What REALLY goes into content creation…..

If you spend a lot of time scrolling social media like we do, chances are you’ve come across certain “experts” who claim you can create a month’s worth of content in 30 minutes… IF you buy their super-duper program that shows you how.

And while you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every month, there does seem to be confusion around what actually goes into creating content. 

If there was a way to create good content in 30 minutes, you know we’d be all over it. 

Here’s the thing, though: Most of these programs generate generic, repetitive content that’s not engaging, doesn’t connect, and doesn’t take into consideration things like what phase of business you’re in or your business objectives.

Many also rely heavily on AI to generate content pillars, write captions, and give you creative direction for your graphics or text tiles.

And while AI is a fantastic tool to get you started, to have it do ALL the content creation work for you is a recipe for disaster…

Programs like ChatGPT and Gemini scrape data from the entire internet, so unless you’re super specific in the ways that you create your prompts, or you’ll probably end up getting really generic, bland results.

HOW IS OUTSOURCING TO AN AGENCY DIFFERENT TO OUTSOURCING TO AI?

When you outsource to a local agency or social media manager, they’ll put a LOT of time in upfront to understand your customers, your products and/or services, and what you want your marketing to DO for you. They’ll audit your content, identify gaps in your messaging, and they’ll level up your graphics and copy, too.

Or at least… they should.

Before working with any new client, we do an in-depth audit of their current content strategy. What they’re posting, why they’re posting it, how often they post, and the quality of the content they’re publishing – in terms of visual appeal and copywriting skills.

We take into consideration their industry, whether or not they’re able to invest in professional photography and videography, and whether or not they have a strong foothold in their market.

These things help us to determine if we need to build up brand awareness from ground zero, or if the content can assume a level of brand awareness and knowledge around what the business does.

From there, we develop content pillars. These generally fall under three main categories:
Value content, Connection content and Promotional content.

From there, you have endless sub-categories to choose from.

Now, not every business is going to have the same content pillars, but YOUR business should have consistency in those content pillars month to month. This doesn’t just make it easier (and more efficient) to create content, it builds trust with your followers, as you’re not chopping and changing things up every month or two.

THAT’S THE CONTENT THEMES COVERED, WHAT ABOUT THE ACTUAL CONTENT?

While the days of the perfectly curated feed are over, we’re STILL seeing businesses post grainy screenshots, unedited product images and beginner-level graphics.

And while it’s nice to be able to invest in professional imagery for your content, we recognise that not everybody is able to afford it - although if you DO decide to invest in professional photography or videography, we can recommend some really fantastic local vendors.

Here are our top ten quick tips for levelling up your visual content:

1. Clean your phone’s camera lens. Yes, really. Trust us.

2. Take photos in PORTRAIT mode, not landscape. This ensures your images won’t get cut off when you post them. If what you’re shooting doesn’t fit in the screen on portrait mode, you’ll need to step back or relocate to a space where it does.

3. Know your brand fonts and colours… and stick to them. If you’re using Canva, go to the Brand Kit section on the home page, you’ll be able upload your fonts and colours there so they’re all in one place.

4. Give your text space. For Canva users, that square border you see when you’re creating a text graphic pretty much tells you not to step outside the lines. When in doubt, cut some words out, OR…

5. Reduce your font size. Bigger is not always better! One of the most common changes we make to client graphics is reducing font sizes.

If you don’t want to reduce the text size or the amount of words, this is where Tip #6 is an absolute gamechanger…

6. Jump on the carousel! If you have a lot of information to get out in one post, creating carousels is the BEST way to get it across to your followers.

We regularly use carousels for this reason. Instead of squeezing three points onto one tile, we spread the information out. This doesn’t just make the graphics LOOK better, we show up on our follower’s feed multiple times.

7. Don’t double-up. The days of the aesthetic feed may be over, but it pays to take a little time to roughly plan out your feed to make sure you have enough variety to look professional.

8. Create templates. It’s so easy to grab a different Canva template every time you need to create a graphic, but unless you’re using your brand kit or using the same template every time, things can get messy. Reach out if you need help creating templates for your business.

Tip #9: Look outside your industry. It can be tempting to just recreate what everyone else in your industry is doing, but this isn’t a solid content strategy. For starters, they may have different content pillars to you. They may have different business goals, and they may be at a different stage in business. Get inspiration, sure, but always come back to “what’s my objective?”

And our final tip, if you want to get serious about content creation?

10. Don’t take it so seriously!
Posts can be archived. Stories go away after 24 hours. Reels can be hidden from your main feed if you don’t get the cover image quite right (or, if you forget to create a cover image and the one Instagram chooses for you is… not exactly flattering).

Try new things. Fail. Try again. Try something else.
It's better than getting caught in analysis paralysis and ending up doing nothing.

Once you have your content pillars, brand kit and templates sorted, creating content will be a LOT quicker. Not “30 posts in 30 minutes”, quicker, but it’ll smooth the process along.

A BONUS TIP:
If you’re going to take the time to create content, make sure you maximise that content whenever you can.

The bloopers from your team filming day? Can be turned into a reel for connection content.

That reel you created for a product? It can be uploaded to your Shopify store on the product listing. Video content performs best on EVERY platform, and that includes your website.

Speaking of websites, that long-form article you wrote to boost your SEO? It might be perfect for a series of posts, or condensed into a carousel.

While content trends come and go, the importance of content can’t be understated when it comes to marketing your brand or business. To get help from real humans, reach out to discuss how we can help.