Social media tips and tricks

Just like The Godfather is the answer to all questions… (What day is it? Maunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday… What do I take on vacation? Leave the gun, take the cannoli– or is it the other way around?)

“Everything the light touches is content,” is the same answer to, “What do I post?” In fact, it’s actually more about “What NOT to post” because content is literally everywhere! Which is a good reason why people are paralyzed while creating it. There’s so much content, so little time (don’t know where to start!) or I can’t figure out what to create once I have ideas (Also – I don’t know where to start!)

So, here’s where I would start if you’re stuck.

1. You’re going to create content under the umbrella of these three topics: Entertainment, Educational, Emotional

2. Take some time, put some inspirational music on, whatever sparks your creativity, put on your affirmations, your favorite podcast, and then brain dump under these three topics everything you’d like to talk about in relation to your business & possibly even venturing into your personal life a little (if you want).

For instance:

Entertainment: What photos/videos of your products or scenarios at your business make people ooh, ahh, or laugh? Do you like memes? Are there quotes about your products (“desserts is stressed spelled backwards” or “Coffee Spelled Backwards Is Eeffoc I Don’t Give Eeffoc Until I’ve Had My Coffee,”) quizzes, polls, etc. How can you entertain people?

Educate: Identify the paint points of your ideal customer and create content that gives people easy fixes. In this scenario, do not worry about giving away your secrets. Many people think, “Why would I tell them this? Then they won’t need me!” But that’s not true. You are positioning yourself as an expert in your field. You’re a resource. And you’re there for them when they give up (which is many times!) This gives people a place to get to know you BEFORE they book your services, program, or buy your product. By the time they buy, they don’t just like you, THEY LOVE YOU. So, in this umbrella, include your passions as a business/business owner, and philosophies. Find parallel industries that work alongside of yours like real estate works with finance or home decor. Find ways to collaborate with other businesses who have social followings. What are YOUR favorite things that help you? What are LISTS of your favorite things and/or resources? This category answers the question: How can I help, or even better, SERVE, people? How can you guide them through their problems? Each problem is a piece of content. This is giving without the expectation of receiving. (However, in many cases, it does turn into your receiving.)

Emotional: How can you dial into peoples’ emotions? Is there a cause that you are particularly tied to or something you’ve gone through that will help others identify with you, what are you passionate about? This is a good time to TELL STORIES. In platforms like TikToks/Reels, you don’t even have to say anything you can just put words on a screen to music! This is a powerful way to tell stories! (And no, you don’t have to dance!) Do you have success stories from former clients or customers that are just unbelievable and give people all the feels? Do you have stories about how you went through the same thing and that’s why you started your business in the first place? Is there a journey you can take people on – a series you can create, or a way to serve that helps others get involved? Yes, so many options, but think about your stories, the stories of your customers, the stories of your employees (that you can tell with their permission). This is your place to identify with your clients and help them get to know you.

3. So after the brain dump, pick 5-7 of those ideas that you can execute easily in one day. And then schedule them out on your platforms or put them in drafts. Maybe it’s just a photo and a story. Maybe it’s a 10 second video of a problem your customers/clients can identify with. Maybe it’s a blog post (which you can turn into a video/photo/email to your list – 4 pieces of content!) Doing this gets easier over time. You can begin to see what works and what resonates with people, and you can do more of that. You can really see in real time once something hits a nerve, it’s magical!

RELATED: How to turn one piece of content into multiple pieces of content easily

4. Once you have all these ideas in place, take out a calendar and decide what goes where, write it into the calendar. Start with a week’s worth of content and then, eventually, work up to a month planned out. For planning a month of content, maybe you break it down even further to have a series each week. (Ex. This week we’re focused on choosing the right paint colors…this week we’re focused on KETO, this week we’re talking about gratitude…) Remember – you can also repurpose a live video into a shorter video which can also be a photo and also a quote graphic. That’s FIVE PIECES OF CONTENT IN ONE EASY PLANNING SESSION. That’s a start!

NEED MORE HELP? Grab this FREE “All in One Guide to Social Media Planning Guide for Businesses” which includes a content calendar, content ideas & inspiration, and a guide of free (or almost free) tools for content creation!

