If posting on social media feels like it takes longer than it probably should, then there are plenty of things you can do to speed up the process before deciding to outsource it to a social media manager.
Lay the foundations for your message
If you’re not sure what you should be saying on social media, then you'll definitely benefit from a deep dive into your branding foundations in order to gain clarity around your message and customer.
Laying the foundations for your message starts with understanding your brand vision, brand mission and brand values, but extends to go deep on your customer wants, needs and pain points. Only when you understand your brand and your customer can you create an offer that will truly speak to them.
Define your visual style and create a set of branded graphics
When you get the urge to post on your blog or social media, you want to be able to jump on that wave of inspiration and take action, but if you're unsure of your brand look & feel and what your posts should look like, this can feel like a barrier to the free flow of inspiration.
Spending some time on this upfront will pay dividends.
This is relevant whether you have and overarching brand identity or not - because you still need to be able to translate that brand identity into a presence for social media.
Once you understand your brand and customer, you can create or buy a collection of Canva graphics that are aligned to your brand essence and that are designed to appeal to your target audience.
You only need a few to start to create consistency in your brand, but adopting a consistent visual style will help immensely in terms of building your brand recognition, and will allow you to get you message out there when the urge strikes you.
Batch your content creation
They say that when you work for yourself your primary job becomes to market that business, which might sound a bit extreme, but there is so much truth in this...if no one can find you, how can your business create the opportunities it needs to survive and thrive?
Setting aside time to focus on your marketing is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a regular supply of leads to for your product or service.
Carving out dedicated time to market your business - whether that be to brainstorm subtopics under your content pillars, or to create a set of blog posts or a batch of social media posts - is one of the best ways of building your discoverability. And when doing this, it's much more efficient to dedicate a block of time to this rather than dipping in and out.
This year, as part of my conscious marketing experiment, I'm allocating half a day a week to these activities. I'll let you know how I get on!
Create your content at source and repurpose it for social
If you’re relying on social media for leads, then you’ll be at the mercy of the algorithm and the pressure to keep posting is huge...for fear of running into a ‘dry spell’.
Social media is not a marketing strategy in itself. Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn etc are simply the channels we use to communicate and reach our audience.
Unless you're a full time social media content creator, creating content purely for social media platforms will not be an efficient use of your time as it doesn't have longevity or allow you to take your finger off the pulse.
Instead, your source content should be native and needs somewhere to reside - a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel. Or it could even be a mini blog written for your newsletter if you’re just getting started.
One of the most efficient ways to market your business is to create evergreen content for your brand at source and then repurpose it for social media. Blogging is the most accessible of the above options and is the easiest option to get started with.
About Lucy:
I'm a brand designer, photographer and Wix website designer based in Dorset. I help female business owners and career changers build their brand and online presence through photography and web, brand & human design, so that they can turn their passions into the business they dream of.
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