Stuck for ideas for social media?

In this episode of the Courageous Content Podcast, I’ll share four ready-to-go content ideas for October. Use them as inspiration for social media posts, blogs, newsletters, podcasts…whatever content you create to promote your business. 

Here’s the awareness days I cover: 

• ADHD Awareness Month (October) 
• World Smile Day (October 7) 
• Clean Up Your Virtual Desktop Day (October 17) 
• Checklist Day (October 30)

Key Links

Janet Murray’s Courageous Content Planner

Janet Murray’s Courageous Podcasting Content Kit

Janet Murray’s Courageous Planner Launch Content Kit

Janet Murray's Courageous Blog Content Kit

Save £30 on my Courageous Email Lead Magnet Content Kit using the code MAGNET67.

Save £30 on my Business Basics Content Kit using the code PODCAST67.

Save £30 on my Courageous Launch Content Kit using the code PODCAST67.

Janet Murray’s Courators Kit

Janet Murray’s FREE Ultimate Course Launch Checklist

How to use awareness days in your content (without sounding cheesy, cliched - or like  everyone else online) (podcast)

Common mistakes business owners make with awareness days (podcast)

3 myths about using awareness days in your content (podcast)

Non-cheesy ways to turn awareness days into social media posts (podcast)

How I discovered I'm autistic and have ADHD (podcast)

How to stick to a content plan when you're neurodivergent (or just find content planning hard) (podcast)

How I discovered I had ADHD (and why it’s my superpower as an entrepreneur) (podcast)

Janet Murray’s website

Janet Murray on Instagram

Janet Murray on Facebook

Janet Murray on LinkedIn

Janet Murray on Twitter

Janet Murray on TikTok

IMPORTANT: THIS TRANSCRIPT IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED. WE GIVE IT A QUICK CHECK THROUGH BUT WE DON’T CORRECT EVERYTHING AS IT’S INTENDED TO HELP YOU FIND PARTS YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO AGAIN - NOT AS AN EXACT TRANSCRIPT. SO THERE MIGHT BE A FEW QUIRKY WORDS/PHRASES HERE!

Would you like some content ideas that are quick and easy to create and we'll save you a ton of time in October? Of course you would. I'm Janet Murray. I'm a content and online business strategist, and in this episode of the Courageous Content Podcast, I'll share four ready to go content ideas for October.

You can use them as inspiration for social media posts, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, whatever content you create to promote your business. So first off, if you haven't listened to my episode on how to turn awareness days into content without being cheesy, cliched, or sounding like everyone else online, I would highly recommend it because in it I share three approaches you can take to turn awareness days into content, and it will really help you get to grips with how to take awareness date, even the ones that might sound a bit

silly, and turn them into content that will promote your business or brand.

It really is possible, I promise. I linked that episode in the show notes, but here's a quick summary. There are three approaches you can take to turning awareness days into content. So first off is literal if the date feels relevant to your business or brand. So for example, if you are a menopause specialist and it's world menopause day, then you can quite literally take that date and turn it into content.

However, if you can't see a link to your business with a date, it really is possible to still use that date to inspire content. So actually, World Menopause Day, which is coming up in October, as it happens, is a good example because menopause is all about change. It's about moving

into a new phase of your life.

It can be quite an uncomfortable period of change for some people. So there's some themes that are absolutely applicable to any business. The themes of change of moving into new phases, even getting older. They are relevant to both of us, regardless of the types of business or brands that we have. And don't worry, I'm going to give you tons of examples of how you can take a date that doesn't appear to have anything to do with your business and to turn it into relevant content in this episode.

Two, if you have my courageous content plan and content kits, you'll be familiar with the four stars of content I recommend. And here's a quick refresher cause I will talk about those in this episode. Two. So news and trends. So that's content that solves a problem or answers the question for your ideal customers or.

That is timely and relevant at the time of publication. That bit's really important. Then you've got inspire content, so this reassures your customers or clients and inspires them to take action, including buying your product or service. Then you've got community content, so that nurtures your relationship with your audience, builds connection, and then you've got educate content which answers a question for your ideal customers or clients, or it solves a problem for.

The difference between news and trends content and educate content, they are quite similar, is that news and trends needs to be timely and relevant at the time of publication. So to use this particular podcast episode as an example, it's content ideas. For October, it wouldn't make sense for me to publish this in February or March.

