Are you a writer or blogger? Do you find that creating narrative comes easily for you but knowing how and what and when to post on social media is a bit of a mystery (if not an outright frustration)? Here are some simple steps for turning your longform writing into Facebook and Instagram posts and Pinterest pins. In fact, you can create up to NINE social media posts from one blog or article!
Choose a blogpost or piece of writing
This blogor article must be published and linkable online. From this post you’ll create several pieces of social media content:
• A Facebook post announcing the blog / article / story and sending readers to it. For this, you’ll need the link and a caption that briefly introduces your piece of writing.
• A Pin for Pinterest. You will design a simple graphic with an image representing the story. It can be as basic as the title in a nice font and color palette.
• An Instagram post that is a graphic of a quote from the piece. You can repurpose your caption from your Facebook post.
• An Instagram story with a graphic (you can repurpose your Pinterest pin design) or short video of you announcing your story. Use the links feature on Instagram stories to paste in the direct link.
Want to get more traction from that same blog / article / story?
• Pull out a specific quote or idea and make it into a graphic for Instagram or Pinterest.
• Are there tips? Pull out 3-5 for an Instagram carousel (multi-image) post. You can also post this to Facebook.
• Share a key point in a reel (short-form, vertical video on Instagram). You can repurpose up to 1 minute of that video for an Idea Pin on Pinterest.
So now you have possibilities for up to 9 (!!!) posts across three social media platforms, all from one published piece of writing. With 2-3 blog / article / stories per month, you can fill a content calendar.
Make an easy content calendar
1. Print out a blank calendar template for the upcoming month. You can also make a content calendar in Google Sheets following these steps.
This will also allow you to create a social media calendar template that you can use again and again.
2. First, fill in anything you know you want to post about such as upcoming author events, book signings, workshops, public appearances at festivals, etc.
3. Next, fill in the posts you will create from your 2-3 blog / article / stories per month. I suggest 3-5 posts per week across platforms. So, perhaps 2 Facebook posts, 2 Instagram posts, and one Pinterest pin. As time goes by, you’ll get a sense for which platforms perform best for you and you can give those platform more attention.
4. If you still have calendar days in need of posts, consider making quote graphics. There are so many wonderful quotes by noteworthy artists about the craft of writing, the experience of writing, publishing, creativity, etc. Using a tool such as Canva (the free version is excellent), you can create a beautiful graphic template and simply change out the quote each time you reuse it.
So, now you have post ideas and you have an easy social media content calendar ready to implement.
Schedule your posts
Yes — schedule! You can make graphics and write captions for your, content in advance. Why not post it in advance, too?
1. If both your Facebook page and Instagram account are business accounts, you can link them in the Meta Business Suite. From there you can post to both accounts and schedule them to post on any date, at any time. There’s even a built-in tool to choose the optimal time, when your posts have the best chance of reaching your audience.
2. You will need to post separately to Pinterest, either from your desktop or the app on your phone.
3. If you’d prefer to post to all of your accounts on one platform, consider a social media management tool such as Later, Loomly, or the very affordable SocialBu.
Those are the basics! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to message me. Want a tutorial? We can schedule a Zoom meeting. Ask me about pricing.
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