© 2015 The Social Lights®

Social Media Content Planning

• Holiday Retail: Important Dates + Ongoing Strategy

• Using Audience Insights

• Content Planning

• Content Creation

• Takeaway: Content Planning Checklist

AGENDA

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• Black Friday, November 27th

• Small Business Saturday, November 28th

• Cyber Monday, November 30th

• Giving Tuesday, December 1st

Ongoing Content Strategy: According to recent Google and Ipsos MediaCT data, 54 percent of holiday shoppers plan to shop on their smartphones in their spare time throughout the whole season, rather than cramming it all in on Black Friday weekend.

IMPORTANT DATES

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC*Credit Business News Daily

@TheSocialLights

AUDIENCE INSIGHTS

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"There's no longer a delineation between how our guests live life and how they shop; they just

shop whenever they have time. They want to flow seamlessly across all of our channels ...

and we've got to make that happen by having the right underlying architecture." —Casey

Carl, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Target

Today's consumers are squeezing mobile shopping "moments" into their everyday lives.

*Credits Business News Daily and Think With Google @TheSocialLights

AUDIENCE INSIGHTS

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

"There's no longer a delineation between how our guests live life and how they shop; they just

shop whenever they have time. They want to flow seamlessly across all of our channels ...

and we've got to make that happen by having the right underlying architecture." —Casey

Carl, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Target

Last year, the most email opens during Black Friday and Cyber Monday week occurred at 5 PM the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

*Credit Movable Ink@TheSocialLights

CONTENT PLANNING

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

All content should fall into one of three “buckets”.

*Adapted from Mari Smith@TheSocialLights

CONTENT PLANNING

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CONTENT PLANNING

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CONTENT PLANNING

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC@TheSocialLights

CONTENT CREATION

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

• Find a content calendar template that works for you

• Repurpose content across channels

• Gather User-Generated Content wherever possible - make sure to get permission

• Use FAQs to develop informative social content: hours, return policy, shipping

@TheSocialLights

Content creation tools like Snappa, Canva, and PicMonkey are user-friendly (and free!) ways to create and edit photos and graphics.

CONTENT CREATION

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

Free, high-quality stock photos are getting easier to come by. You can find them on many different sites, but Pexels is one of my favorites.

Snappa Canva PicMonkey

pexels.com

@TheSocialLights

CONTENT PLANNING CHECKLIST

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

✓Identify key time periods on your marketing editorial calendar and brainstorm related content ideas

✓Don’t forget about mobile - make sure your content works there

✓Use audience insights to post content in the right place at the right time

✓Make sure all content Informs, Entertains, or Calls to Action

✓Find a content calendar that works for you

@TheSocialLights

CONTENT PLANNING CHECKLIST

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

✓Always have permission to use the content you are posting

✓Post UGC, if you don’t have any, ask for it

✓Use FAQs to develop informative content

✓Have content prepped in the event of a sell out or website outage

✓Explore free content creation tools

✓Measure content performance and use these insights to inform future content planning

@TheSocialLights

© 2015 The Social Lights® LLC

THANK YOU!