Content Mangement - How to Use an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog

Once you start blogging, tweeting, and/or publishing a newsletter content creation can become very overwhelming. This may be why you haven’t started some of these marketing activities. What in the world will you write about day after day, week after week? Content Management This is where an editorial calendar will drastically reduce the stress of trying to figure out what to write. Editorial calendars can (and should!) be used for blogs, email newsletters, and social media tasks for content management. Don’t let the term “editorial calendars” scare you off. They are not difficult to create. All you need is a spreadsheet program (I use Microsoft Excel) and set up a table. Here’s an example for a blog editorial calendar: If you intend to post blog updates three times a week you may choose to post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So, across the top of you spreadsheet you have these days repeating. Let’s say you are going to get started with the New Year (just a couple days away!), so your first day would be Monday and the date below January 3. Now, just fill in the blanks with what content/tip you are going to provide on each day. Here are topics I had on my editorial calendar one year ago for Heart Health Made Easy – 3 Tips to a Healthy New You in 2010, Antioxidants in Whole Grains, Heart Disease and Chocolate, 4 Habits to Reduce Heart Disease. Take an hour and outline your topics for the next few weeks (I have topics outlined months in advance!). Once you have the topic in place it’s not such a daunting task trying because you are not constantly thinking “what am I going to write about today?!” Plus, you can schedule blog posts far in advance, so if you make time for writing blog posts you can have this marketing tasks complete months ahead of schedule. Also, when you hear something in the news or read something interesting you want to share with readers, simply plug into your editorial calendar and you won’t forget!