Create O’Clock - Content Creation Scheduling

When is it the Right Time to Create Content?

There’s two ways to answer that question. When is the right time of the day? And when is it the right time to start thinking about content? Both questions are tricky. Because you have to make time to create. You have to schedule shooting time, if you’re doing video. You have to factor in post-production. Hire people, if you’re not keen on doing it yourself. That’s more time interviewing people. That’s time spent talking to people like me if you’re going to outsource it. There’s a cost to creating content. In both money and time.

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Make it a Priority

Let’s start with the second question. Is it even worth doing in the first place? Now, if you ask a barber if you need a haircut he’s going to say yes. Likewise, you’re asking a content writer if you should create content - and I assume because you’re reading this you’re asking. Of course my answer is yes. But also, that depends. That depends on where you and your business are. Your business in terms of maturity and you in terms of thinking.

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Why Your Thinking Matters

?The short answer is because if you don’t see the need to do it you won’t do it. If you kinda see the need for it you’ll kinda do it. If you’re serious about it you’ll make a serious commitment. It’s that simple. So I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time and words trying to convince you of the need for content marketing. I assume you already know why you need it.

?But if you need a bit of reassurance, just think about how much time you spend on social media every day yourself. Your customers are spending the same amount of time, if not more, in the same places. And these platforms let you target pretty much anyone you want, anywhere in the world, with ads. So if that doesn’t make the case for social media marketing I’m not sure what will.

How Old is Your Business

?Infancy

If you’re just starting out - you’re selling something as a side-hustle for instance - I wouldn’t recommend paid advertising. You can do just fine with free content marketing. What you should be focusing on is selling your product or service. You should be trying to get to as many of the people you want to sell to as you possibly can, as cheaply as you possibly can. ABC - Always Be Closing - as they like to say in the sales game. You want to close on sales. That’s it.

?Content marketing is a great way to find people even when you’re not actively prospecting for them. I recently decided to torture myself and become a writer (because I’m a masochist apparently). This is article is, hopefully, doing the prospecting for me. You’re reading this and thinking “I like this guy’s writing. I wonder if he can write this kind of thing for my business’ content?” If not then why are you even here? JK. I love all readers equally.

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Adolescence

Maybe you’ve been in business for a while and have noticed a slump in sales - because it’s hard not to notice that. And you’re also realising that a lot of your customers’ attention goes to staring at screens. And now you’re wondering how you can get your products on their screens so they think about you every once in a while. Maybe even think about you with their wallets.

?Content is a great way to do exactly that. Both free and paid. Post free content as often as you can and then, when you find something that works, turn your content into ads. Paid ads are a great way to target people. Social media allows you to go after the attention of your exact demographic audience - age; sex; race; geography etc. - as well as your psychographic audience - interests; hobbies; political views; likes and dislikes etc.

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Make Time for Creating Content

The simple answer for when you should create content is after you make a commitment to do so. Now what time in the day is that? That depends on how you work. Are you a morning person or are you a night owl? Content creation is creative work, so when do you feel the most creative?

?I personally like to write in the morning, after my morning routine - workout; shower; breakfast. This is when I feel the most creative. And just in case you’re wondering, I think it’s more practical to exercise at the beginning or at the end of the day. When you should be showering anyway. It’s just an efficiency thing with me.

?Maybe your day is broken up into early morning meetings and late evening work and you have a gap in the middle of the day. Then that’s when you should probably do content-related stuff. Although it can be as quick as recording a one-minute TikTok video, if you’re going to be more strategic about your content creation it’s going to take a major time commitment.

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Post On A Regular Basis

This is something I’m working on for my own personal projects - The Calling Card?and Way Forward Station?- which, at this point, are just Facebook pages. My plan is to turn these pages into communities. Then I can either ascend a number of the fans into a paid community or have some kind of affiliate relationship with a seller of products related to my content. Or maybe even a combination of both. But to do that I need to build the communities first.

?And I’m planning on doing that by writing a weekly article for each of them. Then find micro-content in my long-form content to post everyday to keep my audience engaged. Doing that on a regular basis, however, has proved challenging. So I can only imagine how much more challenging it must be to do this AND run a business.

?But you must find a way to do it IF you see it as important. That’s the game you signed up for, I’m afraid. So make the commitment and ?then find the time. You can, of course, hire people like me to help you do it. If you don’t have the time you have to spend the money. Those are your choices. And there’s no way around it if you want to grow your business through social media marketing.

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Go Easy On Yourself

If you’re just starting out figure out what works for you. Don’t be too hard on yourself for not being consistent. You have to integrate content creation into the rest of your life. And that’s not easy. Both in terms of the time it takes and the effort you have to put in to put yourself out there. But make the commitment and stick to it. You won’t regret it.