Content creation can be time-consuming. In today’s episode we’re talking about some strategies you can use to save time planning and creating your social media content. You most likely don’t have enough time for social media— if you don’t have a plan. And also because you probably don’t know what to post. Listen now and get some ideas.
Links in this episode: How To Save Time Planning and Creating Social Media Content
Transcript
Welcome to the Get Digital Marketing Results podcast where we give you information and actionable tips to grow your organization.
Bob: Hi, I’m Bob Clark.
Donna: And I’m Donna Botti. We’re with Delos Inc and we make the web work for you. In today’s Tech News Tuesday episode we’re talking about some strategies you can use to save time planning and creating your social media content.
Bob: That’s right Donna. Content creation can be time-consuming. You have to think about what to post, create graphics, write captions, choose hashtags, post it, and engage with your audience in the comments—and then do it all over again. Overall, your goal is to grow your audience, increase your brand awareness, show your expertise, and improve engagement with your followers.
Donna: True to all that Bob and you’ve probably heard me say that you don’t have enough time for social media—if you don’t have a plan. Posting haphazardly to Facebook at midnight because that’s when you get around to it isn’t a great idea for most businesses. One of the biggest challenges our clients face when it comes to social media content is knowing what to post. So when you create content for social media, it’s important to share a variety of types of content. Your content should educate, entertain, and can promote, but not all the time.
Bob: You’re right. We like the 80/20 rule. 80% interesting, entertaining, informative, 20% promotion. Create an overall plan with a social mix -think about the types of repeating content you can create so you’ll know how much content you’ll need each week and month.
Think about the events, promotions, seasonal and holidays that are upcoming. Fill in topics from your blog posts and tips. Then put this information into your editorial calendar.
Donna: Publicizing events, getting the word out about your promotions, and telling your story can be difficult to fit into your daily schedule. It’s good to build repeatable processes and templates for creating your content as part of your everyday business. I like to separate out the planning and the execution of the content, the execution is also something you can delegate to someone else. Batching tasks together also saves time.
Bob: This works great for your visuals. Write a list of everything you need from stock photos, custom graphics, videos, cover images, etc. Once you have the list, it’s time to start creating. You can use a tool like Canva to create custom graphics. You want to build a library of templates you can easily customize with different content. This keeps your branding consistent and also saves you time as opposed to starting designs from scratch each week.
Donna: For your post content, start with a “hook,” that’s going to stop the scroll. Then deliver value on what you promised in your hook and share content that educates, entertains, or sells. Most importantly, tell your audience what you want them to do next, whether it’s to share, like, comment, click, buy, sign up, whatever, but keep your calls to action simple and fun to increase the likelihood that your audience will do that.
Bob: Once you have created content, use a scheduling tool like Facebook Creator Studio or Buffer to schedule your posts ahead of time. Your posts and key messages will go out automatically on the right days and times. Your email marketing and website should all have scheduling tools built-in as well, so that’s another time saver.
Donna: Creating a social media plan doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. Get into the marketing habit with repeatable processes and templates for creating your content, and remember, consistency gets traction. Having a plan in place helps that consistency happen.
Bob: That’s it for today’s episode. You can find a link to the Buffer.com article on this topic and a transcript of today’s podcast, at DelosInc.com/201.
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