Creating one or two videos on the spot can be fun and exciting, but when you think about how much content you need for an entire month’s worth of social media posts, it can become very overwhelming! Today we’re going to share our best-kept secrets for creating a content calendar you can stick with, starting with choosing which platforms to focus your efforts on.
Just as you’ve narrowed down your target customer, you also need to narrow down which platforms will serve your audience best. Remember, the content you create isn’t for YOU, it’s for THEM. For example, if you own a consumer goods brand with a target audience of Gen Z customers, TikTok may be a great place to start. After you’ve determined which platforms to focus on, it’s time to create a content schedule!
Create A Content Calendar You Can Be Consistent With
To successfully create content on a long-term basis, you’ll need to come up with a schedule for filming and editing that you can honor. You can use a project management system like Notion or a simple Google Spreadsheet to outline what you plan to create. And since trends on social media move quickly (2-3 weeks), you’ll want to take this into consideration when creating your schedule. Below are a few items you might want to include in your outline:
- Audio Names / Where It’s Located (DMs, Saved Folder)
- Recording Location
- Any Outfits Needed
- Props
- Time Blocked Recording Schedule
- Editing Date
- Posting Date
Be mindful of how many videos you’re planning to film on your content creation days. If you are editing at a separate time (highly recommend), you can batch record as many videos as you can fit in your time block, without having to worry about final details in the moment. Our M+S team will research trends/outline ideas, film, and edit on different days in order to be efficient with our time and more importantly, not feel overwhelmed with trying to create an entire batch of videos for our clients on the spot.
Enlist Help From Your Team Or Content Creators
If you have a team that’s willing to help you create content for your social platforms, an outline becomes even more important as it will help keep everyone organized and on the same page when filming. This outline will answer questions like who’s filming, which audio, and what props are needed. If you don’t have a team, and you’re looking to add more user-generated content to your accounts, we recommend hiring contract content creators. You can find content creators on sites like Upwork, through the TikTok Marketplace, or by tapping into your loyal customers who may already be creating content about your brand.
There are 2 main ways you can collect content from a creator: 1) They create content and send it to you directly, without posting to their own accounts. 2) They create content, post it to their accounts, and you can either re-post or “whitelist” the content using a service like TikTok Spark Ads. Both options can be very beneficial, and if you have a paid marketing budget set aside, we’ve seen that using TikTok Spark Ads have higher completion rates, higher engagement rates, and most importantly – higher conversion rates.
Creating content for your social media accounts doesn’t have to feel overwhelming! Snag our Reels 101 Checklist HERE (that could also be used for TikTok or YouTube!), which includes a timeline to help you plan, create, edit, and post amazing content for your brand!