10 New Year Blogging Centric Resolutions for the Content Marketer

The New Year has officially dropped which means it’s high time for fresh brands and businesses to turn up their content marketing game with blogging. As it stands, blogging is the source of 97% more inbound website backlinks, 126% more business lead growth and an array of other benefits for small and large firms.

If you’re a small company and have yet to make your mark, it is a better time than ever to aim higher. So, that is why we have conjured up a list of only the most inspiring New Year’s Resolutions that will make you become a better blogger:

“I’ll post More Frequently On My Blog”

Since blogging is such a hot market these days, you’ve to be more frequent in your blog posting if you ever hope to keep up with the competition and engage your audience. It could be that you may not be putting in as many hours as you should be. That is what you need to change in yourself. 

You will have to pull that extra gear if you want your readers to be engaged and keep coming back. If you are slacking on your blog posting and have nothing new to offer to your readers, then you’ll end up losing your readers.

We understand that it may be tough for you to disengage yourself from your regular working habits but once you get the hang of it, you won’t even feel the grudge.

“I’ll Always Put Quality Over Quantity”

Just because you have to post frequently, don’t assume that you post anything that is trending and then share it with your target market. Posting more often than usual could have worked in the blooming days of blogging, but now there is a saturation of posts online that people can go through. 

Additionally, people have less time and less patience to be able to go through everything. That is why bloggers only focus on creating content that specifically targets the needs and demands of the readers. 

Therefore, you need to stay true to your niche and what you can deliver to your audience in a slow but organic manner. 

Try to target specific trending tweets, hash tags and other content that surround your niche and focus your content developing skills around those for your blogs.

“I’ll Take Advantage of Live Video”

The concept of the live video came to fruition in 2016 and is likely to persist in the New Year as well. As of now, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, and Snap chat are extremely high on the concept as they are heavily promoting it for their marketing and advertising campaigns. 

Even new agencies, car manufacturers, and sporting events are taking advantage of this new opportunity to gain their exposure. As a matter of fact, 74% of respondents from a Vidyard survey claim videos lead to the highest conversion rates for any piece of content. 

From what we’ve gathered, live videos work better for Facebook. Customers are looking for friendly, authentic and meaningful interactions with brands and only live videos can give them the whole package. 

There’s a little more authenticity to this than what is happening and live videos provide a more fruitful connection. Live videos outdo other formats of media when it comes to timeliness. They can provide updates right on the fly. Live videos are especially useful for promoting events since locations are no longer a barrier. 

“I’ll Update Old Content”

While it is essential to keep your content fresh and compelling, you should not leave your old blog posts to wither away and keep revising to make it relevant to your niche audience.

This is why the majority of the bloggers keep spicing up their old posts with new and relevant information. Not only does it keep the readers informed and up-to-date but it also attracts a whole wave of new readers given how much your reputation has gone up. Besides, the search engines love it when old content gets upgraded.

Therefore, you need to ensure that you go through your old posts on a yearly basis and rewrite the outdated numbers, give alternatives for broken tools and provide up-to-date screenshots to keep your content on the top.

“I Don’t Wait Until The Last Minute to Come Up With Ideas”

If you think you’re the only one to come up with an idea at the very last minute, you’d be surprised to know how wrong you are. Of course, not all last-minute ideas have to be bad as most of the results aren’t exactly favorable. The reason behind this is because anything rushed will lose its appeal.

Keep in mind that blogs which are worth-reading are a composition of quality and quantity. Therefore, you must not ever let the quality of your content slip up. Therefore, you need to prevent such a catastrophe and keep a list of potential blog post ideas at all times so that your chances are better off.

You should also keep a content creation calendar with you so that you know what you have to write about in advance. 

“I’ll Not Ignore The Significance of Semantic Search”

As time goes by, search engines continue to get smarter. As such, it is vital for marketers to keep up with those changes to stay ahead in the competition. Keyword rankings are essential, but there’s more to search criterion than just that as Google uses the history of searches of the users. 

