How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar: A Guide for Small Business Owners
By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks
As a small business owner, you might be asking yourself ‘Do I really need a social media content calendar?’ The reality is that you’d be surprised at how important they are and how easy it can be to create a social media content for your business.
So what exactly is a social media content calendar? It’s much more than a typical calendar where you’d jot down a few notes. A social media content calendar is like your master-document when it comes to everything related to your business’ social media. Creating a social media content calendar is a rewarding task and a powerful tool to help you brainstorm, plan, manage, schedule and post content to your social media platforms.
Keep reading to learn why your small business needs a social media content calendar and how to build one in just a few quick steps.
Why Small Business Owners Should Create a Social Media Content Calendar
Be on Brand: When you plan out your content in advance and schedule all of your posts at once, you can instantly see what your social media platforms will start to look and feel like. This is a good chance to review each post and ensure they support your brand goals –– both visually and within your description.
Save Time: It’s definitely going to take some time upfront to create a social media content calendar, but we promise that it’s going to save you time. By spending some time at the beginning of each week or month planning out your content, you will actually save time every day since your content will always be done and ready to post. Here are some tips on how to streamline your content creation:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAlCNaXHQlM/
Achieve Goals: Instead of posting in the spur of the moment, it’s important to share content that is aligned with your business goals. Planning your content ahead will help you ensure your social media content is optimized to help you achieve all of your big goals.
Stay Calm: It might seem stressful at first to plan out (and create!) an entire month of social media content, but once you’ve done that, you will be much less stressed the rest of the month now that you no longer have to scramble to figure out what to post on social media each day.
BeConsistent: Have you ever been so busy that you totally forgot to post to social media? If you create a social media content calendar and organize all of your posts ahead of time, you will be able to consistently maintain your social media platforms – which is key to social media success.
How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar for Your Small Business in 5 Easy Steps
1. Make a Plan: Before you get started creating a social media content calendar, there are several things you need to decide on in order to move forward. For example, will you be planning out your social media content weekly or monthly? Are you going to create your own calendar document or download a premade template?
2. Hold a Brainstorming Session: Now, here comes the fun part…brainstorming! Take a look at the week/month ahead and take note of any upcoming holidays, product launches, etc and begin brainstorming some content ideas for your social media platforms. Come up with a few ideas for each platform and start thinking about how you will execute those ideas.
Pro Tip: When researching upcoming seasonal holidays, head to Boosted’s ‘Seasonal’ category to see which holidays are coming up. You can then customize the seasonal templates of your choice and incorporate them into your social media content calendar.
3. Plan Out Content: Once you’ve reviewed all of your ideas and have nailed down exactly what type of content you would like to post, start mapping out what content you plan to post on each day and for each platform. Focus mainly on your top platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram. By planning out the order of your posts, you will have a better idea of exactly what type of content you should create for a balanced social feed.
4. Create Content: Now that you’ve mapped out what you want to post for that week/month, it’s time to actually start creating the content! It might sound like a ton of work to create a whole month of photo and video content at once, but it can be even harder to try to get into a creative groove every single day. Check out 7 Creative Ways to Use Video on Social Media for tips on how incorporate more video content into your content calendar.
5. Schedule/Post: And the final step is of course posting! You can use a scheduling tool to schedule out all of your social media posts or you can go into your calendar each day and post manually. Just make sure to include all of the important details for each post including a caption, photo or video assets, a link, any hashtags to include, the date to post and which platform/s to post on.
We hope these tips have inspired you to create a social media content calendar for your business! If you are looking for more ways to improve your social media platforms for the new year, check out 21 Ideas to Revamp Your Social Media for 2021.
Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.
TikTok is taking the world by storm in 2020, growing faster than even Facebook and Instagram. It has skyrocketed to become the 6th most popular social media platform. TikTok has made its parent company Bytedance into the most valuable startup in the world at $78 billion. The site averages eight visits PER USER per day, with over 90% of users visiting more than once a day.
Even with the controversy surrounding their data practices, you can hardly afford to sleep on 800 million active users per month. Brands who invest in TikTok marketing can follow a few simple growth hacks that the top 40 creators (10 million+ followers) use every day.
Here are 9 of the fastest-growing TikTok accounts, as well as the engagement strategies they use to build their followings.
Art and Talent
Regardless of TikTok’s relatively young user base and sometimes unfavorable reputation (as you’ll find with most new social media platforms), it still rings true that the most successful creators are the ones who display real talent or provide quality entertainment. Unique skills are always a great tool for establishing a solid audience and keeping them engaged with your brand.
1. Jason Coffee
Jason Coffee (@jasoncoffee) is one of the most successful influencers on the platform with 20.4 million followers.
Jason uses his TikTok channel to share family-friendly comedy with his audience, often featuring his son and daughter, who are in the most common TikTok user age group. Considering the young age of the majority of users, it’s no wonder his wholesome style has developed a strong fan base.
Zach King (@zachking) is topping influencer charts with 48.9 million TikTok followers, and it’s not hard to see why.
Like Jason and most other creators, he incorporates comedy into a lot of his videos, but his content stands out with incredible video editing and optical illusions. While maintaining a fun and family-friendly brand that relates to his audience, Zach performs digital magic that you just have to keep watching.
The fastest-growing TikTok channels in 2020 are largely sports and entertainment giants like the NBA, Ellen DeGeneres and Netflix. Only 15% of TikTok users are over the age of 35, which supports the idea that entertainment is effective as a marketing tactic on a platform where your target audience is the minority.
