Easy content planning for social networks, blogs and online marketing

Blogging, article marketing, press release syndication, and social media are all great ways to increase your website’s exposure and establish your credibility. However, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, disorganized, and unsure what to write about. Editorial calendars are effective tools for some; suffocating to others. If you prefer a less formal plan but want to stay on track, try this: use alliteration.

What is alliteration? Dictionary.com defines it as: The beginning of two or more words in a group of words with the same letter, as in the nifty help of proper alliteration.

Using alliteration for content planning

If you’re on Twitter, you probably know about Follow Friday. That is alliteration. Use similar conventions to plan your content for social media, blogging, article marketing, press release syndication, and other online marketing efforts.

For example, if you have a landscaping business, you could build a simple content plan around the following:

• mulch monday
• prickly tuesday
• water wednesday
• fourth thursday
• Fertilizer Friday

Now you have a plan! Whatever the day, you have a general theme already defined. If it’s Monday, you could write about organic mulch, synthetic mulch, the benefits of mulch, the dangers of mulch for pets, etc. If it’s Thursday, you could write about pruning olive trees, trimming hedges, yard work and related topics.

It’s up to you whether you choose to announce “It’s Mulch Monday” to your followers. If your alliterations sound cheesy, you might want to keep them to yourself. The main idea here is that alliteration gives you a framework for creating content.

Benefits of this content planning strategy

This content planning strategy gives you immediate direction. Whether you want to find something interesting to share on Facebook or want to write an original piece to post online, you already have an idea to build on.

As you continue to create content around this informal content calendar, your blog and other online accounts will grow around your chosen categories. In a few short months, you’ll have entire collections of articles on mulching, rose gardening, drought-tolerant landscaping, trimming and pruning, and fertilizers. As more time passes, you may have enough material on a given topic to create an eBook or tip booklet.

Also, your readers may eventually recognize your pattern and look forward to your next discussion on a certain topic or your weekly fun Friday insights.

built-in flexibility

This alliteration content planning strategy works for any type of business. A health care provider might have a “Mammogram Monday,” while an exterminator might go for a “Mite Monday.” You can also keep your days broad, like “Tips for Tuesdays” or “Fundamental Fridays.” The way you choose to interpret your theme is also completely flexible.

For example, you might be wondering if you can come up with 52 mammography article ideas each year. You don’t have to write specifically about mammography; just refer to the main idea for the general direction. It can expand to breast health, ultrasound scans for women with dense breasts, follow-up procedures and biopsies, etc.

Content planning using alliteration is easy to get started and easy to follow. Stay up to date and define your content plan today.