Getting good at socials, even if you hate it (featuring James from Cloud Three)
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This week on Marketing + Margaritas we’ve brought back James from Cloud Three to talk all things socials. Even after finding his groove, James is reluctant to say that he likes posting on socials (we get it – it can be a grind!), but his transformation from social media avoider to regularly posting makes him an excellent guest to help guide you on your way to getting on top of your socials in 2024.
As James likes to say (slash that he stole from his running coach 🤣): "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes progress.” Like all skills, consistency and practice are key but we know you don’t come to us for our charming platitudes (no matter how well they’re worded!) so we’ve recapped James’ top 3 steps + sprinkled in some other advice to help get your socials on point!
Step 1 – Make sure your brand assets are in order
From a responsive logo with consistent colours, to some social tile templates + a strong idea of how you want your brand to sound (common words + phrases etc), getting your brand assets organised makes posting SO much easier. Things like Canva templates that can be easily updated with new photos, a cheat sheet that outlines your brand values + common phrases can help make posting smoother, quicker and more consistent.
Shameless plug > if you want the templates we use for socials here at team Rebel (minus our Canva templates 😉) our 2024 Marketing Strategy Bundle gives you a head start in creating those brand assets for your business!
Step 2 – Make it simple for yourself
To make posting to socials easy, James found an Illustrator template that had 30 different designs that he then customised with his branding. As Insta only fits 30 posts per page anyway, you don’t have to worry about ripping off the template from an earlier post as someone will never see them side by side anyway (work smarter not harder, go James!). If Illustrator isn’t your bag, we totally recommend Canva as it’s a nice and accessible alternative for those wanting to dip their toes into creating social media tiles.
On a similar vein, James found that coming up with 3 different topics/areas that you are knowledgeable about to use as a jumping off point when you’re stuck for content worked a treat. What’s new in your industry? Has anything been released or changed in the last few months? Follow a few newsletters, subscribe to some YouTube channels, inspiration is everywhere if you’re on the lookout. Which leads us on to our final step…
Step 3 – Always be collecting content
Last, but certainly not least, make sure you’re always on the lookout for new content. For James specifically, he always takes a screenshot of a website when he finishes and pops it in his content bank. He also sends out an email to clients that mentions what he liked about working with them on the job and asks them what they liked? This makes asking for a testimonial way easier than cold calling a client 3 months after you’ve finished working for them and you’ll often get some really cool responses!
We really enjoyed having James on this week’s episode and hope you did too! If you want to see more of him, you can check out his Instagram here or his website here. You can also see his previous appearance on the podcast here!