Google Analytics experts know this very well: summer, particularly the period that runs from about mid-July until late August, is a time when visits to all sites drop in a physiological way. People, as normal, go on holiday and consequently tend to spend less time on their devices and various social apps. Despite this drop in visits, access and interactions this does not mean that one’s site or one’s social page should be completely abandoned, quite the contrary! The summer period can actually be a great opportunity for companies that want to experiment with different content than usual, while at the same time keeping the promise they made to their audience: to provide services and useful information in a practical, simple and immediate way. Here is everything you need to know about tweaking your editorial plan during summer break.
Word of caution: lightheartedness
Whether you are running a blog, a professional website, an Instagram, Facebook or TikTok page or all of these together you need to come up with topics and content that are fairly light, reflecting the needs of users now. So avoid talking about overly technical or specific topics or insights that any user will skip over, preferring a dip in the pool or a cocktail on the beach. For example, if you are involved in cooking, propose recipes for quick and tasty dishes that you can take easily with you to the beach. If your field is music put together a selection of summer tunes to collect in a playlist. If, on the other hand, for example, you are the manager of an e-shop of clothes, publish an article on your blog about the right pairings for a beach outfit (and maybe offer ad hoc discounts). Now is the right time to lighten everything that will surely be more boring and heavy during the rest of the year.
Change your visual identity
Your editorial plan will need to be changed not only in content but also in images. The three summer months will have to be all about colours: bright, cheerful, and light. If you have the opportunity and if it does not involve too much effort, temporarily change the design of your website to be in line with the summer mood. Without going overboard and risking appearing too cloying, apply the same principle also to the visual of your Instagram posts or carousels Just very little, even just the emoji of the sun or sea waves. Space for yellow, blue, orange, green and red!
Pay attention to the days on which to post
If already during the year the weekend is a rather draining time for visits and interactions, in the summertime this principle applies even more.t is worth focusing on posts and articles ready to go on the page midweek (preferably two or three pieces/posts to be published Monday through Thursday).
Schedule like there’s no tomorrow
It goes without saying that in the height of the summertime our users won’t be particularly active and also the businesses will be slowed down, due to staff holiday and lack of cues and content in general. For this reason, the weeks leading up to summer are the best time when it is worth taking the time to think about which content to include in your editorial plan. Scheduling content is something that obviously already happens as a rule during the year, but summer is the quintessential time when this type of function will be particularly valuable. If, for example, you have a website based on a CMS such as WordPress, you will simply postpone the publication of a particular article to a specific date and time. If, on the other hand, you have a Facebook page linked to the relevant Instagram account, use the scheduling function in the Creator Studio section. Schedule everything and go on a peaceful holiday!
Aim for new formats
because you will be dealing with a somewhat different audience than usual, experiment also new roads for your communication: if your Instagram or Facebook consists only of static posts try videos or stories (perhaps with the trending song of the moment).
Make your business more human by telling the stories of your employees, how they are spending their holiday, how their work and their role (even while on holiday, perhaps) are contributing value to your product, your website, or your online business in general. A website’s editorial plan can also be modified accordingly, including, for example, tests, quizzes, tasty trivia, and anything else that an average user might want to read, perhaps under a beach umbrella with his or her smartphone (as if it were a magazine lightweight).
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