Better yet, book a call to see how I can help you! Email me at christie@christieo.com.

As TikTok takes off for businesses and creators and Reels gets in on that competition, Instagram has made it clear that they don’t want the TikTok watermark on their platform.

So, how can you post the content you’re creating on TikTok on Reels and vice versa (to work smarter, not harder!?) Because it’s all about repurposing and being as resourceful with your time as possible.

NOTE: This information keeps changing, so I will keep this post updated with the latest.

It used to be that you could use the phone apps, TikSave and SaveTok, to strip off the watermark. However, SaveTok has recently stopped working for most people, so that’s out. And while TikSave still works, if you are doing a lip synch video, the words don’t always match up – there’s a little lag, and that can be annoying.

RELATED: 10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT REPURPOSING YOUR TIKTOKS INTO REELS

So, if you use TikSave, it’s best to use it when you have just a video where you’re using your own audio or just music.

If you are lipsynching a piece of audio for your video, Snaptik.app works on desktop to strip off the watermark and there’s little to no lag on the lipsync.

Another way to do it is to actually create your Reel in your Instagram stories, where you can add music and add captioning also! Then you can download the videos you created and upload them to TikTok.

RELATED: HOW TO ADD CAPTIONS TO YOUR VIDEOS

They also have different fonts on the captioning to use, some of them are a little prettier than TikTok.

But remember, you only get 30 seconds in Reels, so make sure it’s not longer than that. This is great way to create videos for sharing information and for short, educational videos. The only disadvantage is that not all the trending sounds that are in TikTok are on Reels.

So, there are pros and cons to all of these little tips and tricks, and as you get used to the platforms, you will get used to each of the platforms’ nuances.

Remember though, no matter what – keep creating! Get your business on TikTok and Reels!

Here are some important stats for you to know:

80% of people who watch videos are more likely to watch it to completion if there are captions.

Facebook says video watch time increases by 12% with captioned video. And there are billions of Facebook users, so…

These are the top reasons people watch video with captions (according to Verizon):

• They’re in a public place
• They didn’t have headphones
• They were waiting in line somewhere
• They were multitasking
• They’re in the bathroom (I added this one)

Pair that up with the fact that you are also helping those who are hearing impaired to enjoy your videos and there’s zero reasons for you to NOT use captions on your video. No matter what, more people watch video when it has words on the screen and people are also encouraged to turn on the sound if the words and the story are compelling to create a more magical experience for themselves.

So, here are some super easy ways to add captions:

• Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok all have built-in captioning functions. They are auto-generated, all you have to do is enable them and proofread them before you hit publish.
• Use the Captions app. It’s a free app you can download to your phone. Just upload a vertical video one minute or less to the app and it will autogenerate the captions for you, and you can edit them and customize them. You can use these on TikTok, Reels, Facebook and on YouTube shorts.
• Use the text overlay on TikTok & Reels (You can do it once in TikTok, then strip the TikTok watermark off to post on Reels which I show you how to do here.)
• Custom create captions for your video yourself. Yes this takes a little longer, but captions are always worth it. Go into your video editing software, find a nice font, and type in the captions manually. You can dress them up with text boxes if you like. If it’s a long interview that you don’t want to transcribe yourself, you can always hire someone on Fiverr to do that, but, I do it all the time for myself. (Transcribing interviews also gives you a ton of other content like quotes for quote graphics and mini stories you can tell in different ways through other photos or shorter videos. I’m a big fan of making 10 pieces of content out of one.)
• Add captions to your video files in Google Drive (here’s how). In this one, you have to transcribe the video first, then upload the transcription.

Keep in mind that 75% of the people watching videos are on mobile devices so make sure the words are not too small, and you should be good to go!

There’s a chance that right now you’re looking back on your week on social media and thinking that you were more “reactive” than “proactive” this week, and wishing it were the other way around.

Sometimes posting and flying by the seat of your pants pays off because you have a vision and you want to execute it right away. Sometimes that means you post only when you feel like it, which gives you no chance to get into the platforms’ algorithm and stay there.

For a longer, big-picture strategy, that’s not sustainable.

