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jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

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How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion

Mina Gerges has had a rollercoaster few years. Since 2015, when his elaborate Instagram recreations of celebrity red carpet looks went viral, he’s dealt with a fallout with his family, a body image battle, homophobia, and online trolls but has emerged as a body positivity champion and now, one of the faces of Sephora Canada’s new national campaign. Read on for our interview with Gerges about body diversity, LGBTQ representation and more.

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Literally crying in excitement to share that I’m in Sephora’s new national campaign😭 When I was 9 years old, I’d sneak into my mom’s room and wear her red lipstick when she wasn’t home. I went to an all-boys school in Abu Dhabi and had to pretend to be someone I’m not so that I’d fit in and not get bullied more, and I always cherished these moments of joy I felt in my mom’s red lipstick. I think about my younger self, and how much he needed to know that he’d be okay. That there’s nothing wrong with him for being different. That our culture may never understand him, but that he’s so beautiful and nothing’s wrong with him. Fast forward to this monumental campaign – a gay Middle Eastern immigrant as the face of a makeup brand. I’ve been looking at this picture for a week, in awe of the confidence and power that radiate through this image. I see resilience and beauty, shining so bright and unapologetically as an openly gay Middle Eastern man despite belonging to a culture that systemically erases and persecutes our LGBTQ community. Representation matters, and I am grateful to fight for the visibility of our community and share the struggles we face, because we’re still so unrepresented in the media. To think that this can give hope to just one young queer Middle Eastern person that they matter, that they’re seen, and that there’s nothing wrong with them brings me tears. I’m beyond grateful that my first ever campaign is with a brand like Sephora that has always been a safe space for me to explore my gender expression, and that’s so unapologetic and bold about celebrating diversity. To me, beauty is reclaiming my culture from the toxic masculinity that’s so engrained within it, and creating new narratives about what it means to be LGBTQ and Middle Eastern/ North African. To that young, scared, lonely Mina who was always told there’s something wrong with him for being gay, I just want you to know that you’ll be okay, and you’re going to look so beautiful in billboards all over this country one day. Shot by the incredible @leeorwild 🌟@sephoracanada #SephoraPartner

A post shared by MINA GERGES (مينا) (@itsminagerges) on Jul 2, 2019 at 4:01pm PDT

Buzzfeed writing a post about your Instagram account is the sort of thing most teens dream about. But for Mina Gerges, then a 19-year-old student at Western University, it was a bittersweet moment. Yes, his cheeky red carpet recreations suddenly had thousands more likes, his inbox was flooded with emails and interview requests, and he’d even gotten a repost from Katy Perry but that Buzzfeed story had another consequence: it outed him to his conservative Egyptian parents.

“We somehow went eight months without talking about it,” recounts Gerges over black coffee at a Toronto cafe. But unbeknownst to him, his parents were Googling him every day, suddenly privy to the secret life that Gerges had been living for months. They’d seen the tongue-in-cheek recreations he’d been shooting in his bedroom with the help of his sisters (looks that included a dress fashioned out of a garbage bag and tinfoil to echo Jennifer Lopez’s outfit at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar party and curtains painstakingly painted to resemble Kim Kardashian’s look for the 2015 Met Gala), the interviews he’d been giving to various media outlets, and even the Arabic news sites that had picked up the story. Finally, several months after that first Buzzfeed post in January 2015, his parents sat him down to talk.

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Yes, those are cheese slices on my head 🧀😂 #MetGala #MinaGerges #RitaOra

A post shared by MINA GERGES (مينا) (@itsminagerges) on May 1, 2017 at 8:06pm PDT

“The language barrier made it so difficult to communicate what I felt or to communicate even what it is [to be gay],” explains Gerges. “At the time the only Arabic word for what it means to be gay, ‘khaneeth,’ directly translated to something negative—it connotes being a pervert, effeminate, and is more commonly used as a way of saying faggot.”

Since then, fuelled by the efforts of LGBTQ activists, the terminology has expanded to include words like ‘mithli’ which translates to “same” or “homo,” but the perception of queer people as being sexually deviant is so ingrained in Middle Eastern culture that no matter how hard Gerges tried to mend the relationship with his parents, nothing worked. Hard as that was—and continues to be—it also gave him the motivation to use his social media presence to change the way the Arab community viewed LGBTQ people, and to give them positive examples to look to.

“A lot of what I do now is informed from what I learned trying to deal with my parents,” he says. “I’m educating myself on what it’s like to be queer in the Middle East and what I can do with my platform to talk about this or to create any kind of change. And I’ve found a community of kids who have felt exactly the way that I have felt. I take that back. Not just kids, but older men and younger men, queer women, trans people from the Middle East, who have found similarities in our stories.”

