Written by Ursula Hurn, Digital Organizer
Best known for her skill in digital organization, Ursula Hurn is the creator of the IG OrganiSZer®, a simple yet effective social media content management system. She teaches best practices for digital organization and how to implement her systems. She has over 30 years of digital organizational experience and offers practical application.
Does the thought of having to create promotional content for your social media platform immediately send you into a state of anxiety? Don't feel alone! There are many who feel the same way about it…but really, you don’t have to, as I’ve learned through my own experience.
Social media can seem like a bit of a minefield, just by thinking about what to
post, when to post or how often you should be posting. However, implementing a system with a regular, simple strategy makes the whole thing far easier to navigate and instantly relieves a lot of the associated stress.
Why use social media?
‘People’ buy products and services. Where do you find the ‘People’? You either have a physical shop, rely on foot traffic, advertising or word of mouth or you have an online presence with your website as your shop window and Google as your referral source, or a combination of the two.
Where do ‘People’ hang out to be sociable? In the online space, on social media—the perfect place to find and target your ideal clients. They are out there in their millions, every second of every day—and it’s free. It’s the place where you can build relationships to eventually make sales. As Mark McCormack says, loosely translated: “All things being equal, people buy from friends. All things not being equal, people still buy from friends”.
Advertising on social media is also very affordable for even small businesses. It may not necessarily lead to sales, but it will grow your following and ‘People’ will engage with you, providing the opportunity for building those important relationships.
What does a social media strategy look like?
There are a few things to be clear on before you jump in or even if you’re already on social media they are good to check, as they will save you time and effort in the long run.
You offer: Know exactly what problem you are solving and be confident in the success of your solution.
Ideal Client: Know your specific target market. Use their words when speaking to them about their problem and your solution.
Branding: For consistency and to eliminate confusion, be clear on your branding, values and message.
Social Media Platform: Find out on which platform your target market hangs out.
Insurance: Select no more than 3 platforms. Making sure they are from different providers gives some protection against the sudden loss of an account and followers. These things happen.
Social Media Accounts: Create the appropriate accounts. As a business all your accounts should be business, professional or creator, not personal. This can be changed for existing accounts, if required.
Posting Strategy: Research the optimum posting strategy for your chosen platform(s) and decide on an achievable schedule for you. Maintain consistency for good follower growth.
This is a long game and is not going to deliver overnight results, regardless of what many proponents out there tell you.
Define your posting strategy
Once you’ve decided on platform(s) and posting frequency, it’s time to create a posting strategy and a social media content plan, with some built-in contingencies. Having an achievable plan will relieve stress around the whole social media presence ‘thing’, because believe me, it’s a ‘thing’.
Your posting strategy will include things like types of content to post, which weekdays to post on, time of day, what captions to write and what sorts of media to create—single image, carousels or videos—short ones, 15 to 60 seconds (aka reels) or long-form videos of up to 10 minutes or more. The media will vary, depending on what’s most appropriate for the content you are writing about.
1. Content pillars
Content pillars are the specific categories of content you will be writing about. Create rapport with your audience, providing stories they can relate to, building the ‘know, like-and-trust relationships that will ideally translate into sales.
Content pillars include categories like:
Education about your product or service and how it solves the problem.
Company values.
Personal information showing your character, including things such as likes and dislikes, obstacles you have overcome, hobbies and what inspires you, so that your followers can get to know you. Don’t share anything too personal.
Behind the scenes information on how you make your product or provide your service.
Reposting content from people who inspire you.
Genuinely offering your product or service, providing the opportunity to buy from you.
Rotate through the different content pillars and be sure that only between 20 and 25% of your content relates to sales. The majority of what you post should provide value, be engaging and build brand awareness.
2. Content plan
Use a calendar, either a physical diary or annual planner or a digital one but make something which gives you a visual representation of exactly when and what you are posting. Pick your days and add your topics, rotating through your content pillars. Set aside sufficient time to create your plan and stick to it.
Don’t be precious about wanting to create content as you go—as a strategy, this does not work and leads to posting delays and inconsistency in showing up for your followers.
3. Content storage
Once your plan is set up, decide on content storage. Use a system which stores it all on your local computer or make use of the platform you are posting to, creating all your content on that platform and cross-posting to other platforms, where that is possible.
However, retaining ownership and possession of your content is paramount—if you lose your account for whatever reason, you still have your content and can recreate a new account. You also get to decide where to post and you have easy access when it comes to repurposing content. Have a system which keeps relevant media and captions associated. This eliminates confusion when it comes to posting.
4. Caption writing
Set aside a block of time each week to bulk create your content for the following week. Write all the captions for the week on one day, selecting the appropriate hashtags to go with each post. If you are making good time, write more captions than required as this will put you ahead for the following week. Try and build up content, so that eventually you could be one month ahead with your content creation—a great place to be.
Bear in mind each caption should include:
a hook: catchy title or opening paragraph to grab attention;
the body: the value you are providing; and
a call to action: whether it’s a ‘comment below’, ‘a follow for more’ request or ‘a share’ request.
If your followers are getting value, most of them will do what you ask—but you need to ask.
Quick tip: the language use differs slightly between most of the platforms. When you’ve written your caption, use ChatGPT or equivalent, copy and paste in your post, say which platform it was written for and ask that it is paraphrased for the other platforms, using your own style. If you’re not sure about the hook and the call to action, also ask that these are extracted for you. This saves time.
5. Media creation
Once you’ve written your captions, the associated media decision becomes easier.
It depends on the algorithm running at the time but mostly reels get more traction on most platforms—people get bored quickly. Carousel posts also do well—when followers keep swiping through, they spend more time on your post, making the algorithm more likely to show it to more people.
As with the caption writing, set aside a block of time each week to produce this content, making sure you match the correct media with the correct caption.
Providing value is key. If there is insufficient value, scrollers will keep scrolling. Don’t try and beat the algorithm because providing value will do that for you.
6. Scheduling
Once your content is ready for the following week, schedule it according to your content plan. You can either schedule through the platform as most provide that functionality or through a third-party scheduling app. There are many of those around and most will have a free plan which could work for you.
7. Repurposing
Once you’ve posted about three months’ worth of content, you can start repurposing or reposting some of that in amongst new content you are creating, where sensible. This alleviates some of the need to constantly create new content, saving time and reducing stress.
Start your journey today
If you are wanting to create a social media content strategy and you are unsure of where to start, why not take the first step and book a discovery call today. Let's look at your business together and collaborate on developing an achievable social media content creation plan that works for you.
Always remember, never let perfection get in the way of progress and there is a learning curve in everything you do.
Read more from Ursula Hurn
Ursula Hurn, Digital Organizer
Ursula Hurn is an expert in digital organization and systems. Being a lover of people, she understands the frustration and time-wasting that digital disorganization causes, especially when business owners don't believe it's a skill they can learn! With a burning desire to help SMEs succeed, her student- and client base is international, and she believes everyone has the ability to get digitally organized. She is only as far as a Zoom call away.