Here some ways to build a content strategy that you can create content for:

1. Begin with WHO you’re creating this content for in mind, first and always. Identify your ideal customers and their biggest pain points, wants, and needs. How do they actually *feel,* who are they?
2. How can you use the 3 Es of content creation for your business and ultimately “make people feel things?” What content can you create that EDUCATES, creates EMOTION, or ENTERTAINS? Strive for at least one of these with every post you do. (If you can hit all three in one post – that’s magic!)
3. Brainstorm your educational posts, your emotional posts, and your funny posts.
4. Pick ONE DAY of each week to content create, then try to create at least seven posts in one day, one sitting. This is called “batching content.” Then, schedule one post for each day. (If you have more, BONUS!)
5. If you can’t create seven, try five. (Monday through Friday.)
6. If you can’t create seven, try 3-4 and strive for more each week.

Batching content helps you to be able to actually focus on your business rather than stress out each day because you’re staring at the clock knowing you haven’t posted a single thing yet. Eventually, you will get into a flow and creating content will become easier.

This process may be difficult for you at the beginning because you may not know where to start, but KEEP GOING. You will figure it out and you have to start somewhere.

Once you start posting consistently, pay attention to the likes & shares of your posts and create MORE of what’s been successful.

This process is also good for realizing after a while that you DON’T WANT to be the one person creating content. That’s OK TOO! You may want to outsource this.

If you need help, I do brainstorming & training workshops to get you started, one on one coaching so we can get a system down for your content creation and planning, and in some cases, I can create the content for you. Until then, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok where I offer regular tutorials on content producing!

First we’re going to take a look at what people aren’t doing enough of on social media as a business, and then we’re going to dive in deeper into what you can create. These are four MORE mistakes most every business makes on social media.

(Clilck here for part one)

1. Not enough personal connection. They don’t get personal enough on social media to form a personal connection and vibe with their audience. You don’t have to spill all the tea about yourself and there is always “too much information,” but you’ve gotta give people something to know about you, especially if you’re a small business. This opens up a whole pillar of content you can dive into. I touched on it in the last post, but showing who you are, your passions, your *why*, your background, life stories, help people bond with you. Storytelling is such a big must in social, it can’t be ignored. But you do have to be comfortable with it. You can tell your story through old photos, photos of your favorite things, videos, and sprinkle them in throughout your content about your business. It doesn’t have to be every day. Start with once a week and see how the posts perform over time.
2. Not going live. Many business owners either don’t feel comfortable on camera or think they’re not good on camera or think they need to be in the shadows and only show their business. But the truth is, very few people actually are comfortable on camera, it’s a work in progress (I am one of them!) Also, there’s a chance you have more gifts than you give yourself credit for (one of my clients says they’re awful on camera when actually they’re magic!) But live video engages more people at one time, and on Facebook, an alert is sent to people telling them you’re live, and the posts performs longer. People see them long after you’re live. There are even little tips and tricks to keep people on your Facebook Live longer. If you’re afraid to go live, here’s a few ways to get around that at first:

• Have an event and go live from the event, use the emcee to explain to viewers what they’re seeing
• Rope someone else into being in it with you, interview someone or demonstrate something with someone
• Go live more often to feel comfortable. Just get comfortable with it. Don’t run away.

3. Not tracking analytics. Grab a spreadsheet and start tracking your likes & followers each month, your top five best posts from the month, your monthly engagement, and your video views. You can access the 7 day or 30 day views in your insights on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. We talked in the last post about going back and looking at how individual posts performed, but you also need to see the big picture. Sometimes things look bleak until you see the numbers and they actually show an upward trend! If the numbers are dipping, you can fix that too. Numbers don’t lie! Set yourself small goals each month to reach and focus on one of those areas, and then track the numbers every 30 days.

