Have you ever walked into the kitchen twenty minutes before you’re set to feed the hungry animals that is your family and thought, “What the heck am I going to make for these people!?” If that’s not the most overwhelming (and frankly annoying) feeling there is I don’t know what could take that title.

I’m sure if we were chatting in person and asked you, “Hey, how can you avoid this in the future?” You’d say without hesitation, “Well, I’ll have a plan in place before I start cooking.”

Did a lightbulb just go off in your head? I hope so! The same goes for creating content on social media for your law firm or for any brand for that matter.

The key to showing up on social media without experiencing overwhelm or stress on what to post is having a plan in place to guide you.  There is a caveat. You must start with honesty to make this work.  If you can’t be honest about your time commitment, how you are prepared to show up, whether that be video or incorporating a live strategy then the plan will crumble faster than my Abuela’s Cuban pastry (yum).

I recommend setting aside at least one hour of uninterrupted time for a social media strategy session. If you’re ready for a deep dive, take at least two to four hours  and you can walk away with at least two weeks worth of posts!  However much time you choose to dedicate to creating your social media strategy you will end up saving a lot of time in the long run.  Let’s get started!

Goals

Your goals for this social media strategy session is to identify:

• your ideal client(s),
• what platform(s) you’d like to start with, and
• what content topics you will create content about, and
• how you are willing to show up on the platform (time and visibility).

Start Here

1. TIME: Set one hour aside to create your plan.
2. TOOLS: You will need to be organized, so I recommend working from a document to record your findings from this session on your computer so create a “Social Media” folder and store your findings here. Feel free to brainstorm on paper, but record your findings in your document to stay organized.
3. DOCUMENT: Download my free Brand & Content Roadmap and walk through each step to identify your ideal client, your brand tone and voice, messaging goals, call-to-actions, and content pillars.
4. INSPIRATION: In your social media folder, add a “swipe file”. A swipe file is commonly used in the content marketing world (and notoriously the art world) as a list of photos, art, design, copy, and other piece of content you find that you’d like to use as a source of inspiration (not plagiarism). I recommend looking within your practice field and outside. For example, you may want to take screenshots or link to a landing page for a therapist office that really stood out to you.  You may take inspiration from the layout and/or the call-to-action she used. (NOTE: Make this the last step you take in the process for fear of being lost in the rabbit hole that is the internet! You can add to this at any time when you’re browsing the web or sitting in the doctor’s waiting room and looking at a magazine article.)

How to Make the Most of Your Time

• Take breaks.
• Stay hydrated.
• Avoid disruptions.
• Be prepared to publish B- work.

I hope this helps you get started on the right track. Remember you’re not trying to create a masterpiece. You’re either in the beginning stages of figuring out your social media plan or up-leveling what you’re currently doing.  Either way, there’s nothing left to do, but to just do it.

If you have questions about this blog post or the Brand & Content Roadmap, feel free to send me an email and I’m happy to help. If you want me to help you with your strategy session, you can schedule your a one-hour strategy session with me here.

If you’re ready to go all in with your social media strategy, you can schedule a 4-Hour VIP Get It Done Session with me where we will create a content and engagement strategy for your law firm, set up your accounts, create an action list and a content calendar for you and your team, and more!

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson