You may have heard the term ‘Evergreen Content‘ before when it comes to marketing. It’s something that we talk about a lot in our Social Clinics and with our clients. But, you may be wondering, what exactly is it? That’s the question that we aim to answer in this post! It should give you a better understanding of what Evergreen means, what it is, and also, what it isn’t! We’ll also give you some examples and top tips when it comes to this kind of content. Want to find out the answers? Read on…

What Is Evergreen Content?

The term ‘Evergreen’ can be used in a few different contexts. Even if you’ve not heard it in relation to social media posts before, there’s one place you probably have- Evergreen trees! And what makes an Evergreen tree? It’s a tree that has leaves year-round, and it never loses them. The term used in the context of social media means a very similar thing. In simple terms, it is content that can be used year-round. It doesn’t matter what season it is, what month, what special occasions are going on, or even the day of the week. This is content that is universal. In the same way that trees always have leaves, it is always relevant and can be used again and again.

It’s great to have some go-to Evergreen posts to use on your businesses social media. If you’re ever stuck for anything to post, they will be there for you. And, they provide a great ‘base level’ of content that you can add seasonal posts on top of. Content that isn’t related to any particular event or time of year means that your social media is always being populated with new content, without you having to think too much about it. The content is always valuable to whoever is viewing it, whether it’s informative, entertaining, or something else.

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What Isn’t Evergreen?

So now we’ve covered what constitutes Evergreen Content, let’s have a look at what doesn’t!

• Anything relating to a particular occasion, for example, Christmas or Happy New Year posts.
• Anything about an event that’s happening in the past or future- unless the posts are specifically designed to be a ‘throwback’ post about the event and what you did there.
• A post promoting a special offer or competition, unless it’s one that’s always running.
• Any facts, statistics, and the like which will quickly become outdated.
• Articles that focus on something very current and likely to become ‘old news’. Posts about articles can be Evergreen, as long as the information contained in them will always be useful. For example, an article about ‘Marketing Trends in 2020’ is not Evergreen, but a more generic post about ‘Marketing Tips’ is more likely to be.
• In short, any post that has a short shelf life when it comes to being relevant to your audience!

Some Examples

Now, let’s take a look at some posts that we’ve created and what makes them Evergreen!

In Example One, we’ve published a post about one of our Social Snippets YouTube videos, where Jon tells you how you can use blogger outreach to be seen by more people. This is Evergreen because the video isn’t going anywhere, it’s uploaded to our YouTube channel. And, the information in it will stay relevant for a long time, because blogger outreach and influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere. There’s a call to action asking people to head to our channel to watch the video and all the others on there, and a question to encourage people to engage with the post. As blogger outreach isn’t a seasonal topic, this is overall a good example of Evergreen Content.

Example Two is a post we created for one of our Delivered Social Green clients, GRACE. It gives a brief outline about cervical cancer, which is very topical for this cancer charity. It does contain statistics, but it is made clear that they are not 100% accurate, and furthermore they are not likely to drastically change in a short period of time, so they stay relevant. This is a good example of an Evergreen post because it’s relevant to the charity and their audience, but isn’t tied to any particular event or time of year. It is always going to be informative and useful.

Finally, Example Three is another one from our Instagram account, about visual content on social media. It’s informative, with the fact about our attention spans on social media, and because it talks about how visual content is important and useful. The questions, again, encourage people to interact with the post. Overall, this is a post that is relevant year-round and won’t go out of date.

Evergreen Tips

To finish off, here are a few of our top tips to make the most of your Evergreen Content!

Hashtags: Think carefully about any hashtags you’re using in posts. Make sure they’re relevant to the content, but are Evergreen themselves! For example, don’t use hashtags to do with the year or month. Hashtags to do with location are fine as places don’t usually change!

Make it work for you: Our favourite thing about this type of content on social media is that it one post can be used again or again with minor changes. Having a ‘bank’ of Evergreen content is a great idea if you want a constant stream of posts, but not worry about whether what you’re posting is useful, informative, or relevant.

Review it: The purpose of this content is to be reusable and forever-relevant. Having said that, it’s still important to review your Evergreen posts every once in a while to make sure they’re still fulfilling their purpose. Watch out for any information, facts, stats, or articles that may have become outdated sooner than you think.

Hopefully this post has helped you to better understand Evergreen content, and just why it is so good for many businesses to use!