Many business and brand owners find content creation challenging because they don’t know where to start, and the truth is, the bar for excellence and commercial success for social media content creation has gone meteoric since the release of early social media platforms.
In this article we’re fast forwarding your ability to learn social media content creation and get you up to speed on the fundamentals of content creation so you can market your brand at low cost. This article is for brand owners who are just starting out on their own in social media marketing and not for advanced content creators. We will cover tactical steps on how to yield the most impact with very little resource and time.
Commitment & Perspective
The biggest hurdle for many brand owners is shifting the perspective from perfectionist to iterative testing. You’re likely coming from the service and product development where perfectionism and success at launch is a huge priority. However, marketing and especially social media marketing relies on volume and iterations. We need you to shift gears from trying to get the best possible result to “how can I get used to doing this as frequently as possible”. Don’t aim for perfection - aim for volume of repetition. This will take longer than you may think, and often requires long term commitment, sometimes embarrassment, and thick skin.
Equipment: Start with the basics
When starting out, try not to complicate your workflow by buying expensive cameras, tools, and gears. These often introduce unnecessary learning curves that will likely lead to burn out and frustration without progress. Great social media content has proven to be made with just a phone camera.
Basic equipment:
- Smart Phone with a quality camera and mic (iphone 13 and above)
- 30 minutes of video storage available
- Editing tool - CapCut or edit directly using Instagram
- Google Doc (Free)
The Process of Content Creation
Content creation is as much about creativity as it is about planning and logistics - knowing what to capture, how to capture, and how it will be edited. These two skills - creativity and logistics, are the key ingredients in creating successful content.
The first idea is coming up with ideas. Learn how to conduct a social media competitive analysis from our article post to get a good grasp of what kind of content may fit you and your brand. Ideas shouldn’t be generated off the cuff - careful strategic planning is necessary. Creativity lives within the useful boundaries of constraints such as ideal customer profile, hooks, call to action, feasibility, and more.
One of the easiest ways to discover content ideas is to train your account to recommend content your audience may like. For example, if your business is a pilates studio, follow local and global pilates studios and the algorithm will recommend similar contents. This is helpful when you’re out of new content ideas and looking for trends.
Another way to craft creative content ideas is to use patterns of different content styles and match it for your business. For example, a creative content idea for a wellness studio can be used similarly for your pilates studio.
If you have more time on your hands and experience in creative content creation, you can start with the fundamentals of high performing social media content: Hooks, cuts, transitions, and edits. This will be more logistically complex and requires more time not just during the creative process but also the filming and editing. Come up with the directions that’s not achieved previously but unconventional and eye catching. This is often how content trends start!
Log several creative ideas on a Google doc to keep track of ideas and in case plans change you can pivot to a different idea. This document will eventually turn into your shot list.
The shot list is an important document that helps communicate and align both the creative idea with the execution. The shot list should contain the specific script if applicable as well as how the content should be edited. Content pillars, target audience, when to post, content strategy, all of these descriptions and information should be logged here. If you’d like to learn more about shot list and see an example of Social Habit’s shot list, reach out to us!
Things to keep in mind when you’re selecting creative ideas are the classic 5 W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. All these details must be answered in the shot list to make sure the content you’re creating can be achieved. Note, even if one of these details fail to meet, the whole content creation will likely fail. Make sure your team is available to be in front of the camera, ensure the lighting and weather are suitable, and there is enough time to capture all the content.
Key Tips & Tricks
- Focus on skills over tools and equipment. Oftentimes the bigger and better gear requires much more time to master and it’s better. When starting out, focus on getting as much repetition of content creation vs. the quality. You’ll get better with practice and learning from previous mistakes and iterations.
- Train your eyes to notice subtle qualities of lighting, background distractions, stable camera movements, camera angles etc.
- Some content is more difficult than others. When starting out, lean into content that is user generated content (UGC), personal, and fast. Lean into voice over content that you can record yourself talking after filming. This allows you to remove the need for the audio to track the video.
- Create content that you enjoy. After creating the content, whether it’s good or not, you MUST post on a platform. Without tapping on the publish button, you won’t know how your content will perform. Sometimes a great piece of content with an effective hook and call to action still flops and that’s okay! Try to enjoy the process of content creation over the results of your content creation especially at the beginning of your journey.
If all these sound too complicated, then try a different method - using other creators to generate content for you via a community method; or hire a local social media marketing agency like us! - Social Habit Marketing.