Let's Talk Social Media Content!

    Between our Meta assignment for my social media class and the Countdown to the Crown posts leading up to nationals, I’ve had to learn how to plan social media posts in advance. Whether it’s creating Reels or regular posts, I’ve had to hone the art of creativity in my posts. Nobody wants to see the same template on their feed, so diversity is key to keeping your audience interested.

    One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in social media content creation is varying my regular posts. It’s so easy to use the same images repeatedly because they spread the right message. If you continuously use the same photos, your followers will start to assume that’s all you post. To combat this urge, I’ve leaned on editing platforms like Canva to create picture posts that allow me to create something new. There are pre-designed templates for posts or stories that I can easily change the colors, add a photo, or write a small phrase and use in a few minutes. I find these incredibly convenient for the times when I have to post something with a quick turnaround. However, when there’s more time to cultivate a post, I love starting with a blank page and building exactly what I want. I play around with different shapes, color combinations, and styles to see what design will best align with my brand. Another bonus of Canva designs is the ability to add words to your post. With these images, you can type information onto the picture so your followers don’t need to read the caption to understand what they’re looking at.

    While regular posts are great, there’s a growing desire for Instagram Reels and short video content across platforms. Often, the growth of businesses and their reach stems from their video content. Social media users will scroll through Reels until they find something that interests them. If your content is eye-catching and thought-provoking, it can be the key to attracting a new consumer. Depending on the goal of the video, I develop the concept in three different ways. One of the first is starting with an audio that’s trending or aligns with the message I’m trying to share. Using trending audios can help your video show up on someone’s For You page more quickly. Other times, I want to speak directly about my mission through a video. For these, I find good lighting, a quiet spot to film, and soft background music to overlay in editing. The combination of these three things allows the video quality to match the message. My final, and favorite, way to create video content is through editing software like CapCut. Here, like Canva, I can find pre-existing templates or create my own edits. One of my favorite aspects is how I can animate pictures to create a video, so no extra filming is required.

    That’s a little bit about how I create varied social media content. How do you create social media content?