Hello saving time! Hello not having to post at the last minute! Hello making space for other activities! Doesn’t that sound great?
Now here’s how:
LET’S START WITH THE BASICS: WHAT IS CONTENT? Content is literally anything. Content is text/video/images etc that you put out there into the universe for people to see. For today’s purposes, “content” will be a synonym for social media posts. And specifically we’ll focus on the IMAGERY. There are 4 types of imagery content that GGC founder Phoebe Sherman teaches about: Original Content Borrowed Content Branded Content Partnered Content …….……. Original Content is content that is created by YOU. Perhaps it is a selfie or a pic of your smoothie or your products photographed in-house or your illustrations. You, yourself can take the photo OR a team member, photographer (or you can draw the actual content itself). This is content that YOU own and YOU have the rights to. Borrowed Content is any image you don’t have the rights to. This can be an image you find on instagram or perhaps a stock image. (We love the site Unsplash for free downloadable images). GGC strongly believes you need to credit the photographer/artist/source whenever you can. Branded Content is content that is generally designed by you (or your team) that highlights a part of your brand. Maybe it is a quote, or a blog post highlight, or an image that features a podcast guest etc. (We LOVE to design our branded content on Canva.) Partnered Content is a collaboration or paid partnership between two brands (or an influencer + a brand). This can be original or borrowed. ie a picture of our uterus pin next to a THNX panty (original partnered content) OR just a stock photo of revive kombucha (borrowed partnered content). An influencer posting a picture of them in an item of clothing sent to them by a company (either paid collaboration or product for promo exchange) is original partnered content. WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONTENT? Knowing that there is a variety of content can help diversify your offerings. It can also help structure what you post. WHAT KIND OF CONTENT SHOULD WE POST? Let’s say you are an influencer, perhaps most of your content is original content. All of those images you post have to be created by you. You have to curate the outfit and get it photographed and pick where you shoot. That’s a lot of work! (and of course if the content is paid for, it becomes partnered content). Maybe you’re in the wellness field and you post photos of you in yoga poses (original content) and you like to share favorite quotes so you make branded content images in Canva and add those to your feed. We at Girl Gang Craft use all 4 of these types of content in our feed. Our examples: Original Content: photoshoots, influencer + customer photos, event photos Borrowed Content: artist features Branded Content: GGC updates, event fliers, workshop announcements Partnered Content: sponsored posts, giveaways Get it? Ok, enough with the technical stuff. HOW ON EARTH DOES THIS HELP OUR SOCIAL MEDIA GAME? WE’VE GOT YOU. KEEP SCROLLING! HOW TO BATCH CONTENT: Ok, so now you know all about the type of contents, how can you actually strategically gather/plan/make content and put that on your social media? We all know how much of a pain it is when it is 5pm, and you’re like, I guess I should post something now. And then you search around for images, and something that matches your feed, and you scramble to write a caption. It’s not very fun is it? And often, those captions aren’t really your best work. We here at GGC are all about BATCH working, where you do one task for a chunk of time. This saves you time daily, and often you get in a flow-state so your work is of a higher quality and of course, more consistent. So here are your steps for BATCHING CONTENT: 1. GATHER CONTENT Create + collect your content. So if you’re making original content you are grabbing your photographer, planning your setup, searching for locations to shoot etc. If you’re gathering borrowed content, you’re saving posts on instagram or downloading images from sites like Unsplash. All of this usable content can be stored on your desktop or in a drive like dropbox. 2. DOWNLOAD A PLANNER (THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!) Find an app that can post for you on social media. (yes! You don’t actually have to physically post photos hunched on your phone at the time you need to post. We do suggest being on the app when you do post though, to engage with your audience in real time.) Our favorite is Planoly, as it is usable on the desktop. But other planning apps are: Later Hootsuite Plann Preview App 3. ORGANIZE CONTENT On Planoly you can literally drag and drop your content and organize it in the order you want. This way you can check how your images look together before you post. (and of course make it look cohesive and work with your brand colors!) Keep in mind you want to match your content with any timeline-oriented things you want to announce. ie if you have an art show coming up, or offering a workshop etc. 4. ADD THOSE CAPTIONS! We will have a whole future blog post on captions, but for now we suggest being authentic and transparent. You can talk about what goes on behind the scenes, or go more in-depth about your product or service. Maybe you talk about your cat (always a solid option). And here’s the thing! Your captions do not even have to match your image exactly. You can post a picture of let’s say an art piece, but maybe talk about what’s going on in your personal life. Lately instagram favors long captions, so having something to say can benefit you getting seen by the right people. (Hello algorithm hack!) If you want to batch your captions, go ahead and write many at once. HINT: you can pull your captions directly from your blog posts. So who’s with us? Comment below if you’re going to start BATCHING YOUR CONTENT! If you loved this post, share it with a friend! xoxo Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang Craft
Art byJennifer Bouron
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