How to Create a Social Media Content Plan
These days it seems like everyone is obsessed with content calendars, but I’ll let you in on a little secret… there’s something even better than a calendar and that’s a social media content plan. They might sound similar, but there are some key differences.
That’s why this week, Jason Pantana is going to show you the benefits of doing away with a rigid calendar, then take you through the “three Cs” of creating your own social media content plan. By the end, you’ll have the tools to make a menu of branded quality content to choose from any time you need.
It’s time to take the guessing out of what to post, so make sure you watch or listen, now.
In this episode, we discuss…
00:00 - Intro
01:55 – Reasons Jason doesn’t like content calendars
04:50 – What is content cadence?
06:10 – Your menu
08:13 – The 3 Cs
10:34 – Caveats for YT & TT
11:50 – Circulation
13:34 – Take the guessing out
For the majority of my life, I’ve been passionate and dedicated about changing lives by giving away the very best strategies, tactics, and mindset techniques to help you and your business succeed. Join me as we take this to level 10!
Keep up with me and what's new on my other channels:
Website - https://TomFerry.com
Facebook - https://facebook.com/TomFerry
Instagram - https://instagram.com/TomFerry
Twitter - https://twitter.com/TomFerry
Podcast - https://TomFerry.com/Podcast
YouTube - https://youtube.com/CoachTomFerry
These days it seems like everyone is obsessed with content calendars, but I’ll let you in on a little secret… there’s something even better than a calendar and that’s a social media content plan. They might sound similar, but there are some key differences.
That’s why this week, Jason Pantana is going to show you the benefits of doing away with a rigid calendar, then take you through the “three Cs” of creating your own social media content plan. By the end, you’ll have the tools to make a menu of branded quality content to choose from any time you need.
It’s time to take the guessing out of what to post, so make sure you watch or listen, now.
In this episode, we discuss…
00:00 - Intro
01:55 – Reasons Jason doesn’t like content calendars
04:50 – What is content cadence?
06:10 – Your menu
08:13 – The 3 Cs
10:34 – Caveats for YT & TT
11:50 – Circulation
13:34 – Take the guessing out
For the majority of my life, I’ve been passionate and dedicated about changing lives by giving away the very best strategies, tactics, and mindset techniques to help you and your business succeed. Join me as we take this to level 10!
Keep up with me and what's new on my other channels:
Website - https://TomFerry.com
Facebook - https://facebook.com/TomFerry
Instagram - https://instagram.com/TomFerry
Twitter - https://twitter.com/TomFerry
Podcast - https://TomFerry.com/Podcast
YouTube - https://youtube.com/CoachTomFerry
If you're looking to go from just inspiration of the moment to actually having a social media content strategy and map, this show is for you, i'm gon na step out on the ledge and tell you that i am not a very big fan of content calendars on The contrary, though, i'm a major fan of content plans, and today i want to break down the difference. What's more, i want to give you the ultimate social media, marketing content plan for real estate professionals now and going forward, and i got ta say like it's all the more important now in 2022 as the market shifts and adjusts that you invest in proactive marketing channels. You see a lot of agents are going to be overly reliant upon what i would call passive marketing channels that bank on people coming to them, but in a state of flux, when things are adjusting, you've got to be the knowledge broker. So i look at video and social media and email and content marketing channels, as your number one means of positioning yourself as the agent of choice of letting consumers, buyers and sellers know what they need to know to make informed choices in your local marketplace.
So today we're going to break down your content marketing plan welcome to this week in marketing. My name is jason pantana, your instructor and, if you're new to the channel, it would mean the world to us. If you would, please tap that big red button to subscribe and hit the bell to turn on notifications, so that whenever we publish new content, just like this video here, you get informed about it and don't miss out on the strategies and tactics that are designed to Help you grow your business and as always as you're, watching the video. If you like this content, let us know by smashing that, like button - and please please, we want to hear your commentary so drop a comment.
