How to Get a Month’s Worth of Social Media Content in 3 Days
Do you need to put together a social media calendar for your business and don’t know where to start? Perhaps you’ve tried generating content before or maybe it’s your first time giving it a go. Either way, we have a quick and simple 3 day method to help you get your social media content drafted and scheduled.
Day 1: Map Out Your Content
Content planning may seem overwhelming at first, but it’s easier than you think! Here are a list of questions to help you get started.
- What is your desired post frequency? In other words, how often do you post (or would like to post) to your social media accounts? Is it 3x per week? 5x per week? As long as you’re able to post on a consistent basis, you’ll be able to establish social proof and maintain a steady social presence.
- What types of content do you need for each social media platform? Generally photos and videos perform great on Instagram and SnapChat. Article links and YouTube videos tend to perform better on Facebook and Twitter. Figuring out which types of content you’ll need for each platform can help you determine the rest of your content criteria necessities for content planning.
- What are your content themes for the month? Depending on your business or brand, you’ll want to source a variety of themes such as lifestyle, product, news, UGC (user generated content), social media holidays, etc.
By the end of day 1, you should have a content plan that resembles something like this:
Let’s say we have a post frequency of 3x posts per week, which totals 12 posts per month. Of those 12 hypothetical posts, the types of content we can select per platform could be a mix of 3 articles for Facebook, 1 blog post for Pinterest, 3 photos for Twitter, 2 videos and 3 photos for Instagram. Then you can apply your content themes to each of those types of content. Perhaps you’d like 1 lifestyle photo and 2 product photos for Instagram and so forth. Voilà! Now you have created a theme for each type of post for your content plan!
Day 2: Establish Your Process
Day 2 is all about spending time researching content and finding your groove. Finding quality content that your users will resonate with is the key to a successful social media strategy. A quick brainstorm of websites and social media accounts that you can source content from can go a long way.
In most social media schedulers, there is a section dedicated to sourcing content. In Sprout Social, there is a “Find Content” section where you can sort through suggested content provided by the scheduler. In Buffer, they offer a customizable “Buffer Feed” where you can add your go-to websites to generate a big feed of useable content.
Using your scheduler’s content feature can be a huge time saver, but make sure to add a good ole’ Google Search to your research method! Google News and Trends can help you find topical and recent content to keep your social media accounts fresh and relevant.
The next step of Day 2 will be to establish a research and drafting process that works best for you! Maybe you like to read your content and draft captions right after you read them so you don’t forget. Or maybe you’d like to read your content that you deem worthy and add it to your drafts section to caption it later. Whichever order works best for you, remember to do a combination of the following:
- Make a checklist of each post you need from your content plan (how many posts, types, and themes) then check them off once you find them.
- When researching content, read the full articles, watch the full videos, and inspect the quality of your photos. This will help you determine if the content aligns with your branding efforts and will allow you to write a wholesome caption.
- Upload your content to the drafts section, draft your captions, and add hashtags.
Day 3: Review and Schedule
After doing most of the heavy lifting on the first couple of days, day 3 is all about reviewing and scheduling your content. When scheduling your content to the publisher section of your scheduling platform, make sure to review the following:
- Read your captions out loud and make sure that each message is clear, concise, and easy to read.
- Look for grammar, spelling, and spacing errors.
- Review your content plan and make sure the content reflects the exact type of post and theme you planned for.
- Reevaluate your video quality, double check your links, and make sure photos upload correctly. Select an aesthetically pleasing thumbnail cover for your videos.
Lastly, schedule your perfected drafts based on your post frequency from your plan. Now sit back, relax, and let your scheduler handle the rest!
Macro or Micro? How to Determine the Right Size Influencer for Your Campaign
Using influencers to help share your product and messaging has proven to be a valuable method for marketing! But you may be asking yourself, which influencers should you be using? Let’s start by defining micro and macro influencers.
Micro Influencers
On a very basic level, micro influencers are a social media presence who has 10,000 to 100,000 followers. They are also usually defined as having higher audience engagement rates than macro-influencers.
Because of their smaller following, this means that micro influencers are still able to develop personal relationships with their followers, and their followers are genuinely interested in and trust their content.
Some benefits of collaborating with micro influencers are:
- Smaller investment, which makes it accessible to most brands.
- Because of the smaller investment, there is a possibility of working with multiple influencers at the same time
- Able to generate an increase in sales
- Reaching an invested audience
Using these influencers has its drawbacks as well. A lower following means lower visibility and reach compared to macro influencers. Often, these influencers will also have a less curated page, meaning brands may have less control over a micros content (ie: consistency and quality)
Macro Influencers
Macro influencers are generally characterized as having a large number of followers (100,000 or more). Campaigns with macro influencers will very likely involve a significant investment, but this investment will also potentially come with a significant return on investment.
