020 - Boost Your LinkedIn Post Engagement: Create (And Use) A Content Calendar

Consistency is essential to any content marketing strategy. And creating a Content Calendar is a great way to ensure that. Leanne Calderwood,  Leanne Calderwood, LinkedIn, and Personal Branding Services joined me to discuss how to create a content calendar around your content pillars.  

Topics included:

🔹Overview of content pillars, and why they are important.  

🔹The benefits of creating a content calendar. Hint: it helps ensure consistency. 

🔹Creating a LinkedIn content schedule that you can maintain consistently. 

🔹Recommendations for putting together your content calendar.  

🔹Why posting just once a week can make a huge difference in your visibility. 

Download 25 Content Creation Ideas To Kickstart Your Social Media Posts  (Click Link Below)

🔷 Thank you for listening. I hope you found this episode insightful, educational, and inspiring. If you did, don't forget to hit that Follow to keep learning and growing with us.

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🎦 Video is the fastest way to build that know, like, and trust factor with potential clients. If you're not creating video because you don't know how to begin, DOWNLOAD our new Social Media Video Quick Start Guide (It's Free) Click here to Download

⏬ Download 25 Content Ideas To Kickstart Your Social Media Posts (For People Who Don't Know What To Say (It's Free) Click here to Download

➡️ Need more? Check out the 200+ videos on my YouTube channel Click here for my YouTube channel

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For additional insights, follow Annette Richmond and Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
LinkedIn Company Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-dog-marketing-strategies/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackdogmarketingstrategies
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annetteadvises
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Hi, I'm Annette Richmond. Welcome to Content Marketing School, where we will dive into content marketing strategies, specifically for coaches, consultants and entrepreneurs. Discover how effective content marketing can elevate your brand and grow your business. And if you enjoy the show, don't forget to hit that follow button. Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Wherever you are joining from, I'm Annette Richmond. This is Content Marketing School, and I am so excited to be here today with you, leanne, and for this topic. I think we've kind of known each other around LinkedIn, but this is our first time really chatting and I'm so excited to you know, not only talk about this topic, because I'm excited to actually learn, but just to meet you. So for anyone who doesn't know you, please tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Yeah, sure, thanks, and you're right, annette. We've been crossing paths on LinkedIn this whole time, ironically talking about content on LinkedIn, so now that we can have this kind of face to face, it's been a lot of fun. Hey everyone, my name is Leanne Calderwood. I'm a LinkedIn and Personal Branding Trainer. I'm based out of Kelowna, bc, canada. We're a little bit snowy today, but basically what I do is I help professionals shine quietly and step out into the spotlight on LinkedIn and using their personal brands. I do have a soft spot for the introverted community because I'm a raging introvert myself and I know, annette, you and I have talked a little bit about that. So today's tips is going to be for introverts and extroverts alike, but I really want the introverts to pay very close attention to some of the things we're sharing today, because if Annette and I can do it, you can do it as well.

Speaker 1: 2:37

You know, I'm glad that you brought that up. And yes, I do identify as an introvert. I am on that scale, I'm kind of in the middleish. But people often mistakenly think that introvert means shy. And it doesn't mean shy. But if I go to a conference and I love being around people, you know, I spend at least one night of the conference in my room because I need to just be alone and recharge, because it's very draining just being around people all the time and you've hit the nail on the head and we can table this one for another podcast episode.

Speaker 2: 3:13

But you're right, introversion is more about where you get your energy, not how you are in social situations. As a side note, my entire career has been spent in the meetings and events industry, which literally is the art of bringing people together, and we have a ton of introverts in the meetings and events industry, so it's not about the people aspect. It really is about where you recharge at the end of the day. So thank you, annette, for letting people know that that's really how we're defining this. But one thing you said that kind of struck a chord already and we're not even diving into the meat and potatoes is that a lot of people are hesitant to create content because of a more shy nature, and shy is a personality characteristic, not a temperament. But those who are a bit more shy do tend to need a little bit more encouragement when it comes to posting on LinkedIn. So hopefully those shy and introverted individuals will find some inspiration today.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Yeah. So again, as I mentioned earlier, I'm so excited to have this topic and we are talking about doing the content calendar around your content pillars. But just for people who are not don't know what are content pillars, can you just give us a brief overview before we dive into the calendar? Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2: 4:37

So I think what trips a lot of people up including maybe even you and I, and that at times when we go to look at posting content on LinkedIn, is that ever present question of what am I going to talk about today or what am I going to talk about this week. But if we can all take a step back and just do some of the grunt work and define kind of like the five things that we either want to be known for or that we're very proficient in, then our content can kind of fall into those five buckets so that when you and I wake up on a Monday morning, we have five buckets to pull from and we're no longer trying to grasp at straws or see what's kind of floating in the sky.

