Social Media Content Shortcuts

Whether you’re an entrepreneur managing your own social reputation or a marketing professional juggling multiple social platforms each day, you know that developing engaging social media content can prove challenging and time consuming.

Keep these five shortcuts in mind next time you’re mapping out Facebook content, crafting a Tweet or searching for captivating media to feature.

1. Identify overarching themes. There are common themes and topics within every industry. Find a few that are relevant to your fans and followers, and create daily or weekly topics.

For instance, use Fridays to brag or boast about a company win by highlighting a Yelp review or five-star comment. Designate Tuesdays for tips or industry insights to share and alternate owned and curated content every other week to increase engagement. Call for user-generated content through photo contests or by posing questions to enhance your own content library. By offering your audience consistent meaningful content, you’ll see your fan base and levels of engagement grow through likes, shares and comments.

2. Take it one month at a time. Creating social media content more than a month out can be a futile effort. Stick to planning content out one month in advance to ensure you’re producing fresh and relevant content. Develop calendars for each platform in one document so you can easily identify content overlaps, gaps and create efficiencies across platforms.

3. Leave room for real-time content. It’s important to have content planned out in advance, but it’s equally important to regularly pull in real-time content. Always allow room for posting relevant and newsworthy content as it shows your thought leadership and tells followers you’re posting timely information.

A few simple ways to stay engaged on industry news and updates includes establishing Google Alerts, utilizing Tweetdeck and searching appropriate hashtags regularly. Be actively engaged with your communities and participate in conversations taking place outside of owned platforms as well.

4. Rich media is a must. Video is king, so use it. Leave a column of the content calendar as a placeholder to include links or direction on where to curate appropriate images, videos and graphics. Every post should include some form of rich media, especially the highly visual platforms like Facebook and Pinterest.

If you’re struggling to find relevant media to feature, refer to our earlier blog post titled 15 of the Best Free Stock Photo Websites or use a tool like Canva, which gives you the option to develop your own custom images. Oh, and it’s free!

5. When in doubt, reference your FAQs. Rather than recreate the wheel every month, take a gander at your website FAQs. This is one of the best resources for inspiration on content that is useful for your audience. Use it to develop blog topics and craft social posts. Go further and break down this content into dozens of Tweets.

Don’t have FAQs? Don’t fret! Chat with customer service representatives for common questions asked or evaluate past social media comments and inquiries, and develop content around these topics. Your audience is already asking for this information and the more you proactively answer, the better engaged your community will be.

Implement all or some of these tips to create a more efficient social media content development process. Got a tip? Share it below in the comments.