Advantages of working with macro influencers are:
- With a wider audience range, you will get more reach for each post
- Spend less time micromanaging multiple smaller influencers
- A higher level of professionalism
However, using a macro influencer also has its drawbacks. Using a large influencer will come at a higher price. The price ultimately depends on the status of the influencer, but Social Media Today reports it can cost anywhere between US $2,000 to US $50,000. Also, though the reach is high, engagement will very likely be decidedly lower.
Which to Choose?
This will ultimately come down to your goals. If your goal is to provide authenticity to a group of devoted potential customers, or if you’re limited to a modest budget, then micro influencers are the way to go. If it’s a matter of gaining reach, macro influencers are right for you.
8 Ways to Maximize Instagram Stories
Are you making the most out of your Instagram Stories? Stories have exceeded over 500 million active users and one-third of the most viewed Stories come from businesses. With countless success stories driving boastful results, it’s no wonder why Instagram continually releases impressive new updates on a monthly basis.
Now let’s be real, when you tap that top left camera button and start weighing this Giphy or that Sticker, your “quick” post turns into 5 minutes… 10 minutes, then 25 minutes and so forth. So how do you curate custom food Stories specific to your brand while also trimming down your post flow?
Answer: Know your food brand’s strengths and Stories potential.
Determining which features, approach or capabilities that work best for your brand requires a ton of exploration and time. That’s where we happily step in. ChuckJoe is here to save you the time and research by bringing forth 8 of the best ways to maximize your Stories and the reasons why they’ll make a difference!
#1 GO BEHIND THE SCENES
There are a few places within the app where you can really show off your photos and videos–IGTV, Stories, Live, and Feed. It seems as though Feed has become the place where brands publish their highest quality and polished content. Some profiles follow color patterns, themes, and schedules all while maintaining beautifully constructed professional grids.
However, a perfect-looking profile can only show so much and may lack a personable connection. Stories are the perfect place to let your digital guard down by adding some flavor to your brand’s personality through capturing unscripted moments. Pair the content in your Feed with ‘behind the scenes’ Stories, including daily routines and shareable moments, but be sure to keep it real by being yourself throughout the process. Being personable in your Stories will help you achieve the Branded Content 1,2,3’s: being transparent, relevant and authentic.
#2 SHARE THE INSIDE SCOOP
Tease your audiences with exclusive insights on upcoming announcements, events, time-sensitive promotions, and sneak peeks! This will give your following a feeling of exclusivity and will make them want to check back for more revealing posts.
For example, a restaurant could share the dish of the day, conversations with the chefs while cooking with fresh ingredients or capture the atmosphere on a busy afternoon. On the other hand, D2C brands like Imperfect Produce who manage their business solely online can make the most of their Stories by sharing tips and tricks for cooking, deals on their products, or by giving a glimpse into their company culture.
#3 CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Posting consistently on your Stories will keep your followers interested and engaged with your brand. Consistency is the key to maintaining the followers that you’ve worked so hard to gain and will continuously contribute to your growth potential.
Some of the best scheduling tools such as Later and Sprout Social recommend posting on Stories 1-10 times per day, yet other schedulers suggest 1-3 times per week. So with all of these conflicting suggestions, how do you know what frequency is going to work best for you?
Here’s our two cents: post at a frequency that’s realistic for you and stick to that pace! If you get busy and are unable to post for a week or two, you risk the chance of losing your followers and their business. Posting regularly signals to the Instagram algorithm that you have a quality account which can increase your exposure and brand awareness.
#4 REPOST USER GENERATED CONTENT
Having trouble generating enough creative content for your Stories? We’ve got an easy solution for that. Have your customers do the work for you! Not only will you shine light on your followers, but you’ll also build trust through genuine content.
Adweek reports, 93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchase decision. When potential consumers experience ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth), they browse the Internet and social media to research and find social proof through testimonials before buying products and services.
By creating clever branded hashtags for your business, you’ll be able to create a bank of content from your customers. Ask your followers to tag your profile, use a branded hashtag, and tag your location to be able to find UGC associated with your brand. It’s easy for customers to tune out overly branded content so having authentic and voluntary content can really support your branding and sales efforts.
#5 USE FEATURES FOR BRAND AWARENESS
Instagram Stories offers an arenol of tools to create custom content in a way that can emphasize your brand’s personality. Below are some essential tools and necessities that will boost your brand awareness.
