LinkedIn

Strategy &
Content
Calendar 2021
Teresa Buzzoni
Created for L.A.C.E.S. Life and Change Thru Sports
Summer 2021 Communications Internship Capstone
Created August 16, 2021
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Table of Contents

Understanding the LinkedIn Platform/Functions

Goals/Tactics

Teresa’s Progress

Suggested Content Calendar

October
November
December
January

Recommendations
ANALYTICS

Suggested Content Calendar

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Understanding the LinkedIn

Platform/Functions
LinkedIn is the leading business professional platform, which functions
to connect experienced and young professionals with peers in industry. By
allowing unique individuals and organizations to showcase their skills,
education and experience, the platform allows event advertisement, groups,
photo/media sharing and interaction (LinkedIn).
From a basic standpoint, the L.A.C.E.S. LinkedIn page serves as a

landing page for all business information of L.A.C.E.S. During my time at

L.A.C.E.S., I worked with both Seren and Leah to craft an engaging cover
photo and branding for the home page. This page should continue to grow as
the platform develops with more content.

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For the future of L.A.C.E.S., the most important tools can be found with the
drop down menu, Admin Tools.
What can be important to know about
these Admin Tools, is simply that they can be
used to help translate social media into
volunteers or interactions. For example,
creating an event on LinkedIn could help
draw attention to events, and be a collective
location for members looking to get involved
to see what L.A.C.E.S. is doing. When looking
for new hires, posting job updates on
LinkedIn can help students seek out L.A.C.E.S.
with more personal relationships with the
brand. Inviting connections help increase the
reach of the overall brand, which can be
managed through the post and page views,
which represent indicators of whether or not
your page is growing and tactics are working.

Understand that most posts on LinkedIn will range in their success.

Often views are determined by which followers like your post. For example a
post with a high success rate is often determined by how many other people
like and comment on your post, because each like will show up the timelines
of those connected with the liker. Here are some examples from my personal
LinkedIn feed:

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As you can see, both posts had large reaches from my account. They
both featured engaging pictures that were visual representations of the
content in the caption. The 42 and 61 interactions meant that they appeared
in other people’s feeds, which increased the view on the post. For L.A.C.E.S.,
focusing on these engagements will help get more accounts to view content.
Learning from these example posts, engaging photos and related graphics
are extremely helpful when catching the audience’s eye. From the first post,
we see that the audience engages well with personal images. Single pictures
of L.A.C.E.S. youth or volunteers would be effective storytelling on their own.
Combined with images, graphics that are meaningful and cleanly designed
help tell a different type of story. For example, infographics or designed
elements can help relay messaging to the audience.
When reviewing both posts, we can focus on how many people viewed
the post, and how many people reacted to it. A personal example of content
that did not follow these rules can be seen in the following image:

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Here is a picture of a Content Marketing Certification. The post is relevant to

professional development, and certainly fits the agenda of LinkedIn, but it
fails to engage with an eye-catching image, or appealing graphics. As a result,
the interactions are low, meaning that fewer people viewed the post. To avoid
these problems focus on: engaging graphics or images that tell a story, and
make them interactive to gain a larger audience.

Goals/Tactics
When creating a social media strategy using LinkedIn, it is important to
understand how to set goals that can be measured. These goals and the ways
you choose to solve them will be determinants of your success and planning.
Goals are the broad outcomes, such as “gain followers on Instagram”.
Strategies are how you intend to achieve the goal. For example, “post more
on Instagram”. An objective needs to be measurable, such as gaining “5-10
more likes per post on average”. Then tactics are the tools you will use to

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make the plan happen. Tactics can include “post with greater brand
messaging or create higher quality photography”.
When creating the basis of the LinkedIn platform for L.A.C.E.S., I used
the following goals and tactics:
GOALS:
1. Position L.A.C.E.S. as a brand expert
2. Expand business contacts with similar businesses
3. Source Employees
4. Develop positive outlets for achievements by the business/employees
5. Keep up to date commentary on industry news
6. Cross promote other information from website
7. Source republishes and greater reach
TACTICS
1. Publish credible content related to industry to build L.A.C.E.S. expertise and
allows members to consult L.A.C.E.S. as a knowledge base, by building trust.
2. Interact with similar brands: OneJourney, District Sports, etc. to understand
competition and position L.A.C.E.S. as an expert on Washington D.C.-based
refugee organizations surrounding sport, and understand the needs and
wants of relevant audiences.
3. Connect with future interns and partners to see experience and involvement.
This helps brands understand what employees are interested in and maintain
relevance to the needs of future employees.
4. Creating positive public relations experiences where L.A.C.E.S can reflect on
the achievements and accomplishments of the organization and its members.
a. Notably, ESPN’s Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award to Coach Holly
or Seren’s recognition to the 50 Most Influential People in Sports by the
Sports & Entertainment Impact Collective (SEIC)
5. Establish commentary on important events within industry to show relevancy
and reaction.
6. Share information with different audiences and purposes by adapting content
to platforms and differentiating tone.
7. Engage with similar accounts, or partner with organizations to reach different
audiences to expand the L.A.C.E.S. platform.

