Creating content is a FULL-time job. If you are reading this as a social media manager or small biz owner, I am sure that you can agree that creating content takes TIME! But let's back up a moment, maybe you are reading this and thinking to yourself, well, what exactly is content batching?
In this article we’ll highlight three main things for you:
What is content batching?
"Content batching is a productivity technique where you create all of your captions or visual content during a set period of time." - Samuel (2021).
Although that may initially sound overwhelming - it saves so much to do all your content, captions, and hashtags at once - and from there you can plan and schedule them into your scheduling app of choice. The best part about content batching is that once you get into it - it’s like going down a highway - you get momentum and it becomes easier to do.
Why should you do content batching?
1. Saves time:
Although it may sound like this would be more time-consuming, content batching saves so much time.
2. Allows consistently:
It allows you to make sure that your posts are woven into your strategy and consistent.
3. Repurpose your ideas across platforms:
Content batching means that you can make sure that the content of each platform matches the specific platform.
Basically what content batching means is that you get all posts planned and scheduled in one go. You start content batching by first understanding your content pillars and strategy. At the end of your content batching you finally schedule your content calendar and complete it. The in-between is content batching.
Helpful Tips
Samuel (2021), highlights some tips for content batching:
Identify Your Content Pillars.
What are content pillars?
According to Thomans (2020), "using content pillars for social media is a great way to stay organized, be consistent, and create high-quality content your audience will love. Barnhart (2018), describes content pillars as: "a subset of topics or themes which create the foundation for your overall content strategy." In a nutshell, each pillar represents a topic that is RELEVANT to your target audience. Often times content pillars and content categories are used interchangeably. But whatever you post, once you have your pillars, you make sure they fit into your content categories/pillars.
It's likely that you recognise certain brands online - you recognise they are aesthetic - you recognise that it's them. It's like the style that simply makes them, well them.
Look over and analyse your posts - look at your current social media (if you haven’t already), and see what posts worked the best through insights, etc and use that as a starting point.
Brainstorm New Content Ideas - we’ll be sharing 10 content ideas with you soon!
Write Your Captions for a Month - copywriting, yes, we said it - getting all the captions and all the words out at once.
Source Your Photos - this comes down to curation and creation which we'll cover next.
Film Video Content
Design Your Graphics
Schedule Your Content Calendar - now that you know what is going where. Covered above.
“Great content is the best sales tool in the world.” - Marcus Sheridan
We couldn’t agree more. If you are wondering how to develop content or need help doing that - why not get in touch with us below:
Written By: Kelsey van der Merwe