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Category: Content Creation
Using A Content Calendar: Tips for Planning Social Media
Updated June 2024
Using A Content Calendar Prevents These Types of Moments
Close your eyes and imagine.
It is Monday morning; you are already running late for a meeting. The barista at Starbucks can’t seem to spell Bob correctly. He certainly has no idea how to make your Triple Grande Iced Vanilla Latte with Skim Milk and Extra Whip. Today is going to be a long day.
After you finally get your coffee, you run out of the cafe like your pants are on fire.
You are halfway to your full-time job when your phone starts ringing, It’s Becky from Designing the Times, and your heart sinks into your stomach.
Suddenly you remember you had promised to feature her watches on your social media page. How is this launch party already happening this afternoon!
Answering the phone frantically, you promise Becky you would have the post completed. You will make sure it gets posted as soon as you get into the office.
When you arrive at the office, of course, you forget to post, and at lunch, you get a call from the lovely Becky, who is a bit less pleasant. It is almost 4 p.m. when you remember to post about the collaboration launch party, and you accidentally used the wrong creative that had the launch party happening in 2 weeks!
Becky needs to cancel at the last minute, and luckily she didn’t notice the wrong date on your late post. You both agree that Monday in two weeks is the best for the new time.
Hyperbole Much?
The above example is hyperbole. However, we have all had those moments when we forget to post something on our social media because it wasn’t on the top of our minds. Or that bad week where you miss posting on Instagram 3 days in a row. Certainly, not mistakes that will mean the eventual and fiery demise of your business. But flubs like these are preventable when you utilize a content calendar and the three levels of planning listed below. Added benefits of using this method are continuity in posting, ability to ensure varied content, and what I refer to as having a flexible structure to create your posts within.
Levels of Content Calendar Planning
When I talk to clients about content calendar planning, I break it down into three levels:
- Yearly Level Planning: Focus on holidays and annual events.
- Monthly Level Planning: Cover mid-level promotions and story arcs.
- Weekly Level Planning: Detail the specifics of individual posts.
At the start of the year, dedicate an hour to yearly planning. Each month, spend another hour planning your monthly content. Then, set aside about an hour each week (perhaps on Sundays) to create your weekly content. I recommend leaving roughly 20% of your posts loosely scheduled to accommodate timely content and user-generated content.
Using Your Content Calendar to Plan Your Yearly Content
During your yearly planning, identify key holidays and promotion periods for your business. Determine if sales and events will align with the same fiscal weeks as the previous year. This planning ensures you don’t miss any important holidays or events and that your social media plans align with your business goals. Break down your business goals on the yearly calendar to help track your progress.
Overview of Your Year
To begin planning your year:
- Add Major Holidays: Start by marking significant holidays on your calendar.
- Review Past Marketing Efforts: Decide which promotions, sales, giveaways, and events will recur in the upcoming year.
- Plan Major Events: Add all major events to your content calendar.
- Repeat Successful Campaigns: If you had successful social media campaigns, plan to repeat them and add them to your calendar.
- Note Non-Recurring Events: For example, if you celebrated your business’s 10th anniversary in March 2024 with various events, you won’t be repeating this in 2025. Plan how to fill this gap with new promotions and sales.
The Importance of Yearly Content Calendar Planning
Yearly planning is crucial for both social media and overall business strategy. It provides a clear view of major events and promotions for the year, helping you align social media activities with business goals. For example, if your goal is to have one major promotion supported by in-store marketing and social media each month, you can identify any gaps in your promotion schedule. This allows you to plan evenly distributed promotions throughout the year, avoiding last-minute scrambles to fill gaps.
Pro-Tip: Add your business goals and objectives to this calendar to ensure your content planning helps you achieve these goals.
Monthly Content Calendar Planning
The next step is your monthly content planning. At this level, you’ll define themes, story arcs, and details for the monthly promotions you scheduled during your yearly planning. Use the same calendar from your yearly planning to add this monthly information.
Month-to-Month Plans
In this stage, you’ll flesh out your month-to-month plans. Start by identifying the major events and promotions for the month, and plan your posts around these first. These yearly events provide structure for each month.
Once you’ve scheduled posts for these significant events, outline your themes and story arcs for the month. For example, in February, you might choose “love” as the theme, with story arcs like #foreverlove and #bestfriends. These arcs support the monthly theme and contribute to your promotions, with the specifics of each post to be defined in your weekly planning.
Weekly Level Content Calendar Planning
After completing your yearly and monthly content calendar planning, it’s time to move on to weekly-level planning. At this stage, you’ll create the actual content for your posts, ensuring that each post contributes to an engaging story. This part of the planning process is detail-oriented. If multiple people are involved, make sure to allocate sufficient time to avoid scrambling to create, approve, or post content.
The Details and Post Creation
During weekly planning, focus on the details and specifics of your posts. Utilize the holidays, promotions, themes, and story arcs defined in the previous planning stages. This is where you bring your storytelling to life, creating posts that align with your brand story and themes.
Consider the following as you create and plan your content:
- Storytelling: Ensure your posts tell a coherent story that ties back to your brand.
- Value: Provide educational, entertaining, and inspirational content, with just enough promotional posts.
- Variety: Maintain a balance in your content types to keep your audience engaged.
Fill in some of the open 20% of posts during this stage, leaving room for spontaneous content. If you plan to post six days a week, make sure you have content ready for all six days. Once this planning level is complete, you can load your content into your scheduling and posting tool.
Things to Review Before Posting Content
Before scheduling your content, review the following:
- Consistency: Ensure each post contributes to the story it supports and is brand-appropriate.
- Visual Appeal: Check how your posts look together, especially on platforms like Instagram. Use tools like Later’s Instagram Grid Preview to ensure a cohesive grid.
- Story Arcs: Verify that your story arcs have a beginning, middle, and end.
- Details: Make sure holiday-specific or promotional posts include all necessary details.
- Brand Story: Confirm that your posts support your overall brand story.
The Planning is Complete
With your planning complete, you are ready to tell compelling stories, provide valuable content, and promote your brand on social media. These planning steps ensure your social media efforts are focused and goal-oriented, moving away from random acts of posting to a strategic approach. Your story will be clearer, and even with potentially fewer promotional posts, they will be more impactful. This planning, combined with the “9 Essential Posts for Businesses on Social Media,” will help you maximize the effectiveness of your social media campaigns.
Content Creation Strategies for Success on Social
Updated June 2024
Content Creation Strategies for A Successful Social Media Existence
Documentation Instead of Creation
Gary Vaynerchuk often gets credit for this approach, as he bases his social media strategy on documenting his life instead of creating content. He frequently records his day-to-day business activities and shares them as content. Gary discusses this content creation strategy on his blog. He isn’t spending time specifically creating content; instead, he’s going about his daily activities, and the content essentially creates itself. While you may not think your life and job are entertaining, everyone loves a behind-the-scenes look.
Why it works:
- Authenticity: It provides a genuine glimpse into your daily life.
- Huge time saver: You create great content for stories and informal posts without extra effort.
- Increased frequency: This approach allows you to show up more frequently on social media.
Challenges:
- Consistency: Remembering to set up a recording device or take photos can be tricky.
- Engagement: Not everyone has as exciting a life as Gary Vaynerchuk, but authenticity still resonates with audiences.
Live Video Content
Overcoming the fear of doing live videos was one of my biggest challenges. If I hadn’t virtually met Eve Voyevoda a few years ago at an event organized by Melanie Richards, I might still be intimidated by this medium. However, once you conquer that hurdle, the value of live video is incredible. Live video is one of the best ways to present yourself authentically on social media, showcasing your unique quirks and laid-back vibe, which encourages others to connect with you. By creating content that highlights your personality and adds value to your audience, you can also save time!
Why it works:
- Connection: It’s one of the best ways to create a genuine connection with your audience.
- Engagement: Enables live interaction.
- Efficiency: Saves time.
Challenges:
- Overcoming Fear: Getting comfortable with live video.
- Content Creation: Developing content that has both value and personality.
The Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose Content Creation Strategy
You already have great content that holds significant value and has been posted in some form before. Here’s how to maximize its potential:
REDUCE: Break down long-form content into multiple short-form pieces.
REUSE: Share content across different platforms by staggering the publication times.
RECYCLE: Repeat your key messages and posts since people need to hear them multiple times to remember.
REPURPOSE: Transform top-performing posts into new content formats for different platforms.
You can also work in the opposite direction. For example, I create weekly content for my BNI group presentations, which I then use as stand-alone social media posts. This weekly content builds up to a more comprehensive presentation I give approximately every ten weeks. This presentation also forms the basis of a blog post.