Photography by Samuel Engelking

Gerges, who grew up between Cairo in Egypt and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, moved to Canada at the age of 12 with his mother and two sisters (his father came later). In both the countries where he grew up, being gay or even acknowledging LGBTQ people or rights was completely missing from the culture. In fact, he had no idea what the word ‘gay’ meant or even that it existed until someone called him that in high school. To be out and proud may not have been something Gerges ever saw growing up, but even after moving to Canada it was a very narrow version of “gay” that his formative understanding of the term was built on.

“The first time I Googled “gay men” all I saw was images of white, muscular, slim men,” he says. “So I thought that that was the norm.”

In trying to fit that mould as a young man grappling with his identity and sexuality, Gerges went down a spiral of eating disorders and body dysmorphia. He became anorexic in his first year of university, a time when he was not only struggling with being accepted in the gay community “as a plus-size man of colour” but also deeply unhappy studying science, something his parents had encouraged him to do. (He later switched to media studies.) When he began his celeb recreation posts in the summer of 2014, he was already suffering from anorexia.

“The people who may have followed me from the very beginning saw a Mina who was anorexic, at 150 lbs. And when I was in recovery shortly after, I started gaining back some weight and I was happy. But it was hard to find that happiness when I went on social media. I was at the height of my creativity where it wasn’t just drag, it was DIY, it was kind of like the golden age of my work. But all that people could comment about was my weight. I was like ‘I just spent eight hours painting this garbage bag so it can look like a million dollar dress and all you have to say is to call me a whale.’ It broke me. It was one of the worst things I’ve experienced in my life.”

He took eight months off social media between October 2015 and May 2016. During this hiatus, Gerges took the time to heal, using the distance from people’s hateful comments to learn how to love and accept his body. When he was finally ready to return to social media, he made a promise to himself that things were going to be different.

Photography by Samuel Engelking

“I decided I wasn’t going to FaceTune my body anymore. Instead of hiding it I’m going to be so unapologetic about this body and maybe if people see confidence they will be less likely to say mean things. Honestly something as simple as not FaceTuning out stretch marks felt like such a liberating act of protest. And also reclaiming a platform that I was basically bullied off of.”

And that was the beginning of a new chapter for Gerges’ public persona. In 2018 he posted a shirtless picture of himself along with a lengthy caption about why it was “the scariest yet most empowering post I’ve ever made.”

“The feedback was unlike anything that I had ever experienced. It was a lot of people from the LGBT community, not just men, who were sharing with me very similar stories about their struggles with their body image and experiencing an eating disorder. That’s when it clicked for me. I’d felt so alone when I was 19-20 years old but here I was getting all these messages from people telling me they’d had the exact same journey but were ashamed to talk about it. That’s when I was like ‘this is my calling.’ Let’s shift this conversation.”

Last year, Gerges did a nude photo shoot with NOW Toronto for their annual Body Issue. He posted the nude photos on Instagram when the issue came out and lost 4000 followers.

“You see male models who are thin and muscular pose for pictures just like these, or even more scandalous ones, and those pictures end up in editorials and in ad campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana and Versace.” But when a body like his is nude, he says, the comments move swiftly from praise to criticism. “That double standard is why we need to talk about body positivity and the fact that bodies like mine, which don’t fit into this beauty ideal, experience the world differently and are treated differently because of it. It was crazy to get the backlash for that when thinner, more muscular guys are being praised for the exact same thing.”

Photography by Samuel Engelking

“It was a voice that needed to be heard and a story that needed to be told,” says Samuel Engelking, the photographer who shot the images for the Love Your Body issue. Engelking, who has photographed the likes of Margaret Atwood, Ai Weiwei and MIA, says of working with Gerges, “When we first met on set I was immediately taken by his positive spirit and confidence despite the unusual circumstances of the shoot.”

This newfound confidence is what Gerges’ followers are responding to, and he’s seen a shift in the way they interact with him online, even though the negative and hurtful comments about him, his body and his Middle Eastern identity—even from others in the Arab world—do still keep rolling in.

“Giving up my culture as these, for lack of a better word, these haters would want me to, is not an option,” he says. “I refuse to be shamed out of my culture. It is mine just as much as it is yours. Nothing that you can do will prevent me from embracing being Egyptian and being North African. You cannot take that away from me.”

The post How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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lindyhunt · 6 years ago

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The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags for 2019

Did you know an Instagram post with at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than a post with no hashtags?

Hashtags are powerful. They can help your posts reach a target audience, attract followers in your niche, increase engagement, and develop a more positive and recognizable brand image.

Here's the thing, though: with great power comes great responsibility (#spiderman).

Hashtags can skyrocket your business to new heights, but if used too frequently or without a clear strategy in mind, they become pointless and inefficient, e.g.: #happy #superhappy #ecstatic #jumpingforjoy #whatsanothersynonym.

