Social media content planning is a process. Some people get it right away and need no outside help while others get lost on the way to inspiration constantly. I tend to be the latter.

That being said, over the past few months I’ve come up with a system that works pretty well for me with Instagram. (when I decide to use it) and I figured it may be a good idea to share with some of you!

Social media is a great way to connect with not only the people you interact with daily, but it’s a great way to interact with businesses, business owners and people with likeminded interests and goals. With some social media (specifically instagram) It’s hard to do that however (mainly because the algorithm won’t let people know you exist) if your social media isn’t consistent, trendy (to a point) or attractive. I can’t promise to help specifically make your instagram trendy or attractive, but what I can do is share my method with you and hope that by making it a teensie bit easier to gain inspiration and create a plan, you’ll have an easier time when it comes to creating and posting content.

How I Plan My Social Media Content

First, I Get Inspired

Before posting anything I need inspiration. Where do I gain my inspiration from? Glad you asked: Pinterest. Anything I’m thinking about posting I type into Pinterest and check out what matches what I’m feeling. Typically I try to match the season with my social media so if I’m in winter (which I am currently) then I’m going to look up wintery things. My current inspo routine is as simple as opening my Pinterest app and typing in ‘snow scenes’, ‘cozy winter’ or ‘cozy Christmas’ and watching the magic happen.

Next, I Collect

While browsing through my Pinterest results, anything that catches my eye or makes me feel some type of way (excited, moved, etc.) will be collected in to a board I’ve specifically created for social media inspiration (check out my Pinterest here). I do this to get a look at all of the things I like in one spot and see how they mesh together. How do the colors look? Am I feeling more red or white? Is is too manufactured looking? Maybe I have 30 pictures of coffee cups…maybe I shouldn’t. I use this board to visually get an idea of what I could create.

Then, I Create

This part is the most fun while also being the most difficult and time consuming. Once I’ve gathered my collection of inspiring scenes it’s time to create my own. It’s never a good idea to copy someone else’s work, so don’t. Instead use the inspiration their ideas have provided you. For example, from these samples above I’ve decided that instead of the mainly white theme I thought I wanted for my winter grid, I’m more in favor of a grid with more natural tones: browns, nudes, spots of greens with white being a common tie in here and there, but not the main mood. I’ll take photos, some that I’ll use, most that I won’t and create captions for them. This process can take a while, but it pays off! I use a planning app called preview. You can plan out your posts and captions AND even have it remind you to post. Pretty handy if you ask me.

Bonus: Finally, I enjoy it!

Once all the planning is complete I post! I love this part. I’m not super concerned about the actual engagements of my posts…tracking those things can be pretty overwhelming for some people. If you’re consistent and engaging, people will interact with you. Have fun with it. Express yourself, interact with people. Meet new people and engage with their business, make connections, network. In the end social media is a tool for connection. A fun one if you allow it to be. If it becomes something that causes you stress, take a break! If you aren’t enjoying the direction you’ve taken it, delete it all and start again. For me social media is a means of self expression along with being a simple way for me to see the and interact with the world in a way I’ve never been able to before and for that I appreciate it.

Have instagram? Let’s connect (find me here)! What do you do for content planning? Or maybe your not a content planner and you just post whenever, would you like to learn more about content planning? Let me know below!

Till next time!

Nicole Eva