Every time you post something online, you have a choice. You can either make it something that adds to the happiness levels in the world—or you can make it something that takes away. ~Zoe Sugg
The Secret is Batch Content
Hello friends! I am back with another edition of A Beginner’s Guide To Blogging, Photography, And Influencing. I get asked/commented on multiple times about how exciting my life is, and how I am always traveling. I laugh it off, because the truth is, social media can be deceiving and I am NOT traveling ALL the time. Nope my secret, and that of most people who work in social media is called Batch Content Creating. You can not be a successful social media manager, content creator, or even influencer, if you are not batch content creating.
This is not to say my life is NOT exciting, or I am not always traveling, and it is not that I am deceiving people. On the contrary, I always try to be my most authentic self. That said, social media is a finely curated snapshot of our lives, and for many of us, it is a job where we have created a brand and work hard to make it profitable and marketable. Many of our posts are monetized, and Batch Content Creating is a life saver in terms of saving time and we know that time is money especially in this business, where we are juggling all different hats in a job that many times it is a one woman (person) show.
Work smarter not harder
I am by no means complaining. I love that my job is so diverse with many different parts to it, from the most obvious of creating content, to the less obvious aspects of pitching, branding, copy-writing, copy-editing, working on contracts, answering e-mails and so, so much more, It is never boring. All that said I am a firm believer in working smarter, NOT harder which is where batch content creating comes in. Scheduling and planning is so important, or else you can get overwhelmed, especially when it feels like we work twenty-four-seven. designating a certain task each day of the week is a great way to utilize the most of your time, like Mondays are for answering e-mails, or shooting. My schedule is flexible enough that I do change it depending on what I have going on week to week.
I shoot multiple outfits at once
I usually will have a day set aside just for shooting, where I am photographing outfits and products with different brands I work with, as well as on my personal channel. Because my brand is nautical based and my location (unfortunately) at times, is not close to the ocean, I will take a day and travel to the coast so I can get my shooting in. By doing batch content, I will shoot multiple outfits in a day and then post them throughout the weeks and months on my social media, saving me time, to focus on other things like focusing on writing, expanding my brand, and networking. I know it gives the illusion that I am at the beach all the time, but in actuality, I shoot many of my looks on the same day.
Blog posting and copy-editing
Much like batch shooting, I will spend a day writing blog posts, as well as copy writing which usually entails making captions for Instagram posts, stories, statuses, Tweets, and other writings on social media platforms. By batch writing, I am able to pull captions ahead of time which makes posting and scheduling posts (also your friend) much easier. Especially when some days the words won’t come, or there are days where you are scrambling to fit it all in. It also makes editing and picking up on typo’s much easier when you go back to it, (my English teacher would be so proud) grander not ALL the time, but somewhat!
Batch Content
With how much goes into a post, (shooting the content, editing the content, writing the content, editing the content again, getting approval, scheduling) doing it all at once can be overwhelming. Which is why breaking it up this way actually makes it easier. You have content to pull to create a post without doing it all at once. That being said, there’s a time and place for everything and sometimes things are time sensitive, or you do want to post in the moment or your schedule gets off kilter because of traveling. That is alright. Life happens, but as I said earlier, don’t work harder, work smarter, and creating batch content is one way to do that. Happy blogging friends!
Do you do batch content? How do you feel about it? Do you think it makes you a less authentic blogger or just smarter?
I need to learn to do this! Thanks for sharing!