Often, I turn these presentations into monthly webinars, focusing on a critical aspect of the content. This tactic allows me to create focused social media posts around the webinar’s key elements. Additionally, I can create videos from the most engaging social media posts and blog entries. The possibilities are endless with this strategy.
Why it works:
- Efficiency: You’ve already done the research and created the content.
- Expertise: You know the subject well.
Challenges:
- Variety: Ensuring you aren’t overly repetitive.
- Creativity: Finding new and innovative ways to repurpose content.
Planning Versatile Content that Presents Next Steps
One successful but challenging content creation strategy involves testing content on your calendar with the potential to build more if it proves successful. Here’s how I make it work: During a particular week, I select three different topics that I believe my audience might want a deeper look at and create a single social media post for each. Based on the reactions to those posts, I can gauge interest in a specific topic. If there is enough interest, I create additional content on that topic, measure its success, and, if warranted, dive even deeper. This strategy led to a post on social proof evolving into a blog post, which eventually became my first webinar.
Why it works:
- Incremental Creation: You create content incrementally, measuring the success of each topic.
- Engagement: You focus on topics that have already shown potential to engage your audience.
Challenges:
- Depth: Sometimes a deeper dive is needed.
- Metrics: Paying close attention to metrics and creating content quickly to keep your audience engaged.
The Take 3 Strategy for Short-Form Video
This content strategy helps you avoid spending excessive time creating short-form videos. It’s easy to get lost in the pursuit of perfection, which is ultimately unattainable. Without setting limits, you could spend hours creating an 8-second video. To prevent this, I developed the Take 3 strategy, which allows you to record up to 3 takes for each of the 3 sections of your video, significantly reducing content creation time. We achieve this by incorporating a research and planning phase into our short-form video creation process, setting us up for efficient recording. I cover this in detail in my Signature Membership, which you can learn more about here.
Why it works:
- Efficiency: Prevents endless takes and saves time.
- Acceptance: Encourages posting imperfect videos.
Challenges:
- Discipline: Sticking to only three takes can be tough.
- Quality Concerns: Ensuring the video still represents your brand well.
Collaborative Content Creation
Many social media platforms, especially Instagram, are making collaboration easier, and it’s something we should incorporate into our strategies. There are several ways to collaborate:
- Guest Posts: Feature content from industry experts or influencers on your profile and reciprocate by guest posting on theirs.
- Interviews: Conduct and share interviews with thought leaders or key figures in your industry, this can be done live and even multicast to multiple platforms.
- Partnered Posts: Create a post together that is shared on both profiles, discussing a topic relevant to both audiences.
Collaborative posts are beneficial because they help you reach a new audience.
Why it works:
- Efficiency: Splitting the workload.
- Exposure: Getting in front of a new audience.
Challenges:
- Coordination: Aligning timelines and aesthetics.
- Effort: May require additional work.
Content is the Key to Success on Social
If content is the key to success on social media, then these strategies are your roadmap to mastering it. Experiment with them all, mix and match to see what resonates best with your style, story, and audience. If you want to learn more about these content creation strategies or how to build a plan that leads to social media success, reach out to Jonathan directly. You can also join us in the Signature Membership.
Time Saver 2: 30 Days of Content From One Photoshoot
Content Creation Time Saver 2: Creating a Ton of Content in One Day
We previously discussed how to break down your blog to create weeks of content. For this Time Saver we are focusing on our next content creation time saver: How to Get 30 Days or More of Content from a Single Photoshoot. I perfected this tactic while working in DC with Career Coach Lea Berry and have been using it ever since—a major win! You can see some of the results from her photoshoots here.
For many businesses, hiring a photographer is a worthwhile expense, especially for those creating content for social media. To make the most of this investment, plan to get as much content as possible from the photoshoot. Our second content creation time saver will help you plan your photoshoot and maximize the number of usable shots. While each of us creates content differently and has unique needs, the following ideas can be applied universally.
Steps to Maximize Your Photoshoot
- Review Your Schedule of Posts
- Research
- Plan
- Schedule Time
- Execute
- Hustle
- Expect the Unexpected and Roll With It
Review Your Schedule of Posts
Start by reviewing your content calendar. Identify the promotions, blog posts, and campaigns you have planned for the upcoming month. Visualize the photos you need for these campaigns and begin researching ways to capture those shots. Pinterest can be an excellent resource for inspiration. Although I’m not a frequent user, I keep inspiration boards for different types of photoshoots. Printing out the shots you like and using them on your storyboard can help as you dive deeper into planning the photoshoot.
After Reviewing Scheduled Posts
Identify any gaps in your schedule and plan how to fill them. I usually recommend planning and scheduling 70% of your content in advance, leaving 25-30% for flexibility, current topics, event photos, etc. Scheduling 70% in advance while allowing for flex space lets you remain timely without scrambling to post daily. However, some months you may only need 10-15% of flex content, so always plan additional posts just in case. Treat them as your B-roll—your security blanket for when all else fails.
Research Concepts, Locations, and Shots
Now that you have identified the campaigns and posts you need photos for, it’s time to research concepts, locations, and shots. Scour Pinterest for ideas and inspirational images that align with your brand. Once you have gathered these inspirational images, start looking for suitable locations. I maintain a list of potential sites and use Google Maps to pin places that might work for future shoots. My Google Map, titled “Potential Photoshoots,” helps me keep a running list of locations and quickly decide how to group sites for a cohesive and productive shoot.
Not Too Crazy, Not Too Bland
When planning your concepts and locations, strike a balance. Avoid overly complicated setups that are hard to complete in the time available, but be creative enough to keep your content fresh throughout the month. Vary your outfits to add visual interest to the shots. Remind your photographer of the purpose of the images, ensuring they know all the photos are for the same month. This way, they might suggest additional shots or remind you to switch things up during the shoot.
Finalize Your Plan
For those who feature themselves in their Instagram feeds or are lifestyle bloggers, these next steps might differ slightly. Since I am not in most of my shots, I select three general locations and review must-have and secondary shots within those areas. Here’s an example from my last content creation day in New York City:
- Hudson Yards
- Must-Have Shots: The surrounding neighborhood and The Vessel
- Secondary Shots: The Shed and Hudson Yards Buildings
- DUMBO, Brooklyn
- Must-Have Shots: The iconic shot under the overpass and surrounding neighborhood
- Secondary Shots: Architectural details and bikes
- Brooklyn Bridge Park During Golden Hour
- Must-Have Shots: The sunset with views towards NYC
- Secondary Shots: Weather-dependent
Once the plan is finalized, work on scheduling and execution. Consult your train schedule and plan your route using Google Maps. For my NYC shoot, I knew I needed to Uber from Hudson Yards to Brooklyn to have enough time to explore and capture all the desired shots.
The Execution
You have your shots and locations picked out, and the theme of each shot is clear. Your photographer has the inspiration images. For my last trip to NYC, I stapled a bunch of my inspiration shots, directions, and must-see areas together and put them in my bag for reference. I recommend doing the same and providing a copy to your photographer in advance. Now, it’s time for the execution!
The Clothing for Your Photoshoot
Wait, even I need to plan what I’m going to wear for each shot. If you are in most of your photos, this is even more important. I recommend three main looks that can be quickly changed up with layers and accessories. For example, start with a skirt, top, blazer, and chunky necklace. After several photos, remove the blazer, then later change the necklace and add earrings. Go for easy but dramatic changes. Scarves are another favorite accessory for this reason.
Another consideration is non-generic stock photos. I had a client who did daily prompts and we always struggled to find the right free stock photos. During her photoshoots, she would bring different supplies and while she changed at each location, I would take stock photos for her to use. It made posting those prompts simpler. So, think about your needs and prepare for them.
Now, It Is Time to Hustle
You’ve completed the planning and arrived at your first location. Your photographer is ready, and you’ve reviewed the plan. Now it’s time to hustle. You’ve packed your day (or hours) with your photographer and need to create your content for the month. Stay focused, stick to the schedule, and get the shots! When you arrive at each location, gather everything you need for the shots and change into your planned outfit.
First, get the essential shots at each location—these are the shots you cannot do without. If you stay on schedule, then proceed to take the secondary shots. This strategy ensures you cover your 2-3 locations and get the necessary images. If you’re running behind, skip the secondary shots and move to the next location. Drink water, stay focused, wear comfy shoes between locations, and don’t rush. Rinse. Repeat!
