Social Media Marketing Archives

Content Creation Tips & Tricks

March 21, 2022

As many of you know, I am a freelance social media manager on top of blogger and dance teacher. I feel like because of this, I know a little more than the average blogger. This helps me utilize these content creation tips to keep me consistent.

A lot of people will say just be a content creator but they don’t realize how much actually goes into it. I didn’t start to see a real amount of money from my blog until about 3 years in after being consistent. This post is all about how and why I follow the content schedule I do and why you need to have one.

Honestly, I would say a content schedule that you can stick to is probably the most important key to growing any brand. A content schedule is not only when you’ll post on social but also when you’ll create that content. You need to have the content to post so it’s crucial that you stay on schedule and have content prepared.

Establishing a Schedule

I’ve found that I am best able to promote and spend time answering comments on a blog post on a Monday morning, which is why all of my blog posts are then at 9am. I decided this year to up my posts so I added two others during the month on Wednesdays. I average about 6 posts a month on the blog which is a lot.

In addition to the posts, I have to post on IG, Pinterest, Tik Tok to promote the post after it’s live which also is why Mondays are best for me. Establishing when you are going to post not only keeps you accountable but people come to expect content from you on those days. This easy transition helps you create a community that knows when to come back for more.

Content Ideas

In addition to a schedule, I like to start a running list of dates throughout the year I’m going to post. This helps me see what content would do best during those months and gives me a spot to write down my ideas.

I honestly just googled Mondays in 2022 and copy/pasted it into a Google Doc. I can access this whenever I get an idea and it helps me always have ideas when maybe I’m in a crunch to post. Visually, this also helps me cross off what I’ve already created for the month to know what I still need to do.

I recently just started this for my other socials which seriously has changed the game for me. I can plan out all of my content for the month and then I just need to write/record/create.

Creation

Once you figure out step one and two, creation really shouldn’t be too hard for you. Obviously you need to create it but if you already have the idea and when it needs to go live, you can just jump in.

I like to create my blog posts at least a month in advance just in case I have something come up one week. This buffer ensures I’ll always have a post go live. Sometimes I will post randomly if it’s time sensitive but for the most part I like to be ahead.

As for socials, I like to post in real time if I can. This means that I’ll create then post right away. I feel like my posts are usually more informal so it’s good for me to just get it out.

Creation Days

I like to set each day a week as a different platform. I’m almost always creating blog posts on Mondays and Tuesdays. I’ve been trying to create Tik Toks on Wednesdays and then I usually take my IG pictures on the weekends.

I like to batch create content so that I only have to get fully ready once in awhile and I can just get whatever I need done. This is probably my biggest tip to stay accountable because by setting a day aside for one platform, you don’t have the ability to not get it done if you have other days that are for other platforms.

I hope this post was informative for you in creating your content schedule and with content creation tips. Honestly, I wish I knew this back in the beginning because it would’ve saved me so much time. I used to create whenever I felt like it, which is of course great but not when you’re having an off week and don’t want to create anything.

Let me know if setting up a content schedule helped you to level up your content or if you liked these content creation tips! To read more social media posts like this click here! Don’t forget to subscribe to my mailing list here so you never miss a post!

How to Build a Brand Online

January 17, 2022

Whether you’re a blogger or just starting some sort of business, how to build a brand online is important for audience acquisition and growth. This is truly something I wish I knew prior to creating my blog because I just jumped in and didn’t focus on the bigger picture of what exactly this blog would be.

Your brand is how people will see you for the first time and decide whether or not they are interested in clicking on your link or following your account. It’s important to find a clear voice for whatever you’re starting so that you have the best chance of turning people into loyal audience members.

As we enter into this new year, if you’re taking the leap of creating your own brand I wanted to create this post to tell you what I wish I would’ve known. I’m sharing my top 3 tips and some other important info in between on how to build a brand online!

Color Palette Matters

In the beginning days of my blog, I was honestly just posting whatever I wanted. It didn’t matter to me how it looked or getting some sort of template together. If you are creating a brand, I would take some time during the creation stage to get your theme content together. There’s nothing worse then posts with different colors or different flows of content.

