So we’re about a month and a half into the new year, and like a lot of entrepreneurs you’re probably feeling like you’re running out of steam when it comes to figuring out what you want to say on social media.

I feel you, I do. It’s totally normal. Even I go through it, and I’m a content-generating machine most of the time!

Which is why I’m going to share with you three of my best tips for preventing writer’s block.

1) Create a Content Calendar

A content calendar is a document that can store your themes, ideas, inspiration, and posting schedules. You may have also heard it called an editorial calendar. Call it whatever you like, set it up in whatever format makes the most sense to you and the way you work.

I find they work best when they’re stored in an electronic format or on a cloud, like Google Sheets, Google Calendar, or a Word doc in Dropbox. But again – this is your tool. If pen and paper is your thing, run with it! If you work with a team, you can always scan and email (or snap a pic and text) it to them.

I recommend keeping a content calendar because once you have it set up in a way that works for you, you’ll only have to tweak it here and there for themes that don’t have fixed dates. Ultimately, it will save you time over the long run and it will keep you posting on social media consistently. Even if you’re not delegating to a VA yet, having a solid system in place now will make the transition that much easier in the future.

How to Do It

There’s a myriad of ways to create a content calendar, so I’ll show you how I create mine. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

I usually do this in November, when calendars for the next year go on sale, but you can do it any time of year. Check out www.timeanddate.com to download calendars for any month of any year. I like calendars that have big squares with lots of room to jot notes in.

The first thing I think about are important or significant dates for my business and, more importantly, dates that may be of significance to my target market. Examples can include:

• Statutory holidays
• Religious observances
• Awareness days/weeks/months
• Special interest and “fun” days like International Talk Like a Pirate Day

I start out by first looking at the year as a whole – what comes to mind first when I think about special dates? I work with a lot of people in the wedding industry, so they’re often thinking about ‘wedding season’ aka the summer and ‘show season’ which is generally in fall and winter. A Canadian financial planner will undoubtedly think of RRSP season, which is every February. Business coaches in Canada will want to be creating content around Canadian Small Business Month, which is October. As I look at special dates that are of interest to me, my industry, and my target audience, I find that inspiration for themes tends to occur a little more naturally.

As I think of specific dates and themes that occur to me, I plug them into my calendar. Once I’ve done this, I break the year down into quarters and if more ideas for themes or topics pop into my head, I plug them in. I repeat this process again, month by month, and again week by week.

If you need some ideas, check out www.timeanddate.com/holidays and www.daysoftheyear.com.

It’s time-consuming the first time you go through this process, but you can see how it can be used again and again, year after year, with slight tweaks here and there.

Once I’ve created this calendar, I share it with my team so they know what’s going on. I delegate most of my content curation (searching for content from outside sources), so having a guideline is incredibly helpful to them – they’re not going in blind, either.

A caveat here – you WILL have blank spaces in this calendar! So don’t worry about that. I’ll show you how to fill in the blanks with my next tip. Also, keep in mind that nothing is written in stone with this calendar! You may or may not use all these dates and themes, but at least you’ll have them there for inspiration if and when you need it later.

2) Write, Use, and Re-Purpose Evergreen Content

Have you ever noticed that I tend to create content around the same few topics? This is because I specifically aim to create what’s known as ‘Evergreen content’ about 80% of the time.

Evergreen Content is content made up of information that is continually relevant and fresh. It can be used repeatedly (repurposed).

If you’ve never created Evergreen content before, or if you want to write some new Evergreen content, ask yourself: what questions am I asked the most frequently? (Another way to ask yourself this question is, If someone said to me, “I want to take you for coffee and pick your brain,” – what are the best tips I would give them about my area of expertise?)

I went through this process to create a new Lead Magnet (coming soon!) which I then repurposed into a webinar, a signature talk, and a full-day workshop. The next thing I did was turn those tips into weekly themes and now I simply rotate them through the blank spaces in my content calendar!

3) Create a Topic/Theme Matrix

I can’t claim ownership of this idea but boy, do I wish I could, because it’s a stroke of pure genius! I got this idea from one of my clients, Odette Laurie of Women on Top Business Coaching.

She takes a piece of flipchart paper, and horizontally across the top she writes down her areas of expertise – such as business, marketing, mindset etc. – then draws lines between them all to create columns. Next, vertically down the left side she writes down different topics that are of importance and relevance to her clients and target market – things like how to make money and how to manage your time, then draws lines between them all to create rows. Voilà! Matrix.

This helps her to come up with blog ideas, which she then fills into each square on the matrix. I love it! Seeing that picture made my wee heart go pitter-patter. I can’t wait to try this method out!

Do you use other methods to come up with ideas for your social media content and beat writer’s block? I’d love to hear about them, so leave me a comment below!