Creating Social Content: 7 Time Saving Tricks

Creating social content shouldn't be taking you long boring hours. You shouldn't be feeling drained after this process at all. In fact, it should be a fun and exciting experience for yourself and for the team, if you're getting support with it. Let's go through our 7 Time Saving Tricks that you need to now right NOW in order to make this process as seamless as possible.

As with anything, creating social content has a deep relation with your mood on the day. If you're feeling positive and full of ideas, then, obviously you'll naturally shoot faster and create gorgeous images. If all you can think about is how to get out of there quicker, these 7 time saving tricks might help you during your next photoshoot.

1. Plan Your Mood board in advance

This is probably one of the most important tips from today's article. Plan ahead what type of shots you would like to take and save them in your personal Pinterest board. It's not about copying other creators, but it's about having some visual representations of your future imagery. Why spend 1 hour on the day to envision the content or shoot until you're happy with what has come out? Here's an example of how you might want your board to look like depending on your industry. The below board was previously created for fashion bloggers based in large European cities. Then you would know: you want to wear: white, blue and nude. Your Instagram feed will then be representative of those colours. You'll then need a matching background - which takes me to our next tip.

2. Use Google maps to find out the best background spots

In order to plan your backgrounds in relation to your outfit or product (the contrast is very important in an image), you can make Google maps your friend. Google central locations or near to where you live and take a 'walk' (zoom vision) on the streets. You'll be amazed by how many beautiful places there are and are fairly quick to find. Narrow down to 4 locations that you've liked.

3. Calculate the time of your route

Especially in a large city, getting from A to B is not very straightforward. Therefore, if you're planning to shoot in two to four locations, a pre-planned route is your best bet. Simply, just head to Google Maps and see how much time it takes from your home place to the first location. Then, figure out how you get from there to your second location - by x bus, take x tube, taxi. And so on, until you get to your last one. In instances, you will have to switch locations' sequence. Our tip: start with the closest one and then go the furthest. Make a note on your phone: Today's Route. Write everything here, so that on the day, you know exactly what to do. This planning will roughly take you 20 minutes and save you hours on the day.

4. Plan your outfits / products a week ahead

Now, after you've nailed down the locations and the colours you want to showcase, it's time to make this content creation day real. Plan your outfits or products that you have to shoot about a week in advance. Why, you might ask? Just because you'll realise that you might need something else too. Then, it won't be last minute because you have a week left to gather everything you need. Always do these things sooner rather than later.

5. Come up with an estimated number for your content

When you're creating social content, it's very easy to shoot for long hours without realising you've captured enough of that one flat lay or pose. Before the shoot day, come up with a number of images you would like to capture. Say you want 30 publishable images from that content creation day - about 3-4 hours. Have a clear idea of which images from your mood board you're going to recreate to avoid feeling stuck and waste time.

6. Save your favourite images

After you've taken this content, save your favourite images in a folder, but please don't over think it. You'll want to get these ready for editing as soon as possible. Then, create sub-folders with your specific outfits / products and name them accordingly 'Blue energy drink' / 'Blue dress' / 'Red candle'. You don't want to end up with lots of images in just one folder.

7. Edit the best ones

You might have liked hundreds of pictures and you might have a lot of them saved in that folder. Now, for each sub-folder, edit your favourite ones. Remember that the point is to end up with that good number that you came up with; if you have more, that's great too!

These were our 7 time saving tricks for creating social content. Needless to say, this is our tested formula and we really stand by it. You'll save time and actually enjoy the whole process if you apply these tips.

If you need support with organising your photoshoot or Instagram management, just send us an email at andrada@missandrada.com and we'll be ready to help you.