Plan Your Content

Social media is undoubtedly a great way to react to current events in real time, like trends, causes and particular movements. The ice bucket challenge became a virally charged movement in the year of 2014 and encouraged everyone to take part for a good cause. With just a phone and a bucket of icy water, anyone would participate and share with the world instantly. This is reactive marketing. Taking note of current trends and doing something to be a part of it.

But what about the rest of the year?

Your social media feed should provide people with an insight into your business. Not just your take on current events. So it's important to plan content for your social media all year round. When you start to plan your social media, it quickly becomes apparent that a lot of work is needed. You need to think about:

• What are you going to post?
• Do you need to take photos or videos?
• Do you need to create graphics?
• Do you need any special equipment or resources to create the content?

For many of our clients, the first point is often the initial stumbling block. "What am I going to post?" One of the key aspects of social media is to identify what you can share to social media. Many non-traditional social media businesses find it hard to visualise how they can be represented on social media.

So for example, a non-traditional business may be a small mechanics garage. To begin a social media campaign we must think about what we can communicate on social media. It's not just about pictures of cars and tools, but more of what is applicable to 'that' garage and why people on social media may value that information.

• What services does the garage provide?
• What are the CORE VALUES? (Affordability, Friendly Atmosphere, Clean etc)
• Unique features i.e. courtesy car, pick up, drop off service, digital receipts

It's this type of information that builds a unique profile for a business that can separate them from competitors. Some garages may focus on performance and tuning, whereas another garage is all about providing a friendly, reliable service.

After we have identified WHAT we can communicate on social media, it's time to think about HOW to communicate it. Let's look at some particular CORE VALUES and think about how we this can be communicated via social media.

Friendly Atmosphere
Photos of the mechanics, receptionist, happy customers and any quirky elements of the garage would help communicate this point.

Clean Environment
Photos of the garage, reception and waiting area that show a clean, warm environment that makes a customer feel comfortable. Not a greasy, oily second-hand sofa out the back.

Affordability
If the garage offers low prices, or payment plans with 0% finance to help customers manage their bills, this can be communicated through graphics.

Taking just these three samples of what can be communicated, we have identified that a range of photography is needed, as well as some graphic design to effectively communicate these CORE VALUES. Not only is planning for the content creation needed, but the distribution is also important as they need to be communicated via social media ALL YEAR ROUND to maintain an ongoing message.

This can be quite a daunting task to plan and schedule when you're going to do this, including the execution. So if you want to self publish your social media content, we advise preparing a content calendar to do so. The best way to do this, and avoid additional stress is to work with a social media manager. Like us :)