Dreaming of a successful business? Whether you’re a newbie influencer, a personal brand, or a company, building a strong social media presence is non-negotiable.
You need an audience to sell to, and the best way to build your cult following is by creating quality social media content.
There’s only one small problem.
You don’t know where to start or how to handle the workload that comes along with maintaining a consistent social media presence.
Let’s dive into our top tips to gear you up for social media success and reveal the secrets to creating top tier content.
1. Give Your Audience Valuable Content
Hard truth: No one will follow you or buy your products or services unless you give them a compelling enough reason.
And the reason? What’s in it for them?
Whether typing up a caption or putting together a story, always ask yourself, “how does this benefit my audience?”.
If you’re not entertaining, inspiring, or educating, go back to the drawing board. Dig deep into those audience pain points and your analytics to create high-quality content that resonates and adds value to someone’s day.
2. Know Your Target Audience
You can’t create valuable, shareable, and saveable content unless you have a crystal clear audience persona.
By taking the time to clearly define your audience and who you’re targeting, you can ensure every single post you share is tailored, compelling and convincing.
Your content becomes magnetic when you speak to a specific group of people.
When those people feel like your piece of content, and your profile as a whole is made for them, you’ve struck social media gold.
How do you figure out your “niche”? Start with the topic you want to be known for or the problem you want to solve. For example, a luxury solo female traveller or teaching millennials about investing.
From there, start experimenting. See what resonates and sticks with your audience and use that as your guiding niche light.
This leads us to the next tip…
3. Give The People What They Want
How often are you scrutinizing your social media analytics? If you’re like most people, probably on a very ad hoc basis.
To make an impact on social media (and stop content creation from feeling like a never-ending hamster wheel), you need to become BFFs with your insights.
Open your Instagram right now, and do the following:
• Navigate to “Content You Shared” and go through each section for Stories, Reels, Post, Video, and Live.
• Filter your time period by the last 3 and 6 months.
• Filter your metrics by Impressions, Reach, Plays, Saves, and Shares.
Look at your most popular content. Are there any common threads? Is there a particular topic or colour palette resonating with your audience?
Next, look at your least popular content pieces. What are the common threads here? Are your photos low quality, or are your captions lacking substance?
P.s. want a super easy way to track your social media content performance? Sign up to Plann to gain detailed Instagram insights that will take your content from good to great.
After doing this exercise, you’ll have a super clear idea of what content resonates with your audience. Once you know that, you can focus on creating more.
4. Batch Create Content and Save Time
If you want to create high-quality content, you need to figure out a system that supports your goal. One of the best solutions? Batch creating your content.
This content creation workflow starts with figuring out your content pillars or buckets. Need some help?
Create a Plann account, click on “Strategy”, select “Content Prompts”, and find stacks of tailored content pillars and prompts relevant to your niche.
Don’t like any of the prompts? Send everything to the trash bin and create your own!
Now that you have a rough idea of what topics you want to talk about, it’s 100x easier to get your social media content strategy brain turned on.
Sit down and schedule a “shoot” day where you’ll take photos and film clips for Reels and TikTok. Next, set aside time for editing and uploading all your content into Plann.
Finally, move on to batch writing your captions and scheduling your Stories, Posts, and Reels to go out at the best time for maximum engagement.
And voila! You’re creating top-notch content…consistently!
5. Get Snapping
You don’t need a fancy DSLR to create high-quality videos and photos.
Get into the habit of wiping down your smartphone before you start filming.
It will instantly take your content from looking like an unintentional 90s throwback to videos and photos that scream, ‘Look out world, I’m a professional.”
One last equipment tip, invest in a tripod. It doesn’t have to be expensive, and you can even opt for something lowkey like a GorillaPod. Whatever you decide, it will go a long way in helping you capture high-quality content.
No more shaky footage or balancing precariously on a rock!
6. Ask for The Sale (in a Non-Salesy Way)
Okay, what does that even MEAN?!
It means we are highly evolved creatures. We see a billboard ad and instantly block it out. A spread in a magazine? Not even a blip on the radar.
How do you cut through all the advertisement noise? By appealing to people’s emotions, pain points, and the ultimate transformation or end goal.
Picture it this way. If you shout, “buy my stuff!” at someone every day, you’ll only annoy them.
But if you use storytelling, show your audience how you overcame a similar problem, establish trust, use social proof, and then ask for the sale?
Cha-ching!
Start Creating Quality Social Media Content
Sign up for a free Plann account and stop procrastinating. Nip your social media bad habits and excuses in the bud and use features like done-for-you content prompts and a calendar with post ideas to never run out of post ideas again.
