When it comes to social media, I always want to level up! Making my content better, more insightful, more fun – it’s all about serving your audience better. I want to create content that will make people want to come back for more. Not only will this position you to work with top brands, it’ll helps you reach your goals. But everyone uses social media differently! So everyone’s thoughts and goals around content creation and social media will naturally be different, too.

The first tip: Find a space that inspires you to create content

This tip encompasses two parts. The first is to dedicate a space to content creation. Now, I’ve lived in my fair share of small apartments. The dining room doubles as my desk, which triples as the place where I shoot B-roll for my videos. It’s natural for a space to have multiple uses. But it’s important to have a space that you go to to be creative.

The second portion is to design the space to inspire you. That starts with lighting. I don’t always have the option to film during the day in natural light because, yeah–life gets hectic. Sometimes the weather isn’t cooperative. So to compensate for variability, I use these blackout curtains to control the lighting of the room! When you couple a good set of blackout curtains with a ring light, or desktop studio lighting kit, you can create content that is reliably and repeatably good. In my at-home studio set-up (the same one I’ve used on multiple appearances on QVC, the Ring Light controls the ambient lighting. I use tabletop and studio lights in other corners of the room to highlight or illuminate certain dark spots.

The space isn’t just made by lighting, however. In my particular niche of planning, a lot of my video content and photos feature up-close product shots. Everyone clamors for detailed photos of planner spreads, and overhead shots of how I plan real-time in my planner. I use portable Replica Surfaces to create a neutral, beautiful background for all of my up-close-and-personal product shots. You can turn any venue into a place to create content. These surfaces travel well on the road and they’ve held up remarkably well since buying them more than two years ago.

The second tip: Have a central place to organize your content

The central place I use in my day to day content planning is something that we ALL HAVE! A FREE resource. I use Google Drive. The Google Suite of products, Google Drive among them, is something you have access to for free with a gmail account. I live and die by my Google Drive; my brand would not survive without this. 

Beyond having a place for everything, I suggest creating a system for organization using Google Drive’s nesting system of folders, documents, and spreadsheets. For example, I have a folder for each month of the year (e.g. July 2021), and nested in that folder is a sub-folder for Instagram, a sub-folder for YouTube, and one for my Patreon community. Within each of these folders I have spreadsheets and Google Docs that I use to write scripts, to draft captions, you name it.

Any photo I take, Canva graphic I make, or video clip I film for B-roll, I throw it right into a designated folder. It’s so comforting to have a place where you know everything lives.

I tried Trello for a while last year and it just wasn’t as effective for me as Google Drive. Everyone on my team is able to access the content they need on-demand without asking me where it is. Your mileage may vary, of course. If you’re more comfortable with a different system, by all means use it.

Why do I do this?

1. I need to get content ideas from SOMEWHERE, right!? Sometimes life happens and a piece of content doesn’t get published on time. With Google Drive, I can go backm find it, and slot it to publish in the next week or month instead.

2. It helps spark inspiration. I might only have two hours one day to work on Plan with Laur, so I can sit down and get right into creating content in those two hours.

3. Repurposing your own content! Take the content you’ve posted previously, and repurpose it. You never know when your audience is going to find you. You never know who needs to hear that content again. If you posted something with fantastic engagement from your community six months ago, your audience has probably changed since then! So instead of trying to remember what I posted, I go back in my Google Drive, grab the caption out of the folder, tweak it to make it relevant, and post it.

Another PRO TIP: Sometimes when I’m out and about, inspiration hits! I open the Google Drive app, open my “Content Ideas” Google Doc, and add my idea then and there. I come back to this document when I have time to actually create the content and not lose my great (or sometimes not so great) content idea.

The Third Tip: Keep a Content Calendar

There are so many reasons to keep a content calendar. Having a clear idea of what’s coming next allows you to plan strategically. What collaborations can you take? What is the general arc of your content over the course of a week or a month? These questions are best answered by referencing your content calendar. I use Google Drive for my content calendar. That way, it’s all synced up on my phone in the same app as my content.

If you subscribe to using content pillars – that is, basing your content on several “pillars” which define your brand and strategy – you can visualize how equitable your content is over the course of a month. Am I too heavy on lifestyle content this month? Too light on wedding planning? Am I doing too many product reviews at the wrong time of year? I answer all of these questions by keeping and maintaining my content calendar.

Overall, think smarter – not harder – when it comes to your content. You want to talk about things that come naturally to you, that you’re passionate about. You want your content to work for YOU.

FAQ

How early should I be creating content?

My rule of thumb is to start creating three months out. I am not saying that you have to have everything planned and written out. But you are at least laying out a very rough outline! I think about the time of year. Are people shopping for new planners? Are they moving into a new planner? What type of content will they be most appreciative of? That way I can intuitively think about and commit to a generalized content plan.

What do I need to start a Patreon account?

Other than a bank account? Nothing, I guess! Since Patreon is a membership-based community, you should have a solid vision about what you want to offer. How are you going to serve your community initially? And as it grows, how will you keep the community engaged? There are usually different tiers in what people are offering. I don’t think it’s ever enough to just set it and forget it. You have to keep serving the group.

When you are planning content, what do you do when brand collaborations and other unexpected opportunities come up?

If I agree to a collab on short notice or something pops up at the last minute, I think it first comes to “Do I want to promote it or not?” If this opportunity stresses you out, hold off on posting until it doesn’t stress you out. Sometimes, this means the opportunity passes you by. I think that’s OK. Serve Before You Sell. Quality Over Quantity. Two things I live by!

Can you explain again what content pillars are and how often should those be revisited for updates?

Content Pillars are the things that you want to create and talk about. They are unique to you! What things do you feel confident and comfortable talking about?

My four pillars are: Planning, Goal Setting, Simple and Easy Content Creation, and Wedding Planning. I revisit these pillars every 3 months!