If you have a question or an idea - or you want to add on to something, we definitely want to hear from you throughout this video today, all right, it's time to talk the ultimate content, marketing plan for agents, let's dive in now before we dive into the Content, let me explain why i am so opposed to content calendars. I know there's gon na be like social media experts saying. I can't believe he said that how could he not like a content calendar? I don't like content calendars and let me tell you why i don't like content calendars and then offer you an alternative. My first major objection against content calendars is that they're daunting.
It's 365 days of a mountain to climb, like hey, where's, all your content. I need 365 days if you post five days a week, that's still 260 pieces of content. It's formidable! It's daunting! It's a lot at once, just in its very nature and structure, which then leads to my second objection, my second qualm with content calendars, which is that i believe they encourage canned content because in a day like if you're only objective - and this is true of a Lot of people they're like okay, somebody told me: i've got a post every day, and so the game is just to post every day and get it done. But i'm like look. Have you ever gone to the gym and watched people work out like some people are working out and some people aren't working out by the way, don't go to the gym and spy on people working out bad idea. But i think you can agree with me, like some people are working out hard and some people really aren't they're. Just there to say, they're there to check a box and if you're, just posting content every day to check a box you're going to encourage yourself to have canned content. Just to say you got it done and that's going to not really do very well for you.
In terms of producing engagement, every algorithm out there for social media is really predicated on its ability to garner engagement, hearts likes comments, views and all that kind of stuff gives signals to the major platforms: instagram, tick, tock, facebook - whatever that this is content worth distributing in The feeds, so if you don't get good engagement, then ultimately it doesn't get shown to people. So if you create content that is not likable that is not worth engaging, then, ultimately, it's going to be passed over by all your followers. Now i've been asking this question of my coaching clients quite a bit. Lately i've been asking what's the opposite of engagement, and this is kind of an algorithmic nerd question and the answer is disengagement.
Think about it like this. If you have a thousand followers - and you start posting just for the sake of posting one day next day, all this content for the sake of posting, then every day, your followers scroll by it, without a like, without a comment, they're, basically signaling the platforms to stop Showing you their content, which means they may still be your followers, but they're, really not your followers they're disengaged and so the minute. You turn the corner and say i'm going to go all in on valuable content. Well, then, you've got a digging out period because you've already trained them algorithmically to ignore your content, because they've scrolled past it with no interaction whatsoever for, however many days 365 days of posting every day right, i would even tell you like i'd rather see you post Less content but more meaningful content, because ultimately, if you're serving your followers you're serving yourself algorithmically, so i know i'm kind of on a soapbox, but look the opposite of engagement is disengagement.
I believe a content calendar is by design encouraging you just to get more content out there, but if you don't really have a plan for that content, it's going to end up being filler, it's going to end up being ignored and my third major one - and this Is my own little pet peeve? I find that content calendars tend to be centered around or built around holidays. Oh it's st patrick's day. Oh it's this! Oh! It's that and so in today that further encourages more canned content. You don't need a content calendar. You need a content, cadence, okay, so what's a content cadence? Well, if you look at tom ferry, for instance, every week he's publishing, basically the same stuff, but he keeps adding to the mix he keeps adding to the cadence he has this week in marketing. He has mindset monday. He has confidence and conversion, the luxury code and so forth. He has all these different, shows or series so to speak that are happening in repetition.
The difference is with the content calendar. It's like you're hurling through space and time and trying to come up with something new every day, and it puts a different formidable level of pressure on you to come up with stuff versus what tom does, which is a content cadence, where every week he's just adding To the mix adding to the mix adding to the mix and building the body of work of the content, you don't need a content calendar. You need a content cadence. Now, let's talk about how to actually make a content, cadence and think about it like this.
If you walk into a restaurant they're going to hand you a menu and the menu basically says hey at this restaurant, here's what we can cook for you. It's got appetizers, entrees desserts and all that kind of stuff and you order off of the menu. In other words, you don't just say: hey, you know what i'm in the mood for x and then poof magically. It appears as if they were somehow operationalized to do that.
Now, let's go back to the idea of content. You need a content menu. Your cadence will pull from a content menu what's on the menu. Well, i'm going to suggest there's three major layers there are video shows deal, data and templates video shows are what i would call the recurring video shows.
