Batching a month of content in one afternoon

Pick your four main topics

Don't sit down and try to come up with thirty different ideas. That is how you get overwhelmed. Instead, choose four broad themes that matter to your customers. These are the pillars of your business. For most local owners, these should be simple and helpful.

Think about what people ask you when they walk through your front door. If you run an auto shop, your themes might be safety tips, behind the scenes repairs, meet the team, and a local community highlight. By sticking to these four categories, you only have to come up with one specific idea for each theme per week.

• Common customer questions and your answers
• A look at the tools or equipment you use daily
• Introduction of a staff member and what they do
• A helpful tip that saves your customers money

Set up your workspace and gear

You do not need a professional camera or fancy lighting to make this work. Your current smartphone is more than enough. The key to batching is having everything ready before you hit record. Clean your camera lens with a soft cloth and find a spot in your shop with good natural light, like near a front window.

If you are going to be in the videos, bring a couple of different shirts. Changing your outfit between videos is a simple trick that makes it look like the content was filmed on different days. This keeps your feed looking fresh rather than like a single long session.

The silent filming phase

One of the biggest time wasters is trying to talk perfectly to a camera. Start by filming what we call b-roll. These are short, five to ten second clips of you or your team working. It could be someone typing, a hand picking up a tool, or a shot of your storefront sign.

Capture at least fifteen of these short clips. Since there is no talking, you can fly through this. These clips act as the background for your posts. Later, you can simply type a helpful tip over the video or use a voiceover. It is much faster than memorizing a script.

• Slow motion shots of your product being made
• A wide shot of your empty shop before opening
• Close ups of interesting textures or materials
• You walking into your office or workspace

Write your captions all at once

Now that the visuals are done, sit down with your laptop or a notepad. Write out the captions for each post. Keep them short and use the same voice you use when talking to a neighbor. Avoid big words or formal language that sounds like a textbook.

Each caption should do one of three things: teach something, solve a problem, or show your personality. Always end with a simple instruction, like telling people to visit your website or stop by the shop this weekend. This is how you turn a viewer into a visitor.

Use a tool to schedule the work

The final step is the most important. Do not save these videos to your phone and hope you remember to post them. Use a scheduling tool to upload everything right now. You can set the exact date and time for every post for the rest of the month.

Once you hit schedule, your job is done. You can put your phone away and focus on your customers. The system will handle the rest. You will have a consistent presence online while you are actually working on your business, not on your phone.