Content Prep: How to

Content prep has saved me so much time over the years! I've seen trainers  teach monthly prep and even daily prep, I've tried both of those myself, but what I've decided works best for me and my business/family is weekly prep. We're not going to talk as much about what to post as we are how to prep the posts. 

If you are looking more for what to post, check out this video as well as this free branding worksheet. An additional trick I like to use is keeping a page in my notes app on my phone labeled "post ideas". Anytime I'm reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching a YouTube, attending a training, etc. I'm jotting down notes to turn into content later. This is also a wake up call because if you find yourself at a loss for content ideas, it's usually a tell tell sign that you're not feeding your mind consistently. If you want good things to come out of your mind, you need to be putting good things in. To get more specific, you need to be consuming things relative to your niche.

 What to post is the first step in getting good ideas to post on your social media pages, but then prepping the content will help you follow through with posting consistently as well as posting quality content. 

One thing to keep in mind is you'll want to post different styles of content as well. As a new creator, reels, carousels, and graphic/text posts are three great options to rotate between. As you become more experienced, you can add in blog posts and/or video content. Posting only one style of post will get bored for both yourself and your audience.  

As I said above, you can definitely prep monthly or daily in addition to my weekly method. 

Prepping monthly would mean sitting down one day per month and prepping all of your content for the entire month, so you'd both schedule it out and create it. If you're a smaller creator this may work for you. For me I dislike this method for 2 reasons. 

1. Because I run two separate social media accounts on top of having this blog, creating everything for a month in 1 day while trying to also be a mom and a wife proved to be impossible. 

2. I like to schedule my content around what we're doing that day, especially for my homeschool page, and I don't write out my schedule a month in advance. 

For the daily prep method you'd schedule your content a week or month in advance, but you would create it each day. I personally dislike this method because days change and it's hard to consistently post and post quality content when I come to days where we wake up late or have a particularly busy schedule. For me, I like having all the content ready and in digital albums to just pull out and post that way I can be consistent regardless wha the day brings. 

Which brings me to my method of choice: 

Weekly content prep is my favorite because I can sit down one day a week, schedule and create all of my content (except reels) and then go about my life. It's awesome! 

I've got a free content scheduler for you guys to download here. You've got a beginner (one quality post per day), intermediate (two quality posts per day), and advanced (two quality posts per day + blog 1 post and video per week. Choose the one that works for you. When I started out I used the beginner format and got consistent with that before moving on. Now I use the advanced format and double it because I post for 2 different brands each day. So I prep 24 social posts and 2 video/blog posts each week. You can do as much or as little as you want with this, but start small. 

This step will take anywhere from 20-45 min to schedule depending on how much you're choosing to do. I give myself an hour, so I don't feel rushed, and I usually get done quicker than that. A huge piece of advice I'd give if this sounds overwhelming for you is to focus on getting the rest of your life organized as well by checking out the "organize my life" blog. Remember, scheduling creates freedom. 

When you're scheduling, start biggest to smallest. I schedule my blog post/video first then I move on to businesses/promo posts, no more than 3 per week on an intermediate/advanced schedule, 1-2 max on a beginner schedule. From there I schedule in value based carousels and lastly sprinkle in entertaining and positive static posts. In the corresponding training video I go over what this week's schedule looks like. 

I usually prep/create on Saturdays. I start early and go all day, BUT I take breaks consistently because I want to make sure my creative energy is the same throughout the creation process. As I'm prepping this today, I've taken cleaning breaks, reading breaks, and journaling breaks. I typically work 2-3 hours max before taking a brain break because that's when I can feel my creativity start to dwindle. 

Now, don't let this scare you because as a new creator you'll be doing 7 posts, so about 15 min for scheduling and 60-90 min for creating for a total of about 2 hours per week to both schedule and prep. As you add on more content, you can expect a longer prep session each week, As a full time content creator I spend 10-12 hours per week scheduling and creating content, but again, this is my full time job. I went from working 40+ hours per week away from my home, so this doesn't seem like a lot to me. It's all about your perspective on the issue. As a new creator trying to work around a full time job, I wouldn't recommend jumping into a full time schedule. I'd recommend starting with the beginner schedule, you can always add more on as you're ready. 

I create all of my social media posts, write out my video scripts+ create my YouTube thumbnails, put my blogs together, create both of my freebies+landing pages+ad graphics, and write out both of my emails on my prep day. The only thing I don't do is film my reels or go live. On Mondays I go live with my homeschool video and Wednesdays I go live with my business video and then after I go live I'll spend 15-30 min and film a few reels. Again, this is my schedule not yours, so don't let it scare you. 

Scheduling and prepping content is not only a HUGE time saver, but it will also boost your sales. Your audience will keep coming back if you consistently give them value. In addition, giving them value will lead them to trust you and ultimately buy from you. 

This is all about what works for you and your family. Don't be afraid to try something and keep tweaking it until it works for you. I tried for almost 6 months to get a good prep schedule down. It's not about how quickly you get it down but about how disciplined you are to keep working at it until it clicks for you. 

This is a process. Give yourself patience and grace, and feel free to reach out to me @thebossmomco if you have any further questions about this topic! Until next time, this is Tonya reporting to you live from the social marketing trenches, see y'all next Wednesday!