Something these big-time entertainers have in common is that they post quality content relentlessly, some up to six times a day. The minimum for the fastest-growing channels this year seems to be one video every other day, but most of these top performers are posting more than once a day.
3. NBA
The NBA’s TikTok channel (@nba) blew up with over 2.7 million new users in under one month this year, bringing their total to 11.7 million followers.
The NBA channel posts between five and six times every day, racking up more than 150 videos in a single month. Their content is mostly made up of sports highlights, funny moments, and some player-submitted content.
Similar to the NBA channel, ESPN’s TikTok account (@ESPN) saw a dramatic increase of 1.3 million followers in a single month for a total of more than 11.1 million followers as of August 2020.
ESPN posts slightly more than the NBA, but still averages five or six videos per day. There is a dramatic difference in their content, however. ESPN’s videos are all about the audience, comprising user-generated content, as well as professional content that features audience highlights and athlete interactions with the audience.
Ellen (@ellendegeneres) jumped up 1.2 million viewers in a single month this year, bringing the beloved philanthropist talk show host’s total number of followers to more than 6.5 million.
Ellen’s TikTok captures the heart of The Ellen Show, featuring clips of interviews and performances by guests on the show, as well as some fantastic behind-the-scenes footage. Ellen’s page posts almost every day, coming in at about 26 videos in a month.
Coming in at 7.4 million followers, the World Wrestling Entertainment TikTok page (@WWE) saw a jump of over 700K in one month this year.
The WWE page posts clips from their performances and old throwback fan favorites daily, keeping their audience engaged without giving everything away, which is a great way to bring your audience from a social media platform to your business.
The revolutionary home movie giant itself has taken to TikTok (@netflix) and saw growth of more than 600K in one month, bringing their following to 9M million as of August 2020.
For the most part, Netflix’ posts are promotional videos for the movies you can find and watch on the streaming platform, but they’ve gotten pretty creative with how they promote movies, including user-generated content, behind-the-scenes, and star power. Netflix has the lowest posting rate on our list today at only one post every other day.
Hashtag challenges are a huge hit on TikTok, giving creators and audiences a chance to connect and have fun doing something that’s usually harmless, funny, charitable, or otherwise positive. Over 16% of all TikTok videos are related to hashtag challenges, and just like any other popular thing, marketing experts are taking advantage. For more insights, our full guide on TikTok hashtags can be found here.
8. Guess
By running a branded hashtag challenge, Guess (@guess) made a big splash on the platform with their #InMyDenim challenge. The hashtag entries currently have 52.1M views on TikTok.
Guess was the first American brand to launch a marketing campaign as an official TikTok partner with TikTok. TikTokers were encouraged to show off their best Guess denim styles, using the hashtag #InMyDenim. This campaign inspired a huge wave of high-quality user-generated content, including content from TikTok influencers who in turn inspired more videos.
Healthy snack company Kind (@kindsnacks) gained an impressive 60 million views in less than 24 hours with their hashtag challenge, #kindsimplecrunchcontest.
The challenge was to make a video that featured the “crunch” of Kind’s “most crunchiest bar yet,” and the user whose video was played the most won a trip to New York and a year’s supply of the featured snack bar. Kind partnered with influencers Zach King (above), Kombucha Girl, Oven Mom, and Rachel Ryle to promote the challenge. Kind also provided soundtracks users could include in their UGC.
Instagram has become a must-have marketing tool for everyone from small businesses to corporate giants. Influencers and brand pages have the potential to grab tens of millions of followers by posting the right content consistently for their target audiences. These huge followings boost brand awareness and visibility, which are key elements in successful marketing.
The trick to replicating the Instagram growth that some of these brands and influencers have achieved is to first identify your target audience, and then to post what they want to see, while maintaining your unique brand personality.
Here are 8 of the fastest-growing Instagram Pages and the engagement strategies they use to keep growing.
Brands, Influencers & Engagement Strategies from the Fastest Growing Instagram Pages:
1. ASOS
Asos (@asos) is a British clothing retailer with over 10.5 million followers. Their Instagram page is plastered with user-generated content that shows real people strutting their stuff in Asos gear, and looking pretty good doing it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEjR-Q5ADG5/
Engagement Strategy: User-Generated Content
High-quality, user-generated content is the ultimate weapon in Instagram marketing. There is simply no better way to represent your audience than with your audience. Seeing real people enjoying your product or service shows consumers that they’ll enjoy it too. For more insights, check out our guide on the topic here.
2. Chubbies
Chubbies (@chubbies) is another clothing and accessory line that targets men between the ages of 18 and 40. They currently stand at just over 500k followers. Their major stroke of genius was in developing a brand voice that engages that audience. On Chubbies’ Instagram page, you’ll find a whole lot of bro humor, memes, and a massive positive response from their followers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEfIm1iB1Dk/
Engagement Strategy: Brand Voice
If you want to reach people, you have to speak their language. Your brand voice should already be developed around your target audience, so be sure that your posts reflect that voice as well. Don’t be afraid to be funny, genuine, intellectual – or whatever it is that your audience will connect with. Just make sure that your brand voice is consistent so you don’t confuse your existing following.
3. Vans
As a well-established brand with 17.9 million followers, Vans (@vans) hardly needs an introduction. The official shoe of the skater boy since the 60s, Vans came to Instagram with an already large and dedicated following, which they keep engaged by posting content that speaks to the skater boy soul. Visit their page and you’ll find high-quality adventure shots, user-generated content, and sick skateboarding stills.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEU5u8ElTEq/
Engagement Strategy: Setting
Don’t just post images of your products in front of a nice, clean, white background. People want to see your stuff in action. They want to see where your product will take them. Snatch up some good UGC or get out there and shoot your own images and videos of your product in its natural habitat.
