How and why to plan your content easily using CHICK to help you.

I am so excited to share this blog with you.

As the concept of content planning, CHICK has just given me a lightbulb buzzing moment. First, before we get to that, let’s cover the why to content plan.

Does content creation hang over you like a black cloud?

The short answer is to make your life easier. There is no avoiding the fact that content creation is a job that can be time-consuming hanging over you like a black cloud. BUT it doesn’t need to be that way planning your content rather than posting on the fly has many benefits.

Lower stress levels- Instead of getting part way through your day and having that panicked feeling of “argh, what can I post today?” You will know what you’re doing well in advance rather than scrabbling to pull a post together between clients. If you’re super organised, you might even have scheduled it days ago but more on that later. That’s gonna make you feel a whole lot better about your day-to-day workload.

Better results- Planning your content will make it more effective. After all, you don’t create it for the sake of it (I hope.) You want it to achieve its purpose. Taking the time to plan will make your message consistent and clear. Also, the content itself will be of better quality as less rushing means fewer errors giving you a better brand image.

Easier time management- Having more time available to do the things you love is part of the self-employed dream after all. So the great part about planning your content is it can be broken down into stages. No more having to find huge chunks of time in your diary. Half an hour here and there is a lot more manageable and a lot less overwhelming.

Working or paying, I think I know which one you would pick.

That’s the why covered so now you probably want to know the how part and where on earth the CHICK comes in.

As I have already mentioned one of the joys of content planning is breaking it now into stages.

Stage 1- Pick your planning and theme interval.

This stage is a one-time choice. Do you want to run a new content theme weekly, monthly or quarterly? This will determine your planning layout. Personally I do monthly.

Stage 2- Pick your theme

This should be a fairly quick stage to do, it might only need 15 minutes in your diary. Themes can be fairly broad, so that you can cover what your trying to promotein that interval but also leaves room for sharing value and building connections. For example a theme of sell more saddle pads wouldn’t give much scope but types of saddle pads would.

Stage 3- Start with the biggest piece.

Usually for most businesses that’s a blog post or newsletter. Don’t worry you don’t have to get it done all in one sitting. I break my big pieces down into stages too. For example a blog you can break it up like this:

• Brainstorm potential blog topics for your theme

• Once you have selected a topic- brainstorm potential blog elements. If your not sure what elements goes into a blog check out my previous blog.

• Write a first draft, then walk away for a bit.

• Re-draft it. I handwrite my first draft so this happens when I type it up.

• Source images, be sure to rename them to help your site SEO. There is more information on that here.

• Put your blog onto your hosting platform and format it with the images and links.

• Finally proof read it on the platform before you hit publish

• Don’t forget to share it.

Now your big piece is written to support your theme its time to think about the content you put on your other platforms. Lets focus on social media. This is where the CHICK comes in.

Stage 4- C.H.I.C.K

When creating social media posts you need to know the intention of each post. Which one of these does it fall under?

Community – Getting to know people

Help – share tips, review useful things, and support other businesses

Inspire - let your audience know what is possible with your help.

Curated- Share useful content that’s created by someone else

Knowledge- Show your knowledge, help them trust you, and see your worth.

When I lay this out for my monthly plan I aim for a chick per week. You could do this pattern as often as suits you. Filling in your CHICK’s doesn’t need to be done in one go. Look for quick wins. I am a firm believer in repurposing that’s why I suggest writing those big pieces first! Now it’s the time to look for snippets of blog that fit in your CHICK pattern. Once they have taken up spots, I look to the calendar for awareness days I could use or inspire me. As well as public holidays like valentines or pancake day. These make good C posts for both C’s.

Then it’s a case of looking for gaps you have and seeing how to fill them to support your theme. Let’s revisit the saddle pad theme. Could you do an Inspire post with colour options to suit different fur colours or a Help post by sharing a client testimonial on how your saddle pad helped them. I lay my CHICKS out on a Trello board so I can add the elements as they are created and I can label the stages I am at as I got into,

Stage 5- Creating individual posts.

In most cases post consist of visual elements, captions and for some platforms hashtags. So again this means you have the chance to create posts element by element in manageable time chunks and in the order inspiration strikes too. I like to save hashtags separately to captions for the ease of copy and pasting them only where relevant. I tend to get the creating done in one week chunks.

Stage 6- Scheduling

Now your content is all planned why not go the whole hog and find a time spot to schedule post. So that your content shows up even if your busy elsewhere.

Scheduling means you can be knee deep elsewhere and still show up on socials

Most platforms have in-app scheduling options now adays, otherwise, there are lots of third-party apps you could use. That’s a blog for another day. My final tip is to incorporate a proofread into your scheduling time just to be sure.

I hope that now you see how and why content planning with CHICK can help your business. If you would like a copy of my reuseable monthly CHICK plan buy it here

If you have any questions about this blog or would like further help to get into your stride with content planning message me here.