Today’s episode made me plan in advance! In order to really break down how to plan content for the upcoming year, I challenged myself to do my personal content plan a week early so I could really think about what my exact process is and share it with you!
After years of downloads and planners that aren’t right for me, I finally created my own monthly content planning worksheet and I love it! It’s linked below and I hope it helps you too. Listen to the full episode for my tips and tools of content planning!
Content planning takes time and focus. Schedule some time and put your phone on Do Not Disturb so you can really think about the year ahead and how you want to show up for your audience. I use a large desk calendar to do my initial planning - this is my current favorite because it has plenty of room for notes. I use a calendar and my monthly planning worksheet to get organized then input hard deadlines into my digital calendar as I make them.
Take a minute and glance over your 2021 Brand Review Worksheet. Stop here and fill it out if you haven’t already!
Take a minute and look at the goals you made for yourself and your brand in 2022.
Now, let's dive into the the steps that I use in my personal brand to content plan for the upcoming year!
Use a pencil as you go through these 4 steps and categories to pencil in content ideas to your calendar. Then backtrack and think about how you need to plan on advance for that. If you're adding Christmas content, for example, think about the time you will need to create that content, then work backwards to figure out when you need to start the creation process.
This method will also help you prepare and budget for photo and video shoots throughout the year.
Look back at your 2021 content. What was your favorite thing that you created? What was your least favorite?
Look at metrics and what performed well. Instagram insights and Google Analytics are great free tools to utilize to check your content performance rates.
Think about what made you happy to create and share. Can you add more of that? Create a series around it?
Is there anything you shared that you weren’t proud of? Keep that in mind as you plan for future partnerships. Your content should fire you up, not bring you down.
We just witness a huge shift in content on Instagram's platform. They basically turned into Tiktok a couple weeks ago and you're seeing more video content than everr before? Keep that in mind as you plan content. That doesn't necessarily mean that you should *only* do video, but you should be sure to add in time and content that uses video in addition to photo content.
When looking at your content and content trends, think about what kind of packages you will want to pitch to brands. Hint: they should include video!
What are your goals for the year and how can you create content out of them? People *love* a progress story, a before/after, a goal update...and they are cheering for you! How can you include your audience in your journey.
What are the timelines of some of your goals? Can you do a monthly video check-in and update your audience with a few video clips of progress?
If one of your goals is to work with xx amount of brands, leave room in your content calendar for those partnerships. You always want to leave room for growth and change.
Your 2022 goals, your brand review, and your content calendar all work together to fill in the blanks. If you have a month with zero content planned, you can add a goal for that month. If you can't come up with any goals, look at your content ideas and use those to create a goal around a few of them.
Lastly, I challenge you to share your plans with a friend, an accountability partner, or significant other. Ask them for a follow up conversation in a month to check your progress. People want you to succeed, so include them in your journey!
I'm cheering for you! Tag me @rhondajenkins or @thebloggerbrunch if you're listening and using the planning worksheet!
