Kassaundra 0:06
Can you believe that it's already May and summer is right around the corner? I'm sure you are so ready to enjoy the sun, go on family adventures and so much more. But summer does pose an interesting conundrum for us teacher printers, as most of our target audience is on vacation. So what are we supposed to do when it comes to our social media content? That's exactly what we're going to make a plan for today.
So teacher authors, go ahead and reheat that cup of coffee, because I'm your host, Kassaundra Foster. And we're about to get schooled in socials.
Welcome back to school and socials. Happy May, where I'm from in the northeast, it's really just starting to feel like spring, we're getting to go on family walks without our heavy winter coats. And I'm finally starting to plan my vegetable garden. But before we know it, it is going to be the start of summer vacation. In fact, when you think about it, some places only have probably two or three more weeks before they're off for summer. So with the majority of our target audience, probably wanting to be on a beach somewhere with a cold drink instead of thinking about their classroom for the next eight weeks. What in the world are we supposed to be posting about? That's what today's episode is all about? Helping you create a summer social media content game plan. So you can stop asking yourself, what the heck am I supposed to be posting, and instead set yourself up for success during the summer lull, and most importantly, the back to school season. Now the very first thing you're going to want to do for your summer content game plan is a little market research, I want you to pull your audience on a few things, because their answers will help drive the timing of your summer content plan. So ask your audience when they get out of school for the summer. For some of you who have created amazing units and curriculum aligned around state standards, the majority of your audience Mike it out around the same time, that might be late May early June or late June. But you can use that information to decide when your audience will be transitioning away from thinking about materials they need in their classrooms, and into summer mode. For those of us whose audience is all over the US or even abroad, we might not get as straightforward of an answer. But we will at least be able to see when the majority of our audience will be headed into that summer mode. And we can use that to figure out when we should be kind of shifting our content plan, then I want you to pull your audience by asking them, when do you start thinking about preparing for the upcoming school year. This can help you see when your audience is transitioning back out of summer mode, and is ready to start grabbing those resources again. Plus, you might find that some of your audience might not go into summer mode, because they either teach year round, or they teach summer school. And all of that is good information, telling you what might be most helpful for them to see over the summer months. Finally, I want you to ask your audience, what they would like to see from you during the summer. Yep, just straight up, ask them what you should be posting for content. I know not a mind blowing concept. But it is so powerful. You might find that most of your audience wants to keep seeing tips and strategies, and they spend the summer stocking up on resources. So back to school isn't so stressful. Or you might find your audience and doesn't want to hear a peep about lesson planning until September, and they are instead just looking to be entertained by you. Either way, these three questions will help give you a timeline and give you a starting point to help you brainstorm content for the summer. If you're an Instagram user, these would be great polls or question boxes to put into your stories. Since stories go out to your followers. For those of you who are more focused on Facebook groups, this would be a great time to use that poll post feature, or leave some of the questions open ended and have your members answer them in the comments. Once you've gathered that market research, it's going to be easier to see what purpose your content should have over the summer. Now probably most of us are going to have audiences that switch off for at least a few weeks. So what purpose should your content have when the teachers you're targeting are not thinking about school? This is the time to lean into content that entertains your audience
Since and connects you with your audience, so create content that helps build your know like and trust factor. By showing them you know what it's like to be a teacher, especially a teacher on summer break. Think Fun reels using mean trends or lip syncing. Think Fun sayings are polls where you can learn more about your audience as people and not just educators, we want your audience to say this person gets me I like them. Because we all know the importance of building our know like and trust factor when it comes to successful marketing. Now, this isn't to say you can't post any content that educates your audience, or any content that promotes your resources, because you still can, but the percentage of those content types should be much lower, and based on the results of your market research. Now, just like your audience will probably be powering down, you probably want to power down a little bit yourself, right. So we don't want to make our summer content plans too complicated. That is why I always suggest looking back at your best performing content so far from the year and resharing. Some of it, you don't have to reinvent the wheel and come up with all new content, have some educational content that your audience went bananas over three months ago reshare it with a reframed caption that invites your audience to save that information for when they are ready to tackle that topic. I love keeping it light and fun and captions during the summer. So you could say something like, I know you're probably lounging on a beach chair somewhere right now. But so many teachers found this advice on reading strategies helpful. I wanted to make sure you got a chance to save it now. So you can start off back to school season on the right foot. Okay, acknowledge the fact that you know that they are probably not thinking about teaching reading strategies right now it is not front of their mind. But you want to set them up for success. And that is a way that you can share that kind of educational content, and still support teachers in their need to take a break. And if you have entertaining content, like reels or memes that did really well previously, try bringing those back as well. Yes, we always want to think about serving our audience when it comes to social media marketing. But we also need to make sure that we're serving ourselves as well. So take advantage of resharing high performing content, so that you too can go Lounge on a beach somewhere. And the last but not least, summer is a great time to really connect with your audience. So consider spending some time sharing about your life, who you are how you serve teachers to help form those connections. And again, work on that know like and trust factor. If you're an Instagram user, again, stories are perfect for this. Give them a glimpse of what your summer looks like what hobbies you've got going on what summer activities you have planned. Never underestimate the power of humanizing your brand for your audience. See, the funny thing about this whole topic is that most people in the world of marketing are probably not having this conversation. Or at least this conversation looks a lot different, because the lots of markets are ramped up during the summer. So they're probably talking about putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to their social media plan. But our world is a little different. The people we serve, teachers are taking a much deserved break. So our summer content plan has to be a little more nuanced than our regular marketing throughout the year. We need to know what our audience wants from us during this time. And we really need to focus on connecting with them so that they trust us when our biggest season back to school rolls around. Before you go. I want you to take some action that's going to get that ball rolling for you in your summer content plan. I want you to create those polls we chatted about at the beginning of the episode, and start trickling them out to your audience so that you can have a stress free summer social media content game plan.
All right, cool coffee friends. Thanks so much for listening. If you're loving getting schooled in socials, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Also, I would love it if you left a review so that other teacher authors like you can start getting schooled in socials too. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.