Spend Less Time Creating Content and Get Better Results

Welcome to Part 5 of the seven-part Pathway to Smart Social Mastery system series discussing how to use social media to create more leads and grow your influence as a thought leader.

To get all of the episodes of the Master Social Media to Create More Business Leads and Grow Your Influence video series, on which these posts are based, you can sign up here. 

This post focuses on Stage 4: Creator, which discusses how to streamline your content creation process for maximum impact. Make sure to implement them in the order listed.

1. Create three months of content in just one hour
   
   It may seem hard to believe, but if you follow the approach outlined here, you can create strategic content for your social media platforms in a single hour.
   
   Start by choosing a main topic area. Ideally this should either be your existing area of expertise or what you wish to become known for. Using Zoetica Media founder Kami Huyse as an example, her main topic right now is explaining how to create an actionable social media strategy for your brand, which the above-mentioned video series and blog posts are a part of.
   
   Next, choose 3-7 subtopics or categories that fit within your main topic. Kami’s subtopics are Explorer, Visionary, Connector, Creator, Attractor, and Innovator, the components of her Pathway to Smart Social Mastery system.
   
   Lastly, brainstorm 5-10 ideas that you want your audience to know about each subtopic. These ideas then become the foundation for the content you’ll create and share, whether as an Instagram Reel, a Facebook post, a blog post on your own website, or something else. 
   
   
2. Batch create an entire month’s worth of content in one hour
   
   One of the most commonly practiced but inefficient ways to work is to become caught in a never-ending cycle of one-off starts and stops. Contrast that with setting aside a dedicated amount of time where you use the ideas you’ve previously come up with to create all the content for a set longer period of time, such as a month.
   
   Here’s an example of what this looks like: When Kami and Madalyn Sklar produced the weekly Communities that Convert podcast, they met once a month to hammer things out. First they created 4-5 bulleted outlines, one for each week of the upcoming month. Then they talked through the outline, recording themselves in the process. This recording then, in turn, served as the transcript they followed during their next podcast recording.  
   
   Two useful tools that can assist in this process are Otter.ai (real-time automated transcription) and Rev.com (professional audio transcription service). 
   
   
3. Repurpose your content in 1-2 hours
   
   Since you invest so much to come up with valuable content that resonates with your target audience, you’ll want to make sure you get the most traction from it. Using it only once and then setting it aside therefore makes little sense. Instead, come up with ways you can repurpose and thereby stretch the content to ensure it gets in front of as many people as possible.
   
   Start with the main piece of content you’ve created that week, whether it’s a blog post, a video, podcast, or perhaps a live stream. If you have time to produce more that’s great, but don’t worry if you can’t. Having one solid piece of quality content a week is enough because that one can then be repurposed into several pieces. A single video or blog post, for example, can be turned into an Instagram story, a Facebook post, and a Tweet.
   
   Once you’ve created all of that week’s content, you can make a note in your calendar what days and times you want to publish it and then do so manually, or schedule it out with a tool like SocialChamp which enables you to simultaneously publish posts on multiple social media accounts. 
   
   While scheduling will save you a tremendous amount of time, one thing you should never automate is your direct engagement with people. Always personally connect with individuals that interact with the material you put out. 
   
   In terms of additional tools, two that assist in the repurposing of content include Pictory (helps turning longer-form content like blogs or webinars into social video posts) and Descript (offers audio editing through text rather than waveform editing).

Finally, remember that if you create a regular schedule around content creation and repurposing, you’ll be able to keep the momentum going even in the busiest of times.

Here is what a sustainable content plan looks like: 

• Quarterly: Brainstorm your content themes and subtopics or categories in 1 hour.

• Monthly: Batch create your content in a single session to save time.

• Weekly: Set aside 1-5 hours each week for repurposing and delivering content in bite-sized, shareable sections.

Keep a lookout for the next installment in this series, Stage 5: Attractor.

And if you’re interested in getting immediate access to the videos in the Master Social Media to Create More Business Leads and Grow Your Influence series as they come out, you can SIGN UP here now. 📽️