Speaker 2: 5:22

So, annette, I don't know if you want to share what your five content pillars are, but I can share mine very quickly and you'll see a majority I'd probably say 95% of my content falls into one of these buckets. I like talking about LinkedIn. I like talking about personal branding. I like talking about the energy temperaments, that's that introversion, extroversion stuff. I also like talking about that work life balance and that mental mindset and the mindset that a lot of us entrepreneurs need to have when we're creating a personal brand. So you'll see, a lot of my content kind of falls in those buckets. It doesn't mean that something outside of my buckets can't be infused, but it definitely gives me direction and it gives me confidence because I know those topics really well and that's what my audience knows me for. So, if I can flip the question back to you, annette, do you kind of know what some of your content?

Speaker 1: 6:19

pillars are. I do, so my thought around them is a little bit different. So I would say one of the things that I like to talk about obviously is content marketing and everything goes into that. Creating video, creating content. I love media. I studied media in college and was making films in college and all that stuff, so it's been a long time love of mine. So that's kind of the crux of it.

Speaker 1: 6:46

But I kind of think of my content as being I wanted some of it to be educational. I want some of it to be sort of shining the light on others. I want some to be more edutainment, you know, when it comes to videos. So those are, those are kind of my things.

Speaker 1: 7:05

And it's funny because, as I don't know if I mentioned it to you, but this is my first time actually doing a content calendar and I am working on it now and it's a part of a program that I'm taking, and so I have been posting it's a little embarrassing to say this I have been posting kind of along those lines Well, tuesday I'll do a video and then, you know, sunday I'll do the slider post, and but now I am just having much more of a framework and I am finding that. Number one, it's a whole lot more work going in, but number two once you have that kind of you know framework, it's easier. So, 100% Okay, so, but, but for people who don't know what we're talking about, again, this is new to me, so you know, just start wherever you want and and and roll with it. Sure.

Speaker 2: 8:09

Well, a calendar. Everyone knows what a calendar is, so hopefully we've already checked that off of our checklist of terms that we're going to use today. Basically, we are using a prosaic calendar that looks at the days of the week, the days of the month, the days of the year, and we're starting to be intentional about plotting out what we want to talk about on each individual day or each individual week. Now so and this is where we're going to like, we're going to go high level and that, and then we're going to dive down deep into the weeds. For those of us who already have a content calendar and they're looking, how do I level up my content calendar? But, to a net's point, everyone, when you start to put your calendar together, it is a lot of grant work, because you're looking at this blank piece of paper or this blank document on your computer and you're like OK, now what do I do with this? So here are some things that I'd like you to do. Number one is I want you to lean on those content pillars and you can start to plunk in pieces of content that align with your content pillars on different days of the week or different days of the month, depending on your own rhythm of consistency. So let's put that one to the side for a second, because I want to come back to that rhythm of consistency and that. But once you have your ideas out, then you can actually start to do what Annette actually just talked about and you can start to look at each piece as being is this educational, is this informational, is this entertaining? Am I going to use a video to project my message on this one or am I going to use a quote image to project my message on that one? And then when you start to make those notes, then you can move the puzzle pieces around. And maybe this piece that you thought would be good on Tuesday, well, it's being sandwiched between a couple pieces that aren't going to align, so you're going to move it around.

Speaker 2: 10:11

So that's that batching session that Annette is doing and that I'm doing every month. Sometimes, if you want to do it every week, and you just kind of look at the things you do want to talk about for the upcoming week or the upcoming month and you start to put it in your calendar. Now I said that I wanted to revisit this idea of consistency. Not everyone's calendar is going to look the same Now, annette and I. We've been doing this a long time and our calendars probably look pretty full. In fact, annette, I would bet you're posting on LinkedIn three, four, five, six times a week, depending on the week. For those of us, that's starting out on LinkedIn, or?

Speaker 2: 10:53

really any other social media platform. I want your calendar to look like once or twice a week. I want you to build the habit of being consistent at doing once or twice a week before you start to calendar a third post a week or a fourth post a week. We want to build up our content consistency versus sliding backwards. This is a great month for people to get this message, because we come into January going get ready world. I'm going to post five times a week and then by the end of January, you are burned out. You are absolutely content fatigue.

