How To Save Time Planning and Creating Social Media Content material

There’s no denying that content material creation is time-consuming. You need to consider what to submit, create a graphic, write a caption, select hashtags, submit the content material, and interact together with your viewers within the feedback—after which do all of it once more, and once more, and once more.

Whereas the challenges of social media content material creation might really feel daunting, exhibiting up persistently has large advantages for what you are promoting. By posting priceless content material persistently, you possibly can:

Develop your viewers
Improve model consciousness
Construct authority in your trade
Enhance engagement

In case you are seeking to obtain any of the advantages listed above, it’s price determining a sustainable technique for saving time planning and creating social media content material. The important thing to reaching that is twofold—planning prematurely and batch working content material creation.

@stilclassics

Multitasking—A Cautionary Story

Let’s take a second to speak about one thing all of us do—multitasking. Multitasking typically feels productive since you are doing “all of the issues”, however in actuality, multitasking is among the least productive issues you are able to do.

It has been estimated that solely 2% of the inhabitants is definitely proficient at multitasking. While you change from activity to activity, it really takes 50% longer to perform a activity. (John Medina, Mind Guidelines).

“Solely 2% of the inhabitants is definitely proficient at multitasking.”

So what are the 98% of us that aren’t proficient multitaskers purported to do? The reply—in terms of social media content material creation—is making a system and batch working. Beneath is a course of that you may repeat every month to avoid wasting time planning and creating your social media content material.

Content material Planning Course of

Every month, put aside time to map out your social media content material for the next month. By outlining the content material subjects you wish to cowl for the complete month, you possibly can have a look at your content material from a better stage and be extra strategic about your content material plan. Plan on spending 1-2 hours every month mapping out your content material for the next month.

Plan on spending 1-2 hours every month mapping out your content material

Issues to incorporate in your content material plan:

Variety of posts. How typically do you submit (or wish to submit) every week? Remember that high quality and consistency are extra essential than the variety of posts. Stick with a schedule and frequency you possibly can maintain long-term.
Targets. What are your total enterprise targets for the month? How can your content material assist these targets?
Any essential dates. Do you may have a brand new services or products launching, or an occasion? Plug these into your plan first, so you possibly can fill in supporting content material round them.
Social media holidays you wish to “have a good time”. Are there related social media holidays you wish to have a good time in your social platforms? This record has a great roundup of a majority of these holidays, or you possibly can at all times analysis these which are particular to your trade.

With this content material roadmap, you possibly can confidently go into the month realizing what content material must be created every week (extra on that later).

One of many greatest challenges in terms of social media content material is realizing what to submit. When creating content material for social media, you will need to share a wide range of sorts of content material. Your content material ought to educate, entertain, or promote.

Beneath are just a few examples of companies balancing content material that educates, entertains, and sells.

Bulletproof (@bulletproof)

Bulletproof balances leisure, training, and gross sales very effectively of their content material. They spotlight their merchandise, share recipes and reply FAQS, and create humorous, relatable GIFs.

Screenshot of Bulletproof‘s Instagram profile.

Shopify (@shopify)

Shopify shares inspiring private tales of their prospects, encourages dialog and engagement by asking questions, and sharing video content material with “how” and “why” motivating life hacks.

Screenshot of Shopify‘s Instagram profile.

Flodesk (@flodesk)

Flodsesk highlights new options, shares ideas and finest practices for electronic mail advertising and marketing, and encourages engagement from their viewers by asking “this or that” and “would you slightly?” questions.

Screenshot of Flodesk‘s Instagram profile.

One other benefit of planning your content material for the complete month is that you may higher distribute and plan the sorts of content material you may be sharing. Relatively than scrambling to provide you with one thing to submit and probably posting too many sales-focused posts or too many humorous memes, planning prematurely permits you to be extra intentional and strategic with what you submit. That ensures you might be hitting all of the marks constructing the know, like, and belief issue together with your viewers, serving them, and finally changing them.

Let’s say you wish to share 4 posts per week. To stability your content material varieties, you would share two instructional posts, one sales-focused submit, and one entertaining submit every week. As you propose your month of content material, you can begin to plug in your content material concepts in accordance with that cadence and move.

Bonus tip: This step of the method doesn’t have to be high-tech. Merely use a month-to-month calendar (you possibly can print one at Print-a-Calendar.com for those who don’t have one) and seize some sticky notes and a pen and begin jotting down your content material subjects. This course of permits you to transfer issues round as wanted to higher stability and distribute your content material. Alternatively, you possibly can plan in digital type on a Google calendar or in software program like Asana, Trello, or Cickup. Select the device that works finest for you so that you’re extra possible to make use of it.

