Ak 11 stepscontent plan
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The document outlines steps for creating an effective content plan. It discusses identifying the target audience, setting goals, defining the brand's voice, assessing available resources, cataloging existing assets, determining how value will be provided to the audience, assembling a content team, and allocating time resources. The key aspects emphasized are understanding the audience's perspective, focusing on engagement over sales metrics, developing a consistent voice, leveraging available materials and partnerships, adding value beyond promotions, and ensuring adequate support from a content team.
Ak 11 stepscontent plan
- 1. 11 STEPS CONTENT PLAN Preface Before you get started with anything, you need a plan. Far too often, you see brands aimlessly posting on their blog, Facebook, twitter with no clear purpose or direction. The approach is often self-serving, hollow and inconsistent. It’s impossible to gain any traction, and the fans you actually want to attract are uninterested and don’t engage. So how do you assemble the ultimate content plan? Focus on these things before you get started: 1. Your Audience 2. Your Goals 3. Your Voice 4. Your Resources 5. Your Assets 6. Your Value 7. Your Team 8. Your Time 9. Your Themes 10. Your Calendar 11. Your Execution
- 2. 1. Your Audience Start with your audience in mind, not the goals, not about how you need to drive X leads or convert Y sales. If your focus on these things, you will fail. Think about your ideal customer. Here are some questions you’ll need to ask yourself about this person: • • • • • • • • • • • Are they male or female? How old are they? Where do they live? Are they single or married? Do they have children? How educated are they? What is their income? What do they like? What don’t they like? What motivates them? What stresses them? TASK: • Write out their story around the image below so that you understand their point of view. (Don’t forget to give them a name) • This is your target audience. • This is the person who will be the source of your inspiration.
- 3. 2. Your Goals Okay, now let’s get into your goals. The reason this is second is because I want that ideal customer to color what you do here. If you start with this step, you are going to be focused on money and metrics only. Don’t think only about numbers. Attempt to visualize how you want your engagement to look in one year. • How do your customers perceive it? • How many fans are there on Facebook? • How many subscribers? • What drives the conversation? Consider your competitor with the greatest presence on Facebook. • What are they doing right? • What are they doing wrong? • What could you emulate it or improve upon it? Consider your competitor with the greatest presence on YouTube. • What are they doing right? • What are they doing wrong? • What could you emulate it or improve upon it? Consider your competitor with the greatest presence on Twitter. • What are they doing right? • What are they doing wrong? • What could you emulate it or improve upon it? Consider your competitor with the greatest engagement on their website. • What are they doing right? • What are they doing wrong? • What could you emulate it or improve upon it?
- 4. Now consider what you want to get out of using these tools. What is the end game? Is it brand awareness? Customer service? Nurturing raving and loyal fans? Now you can start thinking about the stats. But you first have to consider the environment that would get you there. • • • • • • • • Are you looking to sell product? How much? How often? Are you looking to generate leads? How will you do it? How many per month? Are you looking to drive traffic to your website? What kind of impact? Be realistic here; make direct revenue the final goal. Start with where you want to be in one year, and then work your way back.
- 5. 3. Your Voice First of all, scrap the PR and marketing voice. You’ll want to be human. But what does that mean? Once again, this will be related to your target audience. What appeals to Uni kids won’t necessarily appeal to single mums (obviously). That doesn’t just mean the content you share, but how you share it. Think through how it is you will present yourself. Start by writing a one-page introduction of your brand to your Fans. You’ll never share or publish it. But it will give you practice: TASK My Brand: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
- 6. 4. Your Resource • • • • • Do you have a photographer? A graphic designer? A videographer? A programmer? What partners do you have who could contribute? These are all important factors to consider when putting together your content strategy. TASK Make a list of these resources, and within those lists create sublists of content ideas that they could create that would appeal to your target audience. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
- 7. 5. Your Assets TASK Now make a list of all of your assets that can be used as inspiration for content. That includes things that already exist like articles from your website, articles by others, photos, videos, products and sales. Again, don’t think about this from a marketing and sales perspective, but from one of providing value. What will your ideal customer like? Once you have this master list, start breaking it up into categories. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
- 8. 6. Your Value Very similar to number five, but different. When thinking about your assets, I want you to assemble a list of types of content. For value, this is an opportunity to think about creative ways to make your brand interesting. Understand that on Facebook, your typical Fan will have a News Feed that is flooded with posts from 500 other friends and Pages. You need to stand out. • Will you provide discounts? • Run contests? • Or will you teach something and make your Fans’ lives easier? TASK Make a list of the various things that you can do that add value and break them into categories. Do not skimp on this step! If it’s too difficult to come up with value, you will not create a Page worth following! ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
- 9. 7. Your Team How many people will be managing social updates? • • • • • Is it just you? A team of five? How will they work together? What will everyone’s roles be? Who will be in charge? This is critical, particularly when it comes to consistency and voice. Sometimes, it’s better to have one person write the updates, but have a team that helps with creating the content. TASK List your team members below, assign roles and delegate responsibilities: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
- 10. 8. Your Time Do you have only one person managing the Page with an hour available per day? The content strategy you assemble will be different than if you have three people and 10 hours per day. Be honest with yourself and do not overcommit. TASK In the space below, map out your timetable for the week and see where you fit in your social media updates. Remember, once running, everything can be done from your phone so you don’t always need to be at home/work to keep things up to day. TIME MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
- 11. 9. Your Theme Find the main themes associated with your Resources, Assets and Value. These will be the themes of your content. The number of themes you choose should be correlated to the number of days that you will be able to manage the Page per week. TASK List your main themes and subthemes below: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
- 12. 10. Your Calendar Now assign a different theme for each day of the week, again based on the size of your team and time available. Then begin slotting in assets and value as inspiration for individual days going several weeks or even a couple of months into the future. Don’t go too far. This is your initial guide, but it should be fluid. 11. Your Execution Now put all of this hard work into action! For the first few weeks, be as structured as possible. Make sure people have very clear roles and assignments: • Who will be managing Facebook and at what times? • Who will be responding to Fans? • At what time will each piece of new content be written? Eventually, you should become less rigid, but it is important to establish some routine.