News hooks for May – don’t let the month slip by silently!

May is a great month with lots of news hooks and ideas that you’ll be able to tap into.

Look at your business – first, look at your own diary. Is there something coming up that is important? Have you got a good story?

Are you running an event: speaking at an event; have you or someone in your team won an award? (real ones, not ones you pay for). Is it the anniversary of your business? Are you raising money for charity- then an article about it either before or after (the latter is you’ve raised a good amount).

Are there any changes in the law in your profession that might be useful for you to write a press release about – warning small businesses about what is happening? This would particularly be something for HR or Legal businesses.

Don’t just look at May, look ahead to June too – especially if you are going to share with local media.

Next, look at the variety of special days and weeks in May and make use of the things that work for you. Write blogs and social media posts around those topical themes. We may be well into May now but there are still opportunities out there. 

What’s so special about May?

It’s the final month of spring.  There are a lot of bank holidays and school holidays during the month – which means time off from work.

How does this affect your business? Does it affect you?  Is there something you love to do when you get time off? Can you come up with some hints or tips around this? 

Relevant things that run throughout the month.

Choose the ones that resonate with you – either personally, or in business.

• National Walking Month – talk about your walking regime, and take pictures. Perhaps you post a picture each day and that is your talking point Also, in the month: 20 – 24^th National Walk to School week – is that possible from where you live?  Did you walk to school as a child?
• Local and community history month – your business or you may be linked with an important local historic event. 
• National share a story month – choose the theme of your blogs:
  • 5 stories you want to talk about 
  • 5 books that resonate with you
  • 5 stories about growth of your business
  • 5 stories about things you’ve done that are amazing
  • 5 people I collaborate with in my business
• Maternal Mental Health Month – this might be something that is personal to you or it may be something where your business can support people.
• National Smile Month – again, if your business is linked to health – talk about the positive health benefits of smiling. (May 13^th – June 12^th)

Awareness weeks:

*12^th – 18^th Food Allergy Awareness Week; 19^th – 25^th British Sandwich Week and 20^th – 26^th National Vegetarian Week – all important weeks if you have a food business. How do these weeks affect you? Do you cater for people with allergies, or for vegetarians of people who love sandwiches?

*22^nd – 28^th Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Week.  Another health related issue to write about, especially as 13.6m people are now at an increased risk of being diagnosed with this in the UK. Do you have a story related to this?

*25^th – 2^nd June National children’s gardening week. May is the month of flowers, so if you’re into gardening, or your business is linked to gardens, then this is certainly the month to talk about it.  And during the children’s gardening week – perhaps give 5 tips on how you can get children interested in gardening.

Leading up to this week is the Chelsea Flower show – 21^st – 25^th.

Some completely fun and off-the -wall days:

• In Old English – May was known as the month of 3 milking’s – because due to the abundance of grass cows could be milked three times a day. Is this something you already know about?
• 25^th Elmer Day – Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is one of the most iconic children’s book characters.
• On the same day it is Geek Pride Day – celebrate your geekiness!

If you’re into films or TV, share your love of them – you’ll often find that other people also like what you watch.

I always blog about The Apprentice – some people l love it and some hate it – but it gets a conversation going.

Also it’s now less than 100 days until the Paralympics with the Olympics coming up before then – we don’t yet know how much energy and interest there will be in this competition but can you talk about this in any way? Share memories, heroes, do you know anyone, have you actually competed, were you outstanding at a sport? 

From all of these things, you should have plenty of things you can write about during the rest of May!