4. Under Armour
Under Armour (@underarmour) is a mega clothing brand that could probably get by just fine by sharing UGC and quality imagery of their sports line in action, but they go the extra mile to grow their following by providing actual value in their posts. They achieve this with a series of IGTV workout videos that you can do at home with little to no equipment. It’s no wonder they have more than 8.1 million loyal followers and counting.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAvNxD5ACR2/?hl=en
Engagement Strategy: Value
If you’ve got knowledge or skills that are relevant to your brand and audience and easy to convey in video, use them! A little effort goes a long way on a social media platform where everyone’s attention spans are in hyperdrive. Break your wisdom up into short tidbits and post them weekly or monthly to boost your following with people who are likely to be interested in your products and services. For tips on how to create more video content for Instagram, check out our blog here.
5. M.A.C. Cosmetics
MAC (@maccosmetics) is a make-up brand with no gimmicks. What you’ll find on their Instagram page is a lot of close-up shots of their makeup along with captions that provide clear product details. They also post a lot of tutorials – which their audience loves to engage with – but it’s those high-def close-ups that show off the quality of their products to their 23.4M followers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEe4SH0gEa5/
Engagement Strategy: Product Details
Take your Instagram audience from followers to customers by showing them not just your products, but the value of your products up close with images and videos. Be sure to provide all the details they’ll need in order to make a purchase. Even an interested buyer isn’t going to sift through 20 Instagram posts to find your details.
6. H&M
A mega clothing brand with 35.6 million followers, H&M (@hm) maintains a simple approach to Instagram: professional-quality photos. Whether they’re lifestyle photos, staged product shots, or collages, every photo on H&M’s Instagram is pro-quality.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD0oJBOByYr/
Engagement Strategy: High-Quality Images
If you’re posting user-generated content, it’s likely that not every image is going to be super high-quality, so make sure you’re regularly posting images and videos that show off your products in the best light.
7. Strashme
After winning an influencer competition hosted by James Charles, Ashley Strong (@Strashme) gained an impressive 800k followers on Instagram. Her following continues to grow as she posts quick, edited tutorials on mostly bold makeup looks and occasionally how to take killer Instagram pics and videos. Making use of captions to elaborate when necessary, she keeps her videos short and to the point.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B6RQRFvlyWo/?hl=en
Engagement Strategy: Video Editing
Deliver big value without losing your audience’s attention by editing your videos to remove any unnecessary fluff or dull moments. That doesn’t mean you have to condense everything you post, but adding some quick tutorials or humor is a great way to keep your followers clicking on your content.
8. Noah Beck
Noah Beck (@noahbeck) is the latest hot topic crossing over from TikTok to Instagram and showing 143% gains each month in followers. He currently has 4.4M followers. While his looks don’t hurt any, his flash fame is attributed more to his charming, chill, and genuinely kind personality.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-GNyRwHD0Z/
Engagement Strategy: Brand Personality
Brand personality is what humanizes your businesses to your audience. On Instagram, it is conveyed through your brand voice and your visuals. Make sure your brand personality is relatable to your audience and do your best to keep it consistent.
Other Effective Strategies for Fast Growing IG Pages
Some other tactics seen on these pages and on some of the other fastest-growing Instagram pages include: shoutouts and reviews, as well as giveaways and competitions that draw the audience in. Behind-the-scenes images and videos help the audience connect and relate to your brand, as do motivational posts and underdog stories.
Facebook & Instagram Shops Just Got Way Better for Small Businesses
Back in May, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Shops: a game-changing feature that enables brands to sell their products directly via Facebook and/or Instagram. In our post about the feature, we mentioned a few important developments set to be released in the future.
Well, the future is here! Last week, Facebook announced a few exciting updates to the Facebook and Instagram shopping experience. Here’s what’s new, and what it means for small business owners.
The Facebook Shop section
What’s happening: Back in July, a Shop tab was introduced to the Instagram interface, allowing users to browse products and offerings they could buy right from the app. Last week, a similar section was launched in the Facebook app as well. The feature is now being tested in the USA only.
What it means for you: This tab will make it easier for potential customers to find your products. People who voluntarily enter the shopping section are already looking for products to buy and are therefore further along the sales funnel than many people you might reach with a targeted ad.
New features for your Facebook Shop
What’s happening: Facebook added some new features to Facebook Shops. The new features include:
New design layouts that make it easier for you to highlight particular products in your Shop
The ability to preview your collections in real time as you design them
The ability to create a new Shop automatically if you’re just getting started as a seller on Facebook
A new analytics feature for measuring your results from the Commerce Manager
What it means for you: The first two new features make it easier to design a compelling virtual storefront that leads your customers to the products you most want them to see. The third makes it easier to set up your Shop if you don’t have one already, and the fourth makes it possible to gain powerful insights into your results, which can help you adjust your strategy down the line and increase your conversion rates.
Instagram Checkout
What’s happening: The in-app checkout option has been enabled in Instagram for all USA-based sellers. Previously, you could enable in-app checkout in your Facebook Shop. Now, you can do it for your Instagram Shop, too. And the best part? This service will be fee-free for businesses until the end of the year. Facebook made that gesture to help small businesses still dealing with the financial difficulties related to the pandemic.
