Planning your social media content
In order for your brand to look good online and on social media, you have to have cohesive style and voice, otherwise it can look like it is just thrown together or even a little tacky. It’s a great idea to get your team together and make a plan so everyone is on the same page, which is what we did for our brand that we mentioned recently that we are rebranding, AXIX. In this meeting we discussed how we want to position ourselves on social media and what we needed to do in order to do this effectively.
Inspiration
A great way to start is to spend some time finding different Instagram accounts or photos online that you feel are interesting that would work well for your brand as inspiration. You can go through, take screenshots of some of your favorites, and then put them all together in a place you can easily access. Once you can see them all together you begin noticing what it is that pops out about them and find some consistencies between the photos. For us, once we had all the photos compiled, we noticed right away that we really liked the ones that had brighter colors and higher contrasts because it gave a sharper/edgier look. So now that we have determined what we think looks good we can start to figure out how to create a similar look and add our own unique flavor to it.
If you don’t do this prior to the photoshoot it can be challenging because you won’t have anything to give your photographer as a reference. What looks cool to the photographer might be totally different than what is cool to us, so you could end up not getting the right shots or edits that aren’t done the way you want. In the end, making sure to plan beforehand can save the photographers time because they won’t have to end up re-editing or re-shooting photos.
Bring that inspiration with you on the shoot
Having a visual representation of what you are looking for is a critical part of ensuring that you are staying on track once you are out on set. Something that we noticed through our inspiration was that the content was not so much modeling as much as they were just being outdoors and doing a cool activity like mountain biking or climbing. If we were trying to have someone modeling hiking, it wouldn’t really work for our brand or it might come across as inauthentic. Whenever you have an idea of a photograph when you are on set and are unsure about it, you can easily refer back to your idea board to help determine whether it will work.
What kind of copy are we using?
When it comes to the copy of a post, you want to figure out the style we want to go for. Is it going to be humorous? Is it going to be a short caption? Long and informational, or long and motivational? These are all things that you want to make sure you get down before you actually start posting otherwise it can just begin looking mismatched or not flow well. For us that meant we want drier humor that is quick and witty. An example of this that we like to reference is Wendy’s social media (we know that might sound weird) but their social media game is insane. They are witty, entertaining, and they have a crazy online presence especially considering the fact that they are a fast food restaurant.
Hashtags
The last thing you want to do is go over which hashtags are right for you. When it comes to hashtags it’s important that you aren’t spamming people and you aren’t just using whatever is popular if it’s not related to your brand or your message. You want to make sure you are keeping it more niche because if you’re appealing to everyone, you’re appealing to no one.
A good way to keep this organized is to figure out all the hashtags that you think would be relevant to your brand and put them in an excel document that everyone can access. That way you are not having to come up with them later or last minute, you will just have somewhat of a hashtag word bank. Though a lot of things have changed and evolved when it comes to hashtag etiquette, the fact is they are a great way for your brand to become discoverable and is also how your content gets categorized. A lot of brands don’t want to appear spammy or inauthentic by using hashtags so doing things like putting them in the first comment or using the indentations between the copy and the start of the hashtags can make it appear more subtle.
Overview
At the end of the day, making sure that you have a solid plan for your social media has a huge impact on the success of your brand and your overall online presence. Getting inspiration for your content, planning the copy ahead of time, and creating a word bank of hashtags is a great start. And if you need inspiration make sure to check out our brand AXIX to follow along the journey from start to finish!
