We’ve written a few blogs in the past about how planning your content makes sense. Most marketers will start with a calendar and schedule in significant dates which social media posts can be weaved around – such as Valentine’s Day and Mothering Sunday.
In the case of some regular events, such as Christmas and the school holidays, this will probably also be the time when your marketing team is short-staffed. This is another reason to be organised and think ahead, so the unlucky team member who ‘volunteered’ to work during Christmas week or manage the social media channels then from their sofa, isn’t having to create festive-related content from scratch.
On top of what we know is being shared on particular days – including ‘awareness day’s such as International Women’s Day - it does make sense to pre-prepare posts around events which might happen and keep these ready to share, if and when they are needed.
A good example is weather and, here in the UK, we aren’t short of that! Many businesses find that sales of particular products increase when the weather is hot. Chemists, for example, stock sun protection products all year round but demand is particularly high in the summer.
While it’s likely that the social media team will have already scheduled in some posts regarding sun protection in the early summer, it also makes sense to write some content ready for a particularly hot spell. It might be that the temperature doesn’t get high enough to ‘trigger’ the sharing of this content but it makes sense to have it prepared.
The same can also be said of wintery weather. Here in the South East of England, we haven’t seen any significant snowfall for a couple of years but, again, if you know your sales will rise when it snows, it makes sense to have some pre-written copy ready to share (or be tweaked a little and shared).
In February 2022, the UK saw some significant gales and, again, while this is probably less likely to happen than, say, a few hot days, many businesses which could see a spike in sales might well be ready to share copy. These could be fencing companies perhaps or businesses selling generators or chainsaws.
Of course, there are events which would seem very unlikely to happen – such as a pandemic – and we’d be surprised if any businesses had ‘pandemic copy’ ready to share. That said, those companies which have a clear PR crisis management plan, will probably have some boilerplate paragraphs already prepared to deal with any disasters which happen.
We know that some companies have pre-approved copy written for all types of scenario – good or bad. The big media channels, for instance, will have pre-prepared obituaries for famous people that can be released at the touch of a button…
In 2014, the American actor Kirk Douglas’ obituary was accidentally published on the People magazine website with the header ‘Do Not Publish’ still attached… As it was, he died at the grand old age of 103 in 2020.
Of course, there are example of brands sharing content as situations unfold and this takes some bravery, agility and a certain amount of trust in the social media team. A few years ago, the lights went out at the Mercedes-Benz-Superdome in New Orleans during the Super Bowl and, within minutes, Oreo tweeted a simple image of one of its well-known biscuits against a dark background with the phrase ‘you can still dunk in the dark’.
Considering there are often many layers of sign-off when organisations launch a marketing campaign, there needs to be a certain amount of trust attached this quick-thinking approach. It’s also important to keep the brand in mind and make the right impression – while still grasping that opportunity.
The key to all of this is being prepared and having the content ready to push out when needed. An argument for being ready to response quickly is having some room in your schedule to do that, without feeling like you are constantly chasing your tail… It’s about being organised and creating a schedule of content, so you know that you’re in a good place to spend a little time responding to real time situations.
A word of warning though… Being organised and scheduling content is a great idea, as long as you remember to review what’s going out nearer the time. A local theatre near where we are based was criticised for sharing content about a visit from the Russian State Opera on the day that the war against Ukraine started. Also, having content about sunny days going out on a day which is grey and raining also doesn’t look good. So, remain vigilant.
If you want to know more about scheduling and sharing content, then get in touch on tel: 020 3397 3222.