Speaker 2: 11:36

So if this is your first time creating content, don't look at it in that nice calendar. No, no, I want you to create your own calendar that says listen, I'm going to post once a week for the month of January. That's heads and tails above what I did last year. Let's get one post out a week and then in February let's reassess maybe what I'm doing to a week March, maybe I'm doing three a week, and one of those is a video which I've never done before. So, annette, can you kind of see how your calendar will shift and it'll flow and it'll move kind of as we go through the year.

Speaker 1: 12:12

I do, and I really love that. You said that about the consistency, because that's something that I talk about a lot too, and I know there are some coaches who say, well, you must post five days a week or sometimes seven days a week. There was a whole thing sort of more, during the pandemic, where the 365 day challenge, where people are posting every day and cool for them. Kudos to them. But I tried it myself and I found after just a couple of weeks that I was just kind of sharing whatever and I didn't feel like what I was sharing was really valuable, and so I checked the whole idea. But I love that what you said, because people are afraid of that and it's so funny because I was just doing a presentation the other night and when I was looking up the statistics, it's only 1% of the members on LinkedIn that are even posting once a week. So if you're posting once a week, you are a standout.

Speaker 2: 13:12

Right, yeah, if you're posting once a week, you ironically fall in the 4% of active posters, and I love that stat that LinkedIn has given us, which says that 4% of us are active. Right, once a week makes you active because that means you're showing up in your community's home fees.

Speaker 2: 13:32

You know, whatever LinkedIn network you've created, you're one of the 4% showing up in their fees, and I know you and Annette you and I, annette, we're in the community of a lot of content creators, so our feeds are going to look a little bit different than the person who doesn't know all of the great content creators that you and I kind of know, so their feeds are going to look different from ours. But really, your feed is going to be filled with the 4% that are posting, which means you are going to be in their feed as well. And that's as we know, annette. That's where magic happens is when you show up in people's feeds. So it is fun, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:10

And thank you. Thank you for correcting me on that. I don't know where I got that 1% from. I just was looking at some general statistics. But even 4%, I mean that's small, that's a small amount of number.

Speaker 1: 14:22

So just being active is so, so important and, as you mentioned, we think about it. Everybody jumps in. In January you go to the gym and it's packed, everybody's there. Oh, I'm there every day, I'm losing weight, I'm getting fit, and then by the end of middle of February or something, it's empty again and it's so much more. It's so much better to just be consistent than say, as you were saying, just jump in. So so one of the things I want to mention because we have a question here and Linda's question is with your five buckets, leanne, do you plan one post from each bucket every week? Do you do a post from a bucket, bucket A, every Monday, etc.

Speaker 2: 15:05

So, if you can go through that and I'm reading this for people listening on the podcast- yes, I love this question, linda, and here's the thing everyone has a different rhythm, so I'll let you know what my rhythm is, but then I want to share the rhythm of a couple of people that I follow online. So, linda, I'm an entrepreneur who has products, digital products, and so some months, my content is very much focused on that particular product or offer that I'm doing, and so a great example is I'm launching a course next week, all about building one's personal brand. So you may look at my content, and it's very heavy on branding. This month, next month, my content is going to look very heavy on LinkedIn, because I haven't talked about LinkedIn in a while, because I have this upcoming launch. So, if you're an entrepreneur, I encourage you to look at your promotional calendar, and that will drive a lot of the content that you have on a monthly basis or on a weekly basis. But going back to your point about those buckets and doing like a motivational Monday or a mindset Monday, yes, I've seen a lot of people do that extremely successfully.

Speaker 2: 16:19

I'll give you two examples. And that, and I have a friend named Rachel Simon. Every Monday, she does a haiku poem. I don't know a lot about haiku, but I'm always looking forward to it and it's every Monday like clockwork, right? Rachel has that confidence and that assurance that Every Monday she knows exactly what kind of post is going to come out.

Speaker 2: 16:42

Conversely, we have a friend named Roy Kowarski who does a video from his Beach in Australia. It's amazing, and he does his mindset video every Saturday Well, it's Friday for me, saturday for him, because he's in Australia and that's like clockwork. That's that rhythm of consistency that he's built into his content to always do that Saturday morning Beach front video. It makes us jealous, doesn't it? And that it just drives me crazy. Those are two really good examples of People who have put a consistent rhythm, a consistency in their content and how it takes out. A crap ton of guesswork, linda. So if you're putting your content pillars together, maybe you can find that that one day that you know you're going to talk about something in your business and there you go, boom. If you're doing three posts a week, you have now just solved 33% of your problems with one single decision. So I love that about Rachel and Roy. They've got that rhythm of consistency going.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Yeah, I see that too. I actually have a friend in the career field, shelly Piedmont, and she does a number every Monday. She does some kind of number from the career field and people look to that and it's always great information, because I found myself, if people love to read stats and numbers. So that's something I'm kind of working into my my thing for For this year and something that I learned from Brenda Meller who was, you know, very consistent Also is I do my events every Sunday. I put in an event slider of all my upcoming events and it serves as informational for my audience, promotion for my speakers, my guests, and Also there's one day a week that I don't have to think about it, and so if you want to jump in more and then I have another question for you, yeah, sure?

