Red Magnet Media

Magazines, newspapers, TV broadcasters and other traditional media companies all have a bible: their editorial calendar. Your blog, branded social network or profiles on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook should be no different.

You need an editorial calendar, a plan to tell the story of your brand on a consistent basis online. You can and should still improvise, respond to people in real-time and diverge from your plan at times, but having an editorial calendar gives you a good foundation to start from.

The Basics
An editorial calendar describes the blog posts, videos, or photos you’ll add to your website on which days. The best editorial calendars are consistent, doable, and specific: a breakdown of exactly what topic you’ll blog about, which video you’ll post, or which photos you’ll upload to your website on which day or week. We work closely with our clients to create an editorial calendar that makes sense for them, taking into account each client’s goals, target audience, and availability.

Creating an Editorial Calendar
We start by collaborating on a list of ideas for possible content, each piece of which fits with the client’s goals and helps them say what’s on their mind. Having a backlog of ideas upfront helps us create a schedule that is doable within the client’s time constraints. We then regularly meet with clients to learn about upcoming events or launches and we integrate those into the overall plan.
Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks are a great way to find and build the audience for your website, and an editorial calendar allows you to create an effective summary message that can be virally spread on your social media profiles.

How Tedx Silicon Valley Used an Editorial Calendar
When I volunteered on the Leadership Team for Tedx Silicon Valley, I suggested that the Social Media team create an editorial calendar of blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates. Each day everyone on their team knew what to publish on the Tedx blog, what to tweet about, and what to post on Facebook. In less than three weeks, thanks to not only the editorial calendar, a bunch of smart tweets and a remarkable team effort, the team was able to achieve remarkable results.

• More than 100,000 people watched Tedx Silicon Valley’s UStream live video
• More than 45 countries around the world participated in Tedx Silicon Valley’s UStream and Twitter channels

Thanks to all of the tweets about Tedx Silicon Valley, we generated over 11.8 million social media impressions throughout the world

In fact, the idea for this blog post was part of an editorial calendar we created with the goal of posting new digital and social media strategies every Tuesday and Thursday. Next Tuesday we’ll post about the importance of knowing who and where your audience is.

Photo Credit: Calendar Card by Joe Lanman on Flickr, licensed using Creative Commons

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