We want your business's Instagram posts to receive optimal engagement, so we've put together an ultimate guide for using Instagram hashtags in 2018. With this guide, you won't just attract followers -- you'll attract the right followers.

Why are hashtags important?

Hashtags are essentially Instagram's sorting process. With around 95 million photos posted on Instagram every day, it's difficult for Instagram to efficiently deliver the right content to the right people. Hashtags help your post get discovered by viewers most interested in seeing it.

Krystal Gillespie, HubSpot's Social Media Community Manager, explains the importance of hashtags this way: "Hashtags are like a funnel. For instance, #marketing is incredibly broad and attracts all types of posts. We've found #digitalmarketing or #marketingmotivation gives us a more specific, targeted reach. The audience searching for these hashtags are also trying to narrow their search to what we offer related to Marketing, so we're actually reaching more of the right people."

Essentially, hashtags are a better way to categorize your posts. They help you reach a target audience, and more importantly, they help your target audience find you. These users are more likely to engage with your post because your post is exactly what they wanted.

Top Instagram Hashtags 2018

#love

#instagood

#me

#cute

#tbt

#photooftheday

#instamood

#iphonesia

#food

#motivation

Adding one of the most popular Instagram hashtags to your post doesn't necessarily mean you'll see more interaction. Since the hashtags above are so popular, they are being used by millions of people, so your post will most likely be obscured by the competition. Narrowing your hashtag topic is important, but we'll get to that next.

Here are some of the top Instagram hashtags of 2018.

1. #love

Instagram users build their photo galleries on good feelings. For this reason, the #love hashtag is ever present next to the pics of friends, family, vacations, and beautiful scenery.

2. #instagood

Occurrences of this hashtag are inspired by the @instagood Instagram account, which scours the Instagram community for excellent photos and videos that are just too #instagood not to share. Add this hashtag to your content for a chance to be reposted.

3. #me

This is the quintessential selfie hashtag, indicating to the Instagram community that the photo it's captioning is a picture of you.

4. #cute

#Cute puts your content in a pool of Instagram photos and videos that elicit "awes" from all over the Instaverse. If you think your puppy is the cutest puppy that ever lived, it deserves a photo with this esteemed hashtag.

5. #tbt

#Tbt stands for "Throwback Thursday," and encourages Instagram users to post an old photo of themselves or an event they're reminiscing over. Everyone likes content from the good old days -- here's your hashtag for enjoying the nostalgia.

6. #photooftheday

Managing a business account? This hashtag is a surefire way to attract more followers and repeat visitors. If you plan to post daily content, all around a common theme, add the #photooftheday hashtag to increase your exposure.

7. #instamood

#Instamood is all about the vibe or emotion a photo or video elicits. Pretty scenery, a day at the beach, or a night out with good people were all prominent under the #instamood hashtag in 2018. Landscapes are a popular starting point when figuring out what to post on Instagram, according to Jumper Media, and they fit into this hashtag perfectly.

8. #iphonesia

#Iphonesia is dedicated to the burgeoning community of Instagrammers in Indonesia.

9. #food

Meal pics are the bread and butter (no pun intended) of a people-oriented Instagram account -- and 2018 was no exception. Use the #food hashtag to caption your next delicious Instagram photo.

10. #motivation

On Twitter, #MondayMotivation encourages inspiring quotes and messages to help people start the week off on the right foot. On Instagram, the #motivation hashtag has come to caption anything from a photo of a user after a big gym session, to a computer screen right before he or she gets to work.

The above 10 hashtags might have helped define Instagram over the last year, but there are still plenty more that end up trending every year. The following hashtags can help inspire photos and videos that Instagram users always seem to find captivating -- and are sure to in 2019.

Top Trending Instagram Hashtags

#life

#travel

#fitness

#repost

#igers

#instadaily

#followforfollow

#likeforlike

#nofilter

#ootd

#fashion

#fun

1. #life

This one goes out to all the photos and videos that encompass the essence of your life.

2. #travel

Away for the weekend? Show your followers where you are, using this hashtag to indicate you're traveling somewhere new.

3. #fitness

Get in on a trending community of workout warriors with photos and videos from your best exercise sessions, using the #fitness hashtag to share the moment.

4. #repost

Reposting is a common function on Instagram that allows you to share content from other users, with credit back to the original user. Use the hashtag, #repost, to tell others on Instagram that you were inspired by this photo or video.

5. #igers

#Igers is short for "Instagram users." If you've got a photo or video that encompasses the Instagram community, show your solidarity with this colloquial hashtag.

6. #instadaily

This hashtag is similar to #photooftheday -- one of the most popular hashtags of 2018 above this list -- and is perfect for Instagrammers who post every day.

7. #followforfollow

Interested in building a fast list of followers on Instagram? #Followforfollow tells everyone who browses this hashtag that you'll follow users who choose to follow you. This hashtag is always trending highly.

