Brands and businesses have been harnessing the power of social media for years. Today, as it outpaces paid search as the top advertising channel and exceeds $137 billion (yes, that’s with a “B”), marketers are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve their social media strategy.
We’ve entered an era of workflows, content matrixes, and specialized teams pushing content at unimaginable speeds and volumes.
Let’s explore some ways to publish content more efficiently on social media.
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Let’s assume you want to assemble a rag-tag team of social media people to take your pages to the next level. Once you bring in the right people, you’re good to go. Content starts with people, after all.
Regardless of the project’s scope and size, you’ll need to assess your needs, think about a social strategy, and only then think about the required skills and expertise.
Once you cross those things off the list, you can think about roles. Here’s a basic social media team template to get you started:
Above is the basic team formation to ensure the best content publishing efficiency.
While “workflow” has become a buzzword, that doesn’t mean it’s just a fad.
Think of the content creation workflow as your post’s path from imagination to publication. The fewer roadblocks your content has, the sooner it’ll be available to your audience.
So, start by outlining each stage of creation. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Here’s what works for us*, at Planable:
*Add Intermediary steps according to your needs.
You may have noticed the inclusion of “Approval” between “Review” and “Publication.” That’s deliberate and strategic.
For many reasons, approval can be one of the biggest productivity roadblocks social media teams experience. Either the process involves the wrong people or too many people.
Both cases lead to some variation of “content published unfinished/past the deadline due to miscommunication.”
An approval process should be transparent and hierarchical. Here’s how it looks in Planable:
At the end of the day, it’s essential to define who’s directly involved and add a layer of redundancy in the form of a second line of approval to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. There are tools for that, too. More on this later.
Creating and following a content calendar is essential to managing your content marketing efforts on social media. A plan of what, when, and where you should post allows you to create consistency and stick to your goals and objectives across different channels.
Let’s talk benefits:
A social media calendar should include the following elements:
These are just some elements that should exist in your content calendar. Of course, the structure you choose depends on your team’s needs and preferences. However, ensure it’s as detailed as possible and make use of the best social media scheduling tools so everyone can stay on the same page.
Two years of being cozy on our couches has familiarized us with serialized content. But did you know that the same techniques streaming giants use to keep us glued to screens apply to social media content?
Creating a series of content around a single topic is a great way to build anticipation and keep followers engaged.
What’s more, serialized content has the benefit of improving publishing efficiency. That’s because it involves taking one topic and breaking it down into smaller, easy-to-consume episodes and then turning those episodes into a series with an overarching theme.
These could be anything from a photo or video series to blog posts or infographics. The important thing is that it follows a consistent theme, so your audience knows what to expect.
As a starting point, there are two types of serialized content models you can go for:
Want to take your serialized content to the next level and publish content even more efficiently? Use Twitter. Despite changes to character count, Twitter is still an excellent platform for serialized content in the form of Twitter threads.
The simplest example would be breaking a blog post into small installments and adding interesting insights (preferably separate from the ones in the article), then scheduling your tweets to go live.
Twitter threads are a great example of the adage, “creativity is born of limitation.” Twitter’s character limit led to creating a new form of content. You can use the economy of language to produce efficient content creatively.
A/B testing is a handy way to compare different versions of your social media content. It can help you make better decisions in the future and publish content more efficiently.
Essentially, A/B testing involves creating two versions of a piece of content, then comparing the results of both iterations to see which performs better. Doing this allows you to determine whether small changes in wording or visual elements impact the content’s effectiveness.
When performing an A/B test for your social media posts, you should start by deciding what feature you want to measure — such as engagement rate or click-through rate — and then create two versions of your post.
For example, if you’re testing a headline, create two different titles while keeping the same concept.
Test only one element at a time to see which version performs better.
Next, distribute your two versions of the post evenly across your target audience, giving you an accurate representation of how each version performs.
You should also track the results throughout the test’s duration and compare them at regular intervals to get a precise understanding of performance.
Once you have enough data, you can conduct social media reporting, and decide which version performs best for your audience and use that knowledge in future content creation.
A/B testing can be instrumental in your social media success, as it allows you to identify what works with your audience and what doesn’t. Additionally, by testing different elements of your content and analyzing the results, you can create more effective posts in the future.
Social media tools have come a long way since their inception. Today, there are numerous tools available that can help you publish content more efficiently and effectively. From scheduling tools to analytics platforms, these tools can save time and energy by streamlining your workflow.
Using a dedicated tool for social media management, you can automate specific tasks, such as scheduling posts and analyzing data. Then you’ll have plenty of time for essential tasks like engaging with followers or creating new content ideas.
Many of these tools have features designed for team collaboration so multiple people can work on the same project without confusion or delays.
Investing in a dedicated tool is an excellent way to maximize efficiency and ensure your social media campaigns run smoothly. Not only will it make your workflow more efficient, but it can also help you create better content that resonates with your target audience.
For example, Planable checks all those marks mentioned above:
Analyzing published social media content is another crucial step in efficiently creating and publishing content.
Look at what you’ve already posted and assess how it performed. With the use of a social media analytics tool, you’ll be able to evaluate your engagement rate, reach, click-through rate, and other metrics that could offer insights into what resonates with your audience.
Once you understand previous performance, you can use that data to inform future content creation.
Look for patterns in the posts that performed well — such as tone or visual elements — and use them to create similar pieces of content in the future. Look for areas where you could improve and make changes accordingly so that the next round of posts will be even more successful.
Ultimately, analyzing published social media content can help you create and publish content more efficiently by better understanding your audience’s preferences.
By looking at what works and doesn’t, you can set up a social media strategy that resonates with your followers and helps you reach your goals.
Social media is a fast-paced environment where reactivity is key. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to create content.
Creating content in batches will save time and resources while allowing you to be reactive when needed.
Batch creating is ideal for platforms like Twitter, especially if you have seasonal campaigns or regularly recurring topics.
Additionally, if you manage multiple accounts at the same time consider using a mobile web proxy you can find online to handle multiple accounts without the risk of being flagged for suspicious activity.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say your business has recurring themes — “Tech Tips Tuesdays” or “Fitness Fridays,” etc. You can batch-create content for those days and have a content calendar ready. This way, you won’t have to scramble at the last minute on certain days.
You can also use this technique for blog posts or longer-form content. It’ll take some extra time upfront, but saves time in the long term. You can use a photo editing tool to create a template for these posts and then each time you have to make a new one you’ll make it in half the time.
Of course, you won’t be able to do this as quickly with live video. But try to create any other visual content in batches if possible.
Finally, batch creation can also help when it comes to repurposing content.
If you have a great blog post that’s doing well, you can easily turn it into graphics and social media posts. This way, you don’t need to create new content every time you want to post something — instead, repurposing content will save you time, energy, and money. An excellent way to repurpose a successful social media post on Twitter is to convert a Tweet to a video and provide your audience with another form of previously published content to scale engagement even further.
By implementing these strategies, you’ll be able to create social media content more efficiently while still delivering engaging, high-quality posts to your followers.
Whether taking advantage of Twitter threads or using A/B testing, these tactics will take your content game up a notch. So don’t wait — start creating amazing content today!