I recently did a poll on my Instagram stories, asking my audience: What should my next LIVE Topic be about? Most of my audience chose “content planning!” As I started outlining my IG Live content planning points, I immediately thought: this should be a blog post!

Being that most of my audience chose content planning, I knew that there was a need for this post. I know that when I first started creating content, I didn’t have a clear content strategy. Most of the time I was posting randomly and in realtime! I quickly learned that the reason why I was getting burnt out was that I didn’t have a clear plan or strategy. Today, I’m breaking it down for you! You will be highly blessed with a strategy to start planning and creating content, especially if you are a beginner!

Content Pillars

Before you get started creating content for your platform, you need to be clear about your content pillars. You may be thinking, what are content pillars? To answer your question, content pillars are 3 to 5 topics that your brand will consistently discuss and create content for your social media platforms.  These pillars create the foundation for your overall content strategy. You may also hear them being called content buckets or content categories, but they all mean the same thing.

To give you an idea my content pillars are :

• Natural Hair
• Blogging/Content Tips
• Motherhood
• Inspiration/Motivational
• Lifestyle

When you go onto my platform you will see all these different types of content. This is consistent throughout my many different platforms.

Content Themes

Once you are clear on what your content pillars are you can start the content planning! I usually plan on a month-by-month basis. I start to brainstorm different themes I want to create based on my content pillars. Here are some examples of themes based on my content pillars.

• Natural Hair: Moisturizing My Natural Hair
• Blogging/Content Tips: Blogging for Beginners
• Motherhood: Balancing Motherhood and Blogging
• Inspiration/Motivational: Celebrate Yourself
• Lifestyle: Black History Month

Once you have your themes in place, creating your content around those themes helps you stay organized, consistent, and allows for cohesiveness in your content.

Storylines

When I first started creating content, I would always hear the infamous line: “tell your story!” I was always very confused by what exactly am I trying to tell. If I tell the same story, won’t I sound repetitive and boring? These were the questions I had about telling my story. It wasn’t until someone explained it to me and broke it down further. I remember the person saying, think of telling your story as having several storylines, just as your favorite reality T.V. show. Week after week the story builds and the viewers are reeled in by the story. They become so invested that they tune in every week to see what will happen next.

Having a good storyline will turn your good content into great content. Not only will you keep your audience’s attention, but you will also boost your engagement. Once you have your storyline together you will be able to create consistent content for your audience.

Create the Content

One Word: BATCHING.

Batching content has become my best friend and the key to creating consistently! If you don’t know what batching is, it is when you set out aside intentional time to focus on content creation for a period of time. I usually batch my two weeks of content on a weekly basis. For example, I set aside a couple of hours on Saturday to shoot photos. I shoot my own photos, but I have gotten really good at it, so it takes me about 2 hours to get at least 10 good shots. For my photoshoots, I make sure to have at least 2-3 outfits so that I can capture multiple photos in one day. I also shoot in different locations, so the aesthetic of my feed is not redundant. If you would like to know more about my photoshoots, please leave me a comment. On another day I may dedicate 2-3 hours curating my Instagram feed and coming up with the captions. These are just a few ways I batch my content.

Blocking out time and focusing on one task at a time will keep you more organized and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Related : How I Batch my Blog Posts: 6 Easy Steps

Schedule Your Content

Finally, You have done all the leg work, now its time to schedule your content and let the world see it! Automation is so much better than manually posting your content. I definitely notice a difference in when I automate my posts vs. manually posting. For one, I am way more consistent when my content is scheduled and automated. I use Planoly to automate.

I have given you the basics of how to create a content strategy! These content planning tips have definitely helped me be way more consistent this past year!

What content planning strategies do you find useful? Share with me in the comments!