8. #likeforlike

#Likeforlike is similar to the #followforfollow hashtag explained above. Use this hashtag if you want to increase engagement on your Instagram account, telling users that you'll like their photo or video if they like yours.

9. #nofilter

Instagram offers so many different filters to help enhance photos, it's practically assumed that any picture on Instagram has been edited. But if you're posting a pic that was beautiful all by itself, let the world know that this gem didn't need a filter to look so nice.

10. #ootd

#Ootd stands for "Outfit of the Day," a hashtag dedicated to Instagram users who love showing off new clothing and styles on a regular basis.

11. #fashion

#Fashion is a fairly self-explanatory hashtag. Fashion brands and clothing models alike are some of the most prolific users of this hashtag.

12. #fun

If it's not fun, it's not Instagram-worthy. Make it known to millions of Instagram users that you had a blast in your latest photo or video with this popular hashtag.

How to Use Hashtags on Instagram for Business

Keep your hashtags organized.

Figure out your magic number.

Narrow your hashtags.

Research what other people are hashtagging.

Test out related hashtags.

Follow your own hashtag.

Create a brand campaign hashtag.

1. Keep your hashtags organized.

To create an efficient hashtag system, you can use Excel or an Instagram analytics tool. If you choose an excel sheet, you'll need to manually keep track of which hashtags you use, how often, and which ones correlate to your most popular posts. Over time, you'll see relationships between certain hashtags and your most popular posts, and this can help you decide which hashtags work best for your brand.

If you have a more advanced social media team, you might want to consider a tool like Iconosquare, which automatically stores top hashtags and provides reports on which hashtags reach the most people.

For smaller businesses with limited budgets, Krystal Gillespie says that, "an excel sheet is the best way to start. Once you get more advanced I would highly recommend using a tool to track the data. A manual system can get overwhelming when you're posting three times a day and using about 20 hashtags per post."

2. Figure out your magic number.

Most top brands -- 91% of them, to be exact -- use seven or fewer hashtags per post, so it's easy to assume that's the magic number for everyone … right? Krystal explains that this isn't always the case: She told me HubSpot has been more successful with hashtags ranging in the low 20s.

The point is, you can't know how many hashtags work best for you until you test it. For HubSpot, it took the team several months to find a number that worked best, and during our trial period, we ranged from seven to 30. Give yourself the same flexibility for trial and error.

3. Narrow your hashtags.

There are two big reasons more specific, smaller-volume hashtags are better for your brand: first, you can compete in a smaller pool. HubSpot, for example, doesn't typically use the hashtag #marketing because it's too broad. If you search #marketing, you'll find pictures of restaurants, inspirational quotes, before-and-after hair style pictures, and memes.

The randomness of #marketing leads me to the second reason specific hashtags are a good idea: as a user, I'm more likely to find what I need if I search for something specific, and when your business comes up for my specific search request, I'm more likely to be happy with what I found.

Krystal explains: "Keeping a hashtag close to the interests of your brand really helps. We try to use hashtags tailored for a specific topic and then narrow it down further -- for instance, we'd use #SEOTips if our marketing post was mostly about SEO."

Think of it this way: #dogs is more popular, but it has a wide demographic. If I search #goldenretrieverpuppies and I find your post, I'm more likely to engage with it because it's exactly what I wanted.

4. Research what other people are hashtagging.

An easy way to generate hashtag ideas is to make a list of your followers or competitors and research what they're hashtagging on their own photos. It can also be particularly helpful to research what influencers in your industry are hashtagging -- by definition, influencers are people with a large social media following, so they must be doing something right.

5. Test out related hashtags.

When you type a hashtag into Instagram's search bar, Instagram shows you related hashtags in the scroll-down menu. Instagram also delivers related hashtags on the next page after you click on a hashtag. This is a simple way to create a longer list of hashtags to try out.

6. Follow your own hashtag.

Another way to use Instagram hashtags for your marketing purposes is to follow your own hashtag. Krystal explains, "On Instagram I actually follow the hashtag #hubspot so I can find anyone who talks about us and connect with them. As long as your account isn't private, people will be able to find you via the hashtag."

Following your own hashtag is an effective way to engage with other people talking about your brand and develop better relationships with them.

7. Create a brand campaign hashtag.

This is the trickiest item on the list, but if done successfully, it can pay off big time. Some businesses have successfully attracted followers by creating their own campaign hashtag. A campaign hashtag needs to be funny, clever, or at least memorable in order to work.

Campaign hashtags are particularly useful for promoting a new product or upcoming event, or even just inspiring people. Red Bull, for example, encouraged followers to post Red Bull pictures with a #putacanonit hashtag (see what I mean about clever?). LuLuLemon, rather than running a more traditional ad campaign, developed a positive connotation for their brand by asking followers to post real, active pictures of themselves with a #sweatlife hashtag.