Flexibility Is Key
Planning and sticking to the plan is crucial, but flexibility and adaptability are equally important. You never know what opportunities might arise. During my last trip to NYC, my schedule included three locations. However, while walking past the Empire State Building, a kind gentleman handed me a free ticket because he couldn’t use it. After verifying it was real, I decided to take the opportunity. This meant arriving at Hudson Yards a bit later, but it was worth it. By the end of the day, I had gathered enough content for the month, even though I forgot my backup battery for the camera. I was okay with skipping the sunset at the Brooklyn Bridge.
And Done
By the end of a day like this, you’ll be tired, no doubt. It’s hard work, but you’ve made the most out of your day and will have some outstanding images to show for it. The best part is you only need to do this once a month to get the images you need. The more you do it, the more photos you’ll have for social media. Good social media images and videos are key to better engagement, so this strategy will pay off and make your social media life much easier!
Establishing Yourself As An Expert On Social Media
Updated May 2024
Establishing Your Expertise with EDUTAINING Content
One of the key strategies for businesses on social media is to provide EDUTAINING—Educational, Useful, or Entertaining content. This type of content engages your audience and helps establish you and your business as an expert in your field. But why is it so important to position yourself as an expert on social media?
Why Establish Your Expertise
People trust experts because they believe experts know what they’re doing. Building this trust is crucial for growing your audience on social media. Providing content that adds value and engages your audience is the best way to create momentum and grow your business. Here are some ways to start establishing your expertise:
- Offer Useful Tools: Share tools and resources that your audience will find beneficial.
- Answer Questions: Engage with your audience by answering their questions.
- Provide Solutions:Solutions to common problems your audience faces.
These actions help position you as a valuable resource.
The Importance of Providing Value
Providing value is a significant step in becoming an expert—someone your audience likes, knows, and trusts. When seen as an expert, your audience will turn to you first for information on a subject. Focusing on delivering valuable content and answering questions, rather than just promoting your business, helps your audience view you as a resource, not just a salesperson.
Tailoring Your Content
Every business is different, and your niche will help you determine what types of content will be most beneficial to your followers. To better understand what your audience values, consider surveying your clients. Ask them directly what content they want to see from you.
By consistently providing EDUTAINNG content, you engage your audience and establish your credibility and expertise, making your business the go-to resource in your field.
Examples of Expert Content
As the Regional Social Media Coordinator for BNI Hudson Valley, I develop the monthly content calendar for the organization. This calendar provides each chapter with specific types of posts to focus on and includes important themes for the month. With the holiday season approaching, we’re enlisting the help of member businesses to establish themselves as experts by providing valuable content and answering questions within their areas of expertise.
To illustrate how we can all engage with our audience, I assigned each member of my BNI Chapter a specific topic. They were tasked with creating content on that topic from November 1 to New Year’s. By doing this, BNI highlights the talent within each chapter and positions itself as a valuable resource for its audience.
How This Applies to You
You might not be a BNI member, and your business might not be included in the examples, but this approach is still valuable to you. Use this as inspiration to brainstorm types of content your business can provide to its audience. Consider your services, values, and seasonal focus. Look at what people are searching for in your niche. What questions are your clients or customers asking? Create content that answers those questions and showcases your expertise.
Establishing Yourself as an Expert: Content Examples
Below are examples of content types based on the expertise of BNI members. These examples focus on the holiday season, but businesses can tailor their content to their specific focus at other times of the year. For instance, during the holidays, an accountant might write a blog post titled, “5 Things to Avoid Spending Money on This Holiday,” whereas, at other times, they might focus on “What You Need to Know About the Looming S-Corp Deadline.” It’s perfectly fine to adjust your style to reach a broader audience with educational posts, especially during certain seasons.
- Health and Wellness Coach, Healthy Eating Options this Thanksgiving.
- Computer Services, Avoid Falling Victim to Black Friday Scams.
- Business Financial Services, Holiday/ End of Year Benefits for Employees.
- Individual Financial Services, How to Not Go Broke This Holiday.
- Social Media/Graphic Design, 5 Tips to Sleigh Your Social Media Campaigns This Holiday.
- Cleaning and Restoration, Plan for A Cozy Holiday Instead of A Wet and Soggy One.
- Insurance, Snow Birds and Their Insurance Policies.
- Computer & Website Development, How to Update Your Google My Business Page for the Holidays.
- Real Estate, How Closing on Your New Home in December Can Help Keep The Inlaws Away.
- Booze Expert, Best Holiday Booze.
- Financial Services, Financial Health Check-Up for the New Year
Key for Success
You are not directly promoting your business or service when establishing yourself as an expert. You are providing your audience with useful information that is “company agnostic.” Providing this valuable information to your audience is an excellent way for them to get to know you and your area of expertise. It helps build relationships and allows you to earn their trust. Pushing your product or service takes away these benefits.
Tips for Launching A Podcast in 2020
Ready to Launch Your Podcast in 2020?
Are you not convinced video is the only way to engage followers on social media? Are you seeking alternative ways to increase engagement and position yourself as a resource for your audience? It sounds like you might be looking to launch a podcast in 2020! Podcasting is a great way to create content and build an audience, and we are providing you tips for starting your podcast right here in this post! Why? Because podcasting allows you to make personal connections and become an authority within your niche.
Additionally, podcasts are easy for your audience to digest on their own time with no screen necessary. If you have been a content creator, remember most of that content is easy to convert into podcast episodes. So, are you ready to launch?
Podcasting Here I Come!
So, you think podcasting is the way for you to go? We figured we should give you some tips and tools. So we did some research and compiled what we found into this blog post below. And after that, we looked at this blog post and found it to be useful but a bit boring. So we reached out to the hilarious Catherine Feeney, who just launched her podcast, and of course, her corresponding blog the Fashun Chronicles and asked if she would want to discuss her podcasting journey with us. When she agreed, we knew this blog post would be much more entertaining.
Tips for Launching A Podcast
As we share our tips for launching a podcast, we will go over some of the research we found on the topic. Additionally, we will add our comments and additional suggestions for launching a podcast throughout the post. There are 5 primary stages to launching your own podcast.
- Planning the Concept- defining the objective, determining the audience, why the audience should listen and naming the podcast
- Planning the Structure and Episodes- what is the format, how many episodes, are you creating in seasons, how long is an episode, etc
- Recording & Editing Your Podcast- script or no script, necessary equipment, software needs, music resources
- Publishing Your Podcast- Episode 1 Season 1 is in the bag!
We will walk you through each of these steps and hopefully help you understand what you should be doing during each one, and before you know it, you will be starring in a Number 1 Rated Podcast with gobs of listeners!
Tips for Launching Your Podcast: Concept
As you prepare to start your podcast for 2020, you need to begin planning the specifics of the podcast you will be producing. While others may not agree, I view this as the most critical step, as you are building a solid foundation for your future work. I also equate this step to the process of building your brand. During this crucial timeframe, you will be defining your “why” for your podcast. In this step, you will decide on your main podcast topic set the goals of your podcast, determine who your audience is, and examine why your audience would listen to your podcast.
In many cases, you are utilizing your podcast as an extension of your business. Many will be using it as a way to provide an existing business audience with value via the podcast. If this is the case, you may have an audience and objective in mind that supports the niche of your business. Be sure that your business niche translates to your podcast. In some cases, it may be necessary to narrow your niche down further for your podcast to attract the right listeners or expand up to have enough content to discuss on your podcast.
Defining to Target
Defining what you want to accomplish with your podcast, determining your podcast audience, and knowing how to connect with your target audience as important parts of the planning stage. Develop a listener persona to highlight the characteristics of a person that would listen to your podcast. Think about how you would engage this listener persona as you build out the concept for your podcast. Make sure that you are giving them a compelling reason to listen to your podcast. What value are they hoping to recieve? Are you delivering them the value they are hoping for?
What’s In A Name?
I was thinking of naming my podcast, “My Podcast!,” Then realized that didn’t provide any information about what I would be talking about. It also didn’t tell the audience why they should listen. It also failed to highlight the niche that I had chosen to discuss on my podcast. So, I scrapped that name, and I am looking at some of the basics for naming a podcast.
- People need to be able to find your content! If you opt for a creative name consider including a subtitle with an accurate description of the material and value you provide
- Don’t be too descriptive, if I called my podcast The Social Media, Branding, Brand Story and Storytelling for Small Businesses Podcast I would spend half of my podcast trying to get the entire title out of my mouth. Strike a balance between creative and descriptive.
- Those who know podcasting also recommend not naming your podcast after yourself, which ruined my dream of being known as Just Jonathan from the Jonathan Show. You know, like Ellen, Oprah, Cher, Prince, Madonna. They have a built-in audience and name recognition, and I do not!
