Tips For Posting Branded Content This Summer
If you're anything like me, when the weather climbs above 75 and the sun is shining, all hope of blogging, sharing links on social media, and visiting other blogs flies right out the window. All the sudden, I'm more interested in picnicking, heading to a shady spot to read a new book, or planning a vacation out of town.
The summer is a the best time of year to break your routine, but the second you're away from your computer and your editing software, often your commitment to consistent and on-brand content starts to fade away. Many brands and bloggers start to over-share summer adventures or trips—50 Instagram uploads of your European vacation in a two day window is enough to shave digits off of your follower count and big albums full of a river float will ensure people hit "unfollow" on Facebook.
How can you avoid this curse of the summer over-shares? Follow the tips below to learn how to optimize your favorite social media channels this summer:
1. Indulge in the overshares on Snapchat. Find yourself driven to share a photo of every single dinner out this summer, including a dedicated picture of your wine? Snapchat was made for un-edited, spur of the moment, no filter sharing! Get an account and share to your heart's content. Most importantly, let that indulgence curb the rest of your sharing. All those images above would never cut it on my Instagram feed, but on Snapchat? It's okay!
2. Curate your Instagram feed. Keep your DSLR camera on hand for summer trips! You can shoot photos that look more professional and composed than just iPhone photos. Resist the urge to share photos in the moment, and instead wait until you can upload your photos (or get an Eyefi card and instantly transfer camera photos to your phone) to a computer and edit them. Then pick the most on-brand photo and share it! If you simply can't wait, be sure to download an editing app like BeFunky for your phone. You can use it to transform dull or poorly cropped iPhone photos into content that will engage your followers.
3. Share a combination of on-brand links and images on Facebook. Instead of sharing big albums of a blogger's retreat or photography workshops, treat Facebook shares like Instagram. Share targeted photos that will resound with your followers. When you're feeling short on content in the summer, or just distracted, use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule sharing of links, quotes, or tips for summer adventures on your Facebook page.
4. Make sure your blog posts stay on-brand. If you're a beauty blogger, a lake day blog post that contains a ton of photos won't read well with your followers who are waiting for more beauty tips, but you can share an easy beauty look for a lake day on your blog. If you're a style blogger, people don't necessarily want to see all of the food you've been eating on a road-trip, but they'd love to see an album of road-trip style. When I go out berry picking in the summer, I always try to wear something that I can turn into a style blog post or Facebook share. Instead of eternal photos of fruit in the fields, I try to incorporate a summer outfit in each post about my adventures.
Now get out there and start having a beautiful summer!