Shopping on Instagram just got a whole lot easier. 🛍
Now all eligible US businesses and creators can use Checkout, which lets you buy and sell products directly on Instagram. You can also now shop during Lives in real time.
What it means for you: In-app checkout removes several barriers from the customer and allows for a much smoother, easier purchasing experience. It means they will be able to enter their credit card information just once, and complete all future purchases in just a few taps, with no need to fumble with a wallet or visit third-party sites. This translates to higher conversion rates for you. And the fact that there’s no fee until the end of the year is a major bonus!
Shops Messaging button
What’s happening: Facebook has added a messaging button to Shops that allows customers to contact the shop owner directly to ask questions. At the moment, customers can use this feature to contact you via Messenger or Instagram Direct, and Facebook is currently testing adding it to Whatsapp, too.
What it means for you: The messaging button is the virtual equivalent of having a salesperson there to help your customers and guide them through the selection and purchase process. So often, a customer will be interested in making a purchase but will be missing a crucial piece of information, and won’t want to bother figuring out how to contact you to ask. The messaging button makes it much easier for them to get the information they need to complete their purchase. So once again: say hello to higher conversion rates.
Live Shopping
What’s happening: It is now possible to use Facebook Live and Instagram Live to launch or feature a new product — and to sell that product to your customers directly from the Live feed!
What it means for you: This is an especially exciting feature for small businesses because it combines the convenience of the in-app shopping experience with the marketing power of livestream. Brands everywhere have found Facebook and Instagram Live an especially effective way to reach and engage with their audiences. Now, with Live Shopping, it will be easier than ever to convert your followers into paying customers. You can plan a Facebook Live or Instagram Live event that features a product — say, a tutorial, or a Live interview with a happy customer — and add a purchase button right to your viewers’ screens. It makes livestreaming more like a real-life event where people can attend, enjoy what you have to offer, and make a purchase on the spot.
Action items:
If you haven’t created your own Facebook and/or Instagram Shop yet — now is the time!
Check out the new design options in Facebook Shops and see if they can spruce up your collections.
Start tracking your Facebook Shop insights to learn more about your customers’ purchasing behavior.
Be sure to enable in-app checkout on Facebook and Instagram.
Plan a Facebook and/or Instagram Live event that features one of your products, and add the purchase option to the livestream!
By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks
So 2020 hasn’t quite been as great of a year as we all hoped it would be…but luckily we’re already halfway to 2021! After a rocky first half of 2020, it’s only natural to start planning for a better year to come.
If you’re looking for ways to grow your small business in 2021, a great place to start is with your social media platforms. As a small business owner, word of mouth and social media can be a powerful combination to grow your business.
So, if you haven’t focused much on your social media strategy with everything happening so far in 2020, here are 21 ideas to revamp your social media for 2021.
1. Automate Your Social Media
As a small business owner, you might feel like you don’t have enough time to spend on social media. But did you know there are ways to help automate your social media strategy? It can be a lot of work to create quality content for your social media accounts and even more work to edit, upload, write captions and publish your posts. Try using a social media scheduling tool to help you schedule out your content a few weeks in advance to automate posting to your social media.
2. Plan Out Your Content
If you plan on automating some of your content, you will need to plan out your posts ahead of time. On a day you where you are feeling creative, take a few hours to brainstorm ideas for social media content. Next, create a big batch of social media content all at once. Once you’ve created all of the content, you can plan out what you want to post when and then schedule the posts out.
3. Set Strategies Seasonally
We often plan out our traditional marketing strategies by the different seasons, so why not set specific seasonal goals and campaigns for your social media strategy? An easy way to get started with seasonal marketing themes is by selecting a new business goal or marketing theme for each new season. You can even give your social media accounts a different ‘look’ each season by changing up the color schemes of your posts. For example, some influencers and businesses post bright, happy colors in the summer but switch to posting slightly darker, moodier photos for fall and winter.
4. Evaluate New Platforms
Have you been keeping up to date with new trends in the world of social media? New and emerging platforms like TikTok are becoming increasingly popular for businesses of all sizes. If there are any new platforms or features that you haven’t tested out yet, now is the time to start analyzing which new platforms make sense for your business to join.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5R8Deg14N/
5. Drop a Platform
While you are evaluating your social media platforms and thinking about trying out some new platforms, you might want to consider dropping a platform. If you’ve been posting consistently to a platform and are still seeing low engagement rates, it’s time to evaluate whether or not it’s worth your time to remain active on that platform. Check outWhy Your Small Businesses Should NOT Be on Every Social Media Platform for more insights.
6. Analyze Your Posts
It’s a good practice to regularly check the analytics of the posts and Stories that you’re sharing to social media. By reviewing the analytics for your posts, you can see which types of content are performing best – with higher engagement rates, views or link clicks. Once you’ve analyzed your posts, see if there’s a common theme among your best content to help you decide what type of posts you should create more of in 2021.
For Instagram, you can check out our guide here for navigating your Instagram Insights, as well as here for understanding your Stories analytics. Additionally, here is our guide for everything you need to know about TikTok analytics.
7. Update Your Bios
One of the quickest and easiest ways to revamp your social media accounts is to update all of your bios. It’s a good idea to review your bios and see if there’s any important updates that need to be made. Be sure to include a link to your website and make sure your bios are consistent across all of your social media platforms.
Do you keep tabs on what your competitors are doing? If you’ve never put together a competitive analysis on your competitors, you are missing out! This is a great chance to understand what they are doing well on social media and gain some ideas on where you could improve. Make a chart listing out their strengths and weaknesses. Then, come up with a plan of action to implement changes to your own social media strategy.
