How to Build Your Brand’s Social Media Content Library

Let’s face it—generating quality, engaging content is tough. Some days you’re strapped for time, working against the clock, while other days the creative well has run dry. But in the age of visual marketing, the images you choose are just as important (if not more than) the words that accompany them. Read on for tips on how to ensure your brand stays agile and top of mind by building a top-notch content library.

 

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Tell a Story

Compelling photos, much like the copy that accompanies them, should tell a cohesive story. After all, story-telling is one of the most powerful ways to engage customers with your brand. The easiest way to begin telling a story is to have strong visual guidelines in place. This means incorporating brand colors whenever possible, playing around with lighting, or developing a unique brand style (playful and geometric or light and airy, for example). Taking the time to develop strong visual guidelines ensures that the content you shoot will always look consistent, no matter what the occasion (or location)!

Vary Your Content

It’s 2017, and digital video is booming. Globally, traffic from online videos will constitute over 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020. Combine those stats with the fact that 100 million (!) hours of Facebook videos are watched every day and you’ve got a fail proof reason to start incorporating more video into your content library.

 

The good news is that, in addition to boosting metrics for your brand, videos can also help build up your content library. One quality video can be broken down into GIFS, stills, short clips, hypnotizing cinemographs or Boomerangs. Get creative and watch your content library take shape.

 

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Find What Resonates with Your Audience

The best way to create thumb stopping content is by listening to your fans. This will require a fair bit of social listening and analysis on your part, but the results are well worth it. In time, you’ll be able to find out whether more family oriented photos resonate with your audience, or if they’re more inclined to leave comments on lifestyle or premium imagery. Spend some time listening to your fan base, find out what type of content they engage with, and then tailor your content library accordingly.

Organize Your Content Based on Objective

Four things will shape your content needs for any given client: seasonality, industry, budget, and brand voice. Working for a client that sells fashionable clothing for teenagers? You’ll likely require a library of content that reflects the seasons, with images filtered for events such as “back to school” or “Spring break”. Partnering with a client in the food industry? Holidays like Thanksgiving and seasonal events like graduation parties and summer barbeques should be your main focus. By creating (and organizing) your content library with these events in mind, you’ll be able to post relevant, agile content that resonates with your target audience and keeps your brand top of mind during the moments that matter most.

Shoot More Images Than You Need

With tight deadlines and shot requirements, it can be all too easy to focus only on capturing the shots that are listed in your outline. However, taking the time to add a few extra shots to the list is one of the simplest (and most effective) ways to increase the size and quality of your content library. Make the most of your shoots by shooting people, products or events from different angles, perspectives, or even with different equipment. Play around with lighting, textures, and placement of props and décor to create entirely different shots out of a single image. When shooting, remember this—it’s always better to have too many options than too few.

 

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Shoot Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is work that can be used year-round. While the idea of recycling images may make some social media managers cringe, the reality is that repurposing content is a smart strategy. If the stories you’re telling remain relevant to your brand and the content you’re producing is high quality, it’s often more efficient to repurpose or repost content across platforms, tweaking and editing posts to specific objectives rather than reinventing the wheel. Extend the life of your social content by remembering the golden rule: Recycle, re-curate, and re-use.

 

Now that you’ve got the basics down, you’re ready to go out and create your very own content library. While you’re at it, why not take some time to revamp your social media strategy?



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