Tips from Catherine: Content & Positioning
Before Launching Fashun Chronicles
Before launching her Fashun Chronicles podcast, Catherine Feeney says she put pen to paper to make sure that her topic was one she could discuss at length. In her blogging journey, she had dabbled in other areas but always returned to fashion. Fashion is one of the passions that she can talk about for “literally days.” She also spent some time thinking about what purpose she would be serving. Since she enjoys helping others and hopes it does not come off as bossy, she began to develop the Hotline concept for the podcast. She would be able to help others with real FAShun emergencies! Memories of listening to the Delilah radio show may have subconsciously inspired this hotline concept. (Long-time listener, First-time caller)!
Where You Fit In
Catherine first decided to leap into podcasting after her friends mentioned it this past year over drinks at New York Fashion Week. Her blog didn’t quite seem to fit her anymore. Maybe talking about fashion, and not writing about it in her blog would feel better. Despite the unknowns of podcasting, she felt re-energized when she thought about a podcast full of fashion. So over drinks at NYFW, a podcast was born. Incidentally, she also wanted the podcast to have a casual feel, much like if she were talking to friends over drinks in a bar at NYFW! We certainly think she hit the nail on the head when it comes to authenticity!
Catherine also noted that not everyone relates to everything, so while there are a lot of fashion bloggers and podcasters out there, she can bring her unique personality to the game. She likes to focus on storytelling (a woman after my own heart) and wants to remain true to herself throughout this journey. Getting people to jump on the journey with her if they wish to is vital to her. Catherine also wants followers to see all the parts of the adventure from start to finish.
“Always be true to yourself on your journey and do what feels right to you.”
Tips for Launching Your Podcast: Content
You have laid the groundwork for your podcast. You have a solid foundation, so it is time to start working on actually planning the content of your podcast. As well as begin looking at the structure that you would like to utilize for your podcast. A lot of podcasters tend to focus on the length of the podcast. Many experts say the right length is 28 minutes but no longer than an hour. However, I support what the team at The Podcast Host said, “only two things should impact the length of your podcast,
- Your content
- Your audience
If you have 50 minutes of valuable, relevant content, why chop it down to 20? Or likewise, if you’ve said everything you have to say in 10 minutes, why pad it out to 30? In extreme cases, say you do an interview, and it’s a fantastic conversation from start to finish but runs for 2 hours. You can always chop it in half and create two episodes.
More Than Just Timing
There is much more than just the length involved in the content of your podcast planning portion of your podcast launch. You also need to decide on the format of the podcast. Will you have a cohost? Are you doing the show by yourself? The format of the show will play a significant role in what the final product will look like, and each form has its benefits and challenges. In the solo show, you have complete control, you build authority quicker, but it is also harder to feel comfortable as many people will feel like they are talking to themselves. In a show with a co-host, it is generally easier to get started, and if you have great chemistry, it could be fantastic. But what happens when you hit it big, or your co-host stops showing up. Is there more benefit in going it alone for you, or is the co-host key.
Multiple Variations
When it comes to the format of the content, there are many different variations of the themes. However, I am partial to dividing a podcast into segments. The segments would allow you to create mini podcasts within the larger podcast that address specific aspects within the themes that you have decided to cover as part of your podcast. Here is an example of how this could work.
- Episode 1: Teaser, Opening of Podcast, Welcome, Content Teaser, Break, Theme 1 Discussion, Break, Theme 1 Discussion Continued, Break, Theme 2 Interview, Closing, Call to Action, and Outro
- Then for E2: Teaser, Opening of Podcast, Welcome, Content Teaser, Break, Theme 2 Discussion, Break, Theme 2 Discussion Continued, Break, Theme 3 Q&A, Closing, Call to Action, and Outro
- Finally, E3: Teaser, Opening of Podcast, Welcome, Content Teaser, Break, Theme 3 Interview, Break, Theme 3 Interview Continued, Break, Theme 1 Discussion, Closing, Call to Action, and Outro
This segment format allows you to touch on each of your three significant themes two times in the first three episodes. You also created one short mini-podcast and one longer (2 segments) mini-podcast that you can use elsewhere in your content creation strategy. Using this format and approach for your podcast is similar to the Breaking Down Your Blog Content Creation hack we discussed in this blog post!
Episodes and Seasons
As you review the themes and structure of your podcast, you may also want to consider your episode release schedule. Will you be releasing a new podcast every month, every week, two per week? How many episodes make up your season of podcasts? Will the overarching theme change with each season?
Planning for this will allow you to have a better idea of how many segments you will need. Plan for how many guests you may need to set up interviews to fill those slots. Plus, it is a great way to estimate the amount of content you will need to create. Before you finalize the schedule and promise your listeners something, review your schedule, and ensures it is doable. Remember, it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than over-promise and under-deliver.
On The Air: The Launch Part of Launching Your Podcast!
You have completed the planning. The part you have been waiting for is finally here. It is time to record your first podcast for thousands of listeners. Or just your mom, but she is one fan that matters! But wait, what is it that you need to record the podcast? So lets first review the equipment required and then discuss the logistics of the actual recording, including some tips for connecting to your audience.
Your Equipment Needs and Wants
I am not an expert on this topic, so I am relying on what the professionals at thepodcasthost.com and others are saying. However, all you must have to start your podcast is a computer that has a mic and can get on the internet. The rest is a bonus. To improve the overall sound of your podcast, the folks at thepodcasthost.com recommend purchasing a simple podcasting mic like the Samson Q2U mic. I linked to the podcaster kit, which includes a stand and wind guard for $44.00/tax. If you are going to be conducting interviews on your podcast, you may want to look into purchasing a couple of lav mics for those you are interviewing. The folks at thepodcasthost.com recommend the Rode Smartlav+ lav microphone, which sells at Amazon for $55.00. Keep it simple, and keep in inexpensive when you start.
More Stuff
If you are looking for more information on recording equipment, I am attaching a few excellent guides from thepodcasthost.com.
Recording and Editing Software Needs
If you are going to launch your podcast in 2020, you are going to need to have some software to help you record and edit your podcast. Two of the most popular podcast recording and editing tools are Audacity and Adobe Audition. Audacity is free software, and Audition is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, so it is a paid service. Both allow you to create a template for your podcasts. These templates make it easy to create slots for things like the introduction, slots for advertisement, the closing, etc. along with the music and all the settings that go with it saved for all of your podcasting episodes. There is also the ability to edit the audio track, music, and all the components of the podcast so that they have clean, crisp sound. Sound editing etc. is a very technical function that I am not even going to try to explain. If you want to know how to edit audio and what settings will work, you can check out resources on thepodcasthost.com or podcastinsights.com or even check out this tutorial on Adobe for your essential podcast editing tips.
The Actual Show
You have a plan. You have a mic. The recording and editing software is ready to be fired up. You have a guest for the inaugural interview. So, you sit down, power up the microphone, and immediately after the intro, you draw a blank. You are frozen for more than a few seconds because you have no idea what to say! Don’t worry. This is part of the process. The amount of scripting for a podcast varies for each person. However, every source I have seen recommends that each host scripts some content and creates some notes for them to utilize during their podcast.
Scripting keeps you on track and minimize the editing and cutting up of the content by creating a bullet point based script that highlights key points and topics. Do not write out an entire script as that will not translate to a good podcast. A good podcast is more conversational. Utilize your segmented show concept along with your template for your podcast to provide the direction needed for the script.
Connecting with Your Audience
It is essential to know who you are talking to, as we said before, in defining your target section. You need to set your audience. Because without knowing your audience, you will not be able to connect to your audience. When you are recording your podcast, you are talking directly to your audience.
You should know who they are, where they are listening to you, what they are doing, what they are wearing, and what lipstick they have on! Seriously, who is your avatar? Many people find it easier to envision that one person and give them a name. Using the specific characteristics, you can talk directly to them as if they are real people because they are real people.Tips
From Catherine: The Technical Stuff
The Content
Catherine believes that focusing on putting out high-quality content is the most important goal. She isn’t focusing on the numbers. Instead, her focus is on putting out content and engaging her real followers with her podcast. She would rather have four real followers than 400 fake ones. Focus on your brand and engaging your followers. She doesn’t want to waste time on the fake stuff. “I want to focus on the things I love, like the fashion, and the stories behind an outfit,: she say passionatly. Catherine clearly loves her content and her podcast. She feels like her podcast plays to her strengths better than her blog did. Additionally, she is noticing her Instagram posts and stories are also getting better engagement now that she has the podcast.
She does not script her content for Fashun Chronicles because she wants it to be more casual. However, Catherine does utilize bullet points to keep herself on track. She usually writes down her show notes the day before or the morning of recording her podcast and utilizes them as an outline for the show. The host openly admits to going off on tangents ar times, but she uses the notes and the bullet points to reign herself back in.