Now that we've covered the importance of using Instagram hashtags for your business, you might be wondering how to search for Instagram hashtags within the app, or how to use the search function to find related ideas. If you're unsure of the technical process for hashtag searching, here's how:

How to Search Hashtags on Instagram

To search hashtags on Instagram, tap the magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen, then tap the search bar at the top. Selecting the "Tags" option will enable you to search hashtags and related hashtags based on the popularity of each one.

1. Open Instagram and tap the search icon.

Instagram wants you to use hashtags, and has made it extremely easy to find the perfect ones for your post. To start, open the Instagram app on your mobile device and tap the magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen.

2. Tap the search bar at the top of your screen.

The search screen on your Instagram might first send you to a newsfeed-style page with suggested content based on topics you've demonstrated an interest in on social media. To switch to a hashtag search, tap the search bar at the top of this page, as shown in the screenshot above.

3. Tap "Tags."

Once you've tapped the search bar at the top of your screen, Instagram will give you four options with which to filter your search. Instagram refers to hashtags as simply "Tags," as shown in the screenshot below. Tap this "Tags" option, then tap the search bar above it, and begin searching topics for which you want to find a trending hashtag.

You don't have to include the pound sign (#) in your search -- your results will be the same with or without it -- but you will need to use this pound sign in the caption of your photo once you choose a hashtag.

4. Browse hashtags based on post count and current content.

Voila! You should see multiple options for hashtags based on your search. Browse around at each related hashtag that Instagram suggests for you -- you might find that a hashtag with slightly fewer posts includes photos or videos that are more in line with the content you're posting.

Happy hashtagging!

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bizmediaweb · 6 years ago

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How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar: Tips and Templates

What’s a social media content calendar? Only the most helpful tool you could ever add to your social media marketing toolkit.

Picture this: you own an artisanal donut shop and it’s #NationalDonutDay. You had no idea until a customer asked, “Hey, are you guys doing anything for National Donut Day?” Now you look like an idiot. But it’s not your fault. You were just busy running a successful business.

Enter the social media content calendar. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a tool to help you plan and schedule all your social content in advance.

Just like a regular content calendar, you’ll decide what and when to publish—but with the added specificity of social platforms.

Most importantly, you’ll never miss #NationalDonutDay again.

Read on to find out everything you need to know about social media content calendars.

Table of Contents

Why use a social media content calendar?

How to create a social media content calendar

Social media content calendar examples

Free editorial and social media calendar templates

Other social media content calendar apps and tools

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Why use a social media content calendar?

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 92 percent of content marketers use social media to distribute their content. But as Buzzsumo reports, content saturation is making it harder than ever for marketers to stand out in their customers’ feeds.

As organic reach continues to decline, the days of lazy, disorganized social media posting are behind us—no matter how great your content is.

Never miss important dates

Is it important to your brand that you celebrate #NationalDogDay? What about #StarWarsDay? #NationalPizzaDay?

A social media content calendar can help you stay ahead of all these social media holidays (along with “real” holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day). You won’t miss any opportunities to elevate your brand and engage with followers on special dates.

For example, in March 2018, we celebrated #NationalPuppyDay by sharing a video from the perspective of one of our office dogs. The video highlighted Hootsuite’s dog-friendly office culture, giving customers a glimpse behind-the-scenes—and an opportunity to look at a bunch of cute dogs. But, it took some advanced planning to pull off.

Stick to a consistent posting schedule

Posting consistently is one of the best ways to get more Instagram followers—but that’s true for all the other social platforms as well.

No one will want to follow you if the most recent post on your profile is from two years ago. A consistent posting schedule shows potential followers you are invested in the channel—meaning a follow will be worth their time.

Better yet, consistent posting trains your current followers to expect and engage with your content on a regular basis, cultivating long-lasting relationships that lead to sales.

A social media content calendar will help you post consistently across all platforms by ensuring that content is planned and scheduled in advance.

No more forgetting about your Twitter account for weeks only to publish 25 tweets in one day while playing catch up.

Find your ideal content mix

No one loves friends who only talk about themselves. The same goes for brands on social.

If you only post when you have a sale on, or a new product to offer, you’re not reading the room. And you’re BORING!

Sure, followers will want to know when you’re having a sale, but they also want to see other types of content from you, such as:

Curated articles, videos, and news stories from your industry

User-generated content

Personal interactions and responses to questions

And more!

Through testing over time, everyone figures out the mix of content that works for them. But the rule of thirds is a good place to start. That means:

⅓ of your content promotes your business or generates leads

⅓ of your content comes from other sources that align with your business

⅓ of your content engages with followers directly, either through answering questions, responding to comments, or reposting user-generated content

Another ratio is the 80/20 rule: 80 percent helpful and interesting content for every 20 percent of content that’s selling your product.

