Let me start this week’s blog off by asking you one simple question, what is your goal when it comes to publishing on your social media platforms?
When I first started using social media as a tool and not just to post on my personal platforms, I wasn’t really sure what the “rules†were when it came to posting for a business page. When I created a Twitter account and set up a Facebook page for the Returns for Leukemia Bottle Drive so many years ago, I was just posting as I saw fit and when things came up.
I had no plan, I was not consistent and I was posting at random times not knowing when my audience was online. If you’re looking to be visible and get traffic to your funnels or your website, that is not going to work. You need to have a publishing plan.
When I was creating this content I didn’t really have a goal other than to let people know about the actual bottle drive we were running and to let them know what events we had planned that would tie into that bottle drive. Not having a set goal is what kept us from really growing those accounts into something really big.
Is this something you’re doing now when it comes to creating content for your businesses social media? Let’s talk about how you can change that and save some time while you’re doing it.
The first thing you need to think about before you start to create content for any platform, is what is the ultimate goal. Ideally that should be to generate traffic to a website or a funnel that has an offer or to generate a lead.
The next step is you need to get to know your audience. If you don’t know who your audience is or where your audience is online, you will have a difficult time getting engagement on your posts and you won’t get the traffic you want to your funnels or website.
Once you figure out who your audience is and where they are online, you will be able to create a publishing plan that is targeted to them. Creating this content is something you will need to plan ahead for as well.
Depending on the client needs and the clients goals I like to plan ahead either a week in advance or preferably a month in advance. To do this I batch all the similar content to save me time and schedule it out. As I say this I want to make a point here to tell you not to just schedule your content out and leave it.
Remember, social media is all about building relationships and engaging with your audience so you will want to make sure you have time each day to engage with them.Â
Before you start to worry about creating and publishing content on multiple platforms and start to get overwhelmed, I will stop you right there. Focus on your favorite platform. That could be Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter. Whatever platform is your favorite and the one you like to spend the most time on, start with that.
When you start using that one platform you will start to get better as time goes on and it’ll start to become easy creating content and reaching your audience there. Once you have that down, work on the next platform and so on.
One tool that has become incredibly helpful when it comes to creating content and planning it out is a content calendar. Some use a Word Doc, some use a spreadsheet and some will use an app to help them stay organized.
For me I like using a spreadsheet that helps me create and plan out my content and then a Word Doc that is a little more visual so that I can have it on the wall next to my desk so I can see what’s coming up at all times and it’s a visual reminder to engage with my audience.
I’ve created a special offer that has both of those content calendars as well as 3 different eBooks that will help you with creating content as well as help you grow on all 4 of the major social media platforms.
Just click the link below to download our 30 Days of Social Media Content for free and take our special offer for the content calendars so you can start to plan your content out and become more efficient.