Grow your presence and brand in 10 days

Your audience has a lot of options. Why is what you're offering better than the rest? Customers will choose those they trust over anything else - share your industry experience to build sustaining loyalty.

Your audience has a lot of options. Why is what you're offering better than the rest? Customers will choose those they trust over anything else - share your industry experience to build sustaining loyalty.

Principles and best practices

1 of 10: Expand your universe

Find 5 pieces of content online (articles, other people’s images, quotes, etc.) that resonate with your brand or mission. Find a template that has a look-and-feel you like and Brandify it to make it yours. Or create a new brand to represent all of your thought leadership pieces. Lean on and duplicate this template as a recurring one you’ll post over the weeks. Incorporate the content you found online to this template, one piece of content per design, like a soundbite. Schedule them out as “evergreen” content over the coming weeks — pick a day to always post your thought leadership content. Don’t forget to give credit to where you found it, and tag your sources…not just for copyright, but also to expand your network! Post 1/5 today on your most engaged network.

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Icon: instagram Icon: linkedin Icon: twitter Icon: facebook

2 of 10: Metrics inspire people

Create a plan for how keep track of your social engagement over the next couple of weeks, either by using the social platform’s built-in analytics, or a tool like Buffer. Scan the comments that your audience is leaving on your posts… are there some trends around what they like or are wondering about? Choose one trend brainstorm ideas for one piece of long-form content. Long-form could mean a blog post, an article, a tweetstorm, Instagram Live, or IG Story series. Choose one idea to develop content for and begin writing, gathering photos, and quotes from secondary sources. Do your research, and then decide… what do you or your company believe in and what’s your key point of view? Your longform piece should have a clear goal of offering up your take on the trend to your audience.

Create a plan for how keep track of your social engagement over the next couple of weeks, either by using the social platform’s built-in analytics, or a tool like Buffer.

3 of 10: A mini campaign

Once your long-form content is done, use Adobe Express to create the promotion for it. Mix images, text and graphics to make a series of social graphics that tease users about what’s coming soon. You can even create posts with quotes from the piece itself, and the date the content will launch. Use Resize to make versions of your post in the correct aspect ratio for the various platforms you’re creating for and maximize your efficiency.

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Icon: instagram Icon: facebook Icon: twitter Icon: youtube

4 of 10: Launch day

Publish your long form content, whether it’s a tweetstorm, blog post, Insta Story or series, article, etc. If you’re publishing to something like a blog or Medium, make sure to make and publish Posts on social networks to point them there. You can also use Adobe Express to bring parts of your blog to life. Overlay a quote from your content over an image, and include your brand. That way if people pin or repost your image, you’ll get some brand awareness. Quote and title posts are also great to include on your social feed, along with the link, so that people can easily share them with others over social. Include a link in your bio! Keep track of comments as they come in and actively engage with your users in the comments today.

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Icon: instagram Icon: facebook Icon: twitter Icon: youtube Icon: pinterest

5 of 10:
A guest appearance

Find another thought leader in your space (probably non-competitive), and invite them to do a “social takeover,” where for an specific time period they post to your social accounts (choose one). Create a set of Adobe Express templates and share them with them so their work has brand consistency. Schedule them for a Adobe Express Live with you after their takeover, like a 20 min interview where they share their views on your shared space or industry. You can base your interview questions on the comments your audience has left on your takeover posts the past few days, as well as prompt your viewers to surface questions during the Live.

Find another thought leader in your space (probably non-competitive), and invite them to do a “social takeover,” where for an specific time period they post to your social accounts (choose one).

6 of 10: Involve your audience

Take 3 pictures of 3 key features or facets of your product or service and write a one sentence line about why each feature is amazing. Use a collage template in Adobe Express to showcase all three features and copy lines in one graphic. Post this, and ask your followers what their favorite is… 1, 2 or 3? And why? Use the polls feature on IG stories, or prompt them to answer in the caption.

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Icon: instagram Icon: facebook Icon: twitter Icon: youtube Icon: pinterest

7 of 10: Cross the two way street

It’s takeover day! Check out what your thought leader/influencer has created for the takeover. Save a couple of the best creations to post later, as evergreen content you can post in the weeks to come that can bring eyes back to this content once its passed. For the rest, finalize and post their creations as a series of posts, videos, stories, etc. over the next few days. As you observe how your audience is interacting with the content, collect audience quotes, insights, and more. Use this content to make more posts and don’t forget to tag your audience member! Finally, share your insights, engagement numbers, and posts with the thought leader/influencer you’ve been working with. Ask them if they’d be willing to repost on their own social account and tag your account in it. (We bet they will!)

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Icon: instagram Icon: twitter

8 of 10: Be an efficiency rockstar

Choose 3 articles that others have written about your industry… these could be about current trends or changes, perspectives, facts, etc. Choose 3 quotes from each that you especially like. You should have about 9 content bites. Use a bold template to mock up all of them, Brandify them, and post each week on the same day. If you have a headshot of the person handy, pop in their photo and use the Remove Background.

Or take 3 or more related bites from these articles and make an infographic — its a great way to relay information around a theme in a visual eye-catching way. You can also split these factoids up into individual posts.

Don’t forget to cite the source in your design and tag them if they have a social media account! This is a great way to build your network, widen your qualified funnel, and build relationships for future takeovers or partnerships.

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Icon: instagram Icon: twitter Icon: youtube Icon: pinterest

9 of 10: The face(s) behind the lens

Take a short video clip on your phone of a team member and have them talk about their expertise. Add text animations for their name or quote! Tag your company or employees so they can share it too! Feeling inspired? Highlight a few employees for a series of Instagram Stories. For each story, prompt your audience to submit questions for your employee through the question feature on IG Stories: “What do you want to learn from ______?” Use these responses to create a list of future long or short form content ideas.

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Icon: instagram Icon: youtube Icon: linkedin

10 of 10: Be topical

Spend 5 min everyday catching up on the news, latest pop culture, and latest industry developments or conversations. Find a thread that relates your industry or company to what’s happening out there. For example, perhaps you are a university office and currently there is a boom in houseplant purchases due to people spending more time indoors because of a health crisis. You could do a series of posts about the best plants for dorm rooms. Or, say you’re a marketer in a small agency. Think about what you learned about a certain industry after working on a client project and do a series of posts on how that industry is changing. By responding and reacting to what’s happening in the greater world, you show your audience that you are part of their lifestyle. Switch it up, and film yourself speaking about these topics on IG Stories, along with making posts to highlight the content. People see higher engagement on their social when they interact with a real person.

Spend 5 min everyday catching up on the news, latest pop culture, and latest industry developments or conversations.