Planning your social content in advance ensures you are publishing a balanced amount of content from each category.

Bonus: you won’t end up alienating customers with too many self-promotional messages.

Encourage collaboration

A social media content calendar shared on a cloud platform like Google Sheets or Dropbox is a collaboration power tool. Whether you’re sharing information with stakeholders or updating your team, this calendar serves as the single source of truth for what’s being published and when.

A common, shareable calendar also makes it easy to divide planning duties among team members. If someone’s out sick for the week, no one is left wondering what to post.

Save time

“But isn’t maintaining a detailed calendar of every social media post going to cause me more work?” you may be wondering.

Honestly, the answer is no. Using a social media calendar is going to save you time.

If you have a plan for your future social content, you can schedule your posts in advance (with a tool like Hootsuite). Then, you won’t constantly be watching the clock. You may even be able to take a vacation.

Effectively allocate resources

You know what they say: by failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.

A great social media post often involves copywriters, designers, and even video editors. It’s a collaborative effort, and quality work takes time.

A few brilliant creatives get their best work done at the very last minute, but generally the opposite is true. Planning ahead puts less strain on you and your team members, as well as company resources. And you’re more likely to publish your best quality work.

Last-minute posts also tend to have a ripple effect throughout the organization. If you’re pulling people in to work on something without any notice, other teams’ schedules and projects are impacted too—and it’s often a struggle to get everyone back on track.

Procrastination is expensive.

Avoid cross-platform errors

One of the cardinal sins of social media management is posting the exact same message on multiple networks. It’s happened to all of us—asking your Facebook followers to “retweet” you or tagging a brand on Twitter who only has Instagram—but it’s less likely to happen if you plan ahead.

A social media content calendar lets you write out unique captions for each social platform in advance. Then when it comes time to schedule your posts, it’s just a matter of copy-and-pasting the right caption to the right network.

Bonus: you’ll avoid looking foolish and disorganized to your followers.

Ensure fresh content

A social media content calendar is not just a planning tool—it’s a record of everything you’ve ever published. It’ll be the first to let you know if you’re overusing the word “legitimately,” or if you’ve shared that cute dog video too many times in the last week.

While planning new content, look back to make sure you’re not repeating yourself.

Figure out what works

Having a record of what you’ve published makes it easier to measure results. Plus, all the time you’re saving not scrambling to publish last minute posts can now be used to optimize performance.

Compare your publishing schedule to your analytics and see if you can find any patterns. Perhaps posts published on Thursdays perform the best. Maybe your Facebook followers are really into 15-second videos, while your Twitter followers prefer long-from blog posts. Maybe your Instagram followers like to see one post a day, while your Linkedin followers like four.

Take your findings and continue to test and optimize until you find the perfect publishing schedule that works for your brand. Bonus: If a post does consistently well, it may be a good idea to “boost” it with some advertising dollars, so even more people get to see it.

How to create a social media content calendar

1. Start with a social media audit

Before you can create a social media planning calendar, you need to take stock of your current social media efforts.

What platforms are you using?

Which ones are performing the best?

Should you continue publishing to all of them?

Or are there any that can be deprecated?

Are there any imposter accounts that need to be shut down?

What are all the usernames and passwords of each account?

How many times per day are you currently posting to each network?

What are the goals for each network?

Who is responsible for each channel?

This is all useful information to include in your social media calendar, especially if you work on a team.

2. Do a content audit, too

Is any of the content you plan to post out-of-date? If so, can it be updated? Or should it be scrapped? Also, what types of content have performed well in the past? And what sorts of things are your competitors posting?

These are all important questions to ask yourself while planning your future social media publishing schedule.

3. Get familiar with network demographics

Each social network speaks to a distinct audience, and these audiences shape the content you will be expected to share. You may have customers who follow you on more than one network, but, for example, your Facebook audience may be older than your Snapchat audience. They may not understand your Zendaya GIFs.

Posting content that is tailored to each platform and its unique audience is an important part of any social media marketing strategy.

Luckily, we’ve got up-to-date demographic information on all the major social networks here:

Facebook demographics

Twitter demographics

Instagram demographics

LinkedIn demographics

Snapchat demographics

Pinterest demographics

Get a handle on these distinct demographics before you start inputting content into your social media content calendar to ensure everything you plan to post is appropriate.

4. Determine your posting frequency

If you’ve already done a social media audit, you’ll have a handle on how often you’re currently posting to each social network. Will that be the plan going forward? Or are you going to change things up?

Either way, your posting frequency will determine the shape of your social media planning calendar—a.k.a. how many slots you need to leave open per network. So it’s best to make a decision now, even if you find you need to tweak it later.

5. Determine your content ratio

Your social media calendar should have some sort of content categorization system. This will help you track what kind of content your followers seem to enjoy the most.