Whereas with educate content, you could

publish it any time of year or month or week, and it would still be relevant to your audience. And by the way, if you're listening to this episode during or before October, 2022, you can grab my courageous content planner and content kits for just 67 pounds, and that is a saving of a third on the headline price.

If a date doesn't feel super relevant to your business, you can take a more thematic approach. So

for example, October is ADHD month and you don't have to have ADHD to use the date to inspire content ideas. I do have ADHD and I have recorded a number of episodes around that, which I'll link to in the show notes.

If you don't know much about adhd, it stands for Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder, which isn't the. Accurate term, I think, to describe it, but that's a whole other podcast episode. But one of the key challenges for people who have ADHD is around executive function, So things like planning and organization.

Another common challenge is around impossibility. So acting without thinking, which I can tell you firsthand, can be both a blessing and a curse. So you can still use ADHD Awareness Month to inspire ideas for your content, even if you don't have adhd. So for example, to

create a news or transposed, you could share a new tool or app or resource that helps with organization or planning.

This could be ADHD related, if that's relevant to you or not at all. Sharing a relatable story, quote or meme about being organized or not, or a time you acted impulsively or resisted doing so and how it worked out. Well. Both of those would make good inspire posts. If you have adhd, you could share a meme or quote about how ADHD can be an asset rather than a problem, or just something relatable, and that would also be inspire content.

One of the easiest ways to create community content is to simply ask questions. So for example, you could ask, What's your favorite procrastination activity? With something like that, it's always good to go first. So with a post like that, I would often

write in the comments. I'll go first and I'll share my favorite procrastination activity, which by the way, I can't really do it anymore.

But in the days when I used to have those old chunky keyboards for my computer, Do you remember them? I used to use a cotton bud to clean out between those big chunky keys. So when I needed to think about something, you'd find me there with a cotton bud cleaning around the outsides of the chunky keys on my keyboards.

It was probably a bit weird, but anyway, that's what I used to do to create and educate post. You could share specific tips on organization or planning. So for example, how to finish every task you start finishing can be a big problem for ADHDers or how to make sure you always leave yourself enough time to complete projects if you do have ADHD

or that's relevant to your business.

Sharing tips or strategies on dealing with adhd. For example, organizing your desk or office. How to create to do list that you actually use are all examples of educate content. And by the way, when you're thinking about what content to put out for a particular month, do you remember to go back into your archive?

So for example, I have a podcast episode on how to create and stick to a content plan even if you are neuro. Or you just find it hard to stick to content plans. That will be a perfect episode to promote during October. And really don't underestimate the power of going back through your archive. Any blogs or podcasts or videos that you've created that can be repurposed.

You don't even need to do

anything different with them. You can just make a point of publishing them at a time where, A relevant awareness day or month. So in my case, I'll be repro promoting lots of my ADHD content this month. Next up, there's World Smile Day, so that's October the seventh to create and news and trends post.

You could create a list post, so for example, insert number of films, books, TV shows that will make you smile in it's a month season. Remember that news and trends content needs to be timely and. So that's why you'd need to add in the month, the season, the time of year. It could even be something that relates to a timely event, so Glastonbury or Christmas, or Halloween, or New Year.

It just needs to be timely and relevant, and there needs to be a reason why that piece of content needs to be published at that

time. Community content is all about conversation and connection, so you could ask a question about what makes your community happy. Remember though, you always need to make it as easy as possible for people to respond.

So a question like what makes you happy, it's too open. Most people would have to think far too hard to answer that question. Instead, if you say something like, Share a song that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, well, that's far more likely to get a response because you're being specific about the topic.

To create a piece of inspire content, you could share a relatable story or anecdote about smiling in the face of adversity, or a time you had to pick yourself up after a difficult experience. Or you could inspire people to invest in your product or service by creating a post like this. Why I insert product or service will make you smile if you are a call out, your ideal customer or client.

Reasons to

smile posts could also work as using trends. So for example, insert number, reasons to smile, insert season or month. If you are a call out ideal customer or client. So what would that look like as a PostIt? Reasons to smile if you're going through a messy breakup. Yes, there are some. Educate content is all about answering your ideal customers or clients' questions and solving their problems.

Depending on your business or brand, it may be possible to take a literal approach here. So if you are a dentist, for example, how to create the perfect smile or how to feel less self-conscious about smiling when you first get braces fitted, if you are a photographer, How to smile naturally in photos or should you smile in your LinkedIn photos.

