Supporting your business on social media is a daunting task and creating the content for your channels even more so. However, with these top tips, I hope to show you how you can create content easily, manage the creative process effectively and work more efficiently.  

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Hiya, I am SJ Thomson, a social media consultant empowering you and your brand to be part of the bigger stories by creating cool content that everyone wants to share. With over a decade of experience in creating content for brands big and small, I provide a nurturing support system that removes any anxiety, helps you translate your brand to the right platforms, and demonstrates success in a way that everyone can understand.  

Make a Weekly Schedule

Planning your content for certain days will help you organise your content ahead of time whilst giving you a structure to follow. The schedule can also be helpful for your audience as they become more engaged with your brand and start to look forward to your content. An example of how this schedule could look is:  

• Monday - sharing the special offers of the week, what appointments you have free or new services launching - think of it as Business Updates Monday
• Tuesday - make it a Transformation Tuesday by showcasing your work and how your client feels afterwards  
• Friday - highlights from the week with your favourite looks or moments  
• Saturday - Service Showcase Saturday showing off one of the services you provide and the results  

• Sunday - share client stories and reviews  

Putting a plan like this in place will help know how much content you need to be creating and when you need it. More importantly, it will help you get into a consistent posting routine.  

Have a Process

Thinking about all the different moments you have to talk about in your business and how you want to share them on your social channels can be overwhelming so putting in a process will make it easier for you to manage. It will also allow you to produce content more efficiently and be effective in your communications.  

For example, if you want to showcase a service you offer, then how can you put in place a process that every time you do this service you are capturing the content you require? A few examples of this are:

• Creating a  timelapse video showing the process of microblading  

• Taking a before picture and an after picture when doing a client’s hair
• Taking a picture of new nail art designs which have been created around occasions such as weddings, Christmas, Valentine’s Day etc  
• Capturing videos throughout the day to show what a day in the life as a beauty business owner looks like  

For each service, think about how best you can demonstrate skill, knowledge and experience using the content. Once you have this structure in your mind you will be able to start creating content and won’t ever have to panic about posting again as you will have a bank of content ready to go.  

User Generated Content

User Generated Content is a great way to show off your services using the people that really matter - your customers! Encouraging your customers to tag you whenever they are talking about you on their social channels will allow you to effortlessly have new content to share. This content can easily be shared on the likes of Instagram stories and, with their permission, you can repost the content onto your feed crediting your wonderful customer and explaining what service made them look that incredible!  

Repurpose, reuse

Remember that only you have ever seen all of your content so do not be afraid to repurpose and reuse content where relevant. Having regular messages to support your business will help you have consistent messaging. For example,  how often are you sharing your price list, your service menu, and who you and your team are? These are vital core messages that don’t have to be a one-and-done. Further to that, look at reusing your old content with a new edit to celebrate moments like anniversaries, demonstrate progress, or whenever feels relevant (like chunky highlights and french tip manicures making a comeback).  

Go a step further and repurpose your Instagram feed content and share it to stories. Instead of putting ‘new post’ how about using Instagram stickers to make the story interactive and encourage engagement.

Top Tip - save all your finalised content before posting to reshare across other platforms. Just make sure you’re adapting the content to optimise for each channel.

Final checks

And finally, before you hit post (or schedule) make sure you do some final checks of your content. Ask yourself- are you getting your key messages out clearly? Are you showcasing your services to the best of your ability? Is this content authentic and genuine to the business? Then, for the final touches

• Tag your location to help people find you more easily
• Check the spelling of your post and caption
• Have you added a call to action?  
• Have you added hashtags to your post to help it be discoverable

• Once live, share to stories and add an Instagram sticker to make it more engaging  

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Article written by SJ Thomson for Beauty Backed Trust

For SJ's website, please click here