9. Research New Hashtags
Hopefully you are already taking advantage of hashtags in your social media strategy! But did you know it’s important to not use the same hashtags on every single post? One of the best ways to revamp and grow your social media in 2021 is by researching and testing out new hashtags. Create a list of new hashtags and keep track of which posts and hashtags perform best to help your Instagram posts perform better and to enable you to connect with new customers.
One of the great things about social media is the ability to connect and build a community. To help you grow your social media community even more in 2021, it’s a great idea to look for more ways to collaborate. Are there any like-minded small businesses you could partner with? For example, you could collaborate and host a social media giveaway for your followers. This is a great way to grow your following with customers who are likely to be interested.
Get inspired by this recent brand collab giveaway from @twobearscoffee:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGT3x8BF–/
11. Be an Activist
If there’s anything we learned in 2020, it’s that today’s consumers want brands to be part of the current conversationa. If you aren’t already taking an active stance in movements that you are passionate about, it’s time to stand up in a meaningful and authentic way in 2021, like clothing brand @minimioche did here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBEigo4AOPu/
12. Get Personal
Are you guilty of hiding behind your work as a service-based business owner? Or only featuring your physical products on your social media feeds? It’s time to get in front of the camera and get personal! Show your customers the face behind the business. Share more personal posts to help them get to know you better and feel more connected to your business on a personal level.
One of the most important types of content in 2021 might just be short-form videos. 2020 has already proven that consumers love engaging with short-form videos, so get ready to create more of this type of content to revamp your social media accounts!
Boosted is a great tool for creating short-form, high-quality video content for your social media platforms. Boosted has a built-in library of photos and videos that are already perfectly formatted for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
If you’ve ever wanted to try out TikTok but weren’t ready to learn a whole new platform, Reels is a great way to begin posting more video content. The easiest way to start out testing Instagram Reels is by repurposing existing video content. It’s easy to upload a video (or several) from your photo gallery into Reels. Try uploading an existing video or an Instagram Story that you have saved to your phone as one of your first Reels.
Has it been a while since you’ve taken new photos for your small business? It’s time to up your photography game in 2021. You don’t have to be a professional photographer in order to shoot new content – all you need is a smartphone with a quality camera and a willingness to learn. Be sure to have good lighting and a clean background when taking photos. Also, be sure to check out some photo editing tools to give your photos a more professional look.
16. Organize Your Instagram Story Highlights
Have you ever taken the time to review your Instagram Story Highlights and reorganize them? Story Highlights are prime real estate on your Instagram profile so be sure to feature the most important and valuable content in your highlights. Need some ideas for what to post in your Instagram Story Highlights? Check out this blog post on How to Use Instagram Story Highlights Strategically as a Small Business Owner.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD1sAUzhX_s/
17. Create Branded Story Highlight Icons
While we are talking about highlights…did you know you can customize the look and feel of your highlights too? This is an easy way to revamp your Instagram feed in 2021. You can easily create new icons to revamp your Instagram feed in 2021 with consistent, branded highlight cover images. Click here to learn how to create Instagram cover images.
18. Send More DM’s
Another social media marketing strategy that your small business should consider in 2021 is direct messaging. DMs can be a powerful way to connect with customers and influencers. The very first tip to getting more DMs is to actually start sending more DMs yourself! Send DM’s to some of your most loyal customers and local influencers. And be sure to make it sound personal (everybody knows when it’s automated). Once you’ve built up a relationship, you can send your customers exclusive sales through DMs or ask influencers if they would be interested in collaborating.
One of the most important rules when it comes to social media success is consistency. If you weren’t posting consistently on your social media feeds in 2020, it’s time to revamp your social media feeds with consistent content in 2021. If you want to see real results, you will need to post regularly. This will help your followers stay more engaged and ensures your content will continue to actually show up in your customer’s Instagram feeds.
Here are some additional insights on the topic from branding & web design studio @brightenmade:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEUJa3YDCsu/
20. Create Paid Ads
It can be a challenge for small businesses to reach new audiences organically on social media. Investing in a little paid advertising can be a powerful way to revamp your social media in 2021. With Facebook and Instagram, your small business can target very specific audiences and help increase your exposure to the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
21. Set Some BIG Goals
Last but not least, don’t be afraid to dream big. Have you ever sat down and thought about your goals for social media? If not, 2021 is the year to dream big when it comes to social media. Now that 2020 is halfway done, it’s time to start thinking about your social media ‘resolutions’. Once you know your goals and set a plan, you will know exactly what you are working towards.
Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.
8 Easy Ways to Get More Instagram DMs From Customers
By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks
One of the most powerful features on Instagram might not be what you’d expect…Instagram Direct Messages. Yup, DMs. There are so many reasons for a small business to love Instagram Direct Messages. Utilizing your DMs enables your small business to connect with your customers personally, helps build stronger connections, increases brand loyalty, humanizes your business and improves customer service.
In fact, according to Forbes, “49% of customers bought items they did not intend to buy due to a personalized recommendation from the brand they were doing business with.”
Small businesses, especially service-based businesses, can utilize Instagram DMs to gain more customers. So what can you do to encourage potential customers to start sending you more DMs? Here are 8 easy tactics for receiving more Instagram DMs from prospective customers.
1. Send DMs
The very first tip to getting more DMs from your customers is to actually start sending more DMs yourself! Get used to how Instagram direct messaging works and try to send out a few brand-building DMs every day to help spark conversations with potential customers.