4. Not listening to their social media manager’s advice (or consulting with one) to learn about trends or how to connect with people. There are companies without social media experts on staff, and there are companies with a full staff of social media experts. I know there are social media managers who have less experience than others (I’m not one of those), so it’s hard to trust outsiders when it comes to your company and its message, values, and reputation. But try to work with your social media person and really listen to what they’re saying. If you don’t have one, it really is a good idea to consult with one so you’re not wasting time throwing spaghetti at the wall, or if you have a budget for one, bring one on so you can run your business without the stress of social media on your plate. So often, even in large companies with full staffs, businesses operate from a place of fear. They don’t want to try new things. They only want to post their product. They only want to be a megaphone. It doesn’t work. You can ignore trends and conversations that are happening online but the truly successful businesses in social are the ones who are dialed in and can seize upon an opportunity to insert themselves into these conversations that are happening literally all around them. A good social media person will help you do it strategically, so you don’t look out of place, so you can draw people in with your social savviness. You don’t have to say yes to everything. All I ask is that you listen to what they’re trying to tell you.

Need help?

Head over to www.christieomedia.com or email me at christie@christieo.com. (Read about me here).

It’s true. You’ve seen them popping up everywhere, there seems to be a “day” for everything.

“Clean out your refrigerator Day,” “Cat Day,” “Dog Day,” “Rescued Pets Day,” “Ketchup Day,” American Beer Day,” “Pierogi Day,” and today, which happens to be “Garlic Lovers Day,” which I happen to love.

Some people think these days are ridiculous and they’re right. BUT, they do make for extra fun content for social platforms, especially if they’re meaningful to you.

In fact, if you are a restaurant owner, Garlic Day ideas could make for good social content AND good ideas for you to celebrate the day as a business.

Coffee Day? Yes! Specials on coffee! Which make for extra-important, even viral content – since people (like me) LOVE THEIR COFFEE.

Don’t forget Margarita Day.

And everyone in America loves to celebrate the birthdays of our military branches. This is a day we can salute our armed forces and all our veterans.

Where can you find all this information?

A good way to plan social content is to Google “fake holidays” or “what holiday is today” or you can check out these calendars that I use:

• National Day Calendar (Here’s the one for October)
• National Today (Here’s the one for October)
• CheckIDay.com
• Any Day Guide (This one you kind of have to sift through)

DO double check the days and dates through Google to make sure that particular calendar is up to date. Sometimes I’ve found that the day is celebrated on a different day each year, or even there are similar days celebrated throughout the year like for instance, there are multiple donut days. Just double check that you’ve got the right day to save yourself some embarrassment in case the calendar is wrong. (Example: One of the calendars has Amazon Prime Day incorrect.)

DO use the ones that are relevant to you as a human or you as a business. Some can be serious and raise awareness, and if a topic like mental health or breast cancer is important to you and your business or your cause, you can use these calendars to plan out social content well ahead of time, even creating entire social campaigns, fundraisers, or specials around them. You can use them as a chance to honor others, like first responders, teachers, brothers, sisters, even people with red hair (yes there is a holiday for that – and believe it or not, it was one of the MOST POPULAR posts we did at a company I worked for.)

DO feel free to use this as a chance to have fun on your social media pages! You can create polls out of them on Instagram or Facebook stories, you can create video content AND photo content around them, and you can use them as ideas for recipes or blog posts or just REALLY.BEAUTIFUL.PICTURES. If it’s “National Corn Maze Day” and you own a farm, there’s your chance to GO LIVE on Facebook from your maze of maize (see what I did there). (Disclaimer: I do not know if this is an actual holiday but there is a “holiday” for everything basically so I’m not counting it out. Also there should be one in my opinion.)

DON’T do every single fake holiday. People will feel like you’ve gone overboard and bail. Choose wisely, be relevant, and sometimes you can learn a lot about your audience from these. You could have a large audience of people with red hair and not even know it! If you’re a hair salon, that’s valuable information!

I talked last week on Facebook Live and on Instagram stories about which platforms you should tackle and my answer to businesses and the clients that I coach is: The one you LOVE.

Why?

Because it’s going to be the one you are already connected to emotionally and the one where you’ll be the most genuine and authentic. It will be less work because you already like it.

It seems like a very simple answer, but I know everyone feels like they have to be on every platform to reach every person. However, when you do that, especially on the ones you don’t understand or the ones you’re not comfortable on, you spread yourself too thin. You begin posting on whatever platform you can without knowing the ins and outs of each one, and before you know it, you’re not doing any one of them right and you’re burned out. Completely.

