CHANGING SEASONS - Unless you’re traveling, it can be a bit odd to see a warm weather photo when your audience knows you should have some snow on the ground! Seasons affect your wardrobe, your environment, and maybe your product offerings! If your brand is more focused on personal topics like food, skin care, fashion or family, the seasons will be a major factor in dictating your content.
SEASONAL OR HOLIDAY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES - there are tons of promotional seasons per year, and if you are a product or service based business, you want to show off your newest offerings for back to school, fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, gifts, New Years, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Break, Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, summer, Fourth of July. If you’re a shop owner, you maybe also incorporate seasonal decor and displays into your sessions.
NATIONAL DAY OF….Tacos? Margaritas? Ice Cream? Best friends? There’s a national day to celebrate almost every day of the year, and you can pick and choose what fits your branding that you want to celebrate and share with your audience! Remember - social media is for engagement, entertainment and fun! Your audience wants to see the things that you enjoy that they can relate to! If you’re an influencer, chances are a lot of your sponsored posts could revolve around this type of content! See below for quick links to all monthly national days, weeks and months of observance!
EVENTS - Whether you’re attending, hosting, or planning, you can look at your year ahead and hand pick events that you want featured content for as it relates to food, fashion, decor, planning, seasons, new product launches, awards, and lifestyle.
PROJECTS - Home renovation? Setting up shop? Featuring a seasonal menu? Creating a course or launching a big new product, service or collaboration? Keep your audience informed and excited as you go through the process and share your big reveal!
YOU - This is what personal branding is all about, after all! Sharing your face, at work, out and about, doing your thing, attending events, your style. You should get a variety of shots to maximize your content and be able to use your photos for a number of marketing strategies. This means lifestyle shots, zoomed out and space to add text or info, close up details shots, a variety of poses and actions.
YOUR SQUAD - Depending on your business or brand, you may incorporate family stories into your work. At least twice a year, you might consider a session with your partner, kids, pets, best friends, or team!
YOUR WORKSPACE OR SHOP - Consider a session that showcases your workspace, shop, studio or home. Wide shots, details and you working within the space. These are images you can use throughout the year! Add seasonal shots as you go, and schedule another workspace shoot if you do a major renovation or update.
STYLE - As a style blogger, influencer or small business, you may plan around events or new seasonal wardrobes, gift guides, or travel to feature your personal style! You may have sponsored posts or your tried and true favorite items that you want to incorporate or make the focus of a session.
BRANDED DETAILS - These might be considered “filler” images, but things that showcase more of your brand can help add variety to your content. These might be considered your own personal stock photos. Things like your desk, tools and equipment, letterboards with favorite quotes or sayings, flatlays with an assortment of items. There are so many possibilities! You can also think of your environment, like shots around town or your city, storefronts, and places that fit your story. This may be a harbor of sailboats, a busy city street, your favorite park bench or outdoor seating area at a coffee shop. If your home is full of plants or decor, you may do a styled shoot featuring these kinds of details.
WORK LIFE - Action shots, working with clients, having meetings, greeting customers. Whatever work looks like for you, there are a lot of ideas and options to share with your audience!
MILESTONES AND CELEBRATIONS - Did you hit your first 100, 1,000 or 10,000 followers? Did your business just turn 1, 5 or 10? Did you receive an award or recognition? Celebrate your wins and share them! Order yourself a cake, pop some champagne, and book a shoot!
These are just a few ideas, but even within these categories, there are so many possibilities!
