Building your content creation skills and developing a social media schedule is an essential aspect of any organisation’s work. There are three pillars of great content that need your attention if you want to build awesome new educational content for your social media channels.
One of the biggest challenges is finding new, creative and unique ways to talk on social media. Every week needs more great content and the well of inspiration can sometimes run dry.
Whether you’re new and starting to get into social media or have been doing it for a while, there are three key pillars that will keep your content machine well-oiled and fired up.
If you pay attention to these three areas, you will always have resources to fall back on when you need to create new content.
1. Learn from others – culture and skills
You need to personally nurture two different areas of knowledge when you are creating content.
Firstly, you need to understand the culture of the platform that you’re working with. Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube, you need to know what the audience likes, how they engage with posts, what themes recur, what’s popular and what’s trending. It’s like any popular culture, it’s a constantly moving environment that you need to keep watching if you want to remain relevant.
Secondly, you must always seek to improve your own skills. Whether that’s script writing, video editing, sound design, specialist knowledge, self-confidence, presenting skills etc. Make sure that you are always learning and increasing your knowledge about the area you work in.
2. Creativity – experiment and take risks
Taking inspiration from the culture of a platform is necessary, all of the world’s greatest artists have been inspired by others. The secret is to take that influence and put your own hallmark on it. Give it your own personal flavour, spin it to suit your personality. The creative part of the work is processing what everyone else is doing, then pushing it to the next level. This is where great content is found.
This is also an area where you will need to take some risks. If you want to reach a large audience, go viral, or build a large social media presence, it will require trying new ideas to see if they work, or not. Don’t get too hung up on whether they work or not, try new ideas a few times and learn from them. You can always delete posts and try again!
3. Consistency – iterate, iterate, iterate
The last and most important part is to keep working on points 1 & 2, then maintain consistency in your posting schedule. Iterate, repeat and learn. Social media is here to stay, so we have all the time in the world to keep practising!
This is most important when the views are down and inspiration is failing. We’ve all been at that place where we’re scheduling boring, repetitive posts that don’t create impact. The ONLY way out of that slump is to apply your new skills to your own unique brand of creativity and develop a consistent schedule of new ideas.
During some days, or weeks, we don’t feel like creating new content. Keep pushing through those hard times. It’s easy to create content when everything feels good, it’s far harder – but more rewarding – to keep pushing through the hard times and create something incredible.
Learn more by downloading my free ebook and joining one of my masterclass webinars!
Gavin is a consultant, writer & content creator helping people learn about our global food system. Every month his food policy TikToks and food waste challenges reach millions, helping people understand where their food comes from and how to use it more sustainably.
He also helps organisations around the world tell stories about food. He’s written in national titles and consulted on sustainable food systems for organisations across Europe, including the European Commission and WWF. His background in photography took him across Ecuador and Colombia chasing down the world’s finest chocolate and coffee for National Geographic and Huck. He’s spoken on TV and radio in the UK and US, and been featured in the national press, alongside titles as far afield as Mexico, Japan and Kazakhstan.