But bloggers will benefit greatly from semantic search as it has improved accuracy. Its features include auto correction, location-specific results, and conversational search results. 

To take advantage of semantic search, content marketers have to focus less on specific keywords and more on a keyword ecosystem. Keywords are still important but other factors must be taken into account as well. You must focus more on the meaning the same way as Google does.

In addition, you have to ensure that the focus of your content is clear and obvious. It will help search engines know what you want and have it delivered to the right people. Additionally, the quality of content has to be stellar – as in it matches the intention of the words that they search for.

“I’ll Find Follow-Up Opportunities”

The purpose of a follow-up is not so that you can create new content and rather it is meant to direct a batch of new followers to your old article which serves as a base for a new one. 

So the next time you start a new article, you must be sure to mention your old posts and why your readers should consider reading that first. 

However, you won’t be writing all these follow-ups all the way in the New Year. You have planned out your approach first; create an editorial calendar, and then mind-mapping comes into play.

“I’ll Keep a Watch for Rank Brain”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is another game-changer that has been making waves for the past few years. Google refers to Al deep learning tool and it is a part of its algorithm now. It goes without saying that the Internet is chock full of content that is competing with your own for their limited attention. 

Google only wants to serve up the best search results that its users are looking for, but there is an infinite void of content to scan and rank. It is for this reason that Google created a tool known as RankBrain to solve this issue. 

It is an AI component that can scan an ocean of content and discovers the most trending topics. It can also adapt by analyzing a series of queries and determining the intent of users. 

To optimize your content for RankBrain, you have to rank for the right user intent, optimize your titles and meta to be something that people with that intent will want to click on and then convert those visitors. 

“I’ll Add More Meat To blog posts”

While it is good to have a ‘short’, ‘sweet’ and ‘precise’ approach when it comes to making your blogs, you sometimes need to add a little more flesh on the bones. By that, we mean making the content of your blogs long enough to increase their readability and share ability. 

Breaking it up into bullet points and subheadings further add to the benefit. If you can give you readers more value out of longer posts in the New Year, you could be breaking new grounds and that too in a good way.

“I’ll Do Competitor Analysis”

Keep in mind that when we say competitor analysis, we do not mean that you go ahead, steal their ideas and make them your own. Sometimes it is important to analyze the approach of your competitors and look into the kind of keywords and social platforms that they are targeting just to know the current practices of your industry.

Probe how they are using it all and see if you can work out a method of your own to use in your blogs.

Bonus infographic:

Source: Expresswriters.

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The Problem With the ‘New Year, New You’ Mindset

The question is about as hard to dodge as the “So, are you dating anyone?” questions you hear at nearly every family function. As the new year approaches, we as a society tend to do a lot of reflecting on how the last 365 days unfolded. Did we stay in shape like we planned? Did we impress our bosses enough to secure that next promotion? Did we find someone to love, or properly appreciate those we have?

Although the holidays are a time of joy and gratitude, the last days of the year are often filled with forward thinking, our faces to the horizon, looking for ways to make the following year even better. Phrases like “clean slate” and “starting over” saturate our newsfeeds, along with articles filled with a laundry list of life hacks for self-improvement. And although I love the hopeful eye with which many gaze, I have to admit that I have a problem with the “new year, new you” mentality.

I understand it’s meant to inspire; reframing the stroke of midnight as the gift of a fresh start. If this year we fell short of who we wanted to be, we can try again next year. New year, new you!

But is that really what we want?

If I were to start the year completely unaffected by my past, who would I be? And what in the world would possess me to toss all of those memories into the trash?

“New you” is said so casually that it’s easy to miss the deeper meaning. Oxford describes new as this: “made, introduced, or discovered recently or now for the first time.” New Year, new you literally means beginning the year as a completely new person. I don’t know what you think, but to me that sounds a little off. If I were to start the year completely unaffected by my past, who would I be? And what in the world would possess me to toss all of those memories into the trash?

