I have been doing my own social media marketing since I started my solicitor’s practice in 2011, or thereabouts. That was the year I qualified as a solicitor, too.
I have learned a lot over the next 10 years. One of the things that has been my focus in developing my social media presence has been efficiency. How can I work more efficiently? How can I do social media posting of my carefully constructed content in the most efficient way?
This is an ongoing project. It is like tweaking the engine of a machine, constantly monitoring, and observing and noticing and making small changes to my posting.
August 2021
I write this note in August 2021 more as a note to myself or “aide-memoire” than a public blog post. But rather than publish it privately and deprive any reader who stumbles across this blog I have decided to make it public.
1 minute videos
I have a large library of 1-minute videos. These are extracts from my full videos which can be found on my YouTube channel. The purpose of these shorter videos is to grow my base and brand on Instagram. Instagram only allows a video with a maximum length of 1 minute.
It has worked spectacularly well.
In January 2021 I had 747 Instagram followers. Today I have over 6,000. That is a massive jump by anyone’s standards.
But to get back to the 1-minute videos, I need to post them on Instagram. To a lesser extent, and as a much lesser priority, Twitter.
There is no need or point in posting them on Facebook for Facebook makes clear when you are posting any video that a video of less than 3 minutes will be put in front of less people.
Using Buffer to schedule these videos is the most efficient way for you can see at a glance what is going out, and when. So, Buffer for the videos.
Slide decks
Slide decks, or carousels as they are described on Instagram, can be posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. When posting on Instagram/Facebook you can use Facebook’s Creator Studio to post to both platforms at the same time.
Long form video
My regular long form video can be posted on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and IGTV (with captions).
A link to the video on YouTube posted on Twitter is all I can do here. Twitter pulls in the image of the video/thumbnail automatically.
Images/photos
These can be posted to all three platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. But I need to monitor how well they perform on Facebook as this is a new development in my distribution efforts and I am not 100% about the photos yet on that platform. I assume they will perform well but need to ensure that there is a decent caption and some point to the image, even if only to add authenticity or personality to my brand.
The starting point
The starting point for all of this activity, however, is a blog post. The blog post, about some issue or topic that might interest a person in a particular market, is the starting point.
Then I make a video, and the 1-minute video follows from this.
The slide decks come from PowerPoint/Google Sheet presentations that were used in making my videos.
And images/photos come from baking bread, images from the office or everyday life, generally taken with my Sony ZV1 camera or my Galaxy smartphone.
I share links to my blog posts on LinkedIn and use Buffer to do this. I also post my long form videos (with captions) on Linkedin.
Conclusion
As I write this on 29th August 2021 this is the most efficient way for me do to “free” social media marketing.
Advertising is a completely different kettle of fish, and I may do a similar blog post on advertising if you are interested.
Leave a comment below and let me know if you are interested.