What is an annual wheel and why do we need it?
Many times, even when you have your identified channels and audience, due to lack of time, or for other reasons, communicating your message and reaching out to your audiences with your useful tools or insight are left behind. To avoid this unintended silence, planning your messages beforehand might be a good idea: when, what, to whom, and what key words or hashtags to use.
With the annual wheel, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel. This is an illustrative base on how to create your own annual wheel; a tool to give you ideas, and inspiration, give a spark for your imagination; on how you can navigate in the social media world, have your voice heard in the sea of messages and engage your audience. For this, you can for example use already existing hashtags, memes, or annual events like New Year celebration and with your twist, use them to carry your message. When planning these messages, keep in mind, your audience is more likely to share your content if it appeals their emotions.
To know what wakens the emotions, and what kinds of emotions, it is important to know your audience, and what moves them. Based on this you can visualize your channels and key messages throughout the year and map your main audiences and channels to reach them. The wheel is a helpful tool for your work to have the right outreach and impact.
Payoffs
- Engage and interact with your audience
- Appeal emotions and have your message go viral
- Drive your audience to action
- Reach a wider audience
In the current, dynamic and connected world, social media is one of the most efficient ways to communicate your ideas for a wider audience and interact with your most important interest groups and stakeholders. However, sometimes getting started might feel tricky. Before getting started with planning of your yearly communications, it is good to have a project plan that lays out clear goals as a starting point as it forms the base for your project’s communications. Once you have a project plan, sit down with your team, and let the brainstorming begin!
Download the method as a pdf version: Engage with social media (PDF)