Plan Social Media Like A Pro
Getting Started with Social Media
Spending time on your social media might not be your first priority. Running a creative business takes a lot of time and you are often pulled in so many directions that things like social media are the lowest priority on your to do list. Things I often hear when it comes to social media planning . .
Note: There may be affiliate links in this blog post. I only link to products and resources that I truly support.
Is social media even important for my business?
Yes, I do think social media is important for your business depending on your business goals. For me, I use social as a form of portfolio and overall impression of my brand. I find it to be a great tool for marketing my work to potential clients, connecting with my community, and as a way to hold myself accountable for creating new work. Is it important to use ALL of the social media apps, absolutely not! You want to find the social media platform that best meets your goals and your target audience. My target audience mainly hangs out on Instagram and my work is very visual so I spend most of my time there. I would recommend starting with just one platform. Maybe it’s the platform that you are the most comfortable using and that is okay.
I don’t have time to curate a feed that looks nice and I wouldn’t know how to get started.
Don’t worry, I will share some tips to make planning your social media quick and maybe even fun! Let’s talk about how you can get started . . .
Brand Pillars
What is a brand pillar you ask? Well, you want to think about the brand you have created or your company, what are your core values? Here are some of my brand's core values or things that are important to me and my company. Art and design, surprising I know! I am a surface pattern designer and illustrator so patterns, illustration, making, color, art, etc. are all important to me. Wellness is also one of my core values, from mental wellness to physical. This might include positive affirmations, illustrations about health, and self care inspiration. A third core value is empowering creative business through tips and resources.
That makes my three main brand pillars: art and design, wellness, and creative business advice. I think three is a good number to have but you may have more or less, or sub categories. After you figure out your pillars I suggest you brainstorm content you could include in each of those pillars. Here are some of my content ideas for my pillars.
Collect Content
Once you have your pillars, you can start collecting content that could be used for your social media. I have a folder saved on my computer called “Photos for Insta” where I dump my content, from photos I’ve taken of plants to new pattern designs and mock ups. This way you have a go to folder ready when you start planning your social posts. Here are some ideas of things you could collect for your folder:
Process photos - just start taking photos along the way next time you create something.
Inspiration photos - when you see something that inspires you, take a picture and add it to your folder later.
artwork/design
Mock ups
Tools, books, resources
Created content - Canva is a great tool for quickly creating graphics with inspirational quotes, new products, etc.
Planning
I am a very visual and organized person so It’s important to me to have a feed that looks interesting and has a little bit of a color scheme. I plan using an Indesign template that I can plug in images and type up my copy. I like to plan nine days at a time in a grid format. I have included a template that I use so that you can play around with it if you have Indesign. You could easily create something like this in Canva, Illustration, Photoshop or even a google doc or slide.
The first thing I do is type in the dates that I am planning for starting from the bottom left going up to the top right. I do this so that it will mimic what my feed will actually look like. The second thing I do is look up holidays for those days, this isn’t necessary but it can make it kind of fun! Here is a link to a great site with holidays: LINK. I make note of any holidays in my type area in case I want to post something related. Sometimes I will get inspired by an upcoming holiday like National Cat Day and create a pattern or illustration just for that day. Other things to mark might be product launches, or other news and important dates you may have for your audience.
Then I open up my content folder and start dropping in things to see how my feed will look. I like to have a mix of photos, artwork, mock ups, etc. Variety is good and makes your page interesting to look at. I would also challenge you to include a photo of yourself in there, this is hard for me being an introvert and not the most photogenic person but it reminds your audience that you are a real person and not just an art making robot.
Captions
Writing captions is not my favorite part of this process because of my imposter thoughts telling me I am an artist, not a writer. The insecurity is what makes it not fun, but everything is figureoutable and now that I have been learning more about marketing and writing I am actually really enjoying this part of the process. The truth is they don’t have to be these amazing and insightful stories about your post, you want them to be clear and concise. What is the purpose of that post and how can you connect to your audience? If you are posting an inspiration photo, share a little about why it inspires you. If you are sharing your creative work, what’s the story behind that design?
What about hashtags? In the planning process you can definitely jot down some specific hashtags you might want to use for those posts. For example, if you created a post for a holiday, you may want to add in a hashtag for that holiday.
Scheduling
Although designing the posts is the most fun to me as you get to see it come together like a puzzle, the scheduling is what feels the most rewarding. I highly suggest you use a scheduler to help post your social content as it is so easy and once you schedule it you can sit back and relax while it does the work for you. There are many schedulers out there that work great and are inexpensive. I have used Tailwind before but I am currently using Planoly and I love it! I switched to Planoly because I like the interface and it is very visual. I like that you can also push your posts to Facebook and Instagram and that they have options to provide optimal posting times. They also have great resources such as holidays, content calendars, and workshops. I have an affiliate link for Planoly and wouldn’t promote it if I didn’t really love it!
How often should you post? This is a common question and there is no “right” answer. How often you post depends on the platform and what works for you. The most important thing is to be consistent. That means, if you want to post three times a week, do that! The goal is not to post a bunch and then disappear and ghost your social media audience. Figure out what is doable for you right now. I use Instagram and have consistently posted daily! Set a goal for yourself and try to stick to it as best you can!
NOTE: After all my posts are scheduled, I move the images I used from my “Photos for Insta” folder into another folder in there called “Posted”. That way next time I can see only photos I haven’t used or I can dig in that “Posted” folder to repurpose content.
Repurpose Content!
Not all of your content has to be new! Due to the algorithms, not all your content is viewed by everyone in your audience all the time. I am often taking older artwork and using it to make a new mock up or using Canva to show the same product in a different way. I often take graphics that I have used or newsletters, blog posts, etc. and turn them into posts. You can even take older posts and put them together into a reel. You can repost a design in your story to remind your audience of something you created or something they can still purchase. There are so many ways to reuse your content so don’t be afraid to recycle and revamp older content.
I know this may seem overwhelming but trust me, just try one thing at a time. Now I make a thing of it when I am doing social media, it’s kind of like a ritual. I put on a show or music, sit down, and build my social media grid. The grid making can be kind of brainless and relaxing. I highly suggest batching your process, schedule a day to focus on just building your visual grid, a day for writing captions, a day for scheduling. Breaking it down makes it so much more manageable with your other tasks. Now that I have been doing this for a while, I find myself snapping all kind of photos without having to think about it, and automatically putting things in that “Photos for Insta” folder.
Are you ready to be a social media magician? You’ve got this!
If you are still thinking you are overwhelmed by this process then you can hire me to do it for you! That’s nice right? I do freelance social media planning and virtual assistance for creative businesses so feel free to reach out for more information.