Googling phrases that relate to a theme is a great way to get ideas, by the way. So, for example, I Googled the phrase, Should you smile

and got, Should you smile at your dog? Perfect. If you have a pet business, you could replace dog with other pets, of course. Should you smile in interviews? Perfect. If you are a career coach, for example, or a leadership coach, I even got, should you smile at a monkey , try it and see what comes up for you that relates to your business or brand.

It's a great way to spark ideas if you really can't find a link. Here's some fill in the gaps. Educate style ideas on this theme. So insert number ways to stay positive if you are a insert, challenge or obstacle. How to keep smiling when insert challenge or obstacle. Insert number. Things are are guaranteed to make you smart when insert challenge or obstacle.

and Kits. I will put a link for that in the show notes. So October the 17th is clean up your virtual desktop day. Now if it's relevant to your business, you can literally create content on how to clean up your desktop.

God knows mine needs it. If not, taking that theme of cleaning up of improving things could to work really well. So with that in mind, here's some more fill in the gaps, Post ideas and prompts for you. So insert month of season ideas for cleaning up or improving. Insert something your ideal customers or clients would like to improve, virtual or otherwise.

So clean up your customer service strategy or clean up your email list, for example. Just have us think about what you might want to clean up in your business or your life. But remember, for using twins, it does need to. Timely. So in October or in the autumn

or in the run up to Christmas, for example, sharing a relatable or inspiring story about something or someone you removed from your life that had a positive effect could make a great inspire post.

Equally, you could look for a shareable quotes or meme on that. For a community post, you could ask, Is your computer desktop tidy or organized? Or you could ask about another space, perhaps in someone's house, or you could share a picture of your computer desktop and ask your community to share bears. I dunno about you, but, uh, mine is pretty messy every time my husband comes in to help me.

Fix something on my computer. He always says, Oh God, I dunno how you could have so many things on your desktop. And actually frequently I have to ask him to come and help me move everything off my desktop elsewhere because it can get

such a mess and however much I try not to do it, it seems to happen over and over again.

Then we've got educate content. So warning sides you shouldn't ignore if you are. Insert ideal customer or client who wants to insert desirable outcome because dealing with red flags or concerns you have early is going to help you improve or clean up your work or life. Finally, on October the 30th, it's checklist day and creating a list post about lists is an easy way to create end news and trends, posts, for example.

Insert number, checklists every call out. Your ideal client or customer should make in insert months or seasons. So five checklists every person with ADHD should make in October. Sharing a relatable or funny quote or beam about lists is a great

way to create, inspire content. So, for example, as an adhd, I am terrible at creating lists and sticking to them.

I quite like making. But then I don't look at them again, , I'm certainly not one of those people who diligently works my way through lists. I do find it helpful to get the info out of my head, but I make those lists and I rarely even look at them again, if you have my courageous awareness based content kit, by the way, there is a session specifically on how to find shareable quotes and me.

To create a community post, you could simply

ask, Are you a list maker or a list breaker, or, I love this start of post. For community content, I mostly make lists about blank, so that's when you get your community to fill in the gap. Educate content is all about solving problems and making life easier for your ideal customers or clients.

So here's a template you could use for this date. Insert number checklist you should create today if you want, insert desirable outcome. So for example, five checklists you should create today. If you want to get better at completing tasks. Probably not going to set the world on fire, that idea, but hopefully you can see where my mind is going with.

with more than a thousand fill in the gaps, social media, post templates. There's also templates for blogs, email newsletters, and other essential business content, which will save you a ton of time and money on your content, and also just help you when you're feeling stuck for ideas.

If you haven't heard about my Courageous Content Planner, it's a beautiful a four desk diary, four gorgeous covers to choose from. It comes with a ready to go content strategy so you know what to post, where and when, and more than a thousand awareness days and key dates to inspire ideas, but also those fill in the gaps templates.

It also comes with my curator's kit, which has a comprehensive content training that will really show you not only how to put an effective content strategy in place in your business, but also how to take the dates in your planet and turn them

into engaging content. Hand on heart. If you're going to make any investment for your business for 2023, it's worth every penny.

Most other content specialists are not teaching and are the things that really make the difference when it comes to making sales in your business. And if you need more

ideas on how to use awareness days to inspire content ideas for your business, I do have a number of relevant episodes, which are linked to in the show notes.