It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to craft an innovative event marketing strategy, but it turns out that we can learn a thing or two from them. 

Social media is in a constant state of evolution and growth. Every day there are 500 million Tweets, 4.75 billion items shared on Facebook, and more than 80 million photos uploaded to Instagram. Faced with such a deluge of content, it’s easy to feel like your voice can’t be heard, or is a drop in the social media ocean. But when you do it right, social media can be the most effective way to connect with your target audience.

Earlier this spring I covered the annual conference and trade show for one of our large tech clients. And when I say “cover,” I mean good, old-fashioned news reporting. I served as the writer for our client’s blog, which supported the event. I spent hours each day running up and down the trade show halls, interviewing employees, crisscrossing the show floor, and sitting in on keynote speeches. It made me a bit nostalgic for my old newspaper days.

Working daily in social media, I know how rewarding—and frustrating—it can be. New products and features are released on an almost daily basis, and networks push so many updates that it’s nearly impossible to be fully caught up on social media. Social media strategists need to be aware of these changes and understand how they impact client recommendations.

I spend the bulk of my time managing LinkedIn company pages for two drastically different clients: one is a boutique branding consultancy, and the other is one of the largest tech companies in the world. Although the size of these organizations differ greatly, I still approach them with the same principles in mind. 

Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Unless you have the right tools to help you stay focused on the long view, your content strategy is certain to veer off course. That’s where an editorial calendar comes in.