You want your website or your socials to be seamless and attractive to potential audience people. If you’re using crazy colors that are different in every single post, you’re not giving the audience a clear image of what to expect. The same goes for templates or posts in general.

I personally always recommend neutrals or soft colors that aesthetically look good together but if you want a rainbow themed brand, make sure you use the exact same colors. You can easily find the color codes online which makes keeping and using the same colors so easy.

People love to be comfortable and know what to expect so using the same colors and templates just keeps the audience happy and coming back for more. One bonus tip I have is if you are creating a website, either hire someone to design it or purchase a template because if you’re website isn’t easy to navigate, you’re going to lose readers/clients/customers.

Name is Everything

If I could go back in time, I don’t think I would’ve used my name for my blog. Catchy names are what really sticks and stands out. You’re also stuck with your name so if it’s something you’re not sure about in the beginning, wait it out and see if you’re still interested.

Name recognition is literally the most important part of your brand these days. Because everything is so saturated, having a brand name that is easy to associate with your brand and people will immediately recognize is everything.

My brand has become my name and that has worked for me but I do wish I was a little more creative in the beginning. I was a college student blogging about life and fashion so between that I probably could’ve found a unique and creative name. I am not going to change my name though because I have built an audience around it so just knowing you’re stuck with it, means it has to be good.

Another topic along names is making sure whatever you decide is actually available. Whether you’re making an LLC or just need social media accounts, if your name isn’t available how you want it I would consider thinking about something else. It is so important to have instant name recognition with your brand and if you can’t have a website domain with it, then there’s a chance you lose people when trying to find you.

Consistency is Key

I like to write out all my posts for the year.

I can’t stress this tip enough, you have to be consistent. Whether it’s posting, uploading, inventory, answering calls, whatever it is you need to be consistent. People found you and the only way they’ll stay is if you are giving them what they want. They initially related to you and your brand for a reason so it’s crucial you continue to give them that.

Whether it’s a consistent product drop schedule or maybe weekly blog posts, you have to keep that up because people like the expected. I’ve found that I keep more loyal audience members the months that I commit to my posting schedule and make sure I don’t miss it.

My brand will never grow if I ghost the audience members that I fought so hard to get to begin with. It’s a lot and exhausting but you have to keep giving the latest and greatest versions of you/your product to keep the momentum growing. You don’t want the momentum to be stagnant, you want growth and sucess.

Your brand needs you to continue to work and improve on it. It’s so hard to figure out how to get in the groove of it but once you do, you’ll see the rewards. It took me a solid 2.5 years to get my blog seeing consistent views everyday. It was definitely discouraging in the beginning but I kept posting and kept going and now I have an audience that is a community and looks forward to my content.

Wrap Up

This post was a long one! I hope though you took something away from it to help build a brand online. I really love getting to work with my social media clients to identify their voice and build something that they are proud of online.

The tips I just shared with you are the exact 3 things that I think would’ve helped me in the beginning of creating my blog. I now share them with my social media clients in hopes they will help them build a brand online for themselves!

If you’re interested in more social media tips you can check out some posts here! P.S. I am a Social Media Manager with a BS in Digital Audiences from ASU!

Follow me on instagram @cassiedenisco!

How to Make Money from Blogging

November 5, 2021

I am asked almost everyday how I make money from blogging. Blogging is something that a lot of people are interested in but not really sure how to start. I also think people are not sure if blogging can be a stream of income for them. It took me 3 years to get tot a point where I do have some passive income from my blog and I’m going to share with you my top 3 ways of how I make money from blogging!

I think for most people, they think making money from ads is going to be so simple however this is the part that actually took me awhile! I needed to have my blog well established and continue to be creating trending content in order to see any money from this area. If you notice, I have ads on almost every page of my blog and they’re often about things you would actually be interested in.

I like to use Google Adsense not only because it’s super easy to install but I find that it also does the best job of staying relevant with my content. My biggest tips for running ads on your site is to make sure they have something to do with your content and there aren’t too many of them. You want your content to shine, not the ads!