It seems we only want to start the year anew when we feel the last was, well, less than satisfactory. But that is exactly the moment we should be digging in! When in your life have you noticed yourself grow stronger? I can tell you it’s not when things are sailing smoothly. In life, we expand our strength and courage in the hard times. It’s an “Oh shit!” response during the freefall, and a simple lesson in physics—when you take a deep breath and make yourself as big as possible to slow your speed in an effort to avoid crashing into the ground. Beginning the new year as a new you would be abandoning the possibility of your moment of glory. As someone who has free fallen many times and fought hard to reach where and who I am today, I’d rather like to bring that warrior into the new year with me.

Over the years, that warrior has crushed self-doubt, juggled multiple jobs, experienced injustice, lost loved ones, survived heartbreak and skin cancer…. Sure, she made (plenty) mistakes and didn’t always “drink more water” or meet my other expectations, but that’s no reason to erase it all to start fresh. The victories and the mistakes I’ve made have brought me to the place I stand before you today, and for that I am grateful.

The desire to improve is admirable and should certainly be encouraged. But we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves as to demand we start over if come January 1st we haven’t got our lives figured out. Some of my favorite memories came from things that were spontaneous and unplanned! And it would be a shame to discredit how far you’ve truly come. Life is hard. Perhaps you didn’t lose those 10 pounds or find a new job. Regardless, the year was not a wash because of a couple failed resolutions. You tried, and that counts for a lot more than you’d think. Gaining character and resilience is something to celebrate, not bury, at the start of a new year. I, for one, am not willing to hide my battle wounds for the sake of newness and perfection.

It would be nearly impossible to make a masterpiece if you were continually starting over.

I stumbled across a quote somewhere that stated this idea simply: Life is like a canvas and every day is a new brush stroke. It would be nearly impossible to make a masterpiece if you were continually starting over. The “new year, new you” philosophy discredits the beauty of your journey, of taking failure and running with it. Maybe you accidentally dropped your paintbrush and smeared a black streak across the entire painting, and now your plan to paint a Thomas Cole version of the Alaskan winter is out of the question. That doesn’t mean you can’t still paint something sensational. And the best part is, when you do, that painting will be a true original and all yours.

So as the new year begins, be bold. Be brave. Don’t ditch what might look like a mess of a canvas for the ideal of perfection in a blank slate. Because real and lasting progress is made slowly and with grit, not simply when the date on the calendar says so. A fresh start might sound appealing, but there is something to be said for refusing to give up on yourself. For looking in the mirror and being determined to make something beautiful out of what you see, no matter the state at which you stand.

The important thing is to have patience and treat yourself with compassion. And remember that you, as you are now, are more than deserving of another year, a new year, to build and grow upon. You don’t need to start new, you simply need the courage to start as you. 

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How to start the year right

Listen to SPI and the insights of influencers on How to start the new year right

How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar for a Year

Want to deliver quality social media content for the next year?

Interested in planning your social posts in advance?

A content calendar helps you deliver the right message to your audience at the right time.

In this article, you’ll discover how to plan a year’s worth of social media posts and content.

#1: Create a Spreadsheet

The first step in creating a content calendar is to set everything up in a spreadsheet. You can do this with Excel or Google Sheets.

On the top line of the sheet, fill in the days of the week.

Add the days of the week to the top row of your content calendar.

Next, add a line for each week of the year to separate your content by weeks. The left half of your calendar will look something like this:

Add a row for each week of your content calendar.

Fill out your calendar for the entire year. After you add the days and weeks, you may want to apply color so you can more easily distinguish the sections.

#2: Add Events and Holidays

The next step is to do a Google search to find out what events are happening in your industry so you can add them to your calendar.

If you work in fashion, for example, look up the major events that happen throughout the entire year, such as the tradeshow Magic or Fashion Week.

If you work in healthcare, identify all of the awareness days, weeks, and months. In healthcare, there are dozens of these lists available.

Search for industry events you can incorporate into your content calendar.

