Chapter 2

Creating Your Social Content Strategy

Content Creation For The Non-Content Creator

Content is the fuel that your marketing engine is going to run on.

When we say “content” what do we mean? Content takes on many forms depending on your business and what your skill set is. Whether it is photos, videos, blog posts, or something else, your content has one goal – Provide value for your target market.

This is why we told you to list out all of those interests above. The interests of your ideal customer profile are the perfect place to start in deciding what content to create, even the interests that don’t seem to have anything to do with your business at first.

Let’s continue to use the example of that personal trainer. How did we use the interests of their ideal customer profile to create content? We quickly narrowed in on one of the interests in particular; wine.

Also because of this profile, we knew that it included runners. It is common practice to serve beer at the finish line of races, but never wine… why? BOOM a fun blog post that relates perfectly to the target market and provides value to them (and has been one of her top-performing posts to this day!).

But developing a content strategy is less about knowing exactly what you are going to talk about in each piece and more about knowing what form of content you are going to make and how you are going to actually execute it. After all, a strategy isn’t very good unless you do the things that are in that strategy.

Your content should have one goal: Provide value for your target market.

Difference between a content strategy and a social media strategy

While your social media strategy is more focused on the “how”, your content strategy is focused on the “what”. Your content strategy is planning and understanding the types of content you are going to create, without taking anything else into account. You are purely trying to figure out what you want to talk about and how you want to talk about it.

While it may seem odd to do this first, it actually makes developing your social media strategy much easier later.

Key elements of a content strategy

Putting together a content strategy is actually fairly simple and doesn’t require a ton of different elements, especially since you have already developed an ideal customer profile. (You’re welcome!)

It’s time to break out another piece of paper and write the answers to the below questions down. Think of it as a little mini brainstorming session!

The main things you want to make sure you identify are:

• What is the medium I want to create?
  • Do I like videos? Photos? Writing and blogs?
• What topics do I want to cover about my product or service?
  • These are things that you want people to see that may set you apart or be important to your ideal customer.
• What other topics would be FUN to talk about that are not about my product or service?
  • Sound familiar? This is where you get to use all those things on the third level of the ideal customer profile!
• What are the things that could get in my way of creating my content?
  • Making sure you identify and remove hurdles is key to setting a realistic strategy that is easy to execute and scalable.
• How often can I create new content? Be Honest!
  • Don’t bite off more than you can chew! Would we love for you to create 100 pieces of content a day? Sure! But is it necessary? Not even close!

Our Top Content Tips!

Now that you better understand content creation and content strategy, let’s get into some of our top content tips that you can implement immediately to help you develop or revamp what you are creating for social media!

Create the content you enjoy creating

Do you enjoy writing? Then write. Are you good at taking photos? Then take photos. Deciding the content you are going to make is just that simple.

This is where you are probably asking yourself “That’s it? Where are the stats about why I need to be making short-form videos? Or the advice to write 10 blogs a month?”

Sorry, you won’t find that here.

Here’s the truth. If you try to force yourself to make content that you aren’t enjoying, you will never do it. And we’d much rather you have SOMETHING than nothing at all.

If you hate being on video but are trying to force yourself to make videos for your business, you are far more likely to get discouraged and quit. Even if you do manage to make something, it just won’t resonate with your audience in the way you think it will.

So, make the content you like, develop your skills, and have a little fun along the way!

Don’t be a perfectionist

A couple of takes because you don’t like the sound of your own voice? Understandable. Spending 3 hours to get something just right? Stop. This is easily the biggest hurdle for people to get over. If you leave perfection at the door, you will be amazed at how much you can actually get done.

You don’t need fancy equipment

Most phones these days have the ability to shoot 4k video. Heck, there was even a major Hollywood film that was shot using 3 iPhones… use the tools you have available to make great content!

Want to get yourself a couple of things that can make a difference in your content? Here are a couple of accessories that you can grab

1. A phone tripod
2. A decent microphone
3. A ring light

Those 3 things plus the phone in your pocket are all you need to create high-level content.

Force yourself to be a “DO’ER”

I understand that there are going to be 1,000 other things you are going to want to be doing than recording a video or sitting down to write another blog post, we go through the same struggle and we are a marketing agency… but I promise if you put in a little work upfront, creating content gets easier and becomes much more fun!

Not only that, as you start to build up a bank of content, you can always go back and reuse some of it later, making things much more scalable and easy to do.

Now the real fun begins! Let’s move into what most people really want to know about.

Set aside time to brainstorm

Open up a new browser tab… do it right now. Pull up your calendar. Markdown 8-9 AM on the 2nd Tuesday of every month as “content brainstorm”

Come back when you’re done…..

Alright, cool your back!

You officially have time every single month to brainstorm new content ideas! Setting this time aside is so important because we know how busy you are and coming up with content ideas is no one’s #1 priority. Now that you have this time, use it to write down your ideas, scroll through social media platforms to find trends, or just identify what things are going to be important to your customers that month. You’ll thank yourself later for this time you set aside!

Now the real fun begins! Let’s move into what most people really want to know about. Chapter 3: Developing A Social Media Strategy.