Use Blog Posts to Create Social Media Content
One question that we often asked is: As a solo business owner / entrepreneur, how can one person efficiently make content for so many different social media channels (while simultaneously running a business)?
The solution: Blog posts and a content calendar. It’s not easy and it takes organization and planning. But with a little strategy and a calendar you can make a little bit of content go a long way. Read on to learn how.
Starting at the beginning of your social media planning – there are many platforms to consider and a your business should strategize which forms of social media marketing are best for your audience. It’s generally agreed that you can multiply your audience by using as many social channels as available but your choices will be narrowed by your audience, your product, and your bandwidth to post and respond on these channels.
In our case study, a retail clothing store owner with great foot traffic and a strong Instagram following was looking for advice on how to gain new audiences.
Our first advice was to expand the content that was being published on the company’s website, blog, and social media channels. Then to create a weekly schedule of content creation and posting that will maximize the content they have created. Here’s an example of how that could look:
Monday – Write a Blog Post
Write a blog post once a week and find photographs or images to go with that post. Write a compelling title, find links to interesting things (videos, other articles to reference).
Tuesday – Schedule Social Media Posts
Log into Hootsuite and schedule out content for the rest of the week (and upcoming weeks/months). Use information from Monday’s blog post (quotes, stats, information, images, links, etc) to create social media posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, and any other platforms you want to work with. Link all of these posts back to your original blog URL which should drive traffic (and SEO information) back to your site.
Wednesday – Newsletter (once a month)
Once you have three or four blog posts, summarize them into a newsletter with other relevant information (things you want to sell, upcoming sales, or new products for instance). Send that out to your mailing list with links back to your website once a month.
Once you have written a blog post once a week for four weeks, you should have enough material to make multiple social media posts, and a newsletter. This is a great start to creating a content marketing channel.
Thursday – Syndicate on Facebook
Once your post is up and you’ve posted to your own social media channels, it’s time to start posting your content in online forums, groups, and channels where you may gain new viewers. Facebook is one of the best places for this as there are many public groups that will offer places to post your content to interested audiences.
Friday – Re-post
Go back through your article on Friday and find one small quote, a piece of information, or a photo. Use that piece of information to create a new post on your social media channels, calling attention to that detail and posting back to the original post.
At this point if you write four blog posts a month (once every Monday), you should have enough content to create a newsletter and fill your social media channels.
But what should we write about?
In short, write about yourselves and act like a journalist covering your business. Talk about your identities, your ideas, your vision, your products, and the things you learn along the way. Some ideas:
- New products, upcoming sales, freebies, incentives for customers
- Tell your brand’s story – people are interested. (shows authenticity).
- Give information on your specialties (what is your expertise?)
- Be a journalist. Report on what’s happening.