Social media posting workflow

No one I talk to has an actual system for creating content on social media. They randomly post something when they “have time” or inspiration. It’s rarely seen by many people and it doesn’t usually result in anything more than 50 people seeing your face, which definitely serves a purpose, but it’s kind of the bare minimum.

And if you’re reading this and are feeling upset that I just called your strategy the bare minimum, when you’re so busy with everything else (how dare I!), this is not a personal attack on you. I share this with love because I want your business to grow!

I know how time-consuming social media is! Even for me who makes dozens of reels every week, it’s very time-consuming.

When I hear people say they don’t have time to work on their social media, I wonder if they have time to bring more clients into their business. To me, they’re the same.

They are truly is no one size fits all solution to this problem. The main reason it feels so overwhelming is because you don’t have a plan. Once you have a plan and know exactly what you should do and when, your mental load will be much lighter and I’m 90% sure social media will see more manageable.

Like any daunting task, once it’s broken into step-by-step list, it suddenly seems doable.

Here’s what I have found, in five years of doing social media, professionally, that save time and brain space.

This post talks about the following process. Read for more details.

-Write down your goals and desired outcomes

-Brainstorm content, ideas

-Create the content

-Schedule the content

Before you read the rest, don’t just take notes on this email. Start a Google Drive spreadsheet that will become your social media calendar. Then you’ll have your notes in one place!

STEP One

I map out the 2-4 topics I will post about

….social media, fun videos, mom entrepreneurs, mindset

I write out my business goals and social media goals

…..I want 1,000 followers and to grow my email list and sell my book

I make a list of all the steps I might want someone to take. 

…..sign up for emails….follow…share…buy the book…book a call…..hire me to make videos

Do I want them to call me? Coming into the office?Do I want them to click my link to book an appointment? Click to sign up for an email list. Or simply like, follow, share.

STEP Two,

I brainstorm a huge list of ideas.
-Questions I get asked.

-Sometimes I just look at my appointments from the last week and see all the things I’ve done and talk about them.

I also like to address common problems, misconceptions, and mistakes I see people making in my industry.

If you need help coming up with content ideas, I have a free guide when you sign up for my emails (scroll to the footer to sign up).

Go to your list of goals from step one. Do you want your customers to make an appointment? Talk about making appointments in some of your reels.

You could share a Client story and then your call to action could be “click the link to schedule your appointment”.

Maybe you want them to call you?

You share some company news and the call to action could be to “call the office to get started”.

If you want to grow your account, ask for shares and followers.

As you are planning out your content, bring it back to the initial goals you mapped out earlier.

STEP Three

Plan the content.

Each idea that you’ve come up with can be several different pieces of content and can be repurposed. I start with a longer piece of content, it could be a YouTube video if you have a YouTube, or it can just be a one-minute video of you explaining the topic.

For one of my clients, we just did a video call and I asked him a bunch of questions. The entire recording was full of his insights!

For each topic, I made 3 posts.

I edited a 60-second explainer reel.

I made a 7-second reel with a summary/list of what was said in the 60-second reel.

I took the gist of that video (you could use the transcript) and turned it into a carousel.

More ideas…

The long reel could be a montage of clips from your camera roll with your voiceover, or it could be a video where you’re just talking and looking at the camera the entire time.

If you make a matrix or chart, you can generate dozens of content ideas so quickly! (Which is in the workbook, by the way.)

Here’s an example of how each idea can be multiple posts. This is from a client of mine who is a career coach.

STEP Four 

Now I edit.

I like to make several videos all at once. Don’t work through that entire process individually for each video because it will take longer. Anytime we switch between tasks, our brain is a little bit less productive.

I always prefer to edit in CapCut as opposed to the Instagram app, because the Instagram app is always glitching or having some sort of issue. That’s a personal preference. If you don’t want to download another app, you can definitely do everything you need an Instagram, especially as a beginner.

Do all the filming first

Then all the editing

Then the writing

What number of posts feel doable for you? Could you sit down and do three?

STEP Five

Schedule!

Once I have a few videos made, I schedule them in the Instagram app.

I like doing the last bit in Instagram, because I like to take advantage of the trending audio and the captions work out better for me. Instagram doesn’t recognize the words if they were put on in a third-party editing app. Every word we say, and type on Instagram is searched so it helps a little bit when the algorithm is trying to rank our content.

I like to use Repurpose.io to automatically repost my content for me to Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube shorts. You could also use Metricool to schedule all your posts at once to different platforms…but then you have to add music in CapCut. (I am not an affiliate, I just like these services.)

Since I’ve been doing this, my TikTok views have tripled.

Final thoughts

It’s ideal to plan out posts on a spreadsheet as opposed to a physical planner because then you don’t lose your notes and you can copy/paste the text much easier. You can see everything you have done so far and easily repurpose and re-organize past content.

If you know all this and are ready for more, or want more clarification on each of these steps, visit the Social Media Workbook.

It goes into extreme detail, with screenshots and pictures and prompts and everything, about every single step of this journey.