Conventional wisdom about content strategy suggests 2-3 blog posts per week and anywhere from 5 to 20 social media posts in that same time frame.* Does that sound achievable for a small business?
It might be for some, but don’t let the numbers stress you out. The first priority in creating a content plan is to be realistic.
If you bite off more than you can chew, and listen to advice telling you what you “should” do instead of what you “can” do, you will get frustrated and fall behind. A firehose of content might sound like smart strategy but it can also dilute your message, resulting in quantity over quality.
To create a content strategy that works for you, you need to do two things:
- determine the time required
- make a plan that works within those time limits.
You can then execute your plan and breathe easy, knowing you have allocated sufficient time for it among the many other things you have to do every week. (Being realistic also includes knowing that there will be weeks when everything goes south, simply because life sometimes takes funny turns. Read on to see what you can do in those situations.)
Figure Out Exactly How Much Time You Need for Content
How much time does content creation require? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. The only way to figure that out is to go through the process for yourself and track the time for each step. Once you know the amount of time involved, you can determine what fits within your existing schedule.
For your blog, start at the very beginning, with generating the idea. (See below for information on how an editorial calendar can help you get this part of the process done first.)
From there, factor in the time needed for: research, writing, editing, proofreading, finding a stock photo (if needed), and posting, including all the extras involved with blog posts like an excerpt, category, tags and any formatting you need to do for images.
Next, track the time needed to create social media posts, whether they promote a blog post directly or contain some other kind of content. Factor in the number of platforms you plan to use and whether you can re-use content across platforms.
Keep in mind that you do not need to be present on every platform–focusing on a couple will enable you to maintain consistent, current content. Spreading yourself too thin on social media means some platforms might get stale-dated or boring because they are just re-posts of everything else. If you plan to mix things up with some reels and some static images, include the time for creating both and for other associated tasks like selecting music and editing video.
Make a Plan for Creating Your Content
When you know the approximate time required for the content you want to create each week, multiply it by the number of posts you want. You can then decide how–and if–it fits into your schedule. If it doesn’t seem realistic, you might need to cut back on the volume of content to ensure you can complete it and still have time for everything else you do to keep your small business running.
The good news? You don’t need to do everything in one day. You could devote an hour or two one day to researching and writing a post, then half an hour another day proofreading and posting it on your site. Social media posts can be spread out over a couple of days. (You might also want to plan on a certain amount of time per day to engage with people on social media.)
Alternatively, you could plan a block of days each month to focus only on content, then post it throughout the following days or weeks.
Content creation is an inherently flexible task; you just need to know how long it is going to take so you can schedule it into a timeline that works for you.
Execute the Plan
An editorial calendar is tremendously helpful for all of your content planning. Once you know how much time you can spend each week, create an editorial calendar with all of your content ideas. Think of it as frontloading the idea generation part of the process; that is, do all the thinking in one shot and free up that time in your weekly content creation schedule for other tasks like writing. You can always add or remove things later.
Again, content creation is a flexible process; having a plan makes it doable.
If, by chance, you already have an editorial calendar, you can now adjust the timelines based on the amount of time you know you can actually manage.
Get Ahead When You Can
If you find yourself with time on your hands or get into a flow with your creativity, don’t be afraid to jump ahead in your editorial calendar and get stuff done early.
Similarly, if some gaps open in your schedule, you might want to “pre-create” some extra, evergreen posts for times you will be away or those occasions when life throws a wrench in the works and you can’t stick to your standard schedule. Think: listicles, book reviews, or flashback/throwback posts to the early days of your business.
Similarly, you can plan ahead for holidays and prepare some social media posts to mark those occasions.
Last Words
Content creation is not about pressuring yourself to keep up with someone else’s pace but establishing your own, based on what is manageable for you. A content plan and editorial calendar will help you set that pace and maintain it for a steady, consistent presence on your blog and social media.
* Numbers based on averaging the advice from first-page sources in a Google search.
Photo of pocket watch by José Pinto on Unsplash.