2. Respond to DMs
If your customers have sent you an Instagram DM in the past and never got a response, why would they send another? Something as simple as a “Hey, thanks for your feedback!” to acknowledge that you saw their message could prompt further dialogue.
3. Say Hi to New Followers
Make new followers feel appreciated right from the start! Send them a new message thanking them for following. Be sure to personalize the message with their first name and be authentic. Nowadays, people can spot automated messages right away.
4. Offer a Deal
There are so many ways your brand can offer great deals exclusively to your Instagram followers. Post to your social media accounts that you are hosting a special sale and that your audience should send you an Instagram DM for the discount code. Alternatively, you can create a group of 15 people to send a private group DM message with a VIP promo code.
5. Use the DM Sticker for Stories
Instagram recently introduced a new DM Me sticker. When you place a DM Me sticker in a Story, your followers can tap it and type a message that is then sent straight to your DMs. This is an effective and direct way to boost both your Story engagement & volume of DMs.
Posting frequently to your Instagram Stories in general is another great way to increase DMs. Not sure what to share to Stories? You can gain access to great stock photos/videos and easily create high-quality marketing videos with the Boosted app.
6. Ask a Question / Polls
Ask your customers a question! You can do this either within the description of your feed post or by using the question sticker for Stories. Ask for a recommendation or what their favorite product of yours is. If you don’t receive a lot of engagement right away, try offering a small incentive, such as a discount code for whoever comments on your post or responds to your Story.
7. Check Up On Loyal Followers
Show your fans that you appreciate them. Reach out to some of your most loyal followers – thanking them for their support, asking them how they are doing and of course, offering an exclusive deal once in a while never hurts.
8. Host a Contest
Reward your most active and engaged followers on Instagram! Host a contest and offer the first 10 people (or whatever number you’re comfortable with) to send you an Instagram DM for the chance to win a small prize. Check out our guide to running successful Instagram giveaways here.
Pro tip: as of April 2020, Instagram made it possible to manage your direct messages via desktop computers & web browsers! DMs for desktop can be a huge timesaver for your business. If you previously spent a ton of time on your phone typing out DMs, now you can engage with your customers & audience much more efficiently (think: laptop keyboard instead of iPhone keyboard).
Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.
13 Autumn Instagram Content Ideas for Small Businesses
Summer is coming to a close, and it’s time to start planning your social media calendar for the next season!
Seeking some autumn content ideas? From foliage and pumpkins to back to school season and beyond, fall offers a ton of fresh seasonal content you can create for your brand.
Here are 13 Instagram content ideas to give you some autumn inspiration.
1. Sprinkle everything with fall imagery
No matter what you post, you can’t go wrong with some classic autumn-related imagery. Here are some elements you can include in your fall-themed posts:
The colors orange, red, yellow, and brown
Leaves and foliage
Woody textures
Warm drinks: apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, hot chocolate
Fireplaces
Sweaters and jackets
Sunsets
Rain and umbrellas
Apples
Pumpkins
Spices (cloves, cinnamon sticks, etc.)
Books
A cozy, warm atmosphere
You can use these elements for inspiration when coming up with inspiration for all the content ideas below.
2. Run a special sale or promotion for fall
It’s very common for businesses to hold special sales for fall: Labor Day sales, back-to-school sales, or just something celebrating the new season. Be sure to promote your sale both in your Feed and in your Stories.
For example, Garden Architecture & Design (@gardenarchitecture), a furniture store in California, made a video showing off its wares and offering a 20% discount on “all those incredible pieces you’ve been stalking all summer”:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEMgdD_lb3J/
3. Highlight a fall-related product
Have you made some leaf-themed product lately? Does your farm, restaurant, or other food service offer any special fall items? Feature them in a Feed post or Story, and don’t forget to use plenty of fall hashtags: #autumn, #autumnvibes, etc.
Check out these adorable fall leaf earrings from @ewi.macrame:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3UtdViHGSY/
4. Recommend your favorite fall read
Fall is a great time to curl up with a cozy book to read. Show your followers what you’re reading, or what you like to read during the fall. It could be related to your field, or just something you enjoy. You can combine this with a request for book recommendations!
5. Share a fall-related quote
Create a graphic with a quote that has something to do with autumn. You can find lots of lists of fall-related quotes online, such as this one. See if you can find footage or images that match the quote — for example, if you select “You’re never too old to play in the leaves,” find a picture of a kid (or adult!) playing in fall leaves. Even better, find a pile of leaves and have someone photograph you playing in them!
Artist and author Dani DiPirro (@positivelypresent) created this beautiful image with a fall quote from Rumi:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEJ_SDWhD4c/
6. Ask a question about fall
Asking questions is a great way to create engagement. You can create a Feed post and encourage people to answer in the comments, or use a Question or Poll sticker in a Story.
Some ideas for questions to ask:
What’s your favorite thing about fall?
Pumpkin spice lattes: yea or nay?
What’s your favorite movie/book to curl up with in the fall?
What do you like to do when it’s raining?
Which do you prefer: sweaters or jackets?
7. Create a fall-related tutorial
Now’s the time for fall recipes: apple pie, pumpkin spice anything, stews and slow-cooked dinners with lots of root vegetables, etc. It’s also back-to-school time, so you can create a tutorial for a school-related craft: pencil cases, gifts for teachers… or, given it’s 2020, maybe a kid-sized cloth mask or a cute pouch for carrying hand sanitizer. Click here to read our post on creating a tutorial using Instagram Stories.
