New year, new feed?
Today on the blog we have a post from Julia Broome that will really light a fire in you. You’re going to finish this post, run to grab her content planner and a new notebook then it’s off to the races.
Julia is sharing her top tips to optimize your content strategy with examples and tangible tips that you can easily apply to your own content-creating life. Complete with sample calendars and ‘pillars’ to reference, this post is packed with value.
If you have yet to meet Julia she is a powerhouse when it comes to content strategy. After working behind the scenes for top-tier influencers and celebrities, bringing their social media to the next level, Julia has now launched her own courses and tools to bring her tricks of the trade straight to you.
With that, let’s welcome Julia Broome to the blog.
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Hi everyone, I’m Julia!
Before jumping into how exactly to optimize your content strategy, I’ll share the behind the scenes of how I built my business as a celebrity social media manager turned content creator: I’m 28 years old, grew up in Los Angeles, graduated top of my class at UCLA, and am someone who could spend hours researching, horseback-riding, organizing, or pinterest-ing.
I’ve been a social media manager for a little over 7 years which, as the cliché goes, is not at all what I went to college to do. However, how I got here is too serendipitous not to share. To take you back for a second: About a month or so before graduating, I was searching for an internship opportunity that would help me stand out for graduate school. At the time, it was truly the wild wild west in social media: Influencers and bloggers were popping up left and right and even though I was intrigued by the social media field, it was nowhere near my job-search radar.
As fate would have it, I was tuning into an episode of The Skinny Confidential hosted by, none other than, Lauryn Bosstick, and she was interviewing a wellness influencer who also had a PhD in pharmacy. I remember being so obsessed with their conversation to the point where immediately after listening to the episode, my 21-year-old, job-hungry self cold emailed this wellness influencer and about a month later, she ended up hiring me. 7 years ago, The Skinny Confidential podcast unknowingly introduced me to my first client, which changed the entire trajectory of my career… I think it’s safe to say that Lauryn is a huge reason why I’m in the position I am today – The fact that I’m now writing a blog post for the TSC community is just the cherry on top in the most full circle situation!!
From there, my career in social media management quite literally took off. I began to build my clientele of celebrities, influencers, brands, and businesses and I was eager to make a name for myself as a SMM so I jumped headfirst into every experience I possibly could: from working freelance to working at an agency, handling massive product launches, orchestrating brand deals, producing effective SEO strategies and MUCH more. You name it, I’ve done it.
For the entirety of my career, I’ve been extremely behind the scenes and took pride in growing my clients’ accounts without anyone knowing who I was or what I did. However, last year, I decided to put myself out there on TikTok to share all of my tips, tricks, lessons, and advice I’ve accumulated over the years. I mentioned this earlier, but I’m a research girlie through and through, so my intention with starting my own account was to share REAL social media advice that actually works: no B.S, no false promises.
On that same note: I also started a social media course for both social media managers and aspiring content creators to achieve success and created a social media planner to help creators and creatives stay on track. This year, I started posting on Instagram, as well as TikTok, and have created a community of almost 240k combined followers on both platforms. While helping my clients is amazing– I’ve never felt more fulfilled helping my community finally get to the next level with their social media accounts.
Speaking of communities, I know that Lauryn’s audience of TSC readers are some of the most ambitious, entrepreneurial, smart, and driven people out there and I’ve always appreciated Lauryn’s hustle and anti-cookie-cutter approach, so on that note… Let’s talk about optimizing your content strategy and squeezing the *most* juice as possible out of your content.
How to Optimize Your Content Strategy
Right off the bat I’m going to say something that might make you hate me (please don’t!!) but social media growth is not easy and if you don’t know how to work smarter, not harder, you will likely burnout. The key is knowing how to truly optimize your content strategy so that you’re not running around like a headless chicken constantly thinking: Sh*t I haven’t posted anything today!!! What am I going to do/what am I going to post??!! If you feel called out right now, here’s how we’re going to optimize your content strategy:
STEP 1: PICK YOUR CONTENT PILLARS
You might’ve heard other people tell you that you need to “niche” down or in other words: pick one topic to focus on and stick to that. However, that has never, and will never, be the advice I would give to you. In my opinion, that’s a short-term strategy that will just cause you to feel like you’re stuck talking about the same thing over and over and over again!
Instead, I have always believed in having one content anchor and 4-5 additional content pillars so that you have a range of topics that you can talk about. So let’s say your main focus is beauty but you also have other topics you want to share on social media. Your content anchor would be beauty and your content pillars could be something like: wellness, home decor, and lifestyle. So step #1 is to sit down and take the time to define your content pillars so that you’re really clear on what you’ll be regularly posting.
STEP 2: CREATE A CONTENT PLAN
This step sounds so obvious and basic but 9 times out of 10, people miss the mark on having a strong content plan. I highly recommend creating an editorial calendar that will act as your roadmap so that you can ensure that you’re posting a balance of your content pillars (which should already be established from step 1). To make this step extra simple for you, I’ve included a sample editorial calendar below for you to get an idea of what this should look like.
Quick note #1: The main thing I want you to notice is that your content anchor (which we established as beauty) is typically reflected twice while all the other content pillars are usually spread out evenly, only once. That’s because your content anchor is usually going to be something you focus more on. #2: Social media is not a one-size-fits-all so this editorial calendar is absolutely going to look different for everyone and that is totally ok.
