Work Smart: Social Media Content Planning
Planning the Content Creation Process
It’s no secret that we’re fans of automation at Upstream Solutions. But don’t get it twisted - automation won't do the work for you. It just makes sure the work is shared on time!
Designing for the Instagram Feed
The Upstream Solutions IG feed just recently went live. While our marketing team has primarily worked off word of mouth (referrals and recommendations), we’ve turned our focus towards leveraging social media platforms to connect with our target audience. You may be wondering, “What does it look like to start an IG profile from scratch?”
Well, it’s very, very quiet. But that’s ok. It gives us time to reflect on our business goals and how we want to show up visually. We picked up this approach from @lane.creative, and you can check out her video about it.
Let’s get into how to adopt this content marketing plan!
Use Canva or Figma to outline what your finished feed will look like. Rely on your brand colors and elements so you’re not starting from scratch every time, and you keep a coherent visual identity consistent with your high-level content strategy. It will feel cohesive as you scroll down the feed.
A little sketching magic! ✨🎨
Before diving into the nitty-gritty of designing individual social media posts, take a moment to rough sketch your Instagram interface and feed on an easy-to-use app like Canva. This simple step allows you to visualize the overall aesthetic, layout, and flow of your feed. Embrace the power of pre-planning and watch your Instagram presence come to life, effectively connecting with your target audience with a captivating feed. 💫
Whether you’re a fan of a curated feed or not, this strategy could still be good for you. Just use dark gray to represent where you’ll have photos. In my schematic above, the dark gray elements represent photos and they are confined to a frame (usually oval).
Once the overall design and flow aligns with your content marketing plan, you (or your team members) can work on creating the individual posts. You can decide which posts will have multiple slides and what they’ll look like. Check out some of the individual posts we put together for the Upstream Solutions’ feed below.
Armed with a few templates and content ideas, we’re ready to start building out our pieces of content and scheduling posts using our favorite social media management tools.
So What’s Next?
We’ve shared a little bit about our process and hope this can be helpful to you. If you find that your best next step is to outsource your content creation or social media management, consider how Upstream Solutions can align with your business goals.
Upstream Solutions is an Atlanta-based studio that provides digital media solutions for small businesses. Learn more about us and the services we offer.