In your empty calendar template, enter the events into the particular days, weeks, or months when they’ll happen. This way, you can plan your content according to when those events occur.

Your content calendar will begin to look like this:

Add events and holidays to your content calendar.

Next, add national holidays like the Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year’s Day, and so forth. You can see Thanksgiving is mentioned on line 333 in the image above.

Think outside the box, too. Do your business or social pages have a tie-in with other industries? For example, in healthcare, voice treatments can relate to music, and orthopedics can relate to sports. Find other events that are going on, such as the World Series or the beginning of basketball season, and add them to your calendar.

#3: Identify Content Themes

Now you’re ready to start brainstorming content themes. Take into consideration what your audience wants to see, how you can educate or entertain them, and what products and services you want to promote.

Also identify what your business’s internal priorities are. If you’re a fashion line, your primary priority is to sell clothing. If you’re a musician, your primary goal is to sell albums or book shows. Start thinking about how you can incorporate your business priorities into your content.

Once you’ve compiled a list of themes, assign two themes to each day of the week on your content calendar. I recommend a 60/40 or 80/20 split between educating and entertaining, and promoting your business, products, and services. You don’t want to promote your offerings all of the time or people will lose interest and stop visiting your page. Here’s what the themes might look like on your content calendar.

Note themes for each day of the week on your content calendar.

#4: Generate Topics for Each Theme

Once you have your themes in place, you need to generate topics for them.

It’s important that you produce the types of content that your target audience is looking for. To find out what people are interested in, use a tool like BuzzSumo to research the content that other people are sharing.

For example, suppose your Monday theme is food. If you search for “food” in the paid version of BuzzSumo, you can see a list of the most shared headlines in the timeframe of your choosing.

BuzzSumo can help you find out what type of content your audience is interested in.

Use these insights to inform the headlines and introductions for your content. Remember to put your own spin on the content you create; don’t plagiarize.

Now tie your topics into your calendar of events. If you’re in healthcare and basketball season is starting, your topics might relate to common injuries that basketball players face. If you’re in the fashion industry and Fashion Week is coming up, start showcasing your new inventory and do previews of what’s in store during that event.

When you add topics to your content calendar, break down your primary topic and secondary topic on a weekly basis.

Add topics to your content calendar.

Sticking to a theme for the week helps you break your calendar into bite-sized chunks. For the topic “food,” for example, you can showcase foods that help improve skin health.

You want to tie your content into a theme that your audience can relate to, as opposed to randomly generating content that may not be appropriate for the season. For example, an article about how much water you need to drink is probably more interesting to people in summer months than during the winter.

#5: Detail Individual Posts

Do your social media accounts focus on images? Video? Writing? Figure out how to incorporate all of your main content types into your calendar.

If articles drive your account, for example, have some ready to go, Monday through Friday, that relate to both your primary and secondary themes.

Quote cards are an easy way to cover your main weekly topic of focus. In healthcare, for example, you could cover health facts or share health tips. A tool like Canva makes it easy to create quote cards and images.

Quote cards are a great way to cover your main topics each week.

Now start filling your calendar with the content you want to create. Eventually, it will look something like this.

Plan out your content to publish throughout the calendar year.

It doesn’t really matter if you post once a day or 10 times a day. What matters is to make sure you can maintain the volume of content for your calendar. If you work at a large company and have a lot of resources dedicated to content creation, publish as much as you can. If you work at a small company or by yourself, try to publish at least two pieces of content each day.

Be sure to maintain consistency in the volume of content you publish.

Conclusion

Doing an entire year of content planning up front allows you to focus on creating and delivering quality content every week. Try to stay a few weeks ahead in your content creation because it’s easy to fall behind when you’re posting something new every day.

As your audience grows more familiar with your content and your business, they’ll start expecting to see posts at certain times. Keep to your schedule and post your content at the same time each day. You can use tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to do this, and as an added bonus, they’ll post on multiple platforms for you.

What do you think? Do you use some of these tactics to create your social media content calendar? What tips can you offer? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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