As a final note regarding content she reminds people that they should enjoy doing their podcast. If it feels like work then maybe they should find another outlet.
How Long?
Catherine and the experts agree the length doesn’t matter. You will find your audience that has a need or want for your podcast at whatever length as long as you are serving up some fun and exciting content. She believes there is an audience for podcasts from 10 minutes to an hour. She found that her sweet spot is around the 20-25 minute range as a solo podcaster talking about fashion in the day to day sense. With two podcasts a week, and it is what feels comfortable, so she suggests figuring out what feels right to you.
For the Tech for Your Podcast, Google Has Your Back
The host of Fashun Chronicles openly admits she doesn’t know how to reboot her phone, so the technical aspects of Podcasting were where she focused most of her research. Catherine was amazed at how many resources were available online, and she admits to still utilizing Google to figure out how to do certain things.
She eventually found some articles that resonated with her and helped her find her way, from what mic hse needed to what hosting platform was best for her (she finds Libsyn very easy to use but difficult to pronounce)! She even learned to use Audacity by herself online, and if she has issues with it now, she asks the Google machine, and it helps her through the process.
Tips for Launching Your Podcast: Cover Art
Up to this point I have pretty much told you to not spend an extra dime. After all, you could spend a fortune getting someone to produce, edit and promote your podcast for you. Another small fortune paying for the rights to the best music. Plus calculate your hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours you work on the podcast. Yup, this sh!t can get expensive! You don’t even have an audience yet, so be saavy on what you spend money on! However, i do recommend investing in your cover art. Get a great photographer or designer (depending on the look you are going for) and invest here. The perfect cover art will reveal a little bit about the host, explain what the podcast is about, and intrigue people enough to get them to want to listen.
Additionally, the cover art will be with you for at least a season, so it needs to inform, entice, and convert for multiple episodes and it has to do this in places like iTunes where you are competing with images from top artists, podcasters and more. So spend a little money here and make it work for you. Utilize the images you create in promotions, on social media, in your press releases, to book guests, wherever you can.
Editing Your Podcast
No matter how perfect you are scripting, how amazing your guests are, and how much you nailed it, you will still have some editing to do. Editing is a technical aspect of the podcast. I would not be the right resource to advise you on how to edit a podcast. I can say that both the software solutions I mentrioned for recording also allow you do do the type of editing that you will need to put your podcast together. If you need more assistance with this, I recommend looking into tutorials on how to use the software you chose on youtube.com or via some of the podcasting resources available. The other option is to pay to have somebody edit your podcast for you, but as a beginner, unless this is a well-established business, I would not recommend that route.
Music for Your Podcast
You can’t just select any song to use 15 seconds of as your intro music, as much as you want to that is going to be expensive, as you would need to pay the artist! There are sites available where you can buy licenses to utilize certain music and others that have vast libraries of music that you can utilize once you pay your monthly membership. There are a few things you should look for regarding music.
- you are looking for music with creative common licenses
- I recommend using well know and established resources
- be aware of the type of license you purchase.
Publishing Your Podcast and Putting it Out There
You have just about done it, you have almost launched your podcast. Now, you need to put it out there for people to discover, listen to, and fall in love with! Yes, even if it is just your mom to start! So, let’s get that podcast out to the people! First, you will need a podcast or a media host. Then you will either add your podcasts to your website (or create a website) and then finally submit your podcast to directories.
Podcast or Media Host
You have dozens of podcast hosts to choose from, which is incredible and daunting at the same time! Luckily, there are tons of lists out there about some of the best podcast hosting sites. Recently, Jon Street of Resonaterecordings.com listed the top five podcast hosting sites with lots of useful details on each. You can check out that article here! The top 5 he reviewed thoroughly are:
In my research and discussions with people, both Buzzsprout and Libsyn have come up as the leaders. Buzzsproat for the features and ease of use. Libsyn because of longevity and ease of use for the newcomers. Libsyn also makes it easy to submit to directories. Review and choose the one that fits your needs and budget, and as you grow, if you need to change, you will be able to do that as well.
A Home for the Newly Launched Podcast
Once you have a media host that will host your audio podcast files, you will also set up a website to display and deliver your podcasts. You get a page with most hosting services that you can utilize for this purpose. Many people also create an independently hosted page or add the podcast to their existing site. If you choose to add it to your current website, there are podcast tools that you can add to make it easy for listeners to grab your podcast!
Submitting Your Podcast to Directories
The directories are how you get discovered, build up your subscribers, and continue to deliver killer content! The number one and most crucial directory ATM is Apple Podcasts. If you only get yourself listed in one directory, this is it. Over 60% of podcast downloads come via iTunes. To get your podcast listed, you need to sign on to iTunesconnect.apple.com using your Apple ID and then click the new feed option to add your podcast. As our guest Catherine Feeney pointed out, Libsyn helped make this part of the job easy.
Some other significant directories:
- Stitcher
- Google Podcasts
- Spotify
- TuneIn
- Blubrry
- PodBean
- Radio Public
Next Steps
Take a deep breath, pat yourself on the back, and revel in the fact that you have a podcast. The next step is promotion. But we aren’t going to go into that here, if you want to learn about specific ways to promote your podcast outside of the general promotional tactics I provide for social media, check out some of the resources on thepodcasthost.com and podcastinsights.com. And Congrats on Launching, we hope that our tips for launching a podcast were useful! And don’t forget to let us know what podcast so we can subscribe!
A Special Shout Out
We want to give a special shout out to Catherine Feeney of the Fashun Chronicles who added some great insight, fun energy and at least a few laughs to this blog post. Her insight on blogging, podcasts and social media was greatly appreciated as she added a great deal of value adn a frame of reference to this post. I wish I could have shared more of the hour conversation I had with this hilarious lady, but we just had so much to cover! And you should always leave them asking for more!
And if you want to hear more from Catherine, hop on over to her podcast and get to know more about this fashionable and funny lady!! Click the banner below to listen on iTunes!
All photos by Arielle Lewis Studios, Washington DC
Sleigh Your Social Media This Holiday Webinar
Sleigh Your Social Media This Holiday Webinar
The 9 Essential Posts is the framework we use at JRH Graphics to ensure that each of our clients in creating and posting content to their followers that is varied and has the potential to engage. The framework is free to download here, so grab your worksheet today! During the holiday season, social media can be a burden. Customers take priority. And somebody needs to work on adding at least 5 hours to every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here at JRH Graphics, we feel your pain! That is why we created this Webinar that uses some tips from our Content Calendar Strategies and The 9 Essential Posts and gives you lots of great ideas, prompts, and jumping-off points so you can sleigh your social media during this holiday.
Sleigh Your Social Media This Holiday Video and Slide Deck
We know that you are excited to sleigh your social media this holiday! We won’t get in the way any longer. Below you will find the video recording from the webinar as well as the slide deck. The links are live in the slide deck. Click on any of them, and they will bring you to the source of the content! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Not So Fast Mister
It hasn’t been 56 minutes yet. The webinar was 56 minutes long! No time to watch now? Go over to YouTube and tag the video to “Watch Later!”
You don’t think I can provide value? Okay, I certainly am a bit hurt by you saying that to me. However, you are entitled to your opinions!
Okay, you didn’t mean it that way! Great because I think things like the Holiday Gift Guides and the “Thank You” Campaign are strong ideas. Even the reminders on types of things to post to keep your community up to date on what’s happening in your area are pretty valuable things. Not to mention, the Letters to Santa behind-the-scenes concept will highlight how cool your business is and engage a new audience. Oh, and the Virtual Scavenger Hunt based on the highly successful Instagram Loops could be a real winner for you. The Virtual Scavenger Hunt is my favorite. Links and suggestions for a bunch of “Edutaining” holiday posts and DIY content that is sure to engage this holiday is even included!
That’s Better
I am glad you went back and watched the webinar and reviewed the slide deck. You are ready to go! I hope the webinar inspired you and provided you with some great ideas on ways you can sleigh your social media this holiday. If you use any of these ideas, I would love to see them at work, so please tag @jrhgraphics on Facebook or @jrh_graphics on Instagram and Twitter! Happy Holidays!
Small Business & Social Media Takeaways from The Index
Small Business and Social Media
Download Your Copy Today A majority of the clients I work with own and run small businesses. Small business has many opportunities to capitalize on the power of social media but they arent sure how. When the Sprout Social Index Edition XV came out this year I knew it was the right report to break down to help these small businesses see the value of social media.