STEP 3: NAIL DOWN YOUR CONTENT FORMULA
What do Meredith Duxbury, Alix Earle, and Haley Bayley all have in common? Other than all of them being massively successful social media girl-bosses? They all squeeze the most out of their content and they just so happen to use an extremely similar content formula. By now, we know that I love to do my research – Which is how I discovered that all three of them have created a formula to ensure that they can squeeze 4-5 videos out of ONE video concept. I know the TSC community loves a “work smarter, not harder” situation so this is right up your alley– and to take out any guess work, I’m going to give you an exact breakdown of how you can do the same to optimize your content strategy:
Let’s continue with the idea that your content anchor is beauty. The most common beauty concept at the moment is “Get Ready With Me” videos – So let’s run with that. Here’s how to get 5 videos out of ONE Get Ready With Me:
Video #1: SKINCARE GRWM – This would be a quick 30 second video showing how you prep your skin for makeup (bonus points for using The Skinny Confidnetial ice roller).
Video #2: MAKEUP GRWM – This would be a longer 1 minute video that would show your whole makeup process or that would show you doing your makeup while sharing a story-time.
Video #3: FINISHING TOUCHES – This would be a shorter 7-15 second video of you putting the finishing touches on (lip-liner, lip gloss, a blush technique, etc).
Video #4: REPLY TO A COMMENT – Ideally, someone would ask you to see your final look, to show your outfit, to show how you did the blush technique, etc. and for you to reply in video-form to a comment.
Video #5: GET UN-READY WITH ME – This would be a longer 1 minute video that would show you taking everything off, doing your PM skincare routine, etc.
And voila, now you have 5 pieces of content for the price of 1. THAT is how you optimize your content to the fullest and this kind of formula can and should be applied to ANY category of content (fitness, spirituality, health, fashion – anything + everything). This, alone, is a goldmine when it comes to content optimization but there are two more steps that will really take you to the next level.
STEP 4: STRATEGIZE ON WHAT TO POST ON EACH PLATFORM
By now, your content strategy is warming up but we want it to be on fire – So let’s run through a short breakdown of how to know what to post to Instagram vs. TikTok. Spoiler alert: You can use step #3 to set you up for success so it’s basically a two-for-one (which we love). Using the breakdown we created above, here’s how you can divvy up your content depending on the platform so that you’re optimizing both of your channels to the fullest:
Video #1: SKINCARE GRWM – Quick 30 second video for INSTAGRAM. Ideally, you would use the comments of this post to tell your audience you have a longer makeup GRWM posted on TikTok so that you can bridge your audience over there.
Video #2: MAKEUP GRWM – Longer 1 minute long video for TIKTOK. In your caption, you could let your audience know if they have any skincare questions, you posted a skincare GRWM to Instagram.
Video #3: FINISHING TOUCHES – Shorter 7-15 second video posted to INSTAGRAM. Again, you should be using the comment section to let people know that you have the full GRWM posted to TikTok.
Video #4: REPLY TO A COMMENT – Shorter 7-30 second video posted to INSTAGRAM. It’s important for your audience to see that not only do you read comments but you also REPLY to comments in video-form.
Video #5: GET UN-READY WITH ME – Longer 1 minute long video posted to TIKTOK. In your caption you can let your audience know that if they want to see the full look, they can go to your Instagram.
Now, it’s safe to say your content strategy is on fire. The very last step is simple but definitely the most important so don’t sleep on this last step.
STEP 5: SCHEDULE YOUR CONTENT OUT… + STICK TO IT
First of all, if you made it to this point and you’re reading this: Just know I’m proud of you and that you’re going to be so glad you stuck around. This final step is crucial to optimize your content strategy because it’s probably the most important aspect of social media: posting CONSISTENTLY! All of the above steps mean nothing unless you’re able to stick to a content schedule that works for you so I went ahead and created 3 different posting schedules that you can choose from. I highly recommend picking the one that feels the most do-able to you and then working your way up.
Now that you have all 5 steps on lock, you’ve not only optimized your content strategy but you’ve also saved yourself SO much time. This is the kind of content strategy that makes you feel like you finally have all your ducks in a row and are no longer stressing about what to post, when to post, and which platform to post it on. You can thank yourself for following these 5 steps, and you can thank me later when it works.
Want more social media advice just like this? I’ve loved every second of delving into content strategy optimization with you and this is something I can talk about for DAYS so if you want more advice just like this: You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at @juliabroome – my DMs are always open if you have any questions.
I hope you guys loved this breakdown as much as I’ve loved creating it for you. And if you’re a content creator eager to go even deeper into this subject, my Content Course would be perfect for you. Or if you’re reading this as a social media manager who wants to gain more clients or learn how to enhance your SMM business, I’d love to have you in my course community.
Either way, I’d love nothing more than to connect and be a part of your social media journey! And not to be a tease but: Lauryn helped me find my dream job – and I will be launching something before the end of the year that could help you find your dream job… Details to come on Instagram but I’ll leave you with that. Happy content planning!
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There you have it. Everything you need to take your social media presence to the next level. Keep us posted in the comments below.
In the meantime, be sure to check out Julia’s content for even more value. As you can see, she delivers.
x, The Skinny Confidential team.
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OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT:
