On Content Planning

When I was starting out as a recent content creator, I knew I would need a plan on what to post and when. It needed to be organized and followed, which is good because if anyone knows me, they know organization is basically the key to my mental stability. All the websites say that frequent posting is crucial to the success of creating a community of followers and increasing engagement on your posts so having a plan helps a lot. In my experience, I find writing down my plan on paper is a lot easier to remember than if I used an online planning system. I do use Buffer to plan my posts in advance but that is the extent of my digital planning. So find an old notebook you haven’t used since high school or buy a new one that will motivate you to plan and lets get started!

#1: The “Why”

The first page of my planning notebook has my “why”, or my mission, vision, and values wrapped up into one statement that encompasses my reason for creating content and sheds a little light on what I would like to focus on creating. My “why” is:

“I want to be a local content creator to establish networks, create lasting friendships and partnerships in my community, empower women to realize their full potential, and to prove to myself that I can do it.”

This statement helps me keep my focus and continue to create content that fits in line with it. I also focus on what makes me different from the rest: I am in tune with the cultural and historical features of my city due to my background in museum studies and I also have a unique style that takes influence from certain current trends but I also try to make it my own.

#2: The List

The next few pages are dedicated to idea brainstorming for photo and content ideas like locations, topics, or even poses that I can try out for my next posts. This helps me when I’m stumped about what I can do next and also gives me a space to dump all kinds of ideas into. These ideas come from places that have caught my eye, things I’ve seen other content creators do, or photos from my city’s social media accounts and also Pinterest.

#3: The Notes

I give myself plenty of space in my planning notebook to take notes from articles I find online that have tips for improving Instagram content or things other content creators have posted on Instagram that I’d like to remember. One of my favorite people to gain knowledge from is Kahlea Nicole (@kahleanicolee on Instagram) who is an online business coach. She provides interesting tips and coaching through her Instagram stories, photo captions, and IGTVs. I try to take these tips to heart when planning and creating new content.

#4: The Schedule

Here is where I finally get to the actual planning part of creating content. My basic schedule is set up with the number of the day on one line and then so on, skipping every other line so there is room to add more writing. My first step in filling in these dates is looking at my general everyday planner and seeing what kinds of plans and events I have that month. For example, in September I knew I’d be doing a pedal bar with friends and going to a Makahiki event, so that gives me two days of content already. It’s also my boyfriend and I’s year anniversary at the end of the month and we will be going to Chicago, so that gives me more content as well. Then I look at the everyday things I do like going to the gym or wearing a nice outfit and decide I will plan to take photos on those days and create an engaging story around those posts since I do want to focus on lifestyle. Then I take a look at my list (#2) and see if anything sparks my interest. I also try to plan for one or two days where I will batch content, which means I pick four to five locations and outfits and get those shots done in one day, that way I have almost a week of content all ready to go. This helps me out a lot and it is actually really fun! By the time I’ve done all these things, my calendar is basically full, but if something comes up I definitely find room in the calendar to add it in.

#5: The Wrap Up

Since September is the first month that I officially began creating content with purpose, I haven’t done an end of the month wrap up yet. However, I plan to document the number of posts and stories I made during the month and track the number followers that gained and any other pertinent analytics. Then, I leave room for other notable things that I may want to do or change for the next month. I’ve already began planning October and I’m very excited to create some more autumn-related content! I plan to structure my organization in three month increments and then at the end of the quarter, take a deep dive into what I’m doing that’s working and what I can do to make positive and beneficial changes.

I hope this post helped you, maybe you’re stuck on content creation or maybe you just need the motivation to get planning! Whatever your intentions, let me know how you keep your content organized and inspired!