We’ve all been there—sitting around a table with coworkers, staring at next month’s content calendar. Somehow, shockingly, the calendar is blank. “How did I let this happen again?” you may be thinking, or “Will the internet never cease?”
Finally, after minutes of awkward silence, someone croaks, “So…anyone have any ideas?”
This is a nightmare scenario for me—an INFJ personality type who feels obligated to fill all silences with my own mindless chatter. I’m sure it’s a nightmare scenario for you, too. Besides highlighting the insane pace of time, a blank content calendar can inspire panic at the thought of next month’s workload.
But that’s only if you’re doing it wrong. With the right strategies at hand, team (or even solo) brainstorms can be fun and productive events. In fact, looking at a blank content calendar can inspire creativity and excitement.
Don’t believe me? Try one or more of these strategies in your next brainstorm and see what happens.
1. Review top performing posts or content
The best place to look for inspiration when you’re feeling uninspired is the content you already have. What performed well? Ask your team if they have any ideas for how to replicate that success in the coming months.
Reviewing top performing content also enables you to cut out inefficiencies. Besides getting to see which posts worked, you get to see which posts didn’t work and can avoid similar posts in the future.
2. Investigate your competitors
The second best place to look for inspiration is the feeds of your enemies. What are they doing that you’re not? What sorts of posts are successful for them? My personal favourite is: What are they doing that you could do better?
You could go so far as to perform a comprehensive gap analysis. But even a quick scroll through the feeds of one or two of your major competitors is often enough to start the brain rolling.
3. Go seasonal
In the world of social media, there is a “holiday” with a hashtag for every single day of the year. Find out which holidays are coming up in your content calendar and decide which ones make sense for your brand to “celebrate” online. Then discuss the interesting or unique ways in which to celebrate. Hint: there may be some existing content that can be repurposed (see point number one).
For example, in March 2018, Hootsuite decided to celebrate #nationalpuppyday by updating and sharing an older blog post called 8 Dogs That Are Better at Instagram Than You. It took relatively little time and effort to publish, but continues to be a big hit on our social feeds (even though it is no longer #nationalpuppyday). In a perfect world, every day would be #nationalpuppyday.
4. Review your goals
Does your team have a mission and/or a vision statement? Now would be a good time to pull that out. Sometimes all it takes is a reminder of why you’re here to get the ball rolling.
Another great thing to look at is the official goals you set when…