And overwhelmed.

Think about this:

There’s Linked In, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat, What’s App, and a company blog on top of that.

And inside these platforms, there are Instagram Stories, and now Reels, and Facebook Stories, and LinkedIn now has “moments.” There are platforms WITHIN platforms now!

You CAN be on all of those, but what if, for now, you just picked one, the one you love, spent all your time on that ONE creating content in a way that resonates with you AND your ideal audience?

THEN, you can move on.

This applies mostly to businesses who are handling their own social media and are trying to figure out where to start or are outsourcing it to someone and they are paying for a certain number of platforms.

If you have a team in-house, obviously, you have more resources to use to create content on more platforms and you have the freedom to allow your in-house experts to roam about the proverbial social media cabin.

Remember, you always want to pick the platform you will be most genuine and authentic on, the one that you gravitate toward naturally. Once you become the master there, you can move on and branch out.

Create content tailored specifically to that platform and THEN, listen to your commenters and your audience. Analyze your posts and your audience, timing of posts and what posts you’re knocking out of the park. Ditch the duds and replicate the successes – over and over again – in different ways. Use the comments, emotions, and shares as an indicator of who your audience is and what they like. LISTEN TO WHAT THEY’RE SAYING.

It’s like holding a seashell up to your ear and hearing the ocean.

So, what platform should you be on?

Pick one. Do one thing. Go for it. Do it well.

I’m excited and honored this week to be on the Think, Believe, and Manifest Talk Show with my friend and mentor Constance Arnold.

LISTEN HERE: https://ihr.fm/2X6OdoV

I am talking about ideas for you to use as content and how to brainstorm your social media content.

The main thread is to produce content from a place of service and giving. How can you help your customers from the online space?

Think of how you can brainstorm using this list, then think about how you can create social content from those through photos, videos, blog posts, or Facebook Lives.

Photos:

• Using your phone or camera (you don’t need anything fancy), try to capture the moments when you or someone within your company is serving in some way, capture photos of what you’re seeing at your business or inside your community, and make sure you have a purpose or story to go along with it.

• You can use quotes for photos or build graphics in the free tool, Canva, where there are templates, designs, and free stock photos. It’s also easy to build these social graphics on the Canva app. Hint: Try to put your logo small in the corner to brand it when you can, and Canva even allows you to reduce the size and opacity of your logo so it’s visible but not obnoxious. Make sure if you create a graphic it’s useful and shareable, not just a title but a complete thought, quote, or list that someone can use.

Videos:

• Using your phone (again, nothing fancy), take a video of yourself delivering valuable information to you clients or customers, show them your beautiful products or recipes. Create a DIY or make a recipe or a drink from scratch, give them something that would be useful to them while they’re at home whether it’s helping them solve a problem or making them smile. One business took it upon themselves to create an “Easter Egg Hunt” where they asked residents to put an Egg in their windows so kids, while they’re walking around or bike riding with their families, can spot them in the windows. Here are some other examples of what businesses are doing.

• Live videos: You can go live on Facebook or Instagram to help your customers solve a problem, do your DIY live, or you can give them a place to connect with you one on one. You can even just show them live video of a sunset if they’re not leaving the house. Note: Facebook Lives double and triple your Facebook reach every time you do it so feel free to do them consistently and often so people can get to know you!

GRAB MY FREE BOOK ON HOW TO ROCK A FACEBOOK LIVE HERE

Words matter.

Whatever or however you choose to create social content, make sure you’re not gratuitously putting up a selfie in each post saying Hi! You can do that, but only once in a while.

The majority of your content should be something you give your clients and customers to use. Your stories, your customers’ stories, your employees’ stories. KNOW what purpose and need you’re filling with each post. Then, go back and look at which posts did well (how many likes, comments, shares it got.) This is an indicator of what RESONATED with people. Take that content and do more of that!

Remember, I’m offering a 30 minute free call to brainstorm content your business can create to connect with people, so please email me to set that up. christie@christieo.com.

In case you missed it, here’s a free webinar on keeping small businesses in business during times of crisis!

Talk soon!