Affiliate Links

Oddly enough, I just started linking everything this past year. I realized that a great stream of passive income is affiliate links. Every time have on an outfit or a product, I always make sure to use my link generators in order to earn a commission from them.

You do have to make sure that you are disclosing whether or not something is an affiliate link to stay transparent with your audience. I just usually do a little disclaimer so people know that I get a very small kickback if they purchase through my link. Not only can you use affiliate links on your blog but you can also use them on your socials which just boosts your stream of income.

How to Use Canva for Beginners

May 14, 2021

As many of you know, I also am a social media manager. I use a lot of the tricks for my own blog that I use for my clients. One of my biggest secrets that will change your life is www.Canva.com. Not a day goes by that I am scheduling posts, creating graphics, or needing to share ideas with other people. I can do all of that through Canva and I thought it would be so helpful to share some of my favorite ways to use Canva for beginners with you!

Content Creation

I Initially discovered Canva when I was looking for something easy to use for blog graphics. I wanted a place to start making everything look the same. Canva stuck out to me because of the “brand kit” section. I was able to go in and pick colors and fonts that I would use every time. As you can see, all of my cassiedenisco.com stuff has the same fonts and is black, pink and white. This saves so much time because it all pops up right when you’re in the design section.

Another part of Canva I love is that there are so many templates. It did take a while to find something I liked because there were so many options. If you look at my IG story blog annoucements or Pinterest pins, I used Canva templates and tweaked them to make it my own. I love that Canva automatically saves all your work because I just go back in and edit the same template for my next posts. This saves me so much time and helps to make all of my stuff look cohesive.

Content Scheduling

This is definitely a newer aspect of Canva that I just started using. I previously used Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest pins but I found that it was becoming too tedious to sit, download, and then reupload my pin to that scheduler. With Canva, you just click a button and write in all your details and it schedules it for you. I already am paying for Canva so I can save money here by getting rid of Tailwind. You can also schedule to Facebook and other platforms but so far I have only really used it for Pinterest.

Instagram Bio Links

If you click this link here, you’ll actually be sent to a mini website that has all of my Instagram bio links. This is super helpful if you’re like me and have a lot of different links for different things. I used to use Tailwind for this as well but I recently switched over to Canva because this just looks so much more professional. You can click on everything and be taken to the link I set up for it. This hack helps to have all of your important links in one place so people visiting your social profiles will be able to see all you have to offer. I found this through a Canva template that made it so easy to design and add my links!

Organized Content

This is probably my favorite part of Canva. It keeps me so organized. I manage a lot of different accounts but it has a feature to put everything in different folders. Once I create a template I love, I pop it in the folder for that brand and just go back to it whenever I need. I used to use a million other apps but everything can be done in one place.

Easy to Share with Others

When I was an intern, I was introduced to Canva and I haven’t looked back since. It really opened my eyes to how easy it is to collaborate with. You can add people to your team or just share the content during it’s draft stages. This is helpful because I like to have clients double check what I post before I post it. The best way for me to describe Canva is like Google Docs. It gives you links to share and makes it easy to work with other people to get whatever you need to get done.

Pro vs Free

This is where I think you just need to assess what you need Canva for. I initially started out on the free plan because I really didn’t need the Pro. For just the basics of content creation, Canva is perfect for you on the free plan. I only upgraded when I started getting more clients. The features that pro offered like being able to resize something easily and the brand kits was something I really wanted. I would start out using it for free and then if you feel like you need more, switch to pro. It’s also so affordable at around $119 for the whole year and in my opinion, that is so worth it.

I could literally go on and on about just how much I love and use Canva. Canva for beginners is definitely the easiest way to get started in content creation. For content creators and social media managers, this is a dream program. It does so many things for you and helps you to stay on top of all of your things. Like I previously mentioned, I was using the free version for awhile before I decided to make the switch to pro when I started taking on more clients.

Let me know if you liked this post on how to use Canva for Beginners and if there are other apps like this that you love!