I gave tom ferry as an example a moment ago. What are your video shows? Maybe they're knowledge broker pro tips, maybe they're some kind of an interview based podcast, maybe they're neighborhood tours. Maybe you make funny lip sync. Videos based upon trending sounds on tick, tock or reels whatever it is what's in this menu for your video shows, what's going to be repeated now, quick sidebar, i'm not talking about like spontaneous, i just felt like posting this today type of content.
This is your planned content. What are you actually building? What's the library? What's the body of work, you're, building with your content and the first layer of that menu? Is your video shows? The second layer of your menu consists of what we call deal data deal. Data is basically how you talk, how you post about what's happening with buyers and sellers in your deals, just listed just sold, offer accepted or under contract or whatever, or maybe it's a listing. Video or maybe you tell the story of a buyer or the story of a seller, all i'm submitting to you right now is you need a standardized approach of how you deal with listings and buyers and talk about your sales in your social media content plan. We call that layer of the menu deal data and then, finally, the last layer is called templates. That just means that you have a template for how you do certain types of posts that are maybe not on a recurring basis. Maybe they don't happen like clockwork every week or every two weeks like your video shows, might but they happen when you feel like it. So, for example, a testimonial post - or maybe you do like what a lot of our coaching members do, which we call stock shots where they go out and they take basically lifestyle photos of themselves at listings and they drop those periodically just to kind of fill in And add a different dimension to their content mix on instagram or on facebook or so forth.
Every so often maybe it's blooper reels. Maybe it's this or that compare contrast, types of post. My point to you is: you need a menu. This notion of i got ta.
Come up with something new every day is daunting, that's a content calendar and i want a content. Cadence and a cadence operates by a menu. Video shows deal data templates. What's on your menu of content, you have to define that first and then, finally, once you've defined your cadence, video shows deal data templates.
Once you have all that nailed down, there's a few more considerations to bear in mind. I called the three c's cadence configuration and circulation the three c's of social media. Now cadence we've already covered, that's the what what is the content you're producing, but then the next consideration is the configuration. That's a lot of c's.
I know the configuration of the content, in other words, what's the best format, what's the best media format for a given post, should it be an instagram real, is it vertical? Is it horizontal? Should it be a graphics post? Is it best served as a carousel, where i can swipe through a gallery of images? Should it just be kind of a status update on linkedin or facebook, just all text, or should it be like a quote card or a photo? What is the best type of media to represent a given piece of content inside of your cadence? I know i know, like content, cadence circulation consideration, there's so many words here but like let's make it super simple. What are you creating content-wise? That's your cadence and then what's the level of repetition around it, and then the next layer is simply the configuration what's the format of media that is best suitable for a given piece of content. Inside of your cadence again, a real versus like a long form, youtube versus a live stream, show think about all your different media options and then bear in mind in terms of every algorithm on every platform, whether it's linkedin, instagram, facebook so forth, and keep in mind. Just about every social platform out there pays attention to what users historically interact with i mean again like every algorithm is really predicated on. I want to get people to comment heart like view and engage with the content. It's all about interactions and every platform pays attention to. Oh joe schmoe tends to watch long videos where sally tends to like short videos, i'm just kind of making that up, but they pay attention to okay, this user likes long form. Videos, like short form videos, likes lip.
Sync videos will kind of be a sucker for swiping through carousels whatever it is. Every one of the platforms pays attention to that, and so there's actually a perk if you have a well-rounded media mix, so in other words, go back to that layer of configuration, i should have graphics post just photo posts, carousels long form, videos short form vertical videos. I should mix up my formats to some degree because that actually can help me be more well-rounded in terms of appealing to the various interests that i may or may not know about of my followers now caveat to this. If we're talking, tic talk or youtube in particular, those are a little bit different on tick tock, for instance, once you find a video format or style that works, you really want to keep doing it.
