Eric Schad

Do you have a hard time relating to millennials? You aren’t alone, and it’s a growing problem for many businesses and marketers. This generation...

Content creation for social media requires year-round planning and execution. So what happens when you hit your business' “down time?” Whether your slow period is around the holiday season, or summer like here at Concordia University, a well thought out content strategy can help you avoid periods when your social media accounts appear dormant.

The backbone of your strategy should be content that is relevant to your business and can be created/posted regardless of the time of year. This will give you something to fall back on during your business' slow periods and ensure that you have relevant and compelling content. For example, at Concordia we can always fall back on content that relates to our Lutheran mission, the research of our faculty, higher education trends and views of our campus. Our summer content doesn't rely as heavily on the fast-paced, real-time nature of social media because campus isn't as busy as when class is in session, but we still have content planned to share.

When opportunities to share real-time content arise (and they always will in our 24/7, 365 world), you will have planned content that is easier to shift to a later time in your content calendar. A fellow PR/social strategist I often work with compares social content planning to Morse code – long bursts punctuated by short bursts. The long bursts are your planned content, and the short bursts are the real-time and newsworthy items that pop up. This analogy fits perfectly for the down times of the year and can be helpful when developing a content strategy and calendar.

Your “off season” content might not be as easy to curate, but it's essential to have a sound strategy in place to keep your social accounts fresh and your audience engaged.

As social media networks continue to gravitate toward visually-based content, it's crucial for advertisers to take advantage of image sharing opportunities.