Why Create Content in Batches?
Creating one status update at a time over and over doesn’t make any sense. It gets in the way of your schedule because every time you want to share a post, you have to make time to write it and post it. You end up constantly task-switching, which does not reflect best on your productivity. This is where social batching comes in handy.
Almost everything you do on social media fits into one of two categories: posting original an external website), and live interaction (replies, shares, etc.).
Here’s how to prep your content for social media ahead of time, so you aren’t starting over every day.
1: List Categories for Updating
You will need to have a variety of different update types. Here are some examples of the types of updates you can share on a regular basis:
Links to Your Unique Content – This one is obvious, but you cannot overstate the importance. This includes content like links to your own blog posts or videos.
Brand Awareness – Whenever someone mentions you in an original content post, make sure people are made aware of it! This helps drive traffic to your business page or prompts product reviews, which is always helpful.
Seasonal Promotions – Many people hate having to run seasonal promotions because they take time. Take the pain out of these promos by preparing them in batches, considering each promo to be a separate category. Save your work in a folder you can revisit every season to maximize your effort.
External Content – This is an important part of a successful social media strategy. There is so much great content on the web that you shouldn’t feel pressured to create everything all by yourself. If it is useful to your audience, share it!
Single Use Content – Overall, repeating content on social media is a very good thing. But sometimes you may want to say something just the one time. This can be an easy batch to create and can include time-sensitive questions to short-term promotions.
Words of Wisdom and Quotes – This is actually broken down into two categories. First, use your own tips and advice. Then add some quotes from other people. Categorizing them together is helpful if you are just starting to build your content library.
Now that you have categories, it’s time to turn them into something that will ultimately save you time!
2: Create a Batch of Social media Updates
Let us assume you end up with six types of updates that you regularly share. Let’s just say you want to post from each category at the same frequency.
If you’re posting 3 updates per day, 5 days a week, that’s a decent number to make an impact. That’s 15 updates a week/60 a month. 60 updates per month equals 10 updates per category per month.
Your task is to sit down once a month and write 10 updates per category. Ten links to blog posts you think are worth sharing. Ten tips or quotes. Ten links to your own blog articles, etc.
When you’re all finished compiling the batch of updates, load them into your scheduler of choice (Hootsuite for example) and relax knowing that for the next 4 weeks your social media pages are going to keep buzzing with a steady stream of updates at all the prime times, no matter where you’re at.
Since you no longer have to dedicate time every day to thinking of new stuff to post, you can actually spend more time than you were before interacting live. That’s the point of social media anyway, right?
3: Interact Live After Scheduling
Live, real-time interactions cannot be planned ahead of time, because you never know what other people are going to post. You can, however, plan how much time you want to put aside for live interactions.
Instead of filling the gaps in your daily routine with live time on social media, try to make it a part of your daily routine. Dedicate blocks of time throughout the day for your checking social media page and interacting live.
Respond to notifications, engage with your audience, find articles to share, retweet, and do it on a schedule.
Knock out as much as you can in these pre-determined time batches so the rest of the time you’re not falling into those bad task-switching habits that keep you distracted from what you should be doing.