If you look at the top tick talkers out there, they tend to have like oh so and so makes videos like this, and they just keep making the same iteration of that video again and again and again and on youtube. It's a little bit different because there just aren't that many different formats, so i can do a regular video. I can do a live stream or a short, and if i have over a thousand subscribers, i can do posts, but those aren't really the main forte of youtube per se. That's just really more for working the subscriber base you already have, but really with youtube.
Like you want to be able to go kind of deep on your niche in terms of oh, i make this content because youtube is constantly assessing. Oh, that channel makes content like this, for people like that they're really trying to associate your content versus the interest of their users, and so you want to kind of stay in your lane. So my point here in general is not about varying your topic so much, but about varying your media across like instagram and facebook, because or linkedin, because those platforms really monitor what are people most likely to interact with. And i want to make sure that i've got something for everybody so to speak.
So keep that in mind. It's cadence, it's configuration and then the final c of our content strategy is circulation. Where are you going to post the content so like? Let's, just imagine that maybe your home base is instagram. You make content there first, okay, great: where else are you going to publish it now, i'm not talking about like sharing content, i'm talking about natively publishing it on various different platforms and optimizing it accordingly, based upon the etiquette and the rules and the styles of those Platforms, i know it's not going to always work like, for instance, not everything i do can be a tweet or can be a youtube video or can be a tick talk because i vary my media formats, but i want you thinking through, like i've got my three Layers, my cadence the configuration of everything in that cadence and then based upon that configuration. Where are all the platforms to which i can distribute my content? Because do you know it's a crying shame? I've talked about this before it's a crying shame to put so much work into your content and only experiences benefits and results on one channel alone. You need a plan for distributing your content far and wide to get the maximum mileage out of everything you publish, because you don't know where followers are. You don't know where you can grow your footprint and your audience in terms of generating future business and people who are like, oh you're, my agent. I love what you're doing so.
I don't want to make it overly technical. I want to stay kind of high level from a framework standpoint. It's really those three c's, it's your cadence! It's the configuration of everything in that cadence of content and then it's the circulation. Where are you going to publish it to get the maximum mileage? The maximum exposure of everything you create videos, photos and beyond and remember when you get into momentum where every single week you're publishing content new iterations, adding to your mix of content.
That's when you start to really grow your influence on all the different channels out there. I don't have time for a content calendar where every day is a guessing game of what should we publish today? I am way more interested in defining that cadence, where you can get into rhythm. You can get into momentum with every single week that goes by you're, publishing more to your library, more and you're building the body of work of your content and before you know it you're going to hear oh you're that agent, i see you everywhere. I love your videos, i love your post, don't be the agent who waits for buyers and sellers to come to you be the agent who goes to them.
First, be the informant, be the knowledge broker in your content, and i promise the results will show up in your pipeline. Thank you so much for watching this week in marketing. If anything that was said related to you or it resonated with you, we'd love to hear from you in a comment tag a friend bring somebody into the conversation who could also benefit in watching this week's episode so until next week. This is this week in marketing.
Uh.
very informative
It’s the social media equivalent of taco Tuesday’s 🌮
Solid video
I love all this!
Curious, Do think it’s worth doing content days before and then have it scheduled to post on Hoot Suite?
Is it too late to build up my business social media pages?
I love your videos.
Jason Pantana, love love the content! But please please stop with the constant wild gesticulation- its so distracting and nauseating- hands and head swinging wildly while you talk! Non stop hands movements, fingers in front your face, costant motion..I it majority distracts from all the good stuff you are serving! Please be more steady and calm when you deliver your valuable message – I appreciate so much the message, but not the way its delivered, thanks
I appreciate at the energy and content you bring. I love this video. Keep spreading the good word my friends
Congratulations! You just described a content calendar. I'm not sure your message is very clear in this video. The whole idea of a content calendar is to arrange and organize your content so it isn't so overwhelming trying to come up with something on the fly. I get that you're trying to simplify the process by limiting the types of content you create to make it easier to come up with ideas but at the end of the day it's still easier to put it on a calendar to know what you have coming up. I watched this video twice and I'm not getting it. I still love the content though.
Nice video 📹