Social Media is in a constant state of change. Everybody has their theories on what will happen next. These reports provide you with stats that support some opinions and actual trends that paint a picture of what is happening in the world of social media. As a content creator and social media manager, it is my job to take all of the information and see how it applies to what I am seeing with my clients. I generally walk away from one of these reports with at least a few takeaways, this time I was directing those takeaways towards small businesses.
The Nuts and Bolts of the Index
Nobody can deny the power and value of social media. As I mentioned earlier this year, social media touches almost every single aspect of a business. It is too big to ignore. It supports virtually any marketing objective, and moreover provides useful insights to teams outside of marketing. The team at Sprout Social surveyed over 1,000 social marketers and asked about their social goals, challenges, and expectations. They also surveyed 1,000 consumers to understand what people want from a brand on social media. The Index XV explores how social media and marketing teams can better use social data to drive success for bigger picture business goals. It also explores how to use customer insights and trends to improve social performance.
Breaking It Down
For this blog, I focused on a few of the findings that are relevant to the small businesses I tend to work with. When you view the report through that lens some different items stick out. However, all the results are exciting and relevant. If you are interested in knowing more, I recommend getting your copy of the Index and digging in. And speaking of digging in, here we go!
Marketers and Businesses Need to Dig Deeper to Understand the Audience
Forty-three percent of all social marketers say a significant challenge is identifying and understanding their target audience. To address this concern, marketers turn to social data. Sprout Social explored what your audience wants, and I comment on some of the findings below.
What Your Audience Wants
Why do people follow your business on social media? What do they want to see from your company? To answer these questions, you need to understand how and why people use social media in the first place. While 50% of people follow a brand to find out about new products and services, almost as many (48%) follow a brand to be entertained. Other key reasons that a consumer follows a brand is to get up to date news, connect with others, to be educated, and to communicate with the brand.
What Your Audience Does Not Want
Equally crucial for businesses is to understand is what consumers do not want to see on social media. In business today, the customer experience is of the utmost importance. Delivering poor customer service, including being late to reply to a customer concern can be considered poor service. Poor service can result in an unfollow (read like a lost customer) for 56% of those asked. Your audience wants you to respond quickly, knowledgeably, and provide them with entertaining and informational content daily.
Content Misfires
Poor customer service is the number one reason to unfollow. However, posting irrelevant content, too many ads or too much promotional content can all result in a consumer unfollowing your brand. The importance of having a well-planned posting schedule is evident, and it must be robust with entertaining, useful, and educational content. A plan that does not merely focus on your products and services but adds value to the consumer. A social media calendar like with the aforementioned items is a great way to make sure what you are posting is not pushing customers away.
Social Media Essential Post Framework
Our framework for businesses on social media has addressed this since the beginning. The 9 Essential Posts for Businesses helps you create relevant content in 9 categories. It also serves as a reminder of the 80/20 Golden Rule of Social Media, 80% of your content should be informational and 20% of your content can be promotional. When used with a content calendar, a business can plan content and ensure that it is varied, tells a larger story, and engages the audience. Download your free copy of the 9 Essential Posts here to jumpstart your audience engagement.
Social Media Accountability
This report also made it clear that social media is a massive and essential job. Small businesses need to look at who is manning their social media daily. Are they equipped to answer customer questions? Are questions being responded to within an hour on your social media platforms? Have the correct answers been available? It is my opinion that businesses need to embrace new technology and dedicate capital to the task of engaging customers on social media. Look at chatbot options to serve as the front line and invest in a dedicated “position(s)” to manage social media every day. Social media is no longer a part-time job for the business owner. It is crucial for building an audience and growing your business.
Potential Solutions
If your business can not afford to hire someone internally to manage your social media look at hiring an outside company to handle it. Make sure that the company you hire will be posting custom content that speaks to your brand. JRH Graphics specializes in delivering customized content to our clients. Another option for minimizing expenses and maximizing return is to look for interns at a local college to help you post and manage your daily social media presence. No matter what you do, we recommend upping the attention you pay to your social media. It will continue to be an integral part of your business.
What Content Do Your Followers Like
We know that your followers want to be inspired, entertained, educated and informed. The pattern is the same with the types of posts that a consumer will take action on. Sprout Social asked consumers what types of posts they are most likely to leave comments on or share, the answer was posts that entertained them. This is in line with what most social marketers consider to be effective; 50% of social marketers say entertaining and inspirational posts are the most efective in helping them reach their goals according to the Sprout Social findings.
Consumers Want to Be Engaged and Entertained- Edutained As We Say at JRH Graphics
As you saw in the above chart above, posts that inspire, entertain, teach, and have a story are the most likely to create engagement. What is interesting is that consumers are engaging less and less with offers and coupons promising savings. While sales can attract consumer interest, entertaining, and inspiring posts get the most engagement. Both marketers and consumers supported this finding.
People Want to Learn
Creating posts that are engaging and entertaining and speak to your brand can be slightly overwhelming. But here are a few key things to keep in mind. Remember that you are the expert, share what you know in an engaging way. Use what you have around you when thinking about things to post, your company is unique highlight it. Look at what your competition is posting to get ideas, don’t flat out copy it, but research is ethical. Use your brand story and differentiators as guidance on what to post. Finally, use your team to deliver the message.
Employee Advocacy to Shorten the Long Game
Social media is part of the long game. You are building a loyal customer base that likes, knows, and trusts your business. One way to get your audience to like, know, and trust you sooner is if your employees like know and trust you. According to the Sprout Social report, almost three quarters (72%) of all social marketers use their employees as social media advocates. The report also revealed that forty-five percent of consumers say they are more likely to research a product or service when someone relatable, like an employee, posts about it. Using your employees as advocates helps you keep the content varied on your social. It also helps shorten the time it may take for a follower to become a faithful customer.
Converting Followers to Customers
Not every consumer is going to click the checkout button on the first go-round, and that’s okay. It is vital that you still invest in your followers online. Strengthening the connection you have with your followers can lead to more authentic interactions, more word of mouth referrals, and a loyal customer base. Merely looking at the actions consumers take when they follow a brand highlights some of the value they are bringing to the brand.
Actions Followers Take with Your Brand
Eighty-seven percent of consumers who follows a brand on social media will visit the brands’ website. Seventy-eight percent of consumers visit the brands’ physical store, talk about the brand, or recommend the brand to friends and family. Finally, 77% of consumers will buy that brand over another. These are all substantial numbers that indicate a relationship that is worth nurturing. When it’s time to convert people into active buyers, social marketers should use a combination of discounts, product demonstrations, and educational content, Once again, it is the educational and informational content that is driving consumers forward in the customer journey.
Brands Are Only Scratching the Surface of What Social Can Do
Social media has so much unforeseen power, and you are in a position to experiment and see what else it can do. While sizeable social marketing firms are working to break down silos, you have the freedom to break down existing social barriers and see what lies on the other side. You have the benefit of seeing an opportunity on one day, and the next day be capitalizing on that opportunity. It is not necessary to chase after every wild idea that passes, but it does mean you have the chance to try new things. Based on what has worked in the past or what trends you are currently seeing.
What Trends Could You Capitalize On
From creating video content to building a community around your brand, the opportunities to get more out of social media are out there. An excellent place to start experimenting would be with those things your followers have requested. The end of the Sprout Social report provides you with some trends to watch out for in the future. How could you do more with live video, user-generated content, Instagram Stories, and creating a community around your brand?
In Conclusion
Social media is not going to disappear tomorrow. It will continue to expand before it disappears if it disappears. If you are a small business and you have not been investing in social media, the time is now. Get on the bus because it is about to pull out of the station. And for those of you who say, “I am good right now, I will start doing it if I see my sales slipping,” at that point, it is too late. The long game of social media will have passed you by then.
I am not saying that you need to come by my office and sign up for a social media management or content creation package immediately. Although we do things differently and would have a package that fits your needs. What I am advocating is that you do more to increase your reach. It is time to tap into the power of social media for your business.
Download Your Copy Today All Stats and some inspiration provided by the team at SproutSocial Download Your Copy of the Sprout Social Index Today!
Video Content Creation Using the 9 Essential Posts
Creating Video Content Stresses You Out, Doesn’t It
When you hear the words “video content” do you scream a little bit? Are you stressing out because you don’t know what to create? Or is it more stressful thinking about going in front of the camera, recording something, and then putting a video out there for all the world to see? Well, the good news is I can help you because I am going to provide you a framework that will help you decide what kind of videos to create. I can also tell you as somebody who hates being in front of the camera, that it gets a bit easier each time. You just need to get in front of that camera and go for it. Remember it is your business, you are the one with the experience and you are the Subject Matter Expert.
