strategy of the company and must be dynamic, revised and optimized periodically (monthly) to achieve the results of the objectives posed, whether related to traffic or impact on social media channels, only to give an example of basic issues analyzed.

You can use this form to begin planning now remember assess at least every 30 days the results of each post (visits to the post and number of shares, likes, mentions, etc.) to determine which topics and types of post they generate are the most visits, shares or conversions, depending on your goals.

The calendar is closely related content and is the basis of the calendar of publications on Facebook, Twitter, etc. because it is the basis of social media marketing strategy. Therefore, a key measure results in each channel (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn).

Would you have any doubts? I hope your comments!

And if you want to read a little more about how to plan your strategy Content Marketing, I leave here some links that I think may be of interest:

• What is content marketing and how you can take your business to the Highest?
• 6 Steps Simple & Executable to create your Social Media strategy successfully
• 10 Tools to Improve Your Marketing Content