For example, artist Anastasia-berry (@anastasiadeg) created this tutorial for coloring a fall leaf:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B255YA1oc_i/
8. Back-to-school post
Try to find an angle your target audience will relate to. For instance, if your target audience is moms who may be relieved to be sending their kids back to school, you can base a video on this template from Boosted:
Maybe combine that with a special offer. For example, if you’re a massage therapist, offer a discounted massage for moms! Boosted video templates are extremely versatile, and you can use them to create both Feed videos and Stories.
If you’re targeting college-age students, you may want to focus more on things like tips for organizing a dorm room, quick and easy recipes, or tips for maintaining focus during their studies.
9. Document local fall scenery
If you live somewhere with beautiful fall foliage, get out that smartphone camera and take some great photos! You can post the images as they are, or use them as background for any of the more text-based ideas in this post.
You can also take a walk downtown and take photos of other types of fall scenery: window displays, people drinking apple cider at a local cafe, etc. This is an especially good idea if your business targets a local audience. Click here to read more ideas for targeting a local audience on Instagram.
Check out this stunning winning post from a photo contest by Timberline Adventures (@ziptimberline) last year:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B38grM-HaFT/
11. Give fall-related tips from your niche
If you’re in the beauty or fashion industry, you can talk about looks that are hot for this fall and how to achieve them. If you’re in the food industry, give some tips for working with seasonal ingredients, like apples, pumpkins, and spices. Photographer? Give some tips for capturing fall scenery.
You can create a graphic featuring the tip as text, or use the graphic to introduce the idea and elaborate in the caption. You could also make a video of yourself explaining your tips and post it on your Feed or using IGTV.
This post from The Ayurvedic Institute (@theayurvedicinstitute) features some tips for maintaining your health in the fall:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B211FJkgzuT/
12. Decorate your workspace with fall-themed items
This doesn’t have to take much: some leaves, a steaming mug, a book, and a warm photo filter could do the trick. If you’re working on something that has to do with fall, consider creating a behind-the-scenes video or carousel post.
Heather of Heather House Interiors (@heatherhouseinteriors) posted this photo of the fall-decorated entrance to her home:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEMihFwJv1h/
13. Hold a little fall event
In other times, we might recommend holding a real-life fall party or event, but the pandemic-related restrictions may make that tricky this year. Instead, organize a little fall outing or event for your staff (or for yourself, if that’s your full staff!) and be sure to document it well. Some ideas:
A hike in the woods
Go apple or pumpkin picking
Visit a local farm or farmer’s market
Make apple cider or apple pie together
Post plenty of photos and videos in your Stories (and save one or two favorites for your feed).
Action Items:
Go over this list and jot down ideas that spark your imagination.
Get out your calendar and pencil in a schedule for fall-related posts and promotions for your Instagram feed.
Be sure to leave plenty of time for content ideas that may require some prep work.
Does your social media strategy include video marketing? If not, your small business should get started with video ASAP! Videos are on the rise in 2021 – with the average person spending 100 minutes EVERY DAY watching videos online. People are also looking for more video content from their favorite brands –66% of people said they would actually prefer to watch a video about a product instead of reading about it.
We know consumers love video content and are spending tons of time consuming videos, but is it really worth it for your small business to start creating videos for social media? Definitely. In fact, 88% of marketers have said video marketing resulted in positive ROI.
If you’re thinking, “video is just too hard and time-consuming to create for my small business!” you may have been right a few years back, but things have changed! Now, you can easily create stunning videos in 3 minutes or less with beautiful, ready-to-go templates from Boosted. Plus, with access to Getty stock photos and videos and easy to customize fonts and colors, it’s never been simpler for small businesses to begin posting videos that will instantly elevate their social media accounts.
So what types of video should you be creating? Here are 7 creative ways for small businesses to use video on social media:
1. Customer Testimonials
Get your customers involved in your videos! Ask a few of your biggest fans to send you a short video about why they love your small business and create a video featuring their testimonials to share to your social accounts.
Here’s some IGTV inspiration from Australian-based real estate brand @watt_realty:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDa68knHi6_/
2. Celebrate Fun Holidays
Who doesn’t love all of the just-for-fun holidays that are out there? Check out this site to see all of the engaging, and sometimes out-of-the-box holidays that are coming up in 2021. Pick out a few relevant holidays to celebrate on social media and create a video for each occasion.
Boosted even has a few templates ready to go, from Mother’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day to National Dog Day:
3. Video Introduction
It’s great to re-introduce yourself on social media every once in a while, but just writing a long caption about yourself isn’t very engaging for your customers. If your social media accounts have recently grown and you haven’t introduced yourself to your new followers yet, create a video to tell them more about yourself! Not only will this be an easy video to create, but video content shows off more of your personality than a photo ever could.
Here’s a great way to re-introduce yourself on TikTok (video and sound by small biz @tasselamor):
If you’d like to recreate this video for your brand, simply check out the sound here and then select ‘use this sound’ to create your own content.
4. Motivational Monday
Inspirational quotes are already super popular on social media – why not test out a video with some motivational quotes? You can search for quotes easily online (be sure to always give proper credit to the original author of the quote!) Then, check out the Boosted app to find inspiring ways to bring the motivational quote to life, like this template achieves:
5. Q&A Vlog
We already know videos are engaging and personable, which is why we love the idea of asking your customers what questions they have for you and then creating a vlog-style video to answer all of their questions.
