when I’m supporting folks with their content strategy, the biggest holy-sh*t-this-changes-everything moment is always when we make the flip so VISUALS COME LAST.
when we make this shift, the process becomes super clear:
001 / decide what idea I’m posting
choose an idea from my idea bank (i decide what i want to say before i think about how it’ll look)
002 / write the caption
the caption-first method helps to make sure you nail the post’s core intention before adding the bells and whistles
003 / pair it with a visual i’m inspired by
my notion calendar has a place to pop the inspo link so I can come back to it later when i’m ready to create. sometimes this is coming from an IG save or pinterest, but I also link my own content pieces here if there’s a template I want to reuse.
(if you’re not sure whether you should choose a video vs. a photo vs. a graphic, read on)
004 / (the most important one) make it my own
the inspo is just there to guide what type of post I’m making, not to copy something by someone else. my own visual language guides how the inspo is actually executed to become something original.
here are some initial steps to help you lay the base to implement this strategy:
1. keep a bank of all your ideas
2. keep a folder of inspiration that fits YOUR chosen visual language
3. decide which ideas you want to share this week
4. find a visual example to pair with each one
but because every platform gives us SOOooOooOooo f*cking many options for what something *could* look like visually, there’s still that major question mark at that last part (i.e. the “is it a video or a graphic or a photo” spiral) so LET’S SIMPLIFY THAT BIT, TOO.
when you’re selecting your visual to pair with your ALREADY AWESOME IDEA, consider…
001 / THE GOALS OF THE POST ITSELF ↓
earlier this week I shared about how every post should have a FOCUS, and that decision should be made *before* you get to the visual part. depending on what type of response you’re hoping to get from your people, the medium itself will have an impact on that. this is also where you’ll want to think about what your audience responds to most.
002 / YOUR OWN BANDWIDTH FOR CREATING ↓
like, literally, what do you have the time + resources for? there are some weeks where it’s easy to film a fresh talking head video to explain video, and some weeks where it’s gonna feel IMPOSSIBLE to hit record. so, choose something else. it’s not that deep.
in a world where we’re so quick to scroll + save inspiration, we forget that the most POWERFUL ideas are the ones that live inside us already.
we don’t need to hunt for things to say online, we just need to identify the vehicles to carry our own thoughts out into the world. 😉
try this technique and let me know how it goes!!! @xanthe.appleyard
