How to batch create your social media content for a month
Have you ever wanted to try batching your content for your social media marketing but wasn’t sure where to start? This is the perfect ‘how-to’ guide for you then!
Over a series of posts we're going to explore the process of how to best plan, batch create and schedule your social media content. The term 'batching' is used to refer to when you sit down for a certain portion of time and plan, create and schedule multiple social media posts. This is so you don't need to worry about forgetting to post, have to constantly create social media posts each day (which is often time consuming!) and can actually create content that has some strategy to it, rather than just posting on the fly!
We've already started with our planning post here which explores how to create a strategic social media marketing plan that will help you not only create your posts but also help you create them with better purpose both for your audience and for your business. If you missed it you can go and check it out here (I recommend reading it first!)
In today's post were going to look at how to actually design your posts. We'll have a look at Canva and templates. If you find you need further help with this and would like to see some of the explanations in this post visually, click here to get my free Canva training course delivered straight to your inbox! You will also then be notified as this series on batching your social media content comes out.
Before you start: Create branded templates in Canva
If this is the start of your batching journey, you may or may not have templates created and ready to use for your social media posts. I would highly recommend you create some templates to help support consistent visual branding in your posts and to save you valuable time! You can create these templates on any platform but I like to use Canva thanks to its usability, template features and gallery/storage features. I also love that it is easy to access my designs on my phone if I quickly want to create a story and upload it onto Instagram!
I suggest you create and save three types of Canva templates, and then re-use them each month. If you like to have more of a pattern in your feed, you might just create one of each type of template or if you like to have your feed more spread out, you might create up to three types, it’s really up to you.
Template #1: Text only
This is the most basic type of template you can create. It is text-only and it is up to you how you embellish the background or the area around your words.
This template is great for educational information, quotes or reviews.
When creating this template make sure you use similar font’s to your brand’s fonts (your exact font might not be accessible on Cava, but you should be able to find something that reflects your fonts) and use your brand’s colours! You might find you need to use shades of your brand’s colours to create variation or add a font to make it easier to read paragraphs, once you do this however, try to keep re-using these fonts/colours you have chosen.
Template #2: Image Post
This template helps keep your images on brand. You are essentially creating a background for your image or images to sit on.
You can create your backgrounds for your images by using colours, textures and shapes.
Please note, you can totally just post a full image on Instagram too if you want! I just find it is useful to have this template if the image I want to post is quite different to my normal style of image or colours.
Template #3: Layout Post
This last template type is a bit more complex than the last two but is super fun to look at visually.
This template uses multiple images and/or text and helps build a story for your audience.
If you need inspiration for this template type, make sure you check out Canva’s existing templates as there’s a whole heap you can steal the layout from and then alter it to match your brand better!
Once you have created your templates, make sure you save them and then make a copy when you want to create a new post so you don’t change that core template accidentally! (If you need more help with this, remember to sign up to my free Canva training here: http://eepurl.com/gxyuz1 )
But how do you make Canva templates your own?
Did you know, you don’t have to just use Canva templates as they are? You can change them to better reflect your branding and alter them to better communicate what you want them to. Here's the super brief guide on how to best get Canva templates to reflect your branding:
Step 1: Choose the type of content you want to create and find a template you like
The first step is of course finding a template that suits what you need to post, Instagram, Facebook, post, stories etc.
There’s a huge amount of templates to choose from and you can use the different filter tools to find the free templates and even templates that use your branding colour as their base.
Step 2: Adjust the colours to suit your brand’s
Once you choose a template, adjust the colours to suit your brand’s.
This might mean changing the background colour or the graphics that are in the template to shades of your business’ colours.
Step 3: Change the font styles to match your brand
Next, get the font style to reflect your branding fonts a bit more. You might need to make them more or less bold, change from capitals to paragraph text or add in some room for more information.
Step 4: Add your content
Lastly add in your content such as photos, images or information!
And that’s it! Hit the download button and add it to your social media marketing, as easy as that!
Now you should be ready to batch your monthly/fortnightly or weekly content!
How to batch create your social media content:
Creating your social media posts should be fairly easy if you have followed the steps above and created yourself some templates to work with. This process also gets easier the more you do it - practice makes perfect!
Step #1: Refer back to your planning guide and further refine it
Go back to the content plan you created earlier. At the moment your ideas will not be fleshed out very much. Our goal is to expand on the idea by describing it further. Once you have a good understanding of what that post will be about decide what post template (text, image, layout) would best suit your idea.
Step #2: Using your plan and templates, create your posts
The next step is to open up Canva, and using your planning document, start to create your content.
This will include gathering and uploading images and/or videos.
This part of the process is generally the most time consuming, so make sure you set aside at least an hour for this part of your content creation.
Once you have created your content, make sure you download and place it somewhere you can easily find it for when you schedule these posts.
Step #3: Create your captions
Lastly, don’t forget to write your captions!
This can also be a bit time consuming depending on how you feel about writing! I actually find typing on my computer far easier than typing on my phone so I very much like planning my captions in advance!
Heads up, if this is the first time you are batching content for your Instagram, you will also need to create three hashtag lists to use as well.
Need more help with captions?
Stevie Says Social has a great episode on it here, click here.
So by the end of this process you should have your content and captions ready to be scheduled for the month and forgotten about (well, sort of!).
Need more help with this? Check out my group social media program here!