Have a virtual class or event coming up? Tell your followers everything they’ll need to know about it, in a video! Be sure to include: the value that they’ll gain by attending, where and when the event is taking place, as well as how they can participate or sign up.
Pilates Teacher @meno_pausing recently shared a video (created with Boosted!) to let her audience know about her upcoming virtual classes:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDLLm5MMKMQ/
7. Photo Compilation
Don’t have any video content yet? Compile a few of your favorite videos to create a GIF-style video! Be sure to add fun music, pops of color and interesting fonts to help the video look more dynamic. And no worries if you don’t have many photos, you can access a huge Getty stock image library on the Boosted app.
Check out our other video marketing blogs for further inspiration and guidance:
With more and more brands joining Instagram and posting Stories on your followers’ feeds, it’s becoming more of a challenge to keep your followers from swiping through your Stories. How do you make your Stories stand out and inspire your followers to stick with them?
Here’s a trade secret: there are so many creative ways you can use the Stories features and format that most users aren’t taking advantage of.
In this post we’ll introduce you to some of the lesser-known tricks that will impress and engage your followers.
1. Get creative with fonts and text effects
Adding text to a Story is pretty straightforward: you just open your Stories camera, add or record your Story, and then tap the text icon. Instagram recently expanded their font options from 4 to 9:
When you scroll through the font color selection, you’ll see 27 color options. You can actually choose any color you want when drawing in Instagram Stories. Simply tap and hold a color — and a whole color palette will appear on your screen! Slide the pin around to select any shade you like.
Did you know that you can select different letters or words in the same text and change their color separately? You can even create a rainbow or gradient effect by selecting the whole word, then tapping and holding a color with your right thumb, then sliding your left thumb to the right to deselect the word as you slide your right thumb to the left to move through the color palette. Here’s a quick TikTok tutorial on how to achieve this effect from social media pro @annaarends2:
The background effects look different for the newer fonts, too, so be sure to scroll through those and see what inspires you.
Another fun effect you can create using the text features on Stories is to spell out a word with individual letters and stagger them or arrange them however you like to look like scattered tiles. Or, create a shadow effect by creating identical texts in different colors and setting one just overlapping the other. There’s so much room for creativity here!
2. Use the doodle and erase features to highlight or hide parts of an image
Another under-appreciated feature is the doodle feature. Yes, it lets you add little drawings and arrows to your Stories… but there’s so much more it can do.
First of all, the pen tool can create a solid background. A super easy way to create a solid background is to select any image for your Story, then tap the doodle feature, pick the color you’d like for your background, and tap and hold on the screen.
But that’s not all: the highlighter tool can create a transparent overlay. This is super useful for adding text and other images over an image with lots of colors and details without making it look too “busy.” You add the transparent overlay the same way you add the solid background with the pen feature – just select the highlighter tool, pick your color, and tap and hold on the screen:
Now, the eraser is where you can really take this up a level. You can start out with an image, create a solid background over it, and then use the eraser to reveal just one element from the image that’s hiding underneath. This is a fantastic way to highlight a particular subject or object in an image. You can do the same thing with a transparent overlay — it’ll really make your subject pop!
You can also use the eraser feature to doodle through a background or overlay for an interesting “negative space” effect.
3. Use animated GIF stickers
Nothing catches the eye like an animation, and the variety of GIFs available in Instagram is staggering. Invest some time in poking around and looking for GIFs that fit your Story in terms of theme, mood, and color scheme. A strategically placed GIF can really pull a Story together.
You can also create a full screen GIF using Create Mode. Simply head to Create Mode and swipe left on the menu that appears above it to select GIF. Tap “Search GIPHY” and enter your keywords to search for the GIF you want. Create Mode GIFs look like this:
Check out our guide here for full insights on Instagram Story GIFs.
4. Create video Stories with templates
Especially if you’re short on time, a video maker app like Boosted can be a lifesaver. The app provides stunning and stylish templates, stock footage, music, and other effects that make it a cinch to pull together an impressive-looking video Story in just a few minutes.
Templates are fantastic for Stories because they create a visually cohesive video that’s smooth, easy on the eyes, and looks very professional, without the hours and hours of working with design apps (not to mention a great deal of skill and talent) it takes to create something similar on your own.
Here’s a video created with Boosted that we recently shared to @boosted_social‘s Story:
5. Take advantage of sequencing
There’s a reason Stories are called Stories: each slide leads to the next, and taking advantage of that format can really help you pull your Stories together and keep your followers engaged.
Some very simple ways to do this involve using the same background image, but adding or removing an element from each slide in sequence. For example, creating a list and adding just one item to each slide, or creating a sequence of slides that slowly reveal a key element of your image. You can do this right in the Stories camera by creating your first slide, saving the Story as an image (click the “download” icon at the top center of the screen), then altering the Story to create another slide and saving that one, and so on. Once you have all your images, upload them together in the proper sequence:
There’s no end to the creative ways you can use the features and format of Stories to create compelling content your followers will love. Invest some time in getting to know the existing features and keep an eye out to see how people are using them to give you more ideas! For more Story inspiration, check out 50 Engaging Instagram Story Ideas for Your Brand.
Action Items:
Play around with different ways to use text and fonts to make interesting effects.
Use the doodle tools to bring out specific elements in your image.
Find an animated GIF that fits your Story perfectly and place it strategically on the image.
Try out Boosted to create some quick, professional-looking video Stories.
Keep sequencing in mind and try to create a whole experience for your followers using multiple slides.