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For future managers and interns, I would recommend developing these

goals and tactics together as a team at the start of the internship to provide
interns guiding themes to create against and better implement what the
goals of creating content are. Results can then be analyzed against these
goals to understand A) what works and what does not; B) what purpose
L.A.C.E.S. is using LinkedIn for, and C) give members of the team items to
think back to when creating platform strategy.

Teresa’s Progress
When beginning at L.A.C.E.S., I had a blank canvas with which to create.
As the communications intern, I developed the system of content calendars
as visual ways to outline content for each month and keep track of manager
approvals. Beginning with social media content calendars where links to
created content could be included with goals for overall social media strategy,
L.A.C.E.S. was able to develop content that could be traced.
Interpreting results creates opportunities for accountability and data
collection to guide social media strategy. I was able to create an analytics
review program to determine growth and change on each platform. While
the report includes screenshots for each platform, it is applicable to LinkedIn,
because it gives interns across each team materials to review growth. When
planning a campaign, managers are able to return to previous social media
strategies for ideas or to see what posts or challenges worked best. Monthly
reviews also help interns plan for future posts. Using Buffer Analytics, interns
are also able to report the growth of the platforms to demonstrate their social
media growth while working with L.A.C.E.S.

L.A.C.E.S. Social Media Report

[Date Reviewed]
[Intern Name]

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Monthly Goals:
1. .
2. .

Snapshot (Following/Clocks/Mentions) First day of month-last day

Performance

INSTAGRAM
[Date range]

# of posts Net Followers Total Likes Clicks to Story Reach

Gain/Loss website

Top Performing Post:

FACEBOOK
[Date range]

# of posts Net Followers Total Likes Clicks to Post Reach

Gain/Loss website

Top Performing Post:

TWITTER
[Date range]

# of posts Net Followers Total Likes Clicks to Retweets

Gain/Loss website

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Top Performing Post:

LINKEDIN
[Date range]

# of posts Net Total Likes Clicks to Post Reach

Connections website
Gain/Loss

Top Performing Post:

CLICKTHROUGH ANALYSIS: Monthly Giving Campaign

KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Why did trends occur as they did (better performing posts/worse)?
2. What strategies worked/didn’t work over the course of the month?
3. What are new goals to be set for the upcoming month?

Suggested Content Calendar

Keys to Understanding the Content Calendar
Approval for each of the content helps build accountability for posting.
For interns and managers responsible for uploading content to the platform,
signing off helps keep track of work being completed, but also creates
responsibility for upload mistakes and a shared understanding of whose role
it is to keep content updated.

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Each section of the calendar is broken into color coded weeks so the
content on LinkedIn can be more flexible. If an intern or manager forgets to
post one day within the week, it can be rearranged so that the curated
content is able to replace a repost day, or vice versa.
KEY:
Week ON Repost Day
Week OFF
“Branding” is created through wording, as the platform is highly text
based. However, allowing interns some freedom to create content that is
unique to them on Intern Takeovers will give the L.A.C.E.S. LinkedIn breaks
from regular content.
One of the largest ways to grow the platform should come from
content interactions and relationship building. The calendar providing breaks
for reposting involves allowing future interns and managers to have the space
to interact with LinkedIn content. An observation from my internship was that
social media strategy focused on content curation, and less on engagement.
Providing time for interns to interact with similar brand organizations and
comment on outside member experiences will create positive relationships.
This should be a priority for LinkedIn in the future, because the shared traffic
will improve interaction on the L.A.C.E.S. platform.

Creating Graphics
LinkedIn graphics should not be the same as social media content for
other L.A.C.E.S. platforms. One goal of the graphic creation will be Content
Diversification, which is created in the form of different content across each
social media platform. In reference to L.A.C.E.S., LinkedIn content should be
created in the size of 1200 x 1200 for square on mobile and 1200 x 628 for
desktop. Where platforms such as Instagram could benefit from a regularly
expected hashtag, on LinkedIn, graphics should be targeted and focused on
marketing to professionals.