How I Plan and Create Blog Posts

February 5, 2021

With having my blog for almost 2 years now, I’ve truly started to get into the flow of how to plan and create blog posts. The first word that comes to mind when I think of my early days of blogging is overwhelming. In the beginning, it definitely was hard to figure out what to do first or how to even plan a post. This system didn’t come overnight but I’m going to walk your through my process and hopefully can help you out sooner rather than later.

Step 1: Brainstorming

If you were to look at my notebook of ideas, you would think I was crazy. I literally write down any and every thought that comes to mind of a potential post or content idea. Maybe I’ll use it or maybe it will just sit in the notebook forever but I make sure to always write it down. This has helped tremendously because I have a notebook of ideas now, something I didn’t have before. I can easily look at it and get the creative juices flowing for picking a topic.

Step 2: The Topic

Sometimes I already know exactly what I plan to post. Others, I have to refer to my notebook to get an idea. I like to think of my topics in terms of categories from my site. You can see here my posts are always put into a different category. Not only does this keep my blog organized but it helps to keep my topics within my niche. If I wrote last post about beauty products, I’ll try to make sure this post is a recipe or puppy related. This helps to narrow my choices and keep you, my reader, getting fresh content each week. Let me know if you’re interested in a blog post dedicated to just blog topics in the comments below!

Step 3: The Outline

I can’t start writing unless I have an outline. This isn’t necessarily something I write out but it’s a picture in my head of how I want the post to look. If you notice, I use a similar structure for recipes but a different one for product reviews. The photos and fonts are also something I like to starting imagining during this plan and create stage. One thing I never actually do is start with an outline that already has content. I like to just be able to write so I make sure that the outline in my head is ready and then I’m ready to write.

Step 4: Actually Writing

This step is absolutely different for everyone. When I plan and create blog posts, I want to make sure I am open for my content to go in a different direction. This is why I never have a set in stone outline. I take my theme and just get to writing it and seeing where the words and content take me. Whether it’s a recipe or a in depth how to, this step is one that you have to master . It takes a bit to get into a rhythm with writing and once you find a way to be productive, you’re all set.

Step 5: Images & other Visual Content

This might be odd, but I like to write my entire post but leave sections labeled {image} or {video} so that I’m able to just write. One reason for this is so that I’m not slowed down by uploading or downloading extras. If I need to take the pictures of products, I like to do so before I even write so that I can already know what I’m talking about. Images really help to bring your words to life so taking your time on these images will make a serious difference.

Step 6: Visibility & Scheduling

Ensuring your post is visible and will drive traffic is a crucial component to blogging. Once I have a pretty final cut of the post, I will go through and make sure I’ve hit SEO points (search engine optimization) and tagged this post properly. I want to make sure posts have everything they need in order to be ranked well on places like Google. On WordPress, I have an SEO plugin that helps make my life easier. Check it out in the image below. In addition, I’ll schedule the post for a time that I’ll be able to make social posts about it.

SEO and how to SEO — Yoast SEO Plugin- WordPress

Step 7: Promotion

Once your post is entirely finished and scheduled, I like to spend time creating the promotional posts for it. For me, this means a Pinterest pin, Insta stories, and an Insta post. My blog automatically goes out to Facebook and Twitter. This is so helpful so I don’t have to worry about them. I like to use websites like Canva.com to create these. Canva makes things so easy for you if you have no graphic design background, like me. If you’re interested in trying out Canva, use my link here for free Canva credit! I highly recommend taking the time to announce your blog posts on your social media platforms. This helps to to increase your traffic and visibility!

I really hope that this post gives you at least a few tips and tricks on how to plan and create blog posts. Blogging can be really rewarding but definitely overwhelming when you are starting out. This process is one that helps me produce the best content for you guys so I was happy to share just a bit of my knowledge.

Feel free to leave me any questions you may have below and be on the look out for my next post!

My Favorite Apps for Designs

October 9, 2020

Hey there! Welcome back to my channel where today I am sharing my go to apps for designs. I am a social media manager and these apps are awesome for designing content for all of your social media.

Apps:

Adobe Spark Post

Procreate

Canva

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Website www.cassiedenisco.com