- Use a Filter – With over 70 face filters to choose from, have some fun and don’t be afraid to be a little quirky. Use camera modes such as Super Zoom, Rewind and Boomerang to help keep your content fresh and up to speed.
- Add a Giphy – Grab your follower’s attention with a GIF or two. Whichever GIFs you choose to use, make sure that they align with your branding’s aesthetic goals.
- Play Music with Lyrics – It’s no secret that music can set a mood or tone. Select a song to play over your Stories and keep your followers’ eyes on your post by adding Lyrics too!
- Mentions – Tag other accounts when appropriate. This notifies those accounts that you’ve mentioned them allowing them the opportunity to repost to their audiences.
- Hashtag – As a general rule of thumb, use a relatable and trending Hashtag to increase your reach (unique accounts that have seen your post) and gain potential followers.
- Swipe Up – If you have over 10,000 followers on Instagram, congratulations because it’s a pretty big deal! For those who reach the count, they have the option to directly link a website, online store or blog to their Stories. Leverage the “Swipe Up” feature to drive traffic to your website or make your blogs more easily accessible.
- Location – When you can, use the Location Sticker! Posts with locations result in 79% higher engagement than posts without a location. When you tag your location, not only do you put your account on Instagram’s map, but your post will also show up in that location’s Feed. Users who browse locations are likely to stumble across your post giving you the opportunity to capture a new follow, like, or comment.
#6 USE STICKERS FOR ENGAGEMENT
One of the coolest advantages that Stories has to offer is that it allows businesses to interact with their audience in a unique way that traditional businesses have never been able to do before! What’s especially ingenious is having the option to build a new food brand by leaning on business advice from your audience and vice versa!
- Poll – Debating on serving Crispy Potato and Cabbage Tacos or a Spicy Baba Ganoush Veggie Burger for your restaurant’s lunch special? You don’t have to wonder anymore, take a Poll and count your votes in real-time.
- Questions – Whether you’re thinking about making a business move like discontinuing a flavor or just simply want to see how your audience feels about a topic, post a question. You can also tap a response and share the results for more topical engagement.
- Quiz – What’s a safe temperature to cook and serve fish? Teach your audience something new by using the Quiz Sticker. (If you’re curious about the answer, the temperature is between 130–135 degrees).
- Chat – Build a community for your brand by starting a conversation. The ‘Join Chat’ sticker allows up to 32 users to come together in a group thread. Bring your selected users together where they can meet, converse and collectively provide feedback on product releases, upcoming events, promotions, and more!
#7 ADVERTISE
According to Instagram, 75% of Instagrammers take action after being inspired by a post, like visiting a website, searching, shopping or telling a friend. If you have the budget, Stories Ads could be an efficient way to increase brand awareness, brand recall, drive purchase lift and sales.
#8 PARTNER UP WITH AN INFLUENCER
Generate some momentum and spice up your Stories with occasional influencers. By collaborating with other people, you can tap into their audiences which can give a surge of exposure to your brand!
Influencers can promote your brand by running exclusive offers with influencer discount codes, hosting contests, giveaways or Stories takeovers. They can also help announce a new product, record an unboxing video, etc. When looking for influencers, try searching for ones in relatable industries like in the food, health, or fitness space. That way you can reach followers most similar to your target audience.
Now that you’re more familiar with ways to maximize your Stories, get out there, start recording, and post with confidence! For Stories that had great results or Stories that you simply just love, use the ‘Highlight’ tool on your profile to showcase and categorize your favorite memories to make them last for more than 24 hours.
Photo Credits:
@imperfectproduce. “Ever wonder what it’s like working at Imperfect?” Instagram Stories. (July 11, 2019). Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/imperfectproduce/
@bentgo “No wrong way to eat a lunch” Instagram Stories. (July 23, 2019). Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/stories/bentgo/
@eatpastry “Treat Yourself” Instagram Stories. (July 23, 2019). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/eatpastry/
Culbertson, Kelsey. (2019, July 11). 8 Tips to Create Share-Worthy Instagram Stories. Retrieved July 11, 2019, from https://www.kimptonhotels.com/blog/8-tips-create-share-worthy-instagram-stories/
9 Tips for Running Giveaways with Influencers
Running a product giveaway with a social media Influencer is a simple and very effective way to increase your social followers, email list, website traffic, establish a relationship with your community, and so much more. 10 years ago, Social Media Influencers weren’t even a thing. The word “Influencer” is still flagged as misspelled by spell check. So let’s start with what an Influencer is.
