Look at your content strategically, from scheduling to execution to publishing, for ultimate effect.
Everyone says you should be consistently creating and posting content, but what does that look like when you’re already busy running your brand?
In this course, brand strategist, social media expert, and keynote speaker Phil Pallen will break it down from start to finish and teach you about planning, calendaring, and scheduling your content using Adobe Express.
First things first; quality is always more important than quantity. Focus on crafting content with meaning and intention, content that will be useful to your audience.
It’s easiest to create when you understand your audience. Think of your ideal customer. Who comes to mind? What makes them happy? What information are they constantly looking for and what questions are they asking? Create for them!
Strive to create something valuable, but not too complicated. Answer frequently asked questions in simple carousel, text format. Share images with thought provoking questions, that prompt users to engage or set them up to create content of their own.
Keep in might that slightly tweaking your content for different platforms is a way to further specialize your content. Creating your own templates of content types and styles you commonly use will save you a lot of time.
It’s easier to create content when you know who you are creating it for. Phil suggests envisioning someone specific. This could be a past client or your future ideal customer. Once you have that person in mind, consider what kind of content that person might enjoy or find useful. Keep in mind what social media channels they might use, what problems you might be able to help them solve or even what kind of content might bring them joy. When you know your audience, you can create content for them.
Now that you’ve created your content, it’s time to move onto posting it!
Scheduling puts content in front of your viewers in a way they can grow to depend on. It’s like knowing your favorite TV show is going to come on at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. Plus, when everything is scheduled, you have the option to post in real time, but don’t necessarily have to create or post under pressure. This allows you to have cover for moments when something comes up and you’re not able to post.
Scheduling can increase engagement because it frees up your time to engage with your audience in real-time, but posting on a schedule can also increase your brand recognition. Phil posts across several platforms throughout the week and visual similarities across all his posts link everything back to his brand. Whether through color, font, or style, regardless of platform, his content is recognizable as his.
Now, for the scheduling work– using Adobe Express’ scheduler tool you can create, draft, and schedule your content to all major social platforms. Store unfinished ideas in “unscheduled posts” as drafts and add finished ones at the dates and time you know your audience will be active to maximize engagement. Everything is drag and drop so you can fill your calendar with ease. This is where it’s especially helpful to have pieces of evergreen content on hand so you can supplement your editorial calendar as needed.
One pro-tip Phil shares in his course is that batch creating your content saves a lot of time because you don’t have to prepare yourself to be in creative flow every time. He recommends carving out an hour or two to sit down and create multiple weeks of content in a single afternoon.
Don’t forget, a single content idea can exist in various forms. Think about all the ways a single piece of content can become lots of pieces of content. For example, a podcast article could become a pull quote graphic for Instagram, a soundbite for TikTok, and a blog article.
When creating content, don’t forget about evergreen content. Evergreen content is content that stays relevant for an extended period, so it has long-standing appeal. It tends to go further than content tied to events or trends. (Though both are valuable in their own right!)
To recap:
Quality over quantity is the main takeaway. Your content should always provide value.
Tailor content for the specific platform you’re posting on, this will make it ever more effective.
Scheduling your content can be a huge brand benefit. It can establish reliability, brand recognition, and increase your engagement. It also frees you up to engage with your audience back.
With the Adobe Express scheduler, you can easily post across multiple platforms, set it, and let Scheduler do the rest.