Speaker 2: 18:39

No, I love that you do that and that and and you said something very telling people are looking for it. So when you do Establish that rhythm of consistency, people are now watching for it. I think if Rachel all of a sudden took a Monday off of hi for haiku, I think her DMs would be flooded with like hey, are you okay? Like where are you right now? And so people don't comment a lot on our content, as we know, but we know that they're watching, and the same thing with you, and that if you posted when you're going to be this week and then all of a sudden, you didn't post that, the people who were expecting that content are going to Be concerned or be confused or wonder.

Speaker 2: 19:24

Isn't that taking a week off of content who, whatever that question is? And so that's what I love about creating that Consistency that you and Rachel and Roy have done is people come to expect it and they're showing up. So so, linda, I hope that's encouragement as well If you do take that as your one thing to do in 2024 is Create a place that people come to know and expect that you're going to be there.

Speaker 1: 19:49

And you know I love that answer and you know I have a couple of couple of things that I want to sort of talk to you about now. I've decided because I love video. I mean, I hated it and then I got a little training and you know I got used to it. Now I love it. It's kind of one of the easier things for me to do, so I like to lean on it.

Speaker 1: 20:07

But what I did for the end of December is I did 12 days of content creation tips and every day I put up a video from whatever it was until the the 24th of December, and I actually had people say that they were Looking forward to it and that you know they they did get into that rhythm of seeing it because I highlighted it in every single post that I did. I will tell you, for me it was a little bit challenging to do one every single day, but it it was something that I was able to also take that and Turn it into a playlist and a podcast episode, etc. So so what do you think of and some ideas that you might have for people to do things like that?

Speaker 2: 20:53

well and you, you hit something on the head where it was starting to become taxing for you to do that every day for 12 days. And that's where I you know, we've got our content calendar. Now we're starting to flesh out these ideas. Once you have that calendar in place and you know what you're going to talk about you know, two weeks from now or four weeks from now Now you can create that batching section.

Speaker 2: 21:19

Batching is a big big part of my content creation, where I sit down and I hammer out so many posts or I create so many visuals or I film so many videos at a time. Number one it does save time because we're no longer context switching. That's a big word, but basically what it means is when your brain goes from one task to another and keeps switching back and forth, back and forth throughout the day or the week, we actually are burning more calories and burning our brain out. But for us content creators, if we can sit down in one content session and hammer out a bunch of stuff, we're actually using less calories, we're not burning out as much and we're getting all of our content now ready to either be scheduled or whatever it is that we want to do with it. So I'm a huge fan of batching anything in your business, but batching content is at the top of my list. It's one of the reasons I've been consistent and to your point, because some mornings I do wake up burnt out but my stuff is already done.

Speaker 2: 22:27

Today's LinkedIn post that I posted about an hour and a half ago I'm in Pacific Time Zone Shoot. I wrote that weeks ago, so all that had to happen this morning is it just needed to go live. So that's again that rhythm of consistency. If you're able to schedule or take a few hours out of your month and create that batching session and that organization session, your content calendar just looks so much easier.

Speaker 1: 22:55

I am with you 100 percent. When I was doing those, I would do like three or four at a time. But the thing is that I consider myself to be a pretty good writer. I mean, I was a magazine writer but I am not great at writing off the cuff every day. Now I know some people that are. That just comes easy to them, and so part of my plan right now is to be working on this content calendar but having at least two weeks of content in the bank, so to speak, so that it is ready to go and it takes that pressure off.

Speaker 2: 23:34

Oh, immensely right, Because I think we do feel that nod of anxiety when we open our LinkedIn feed in the morning and we see what everyone else is doing and that imposter syndrome kicks in, that comparisonitis kicks in. All of the wonderfully negative things that we can go on happens when we open our feed. But when our posts are already created, already scheduled, it takes all of that pressure off and it actually is better for our mental health then because we know in 30 minutes our post is going live and we're part of the game, like we are playing. We are in this game, and so I hope that's encouragement for some who do have that morning anxiety is. Let's get rid of that anxiety and let's create our content in advance of that morning and then you don't have to worry about it.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Well, you know, time is just flying by, and I have something else that I want to ask you about, something that I am starting to incorporate into my content this year, and it's the idea which, obviously I've read about. You know, we all we learn and then we teach and share what we learned with others, and the idea of having themes. Now, one of the things that I am doing because I wanted to share I do it for an accountability for me is I'm starting. I just started a business bookshelf. I published the first one yesterday and my plan I'm going to be doing that every other week for, you know, the year, hopefully longer and it's sort of a way for me to highlight books that I have found helpful and make me accountable, to read the pile of books that's sitting on my desk. That was like I'm like an Amazon, like in a candy store oh, that looks good, let me get that and then I just like sitting there. So what's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 25:24