What is an influencer?
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, an Influencer is an individual who has the power to affect decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience. They tend to have a following in a particular niche, with whom they actively engage. Basically, they can be a positive voice for your brand, and a link to potential customers.
There are many ways to utilize a relationship with an influencer. These include, but are not limited to:
- Social posts
- Blog articles
- Videos
- Product Discounts
- Product Giveaways
As the title of this article alludes, we’re here to talk about running giveaways with influencers!
Tip #1: Identify your brands’ goals for a giveaway
Before you do anything at all, decide what is the purpose for wanting to run a giveaway? Are you looking to expand name recognition? Are you wanting to collect new contacts for an email marketing campaign? Are you looking to increase your social following? How will you measure your results to know if it worked or not?
Starting with the end in mind is always a good idea!
Tip #2: Identify what you need from an influencer
This step is to make sure you understand your needs and expectations. Decide what type of service you would like from the influencer. What kind of budget do you have to pay for an influencer? Does their location matter? What type of content do you want? How do you want to use that content (on your social, website, in ads, etc.)?
Tip #3: Decide how to run the giveaway
There are a few ways to go about running your giveaway. Do you want to use a giveaway program, like Gleam or RaffleCopter, where you can collect emails from the entrants and leverage other entry options? Or would you rather this be a strictly social based giveaway, where entrants have to follow, like, comment, and/or share the post to enter to win?
Depending on your goal you should select the type of giveaway that will directly tie back into that objective. Using a giveaway platform also gives you the added benefit of easier reporting and picking winners.
Tip #4: Find the right influencer(s) for your brand
Each influencer has their own style and type of audience. You want to connect with an influencer who would be sure to help you reach your target customers, and who fits the style and voice of your brand. If you are promoting a vegan product, it wouldn’t make much sense to connect with a “meat-loving grill master” influencer. Their audience is not who you’re trying to reach.
Tip #5: Research your influencer
This is a step that is regularly passed over. It’s very easy to see that someone has 65k followers on Instagram, but the real question needs to be how engaged those 65k followers are. Post engagement is a really big deal. They can have all the followers in the world, but if no one likes or comments on their posts, then no one cares about what they’re posting!
Some other questions to ask:
- What other brands have they worked with in the past?
- Are they regularly posting on their page?
- What social platforms are they on? You might want them to post on all platforms.
- What past giveaways have they run? If their past giveaways have had good engagement, odds are your giveaway will do well too!
Tip #6: Communicate, communicate, communicate
And when you think you’ve communicated enough – communicate one more time. It all begins with your initial outreach. Your first contact with the influencer should be clear, friendly, and intimate. No need to be overly formal, but be sure to show them that you’ve looked into who they are, and you think they’d be a great match for your company.
Then, once you’ve established a relationship with them, be ABUNDANTLY clear with what you want. Some things you’ll want to establish are:
- Which products you would like them to give away
- How many posts you would like from them (before or after the giveaway)
- The platforms you would like them to use for the giveaway
- How to reference your brand
- Hashtags and key speaking points to include in the post
- How many images they will provide
- What will the images include
- Product packaging
- Preparation of the product
- Product in use
- The specific entry requirements (US only, or must be 18 to enter, etc.)
Come to an agreement, and set very clear dates for when you need things to be done. Be sure to give yourself a couple days buffer for edits and unexpected issues.
Tip #7: Stay Flexible
As important as it is to know what you want/need from your influencer, it’s equally important to stay flexible. If you’re paying your influencer for their work, then you can be a bit more rigid in what you want and when you want it. However, if you’re partnering with an influencer and trading product or collected emails (non-monetary goods), you may need to relax a little on the specifics. Things may need to change or be moved last minute, and that’s okay – your influencer is going to know what works best for their audience. And that brings us to tip #8…
Tip #8: Trust your influencer
The influencer is going to know their audience better than anyone else. They’ll know what things work and what doesn’t. And remember that their followers are there because they enjoy this specific style. It is usually a good idea to tell them the message you’d like them to get across, but to let them run with it in their own voice.
Tip #9: Evaluate the results of the giveaway.
This step is crucial to your future success. Did the giveaway go well? Did it have the reach and engagement you were hoping for? Would it be worth it to partner with this influencer again? Once you establish what worked and what didn’t, you will able to further the success of future giveaways.
With a little strategic thinking, these giveaways can have a huge impact. The people who follow influencers trust their thoughts and opinions and are very likely to be interested in a product they have endorsed.
So go out there, find yourself a like-minded influencer, and run a giveaway!