When planning content material, you will need to do not forget that content material doesn’t should be overly sophisticated. Actually something might be content material whether it is priceless to your excellent viewers. Share your data, take your viewers behind the scenes, introduce your workforce, share buyer testimonials or critiques, reply ceaselessly requested questions. Know that you’ve perception that your viewers craves—they instructed you that after they selected to comply with you.

Streamline Content material Creation With Batchworking

Let’s circle again to batch working and easy methods to apply the tactic to content material planning.

What Is Batch working?

Batch working is a extremely centered, topic-specific type of working. When batch working, you divide your work into completely different hours/days and deal with just one factor at a time. Batch working might be utilized to all areas of your life and work, however right here we’ll deal with easy methods to put it to use for content material creation.

The thought is that by specializing in one activity at a time, you will get right into a move state which is when your productiveness and creativity actually flourish. The top result’s higher high quality content material in much less time. A win-win!

Step 1: Plan a Month of Content material

As outlined above, step one in planning and creating social media content material is to map out the complete month on content material.

Assuming you may have your month-to-month content material plan and roadmap able to go, every week you must comply with the steps under to streamline the content material creation piece of the puzzle.

Picture by @stilclassics.

Step 2: Create All Visible Content material

Together with your content material roadmap, resolve what visuals have to be created for the week. Write a listing of every part you want from inventory images, customized graphics, movies, Reels, cowl photos, and many others.

After getting the record, it’s time to begin creating. For customized branded graphics, you should utilize a device like Canva. Create (or buy) a library of templates you possibly can simply customise with completely different content material every week. This retains your branding constant and likewise saves you time versus beginning designs from scratch every week.

Picture by Canva.

Step 3: Write All Captions

Captions do not need to take a very long time to create. By batching captions and following a caption components, you possibly can rapidly write captions that convert your viewers. A great caption ought to embody:

Hook: Seize their consideration proper off the bat. Consider the primary 7-14 phrases of your caption like an electronic mail topic line. You need to encourage your viewers to click on “learn extra”.
Worth: Ship on what you promised in your hook and share content material that educates, entertains, or sells.
Name to Motion: Inform your viewers what you need them to do subsequent (i.e. share, like, remark, click on, purchase, join, tag, and many others.). Maintain your calls to motion easy and enjoyable to extend the probability that your viewers will comply with by.

Picture: Luke Southern through Unsplash

Step 4: Schedule Posts

Now that you’ve your visuals and captions, it’s time to schedule your posts in accordance with your content material calendar. Utilizing Buffer’s Publishing device, go to Settings and set your posting schedule.

Then navigate to your queue, drag and drop photos and duplicate/paste captions and click on “Schedule Put up” or “Add to Queue”. Relying on the kind of submit, your submit will both routinely publish on the scheduled time, or you’ll obtain a push notification on the scheduled time to submit your self.

Step 5: Add Hashtags (if posting to Instagram)

In case you are posting to Instagram, if you schedule your submit, you even have the choice so as to add as much as 30 hashtags to the primary remark of your submit. Buffer’s hashtag supervisor permits you to save hashtag teams proper within the platform. This makes it simple to decide on the precise hashtag group(s) so as to add to your submit. When used thoughtfully and strategically, hashtags are an effective way to increase the attain of your content material.

Take pleasure in The Advantages of Planning & Scheduling Your Content material in Advance

Think about not having to continually be questioning, “What ought to I submit?”. As you get into the behavior of planning and scheduling content material prematurely, you’ll begin to see your efforts repay. Not solely will your content material technique profit you, however additionally, you will save your self time and cut back stress round social media content material. As an alternative of “posting simply to submit”, adopting a content material batching routine permits you to create high-quality content material when you’re in your “content material zone” and schedule it in accordance with your social media technique.

While you plan content material prematurely, your content material can higher assist your total enterprise targets. When you have a services or products that you simply wish to promote, an occasion or an organization milestone, planning prematurely permits you to work backward to create strategic social media content material that helps these targets.

Lastly, by liberating up time and power within the content material creation course of, you enable your self to spend extra time in different areas of what you are promoting. That further time might be spent constructing connections and relationships together with your social media neighborhood, or in different areas of what you are promoting like gross sales, admin duties, networking or rising your workforce, and even on self-care. Take into consideration what you’d spend these further hours on every month, and use that as motivation for sticking together with your new content material course of.

Social media is a strong device for companies. By planning prematurely, you possibly can leverage social media strategically and thoughtfully.