Have you fallen victim to the social media summer slowdown?

Don’t worry—I get it! You’ve got a life outside of your business, and when the sun shines, you’ve got to take advantage. Trust me—I’m a mom to an active little boy, and summertime is all about juggling around here.

Whether you took a legit social media break or simply dialed back your posting cadence, getting into a routine of posting consistently after summer can feel SO hard, right?

To help you, I’m sharing my go-to formula for getting back on track after a break from social, and I’m positive that if you put the effort in, it’ll work for you, too!

Anytime you’re attempting to tweak or pivot your social media content you should always start with a content audit.

Post-Summer Social Media: Content Audit

Start by auditing your account and content from the last 3-6 months, depending on how much you posted. To complete your audit, you need to answer a few questions like these:

• Is the information in my bio still relevant?
• Do all the links I’m sharing still work? 
• Are the platforms I’m using still working for me? (for a full rundown of the main platforms and what’s working, check out this blog!)
• What content got the most saves, shares, and comments? 
• Note any common themes with your content, such as content format, short/long captions, images, short-form B-Rolls, direct-to-camera, etc.
• Determine what is still relevant and start a master content idea dumping list.

Next Steps for Social: Market Research

Moving onto the next step: Market Research! 

I personally like to use TikTok and Instagram for some market research to find out what kind of content is making you stop your scroll. Chances are, it’s making your audience stop their scroll, too! Make note of any hooks or ideas and add them to your content dumping list.

While doing your market research, also look at people in your industry to see what’s working for them. This is not a huge deep dive because you don’t want to copy but simply scan to see what’s up and whether there are any gaps your content could potentially fill.

From Content Audit to Content Planning

Now that you’ve done a content audit, have a list of what’s been working, and maybe some hooks to riff off of, it’s time for the next step: Content Planning!

Look at your calendar and see what promos or new services you plan to launch for the upcoming quarter. You want to make sure they are on your radar when mapping out your content plan.

Next, circle back to your content topics and ask yourself:

• Do they still make sense? 
• Do they align with what you plan on promoting in Q4? 

Then, flesh them out, decide on your posting frequency, and get your content calendar going.

Time-Block Your Content Planning and Creation 

Whether you like to content batch or simply map it out, be sure you schedule the time to do so. Don’t forget to add time for content creation and implementation (a.k.a. editing/posting) to your calendar. You can map out your social media content until the cows come home, but you need to actually create, edit, and post. Since I started time-blocking twice a week for an hour each, content creation for my business has been much easier to manage!

Do you find it hard to film content? 

Something that has worked for me (and maybe you, too) is renting a local studio space. If you plan ahead correctly, you can really crank out a lot of filmed content in a short period of time. For a few planning tips, I wrote about my content-batching days in this blog post.

Remember, you’re allowed to ease yourself in! There’s no need to come out guns blazing with your post-summer social content. Instead, be mindful of what you can commit to and stay consistent with your new planning going forward.

Need a safe space to get “unstuck” after the summer slowdown? Email sarah@socialandstuff.com to book a coaching call to gain clarity for your content! 

Your Social BFF,

Sarah✌️