Video Content Challenge for June
Leading into the Video Content Challenge for June I discussed different ways you could incorporate video into your social media. This was based loosely on the 9 Essential Posts Framework that we use at JRH Graphics to help make sure that each of our clients is posting a variety of “Edutaining” Content. The major benefits of following this framework for your video content as well as all your other content is it ensures that all of your posts are working towards telling the same story and the content remains varied. well, for July we are digging into video a little bit deeper and you will be asked to create video content for 7 of these 9 Essential Post Categories.
I recommend you take into account your June results when deciding what to post for this challenge. What worked in June for you? Which videos did your followers engage with? What platforms worked the best for you? Which platform do you want to add next? Answer these questions as you prepare for the July Video Content Challenge (VCC) so you are making the best use of your time when creating content.
Video Content Created for These 9 Categories
Since I am such a nice guy and I want to help you all succeed in the July VCC I am going to review the 9 Essentials Posts below and provide you with some ideas on how you could create video content for each of them. Want a little behind the scenes here, when I thought of this blog post I already had content in mind for 8 of the 9 essential post categories, know which one I forgot? Yup, you guessed it the motivational quotes argh!
Product Posts
Product Posts may seem easy but be sure to not constantly post or repost the same content about your product. Keep it fresh. Get ideas from your customers how are they using your products or “product in the wild” posts. Make sure to highlight what features and benefits users will get from your product that differentiates it from the products of your competitors.
Video Content Ideas
Tutorials on how to use the product. Features and Benefits Demo- think simple but impactful and easy to digest here like Bounty Commercials. Go live for new product releases or possibly show your product being used in an unexpected way. Showcase how the product is made. You have lots of options with this one, just make sure you are highlighting what makes you special.
Customer-centric Posts
Customer-centric posts focus not only on the overall customer experience (which is a good focus) but this is also where a lot of your user-generated content comes from. User-generated content is huge for a business because when you share that content the creator is much more likely to also share the content with followers. And beyond that it shows followers you care about how you engage with your customers and encourages them to share without even asking.
Video Content Ideas
Yup, if one of your customers creates a video post and puts in on their social media, you can share that! You got a freebee but that is great. User-generated content is a huge win for any business. If you are that good then who am I to deny you a freebie. If you were not that lucky it is okay, think about ways that you currently interact with your clients and customers, do you have a regular that is hilarious and would love to be a ham and drum up some attention for you? The person who is always raving about you? An organization that meets in your space that would love to cross-promote or drum up some new members. Yeah, you guys have this one.
In The Hood Video Posts
I call these the “In the Hood” posts and they really touch on the things happening in the community around you. They can be lighthearted and silly or seriously important things that are happening in the hood. What is important is that you are engaging the potential clients that are immediately in your area that are customers of the other businesses. You are also providing those in your neighborhood beneficial information and helping build trust. These posts allow you to partner with other businesses in your neighborhood magnifying your reach.
Video Content Ideas
Partner with another business and feature them and have them feature you. Cover a local neighborhood event. Check out the newest restaurant in town and live post about it. Video how you interact with your neighborhood every day as a business owner. Feature some new people in town or do you always have that one dog in the neighborhood who is your best client, go get him on video.
A Day In the Life Posts
Highlight things that usually happen at your company a pre-opening chat, lunchtime discussion, shared news about employees. Remember Instagram is very visual so make sure you have a good brand-appropriate visual if you are sharing on Insta. Think of these as a quick filtered peek into the back of the house. People love to get a peek behind the curtain, and you want to give that to them. Be real but brand appropriate.
Video Content Ideas
This type of post is awesome for video content and stories. Feature a day in the life from a specific perspective and make sure the day is entertaining and informative for your followers. No further tips needed this is gold!
Giveaways and Contest Posts
Product launch, new item, a special time of the year… make it super special with a giveaway or contest. It’s a great way to gain followers by encouraging them to follow you on social media as a way to be eligible for a prize. Keep in mind that you should always post appropriate disclaimers and follow all posted social media platform rules! This could also include tools and freebies that you can offer up to those who follow you. Maybe a free 30-minute consultation etc.
Video Content Ideas
Video reminding them of a contest. How about a video of you picking the contest winner. Or a video of the contest or giveaway winner picking up prize and being super excited. You could create some video content around you free tool you are offering for people who sign up for your email list. Or highlight how they can use that freebie.
Food, Babies, and Dogs on Video
Want some more social media gold? Then post about food, babies or dogs! Posts like this help you keep your content varied and make sure that you are not talking too much about yourself! Remember that just because the post is not directly related to you does not mean that it shouldn’t add value to your followers. These are not throw-away posts they are still an opportunity to get followers to like, know, and trust you. Think about favorite lunch places around your business, a new bar for after-dinner drinks, or your favorite quick and easy meal you love to make. Keep it light and brand appropriate.
Video Content Ideas
Ok so here the dogs and the babies might be more entertaining on video, but if it is not your dog or your baby make sure to get permission. But seriously, you could do a post around food on video. Like your morning trip to the coffee place. Better yet if you are promoting your restaurant, or you are a lover of chocolate, wine, scotch, pizza whatever, share your love with your followers. Make sure you aren’t throwing these posts away- they should add value.
Motivational Quotes on Video
Motivational quotes on #motivationalmonday or any other days of the week when a little pick me up are in order. Keep the quotes brand appropriate. Try to share quotes that you find meaningful in general or on a specific day. Generally, I recommend posting 1-2 quotes a month. Also, please do not just find one on an ugly background and slap it up on your feed, pay attention to the look of it and when possible add your branding.
Video Content Ideas
Yeah, this is the one I sorta didn’t have figured out but… How funny would it be to have the grumpiest guy on your staff read motivational quotes on the video to cheer people up on a Monday! Or do you have a yoga fanatic that can offer some Monday Motivation and a tree pose? Tell a motivational story that helped you, or one about how you achieved your goals to give followers a different perspective on you. All possible ideas and I will keep thinking!
EDUTAINING Video Posts
Remember you are the expert in your field you should be EDUTAINING your followers. That means the information you are sharing is EDUCATIONAL, USEFUL & ENTERTAINING. People love little tidbits of knowledge especially if its something cool that they can use to impress somebody at a bar or a party. Share fun little bits of knowledge or inside info on what you do. Ask them what they want to know and then educate them on that.
Video Content Ideas
Ask your followers what they want to know or what questions they want to be answered and then go live and answer them. It’s fairly easy, it encourages engagement and you know all the answers! Plus it fills you in on areas that you can improve messaging or provides you other ideas for videos you could create to help educate followers. Also in this category, product demos, useful tips, unknown facts about your business.
Employee-centric Posts
Employee Takeover: Have a trusted employee who has been briefed take over your business account for the day. A few video posts in the story and a post for the feed that is on brand. The story can be less refined it is set up to be snapchatty for a reason!
Employee Profiles These are a bit harder but they are great for morale and a great way to feature specific employee on social media. Ask a set of questions to an employee and take some cool fun photos and viola.
No Employees- No Problem: Do you work with another company in a partnership for an event? Or are you welcoming a new vendor, artist, or chef into your location for a limited time? Do you sell products from local artisans? These all provide an opportunity to do a profile of sorts or even have the partnering brand take over your social media for the day.
Video Content Ideas
Do all those things mentioned above in a video. Employee profile on video (interview style). Employee takeover with video. Brand takeover with video. New vendor or partner, feature them on video. Prep all parties in advance of the video and have fun.
A Final Thought
Before you post content think about what value it will add for your followers. Is it something that will solve a problem that they have or help them in their daily lives? Is it introducing them to something new or highlighting an unknown feature of a much-utilized tool. Helping your followers manage pain points and excel where they struggled before is a surefire way to build trust. Try to not post content that does not add some value to your fans, they won’t stay fans for long if you post too much useless content.
Are you ready for Video Now?
Start by going live and work your way into creating other video content. Video content in stories such as on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook can be a little rough around the edges, that is expected. However, video content in your feed should be more polished and professional.
Keep in mind with all your video content that it should be short, concise and beneficial to the person watching. Break the videos down into easily digestible segments to increase retention. Plan your videos in advance and make sure to follow an outline so you present a well-organized idea.
Now get out and start making some videos, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
What is Social Media Management?
What is Social Media Management?
Social Media Management is a foreign concept to many people. The list of questions I am tired of answering probably goes on for days but here are a few #epic ones.
- What does a Social Media Manager even do?
- Does Social Media really need to be managed?
- You just sit on Instagram all day and take selfies, right?
- And, my favorite… Do you know Kim Kardashian?
