When running our own businesses sometimes it’s the smallest tasks that bog us down. I know that social media is the main culprit that I spend too much time on, but did you know there are ways and tools out there that can ease that overwhelming sensation of drowning and help you plan in advance?
Imagine sitting down for a few hours and busting out a months worth of content? Watching that stress of “What do I post?” quickly dwindle away. No more “Wait until I finish this post” to your partner only to find you wasted an hour trying to come up with the perfect post and caption. Welcome to organization my friends. It’s pretty wonderful.
Steps to organize your feed and to keep your brain sane:
- Break out the Calendar: Time to make a game plan. Do you have a release coming up that you want to ramp up to? Or different products in your line that you want to showcase evenly? Slot them into certain weeks and days to get a mental image of what you want to convey to your audience over the next weeks or month. Maybe you got sidetracked and forgot to post about those awesome bags you make for the last couple weeks. Bring out the calendar and jot down what products you want to remind your customer about and on what days. Sometimes we forget that when our audience hasn’t seen something in a while – they may have forgotten about it, even though it’s fresh in our mind. Studies say that someone needs to see something 7 times before they purchase. Don’t let it go unnoticed! Pro tip: Make one day a week the same type of post Example: Wednesdays you pump your products, Thursdays your blog or email list, Saturdays a behind the scenes. Repeat that for all 4 weeks but with different photos.
- Batch your photos: Chances are that if you have a curated feed that it has a colour palette and vibe that goes along with it. To make that feed cohesive set aside an hour one weekend where the natural lighting is just right and dig out those Instagram props, materials and products you want to highlight in the upcoming weeks. Take a few photos of each item to make certain angles fit in your feed next to other posts. Pro tip: Use different angles of the same product for more than one of your posts in your months span.
- Prep your captions: Sit down and start writing out those captions, or at least a thought starter for each of them. Don’t forget that not every post needs to be a novel. Sometimes it can be short and sweet. This will be your biggest time saver, because we all know the message we want to send is what takes the longest!
- Now sit down and get it done. Set aside an afternoon and take a few hours to make a base for your feeds and get er’ done. I suggest getting an app that helps you organize your posts. I personally use UNUM, and it is a life saver. I can input my photos, see how they land in my feed, swap them around when I think they may look better next to another post, write my captions and set a reminder on when to post them. UNUM allows for you to prep 18 posts in advance, and I know there are similar apps out there. Don’t forget, you can use different angles of one product you already took in your photo batching – it just goes to count to that lucky number 7!
The key to making this work is consistency. Make sure you’re setting time for this planning session whether that’s weekly or monthly. Also don’t be scared to leave a few gaps here and there for spontaneous posts!
What is your way of keeping track of your social media? Do you use an app?
*I am in no way endorsed by UNUM. I just think it’s pretty effing awesome*
Chantal Miyagishima
@knitatude | @noshitbiztips | @yycgirlgang | @makerstrong
This post was originally published by Chantal Miyagishima of No Shit Biz Tips. You can read the original article HERE.