“Hey, Can We Quickly Get A Post Out About _____?”
Look, I’ve been there. Whether you’re working in-house or for an agency, Social Media Managers receive this demand far too often. The business has a message it would like to get out, but here’s the problem: You don’t have the content to go along with that message. It’s 4:50 pm and you were about to call it a day. Now you have to come up with a post. Here are 3 tips on how to collect content ahead of time so you aren’t scrambling at the last second.
1. Have an employee “deliver the message”
Photos of employees tend to do well on social media. Let’s say you do social media for a clothing store and they are having flash sales to try to unload some of their inventory. As the person running the social, you’re not exactly sure what clothes are still left, and you don’t want to mislead your audience, so product photos are out of the question. Instead, use a photo of an employee! “Amy is excited to announce that EVERYTHING in the store is 20% off. Come in and see her this entire weekend and she’ll help you walk out with a stylish (and affordable) wardrobe.” The photo is a simple portrait of Amy, the sales rep, and has versatile use. So make sure you get plenty of portraits of employees on your next shoot. Remember, a phone and some natural lighting can go a long way!
2. Use photos of the space!
One of our restaurant clients recently had to close for the afternoon due to a neighborhood power outage. We felt like using a photo of food was misleading (and would only make people hangrier), so we used a photo of the empty restaurant we had taken during off-hours. We also spun the caption as if we were giving people even more time to look over the menu.
During our last shoot with this client, I made sure we captured some photos of the exterior, including their cool neon “Open” sign. These types of posts aren’t always the best performing, but when you’re in a pinch and need to get the message out, they far out-perform a graphic that was whipped up in Canva. (No shade to Canva, we love you).
3. The Hail Mary
Okay, you really have nothing new to go along with your message. Don’t panic, there may be some gems hiding around. User-generated content can be found on sites like Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Reviews. Even giving the business a good ole’ Google Image Search may result in some nice surprises. You can also scroll back in your social media and grab an old photo. I try not to reuse photos within the year, but look, at this point you just need something. If all else fails, you can head over to www.unsplash.com.
These 3 tips have gotten me out of a few binds, and I hope they can help you as well. Please feel free to comment with any tips on post content!