One suggestion is to label your content self-promotional, curated, or user-generated. Or maybe you want to note the type of content, such as: blog post, video, or announcement.

Ultimately how you label your content is up to you. But whatever you decide, make sure the labels are descriptive and actually helpful (although that may take some time to determine).

Also, decide how much of each type of content you want to post, so that your calendar is aligned (see “Find your ideal content mix” above).

6. Set up a content repository

A content repository is just what it sounds like—a place to store all the pieces of content you may want to choose from when building your social media planning calendar. It can be as simple as a spreadsheet (or a tab on your calendar spreadsheet), or an entire database.

A simple spreadsheet is all that most social media pros need. Just make sure to include the following:

Title

Content type

Link

Expiry date

Image (if required)

You could also include space for interesting excerpts from the piece of content. These may help to inform the final copy of your posts.

7. Determine your calendar’s needs

What level of detail does your calendar require?

Do you need a separate spreadsheet for each network? Or can all of them fit on one?

Do you need to be able to assign people tasks? Or note when something has been posted? Or have it approved by anyone?

We suggest starting out with more detail than you think you need, and then cutting back to what your team finds most useful. You’ll see the details we include in our template below, but here are some basic items to get you started:

Network

Date (highlight important ones!)

Time

Copy

Image (if required)

Link

8. Input your content (and establish a process)

Now for the fun part: filling up your calendar with awesome content!

But don’t just go at it willy-nilly. Make sure you’ve got a process in place first.

Decide who is responsible for updating the calendar. Will the same person also be responsible for scheduling and publishing the posts? Will you need to assign copy to a copywriter? Is someone else responsible for sourcing images? And do the posts need to be approved by someone before going live? How far in advance will you schedule content?

Speaking of which, what’s the process for coming up with new content? Is there a brainstorm involved?

These are just some of the questions your team will need to answer before you start inputting content in your calendar, to ensure maximum organization and flow. Even if it’s a lean process, and you’re a social team of one, sticking to a process will help minimize mistakes.

9. Invite key stakeholders to view it

Depending on your organization’s size, there may be value in sharing your social media calendar with a few other teams with whom you share common goals or KPIs, or who would simply benefit from knowing what you’re up to.

These may include (but aren’t limited to): content writers, blog managers, video producers, designers, campaign managers, project managers, and clients.

Make sure to set appropriate permissions for each member you invite. Not everyone needs editing access, for instance.

And remember: there is such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen. Evaluate all requests for access carefully.

10. Schedule your content for publishing

Wow. You’ve made it. This is the step that’s going to save you oodles of time, money, and brainpower.

It’s time to schedule all the content you’ve painstakingly planned and created for publishing so you don’t have to press “SEND” 25 times a day.

With a tool like Hootsuite, you can schedule and publish content to all the Tier 1 social networks from one dashboard. But, whether or not you use Hootsuite, here are instructions for scheduling to the following networks:

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

Facebook

Social media content calendar examples

When it comes to long-term editorial planning, few organizations are more advanced than magazines. Because of their regular cadence, publishing restrictions, and reliance on annual features or seasonal topics, most major magazines plan themes—and even specific content—for an entire year in advance.

While the content you’re planning will likely be a tad different than the average magazine, seeing how this is done can be incredibly helpful—especially to inspire some of your own social media calendar ideas.

Luckily, many magazine editorial calendars can be found online. The following examples are a few of the best.

Harper’s Bazaar

This editorial calendar from fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar is a good example of what a simple overview calendar could look like.

This style would probably be best for mapping out key themes or events each month without much detail on how those concepts will be approached. It would be good to share with stakeholders who are higher up in your organization who may need to approve or provide input on the general direction of publishing, but who don’t need to know the details.

Image via Harper’s Bazaar

National Geographic

While National Geographic has a standard editorial calendar—which includes details on key articles for each month’s issue—what sets their planning apart is the “Areas of Editorial Focus” document.

This part of their editorial calendar maps out four key themes the magazine plans to tackle over the course of the year, which issues they’ll talk about them in, and how they’ll approach each.

It’s an excellent example of high-level thematic planning and how it works together with a more traditional editorial calendar to create a comprehensive overview of upcoming content.

Image via National Geographic

Condé Nast Traveler

The first page of this lifestyle magazine’s editorial calendar is another high-level overview. It indicates the theme of each print issue, as well as important publishing dates.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

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Condé Nast Traveller is a visually-focused publication, so it makes sense that they’ve also included images to express each theme. These can act as quick reference points for stakeholders looking to contribute.

The second page outlines three major themes for each month of digital publishing, and also includes mood-evoking photos. Writers, photographers, advertisers and other creatives can look at this calendar in order to craft appropriately targeted pitches.