Well, that themes are incredibly powerful and I you know you can look at Rachel's example as being a theme and Roy's example of being a theme Whatever you're talking about within that theme, in that it's still falling in your content pillars. So it's not like you're taking this massive departure and you're talking about cookbooks, Like you're talking about books that are related to marketing and online presence and business and all of the things that you are really good at. So I love themes because, again, it takes the guesswork out of what it is you're going to talk about and you're going to build a community with other book lovers and other book readers and those that want to discuss the principles inside of your book of the week. And that's the thing is, you know, being a book lover has now become part of your brand and that and people are going to start to relate to that. So themes can be incredibly powerful and I'm so glad that you found one and I love books, so I can't wait to see your posts.

Speaker 1: 26:25

Yeah, you know, I agree with you and I think that that is that that we are. You know, people like us, we are our brand. I mean, you know, I have my dogs, my dogs my company is named for my dogs. I have them on my website and I think that that all kind of works together. And for me, you know, I was one of those kids under the blanket with the flashlight, you know, when I was little reading. So we have time is flown by, as it always does, and I always like to ask a couple of things before we say goodbye. And one of the things that I want to and I'm going to look for this because I want to share my screen here but what would we've? I've asked you a lot, we've talked about a lot, but what would you say is something that you know you would like to share. You think it's important, but you know I haven't asked you about it, we haven't talked about it as yet.

Speaker 2: 27:24

Well, I do want to highlight a few, I suppose, advanced content calendar tips for for those people who already have their content in place, because a couple of things that we didn't talk about yet and that is people who have multiple platforms. And you have a multiple platform and you're on Instagram I'm, I'm this is the year of getting doubling down on Instagram for me. So, in order for us to show up on all of the platforms, it's important that our content calendar also has the different platforms, and that's where I think an online calendar is going to be more useful than a paper calendar, because you can repurpose some of your LinkedIn content per se. You can repurpose that, change a few words and retweak it so that it can be postable on the other platforms as well. So you can start to plunk in those things in your content calendar as well.

Speaker 2: 28:21

The other thing that I mentioned to Linda when talking about having these, you know, theme days, etc. Is to look at one's promotional calendar for the year, for the quarter, and start to plunk in content. So, if you're a public speaker, start to plunk in when you're going to be appearing at different events throughout the year, when you're marketing that you're going to be at the event, plug in when you're going to do a video live from the event and all of a sudden your content calendar fills up super quick and it just looks a lot more doable. So those are the last tips I'll kind of leave you with in that.

Speaker 1: 28:56

Well, that sounds great and right now you know I'm sharing your LinkedIn profile, so everybody should be able to you know. Is that the best place to find you? Are you open to connecting with people on LinkedIn?

Speaker 2: 29:09

Absolutely, of course. Linkedin is my homeboy, so make sure that you connect with me on LinkedIn, send me a DM or a connection request, and I'm happy to talk about content in LinkedIn all day long, just as you are at net. So it's yeah, we're a good company, I think.

Speaker 1: 29:27

Yeah, you know I, you know I love there's so many things that I love about content marketing and you know I am just enjoying so much getting into this kind of different different area for me, and so any final thoughts we have, like I don't know, 20 seconds or something left, I'll make this quick For those of you who are just starting out in creating a content calendar, do yourself a solid and just get a Google Excel spreadsheet or Google worksheet or an Excel spreadsheet and start creating.

Speaker 2: 30:07

I do have a template content calendar that for those who really want something, that I love my content calendar. I'm not going to lie, I think it's the Rolls Royce, but but my friend, just to get started, just use a simple Google Excel sheet with the days of the week at the top and the dates kind of running in the boxes. Get started with that. As you use your calendar more and more, it's going to evolve, it's going to change. I change my calendar every single quarter. So for beginners who are just starting, use a simple Excel spreadsheet and just get started.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Well, thank you so much. This has been such a great conversation and I have learned so much, and I know that our listeners are learning as well. I see people on LinkedIn and people also on Instagram have joined us, so I'm so excited to have you today and perhaps you will come back again. Bye, y'all.