There is a deep misunderstanding behind what social media managers actually do, especially in the business realm. No, it does not take me an entire 8-hour shift to create an Instagram post that says, It’s Friyaaaay where is the Partaaaayyy! First of all. I own my own business. I wish I worked shifts, especially one as short as 8 hours. Secondly, this is not what you hire a social media manager to do. A social media manager is charged with creating and posting engaging content that advances the goals of the business.
So, now that we have gone over some of the things that we do not do; we can review why your business will benefit from having a dedicated social media manager.
The Role of A Social Media Manager
Each business decides what the role of the social media manager will be in an organization. However, these following tasks generally fall under the roles and responsibilities of a social media manager. We also provide some needed skills for each task. As social media becomes more ingrained in all we do the tasks will continue to become larger and more complex.
- Represents your brand online
- Manage all of your social profiles
- Create custom content for your business
- Engage followers and build up a new following
- Balances informative content with promotional content
- Monitors and responds to comments and questions
- Tracks and analyzes the results of social media campaigns
- Ensures that the voice used to post is consistent
Social Media Managers Roles and Responsibilities
Jonathan Howard, lead content creator and business consultant at JRH Graphics defines the role of a social media manager and discusses what makes JRH Graphics unique.
Manage Your Brand & Maintain Your Brand Identity
Your brand and your story are essential ways you connect with followers. Your social media manager is the promoter and protector of your brand. They ensure profile images are all recognizable and follow branding guidelines. Create posts that are branded and use the brand story appropriately. They are the first contact point with new customers and customers looking for support and service via Twitter. Some are even tasked with maintaining your shop presence on Facebook and Instagram and promoting new items via product posts.
Communication, Attention to Detail and Organizational Skills Are Required
A social media manager controls the conversation on your social media platforms. They accomplish this with a well-planned content calendar complete with key promotions, events, and new product releases. As well and educational and behind the scenes content that is EDUTAINING – Educational -Useful- Entertaining. Your brand and story are powerful connections. With social media becoming integrated into so many facets of your business, your social media manager has the power to shape your story and brand in all that they do. They must possess strong communication skills and be well organized to manage this aspect of the job.
Create Customized and Engaging Content
A social media manager brainstorms, researches, creates copy and visual for all your social media posts. In many cases even today, a social media manager is the sole creative for social media posts. They are also the one who actually does the posting. A social media manager is charged with creating engaging content for followers to consume from start to finish. They must be aware of trends and know what types of content is engaging followers. A plan to eliminate the content that is no longer essential is key. They function as brand ambassadors, storytellers and must be able to create an emotional connection between customers/followers and the brand.
A Social Media Manager Must Be Creative and Flexible
Flexibility and creativity are essential. The demands of the users and the lightning-fast pace of technology is changing every platform at a record pace. It is certainly feasible for you to develop content at the start of a month only to find that the platform you were going to post it on has changed the format or size. Or in the case of Google+, it is gone! They should be early adopters of new technology but still, be willing to work to get results on existing technology and platforms. Create Great Content Often, Adjust for Algorithm, Repeat should be their motto.
Manages Your Profiles & Engage Followers
Your social media manager is the sole person responsible for managing the day to day of your social profiles. Is the person running your social media the first person that you want your customers to see when they enter your business? Your social media manager needs to be able to communicate and personify all your business stands for. Charged with engaging existing and new followers every day on your platforms, the social media manager holds a great deal of power. They define the message that helps define your audience. They are building your future customer base.
Must Be A People Person and Problem Solver
Responsive, tactful and eloquent. Three keywords to look for when hiring a social media manager. In addition to the story and branding, a social media manager must also be intimately aware of all company policies and procedures so they can provide the right information to customers when asked questions. A social media manager must be a problem solver. They are going to be asked to solve problems that your customers and followers are facing each day.
Track the results of campaigns and Adjust Accordingly
Your social media manager not only puts the content into play but they also have to measure for the ROI (Return on Investment). Using the many different measures of engagement, social listening and much more they need to rank the success or failure of posts (and aspects of posts). This allows them to see which pieces of content measure up to expectations and which fell short. They also need to react to the results quickly. If it failed once it will fail again. They need to know not to put content that will certainly fail into play when they could replace it will other content that a higher chance of success. Finally, they must also measure what types of content are engaging at what levels and if they need to restructure the content calendar to accommodate for the changes.
A Social Media Manager Must be Analytical and Proactive
Social media is bound to change. A social media manager needs to adapt. They need to analyze the results of their campaigns. They must double down on successes and eliminate content that fails. New ways to engage will always be emerging and some trends may be the perfect opportunity for your business to stand out. However, without an adaptable member running your social media team you may end up always arriving late to the party. Especially, if they aren’t even measuring the success of the posts they are posting.
Keeping the Brand and Voice Consistent
Want to confuse your followers? Have a different aspect of your brand identity as part of your profile photo on every platform. Change the order of the words in your tagline. Select a different color for your logo. Inconsistency confuses customers. And once a customer is confused they leave. What is worse they are not likely to come back. Equally confusing is when your brand changes the voice it speaks in on social media from post to post, I am guilty of this on my own brand and it is confusing to followers. Define the voice as part of your brand identity and stick to it.
Your employees can speak directly to followers but as brand ambassadors and that voice can be unique to that post once it is defined. I encourage you to use that type of post wherever possible as well as social proof posts (reviews from clients) as a happy employee and a happy customer both send a powerful and emotion-filled message.
A Deep Knowledge of Branding and Emotional Storytelling
A social media manager needs to understand branding and emotional storytelling and connect those skills to the product or service they are selling. They need to be aware of what the differentiators are that strengthen the brand as well as how the company is positioning itself in the marketplace. Finally, they also need to be aware of the known competition and stay ahead of any new competition. Many times the first place you can identify some new players in the game is on social media.
Does a Social Media Manager Just Take Selfies for Instagram?
I hope at this point, we all know that this is not the case. A social media manager holds an ever-increasing role in your business. They are an integral part of marketing and branding strategies. They are content creators that must create engaging content that will grow an audience and create followers for life. A social media manager must create and deliver a great deal of content each week as well as to measure the impact of that content. And if that is not enough, the entire job can change at the drop of a hat. Once again, a great motto for any social media manager should be…
Create Great Content Often, Adjust for Algorithm, Repeat!
Oh, you guys did get one question right… Of course, I know Kim Kardashian, totally bestiesWhat Does JRH Graphics Provide that is Unique?
Social Media Managers are a dime a dozen. There are many solutions available to create content for social media. Hundreds of people create logos and more people are entering the brand storytelling arena. Many of these people have little to no business experience. They went to school and studied advertising or social media marketing and know how to do that.
That is not JRH Graphics. We understand the day to day of business because before we started our own we spent 20 years in business. We learned the ins and outs of social media before it was commonplace among businesses because we worked on college campuses and “grew up” on the cutting edge of it. We have faced hundreds of challenges and created hundreds of solutions. With each new company we work with we have added to our toolbelt and made these tools available to other small businesses because when one of us succeeds we all succeed. A listing of the available tools can be seen here.
We Know Business
Running a business and promoting a business are two full-time jobs, each with different skill sets. The more time you take to promote your business the less time you have to run it and the time you take running your business impacts your ability to expand your network of followers, nurture leads and discover new revenue feeds. Having a social media manager with 20 years of business experience allows you to grow your business while not losing sight of the day to day because the team at JRH Graphics identifies opportunities to grow and nurtures those opportunities in conjunction with your team.
JRH Graphics helps you build your business via social media. We help you define a story that will engage by highlighting this story and your differentiators on social media. This establishes you and your business as a leader in your field. This works to activate your social media networks and local business networks. Once your network has been activated you begin establishing a collaborative relationship with them, allowing you to both grow your businesses and networks.
Our Clients are Proof
Jonathan has been a huge support for our small business. When we brought him on as our PR guy we also got a business consultant that truly cares about the success of our business. He is smart, savvy, innovative, and a risk taker that we trust completely. He has helped grow our business and introduced us to new revenue streams that have proved lucrative.
-Cody Alexander, Urban Jungle DC
JRH Graphics will help you become the smart, savvy, innovative business that takes the right risks and see the benefits.
Jonathan is fantastic support for my small business – he’s helped me scale quickly and helped me achieve so much through social media and engaging with a broader audience.
-Lea Berry, Berry Coaching and Consulting
We will help you scale quickly and reach your goals via the power of social media.
Choose JRH Graphics and grow your business.
Social Media Management Plus with JRH Graphics
With JRH Graphics you get a social media manager and much more. The knowledge and experience. The drive to push to be better. A stubborn man who refuses to take no for an answer. Creative line pusher. Dedicated partner. JRH Graphics is part of your team!