Image via Condé Nast Traveler Image via Condé Nast Traveler

Entrepreneur

Business magazine Entrepreneur’s editorial calendar may not be as beautiful as Conde Nast Traveler’s, but what it lacks in creativity it makes up for with information.

This calendar not only maps out broad themes for upcoming issues, but also lists specific pieces of content that will appear in each edition as well as related digital assets.

It’s a clean, minimal, and functional approach to an editorial calendar.

Image via Entrepreneur

Forbes

Likewise, business magazine Forbes’ editorial calendar maps out the overall theme for each issue and what key pieces of content will be included in each.

Image via Forbes

Their digital content calendar goes into more detail, outlining content “programs” scheduled for web publishing. A star is used to mark programs that are expected to change.

Image via Forbes

While many of these editorial calendars are aesthetically appealing, we recommend focusing on function over artfulness in your own social media calendar. Having a calendar that’s easy to edit and update as changes are made is key. If you prefer doing this in a format that’s also beautiful—perhaps to get buy-in from higher-ups—that’s cool too, but not imperative.

Free editorial and social media content calendar templates

We’ve done the hard work for you and created both editorial calendar and social media content calendar templates that you can use for your business. Simply open the link to the Google Sheets file for each, make a copy, and plan away.

Below, find instructions on how to use these templates.

How to use the editorial calendar template

This template is intended for planning individual content assets, such as blog posts. It includes sections to fill in for the title of each item, the author, the topic area it covers, and the deadline, as well as the anticipated publication date and time.

Use our Editorial Calendar Template

To use the template, simply click File in the upper left-hand corner, then select Make a copy from the drop-down menu.

Simply create a new tab for each month and fill in your content accordingly. The content from each week of the month is divided by colored bars for clear visual separation.

How to use the social media content calendar template

This template is intended to be the single source of truth for all of your social media publishing activities. Like the editorial calendar, it’s divided by week with different months separated into tabs.

Each week is further divided by network. The big four social networks have been included here for simplicity’s sake, but If you use any channels not listed here, you can easily swap them out or add space for them.

Use our Social Media Content Calendar Template

To use the template, simply click File in the upper left-hand corner, then select Make a copy from the drop-down menu.

Among the many helpful items in this calendar, make sure not to miss the tab for evergreen content. This is a content repository for blog posts that always perform well on social, despite seasonality. It includes:

Type of content

Original publication date (keep track of this so you know when it’s time for an update)

Title

Topic

URL

Top performing social copy

Top performing image

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.

Social media calendar apps and tools

Google Drive

A basic Google Sheet provides everything most social teams would ever need to create a functioning social media calendar. It’s easy to use—and most importantly, easy to share. Plus, it’s what we used to create our Free Social Media Content Calendar Template. So if you’re planning to use that, Google Drive is your tool.

Hootsuite Planner

If you’re a Hootsuite user, you can conveniently manage and view all your scheduled social media posts in Planner, a visual calendar available in the Hootsuite dashboard. You can also create brand new posts in Planner.

Depending on your social media planning needs, Planner might supplement your Google Sheets calendar, or serve as your sole social media content calendar.

Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking app that also offers customizable planning and calendar templates. These daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly templates can be used to keep track of your social publishing in various degrees of detail.

Trello

Trello is a favourite app among project managers and collaborative teams for its flexibility and easy-to-use interface. Use “cards,” customizable “boards,” and “lists” to manage not only your social media calendar, but your production process from start to finish. You can even contain brainstorm ideas in this app.

Once you’ve planned your content calendar, use Hootsuite to schedule all of your social media posts, engage with your followers, and track the success of your efforts. Try it free today.

Get Started

With files from Kendall Walters.

The post How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar: Tips and Templates appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management.

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jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

Text

How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion

Buzzfeed writing a post about your Instagram account is the sort of thing most teens dream about. But for Mina Gerges, then a 19-year-old student at Western University, it was a bittersweet moment. Yes, his cheeky posts recreating celeb red carpet looks suddenly had thousands more likes, his inbox was flooded with emails and interview requests, and he’d even gotten a repost from Katy Perry but that Buzzfeed story had another consequence: it outed him to his conservative Egyptian parents.

View this post on Instagram

Yes, those are cheese slices on my head 🧀😂 #MetGala #MinaGerges #RitaOra

A post shared by MINA GERGES (مينا) (@itsminagerges) on May 1, 2017 at 8:06pm PDT

Photography by Samuel Engelking

“The first time I Googled “gay men” all I saw was images of white, muscular, slim men,” he says. “So I thought that that was the norm.”

Photography by Samuel Engelking

Last year, Gerges did a nude photo shoot with NOW Toronto for their annual Body Issue. He posted the nude photos on Instagram when the issue came out and lost 4000 followers.

Photography by Samuel Engelking

The post How Mina Gerges Went From Being a Viral Meme to a Body Positivity Champion appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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