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Different ways to diversify content include:

1. Changing Formats: LinkedIn allows users to create posts, publish
graphics, republish websites, blog, and comment on other user’s
content. Use as many forms as appropriate, and evaluate which
users like best.
2. Create Polls: LinkedIn is unique in the ease of reactions. Consider
asking users to react to posts with each of the options available in
liking content as seen below.

3. Avoid repeating content: If L.A.C.E.S. has already posted about the

content on their platform, audiences have already seen it.
4. Consider creating Infographics: Higher quality content will create
more of an impact than volume. Producing infographics and
researched content that aligns L.A.C.E.S. as an expert will build
trust and credibility, as well as help L.A.C.E.S. relate to and
comment on a variety of relevant topics.

Graphic Design
Here are two examples of the content that the 2021 interns began posting in
June and the evolution to the designs from August 2021. Opt for continuing
August’s designs for a more modern design typical of business organizations
attempting to portray innovation.

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July 1, 2021

August 2021

When creating content, remember to always source your images and text. To
avoid copyright, always ensure that links are provided when using outside
images. If photos were provided by L.A.C.E.S., including the logo will help
create branding and locate the images as sourced from the organization.

LINK TO CONTENT CALENDAR: LinkedIn Posting Calendar

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October 2021

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November 2021

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December 2021

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January 2022

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LinkedIn Recommendations
1. Developing the home page
The About Section:
For L.A.C.E.S., the About or “Overview” section is the location where new viewers can
begin to understand the brand and engage with the brand. For example, a L.A.C.E.S. overview
could go something like this:

“L.A.C.E.S. exists to empower role models through sport. Partnering with community
leaders in Western Africa and refugee populations in the DMV area, we provide skills,
food, and mentorship to youth to help build community healing. L.A.C.E.S. works to build
strong relationships with the community leaders who are working to empower young
leaders in their communities. Since 2007, L.A.C.E.S. has impacted over 3,350 children,
275 coaches and provided over 485,000 meals.

Our program stands out because of the message it builds, and the strategy that guides
us. Working with communities in Sierra Leone and Liberia, L.A.C.E.S. works to train
coaches with workshops and weekly meetings. These coaches run practices and games,
after which teams eat with one another and receive mentorship from community
members on the pillars of sportsmanship, leadership, and fair play to help create positive
change on and off the field.

Providing meals plays a large component in fighting food insecurity, where most of our
L.A.C.E.S. youth would only eat one meal per day. While being offered nutritious food
options, L.A.C.E.S. also uses sport to help children gain important life skills to protect
themselves in the future. Liberia is ranked the 2nd most corrupt country by Transparency
International, making it difficult for youth to receive a formal education. Games taught by
L.A.C.E.S. help youth gain conflict resolution and essential life skills.”

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2. Publish Consistent, Quality Content

As suggested, a regular posting and interaction schedule will define the
tasks for future interns and provide a basis for them to keep all members
responsible for approving content on the same page. However, allowing
interns the freedom to comment and like will save time in the interaction and
relationship building process on LinkedIn. I would recommend asking them
to have comments approved for larger brands or when posting formally.
However, when reacting to other organization’s posts, it could be helpful to
engage them with some freedom.
When developing graphics, it is important for future posts to be high
quality so they stand out and are able to compete against larger
organization’s posts for attention. High quality graphics and photos that
consider reinforcing the caption or strengthening the caption will find
greater success. However, if a well-designed post does not trend as highly as
predicted, continue pushing content, as the right posts will land with
audiences that respond positively if the content relates to positive branding or
professional activities.

3. Plan your content ahead of time

Clear planning is easy to read when it is done well. For example,
L.A.C.E.S. social media could continue to improve upon advanced planning for
events. For example, creating a rough schedule of events that need to be
published about in advance. From the summer, creating content advertising
for events helped tell their stories. This was created with a content calendar,
with events such as “Thank you to Leveling the Playing Field for contributing
equipment” then seeing the equipment that they donated in action.
A content calendar also helps get ahead of content, so that no matter
how many members of the team are working, content can be readily available

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to be published at any given time. Working 1-2 weeks ahead was most helpful
during my time as an intern.

4. Implementing Analytics
Formalizing the analytics process will depend on the goals of the social
media planner and the intern creating graphics. However, managing content
expectations and goals will allow the content to be uniform for the duration of
the campaign. With LinkedIn, having periods of time where L.A.C.E.S. works
to promote an event, or advertise their new intern team, can provide
opportunities for analytics to be recorded and evaluated. For long-term
campaigns, such as the Monthly Giving campaign or holiday donation asks,
such results should be reflected upon and implemented in the planning
stages.

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