Key Summary (TLDR)
Topic: How to build a social media content bank (or a social media content library) for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs.
What you’ll learn: A social media content bank is a pre-written, organized collection of social media posts unique to your brand. This post explains how to create one from scratch, how to write fresh content ideas, and how to organize everything into categorized content buckets. The framework uses a garden metaphor with four content types: Foundational (Soil), Educational (Water), Personal (Sunshine), and Promotional (Wind).
Who this is for: Small business owners, coaches, service providers, and creative entrepreneurs who want to stop scrambling for social media content ideas and build a reusable library of posts.
Written by: Emily Aborn, Copywriter for Small Businesses, based in New England.
Want in on all my secrets to creating a social media library for your business?
I can’t speak for you, but I know that I certainly don’t feel like spinning my wheels, trying to figure out social media content ideas and what to post for my business!
Enter the magical social media content bank, my secret sauce for saving time on social media and organizing it into your very own one-stop social media content bank library.
I’m giving away the entire recipe in this blog. The keys to the castle. No holds barred. If you’re ready to get some fresh social media content ideas and see a peek behind the scenes at how I, a Small Business Copywriter, structure custom social media content banks for my clients, read on.
What’s a social media content bank?
I knew I liked you, you curious little devil, you. I love questions like this!
A “social media content bank” or “social media content library” is a collection unique to YOU and your brand of fully written content that’s ready to copy, paste, and post anytime!
It sounds almost too good to be true, but I assure you, it’s not. I create social media content banks day in and day out for my clients and give them libraries of content that work seamlessly with existing content calendars they have in place, along with evergreen content to fill in any gaps.
Evergreen content means it’s not going out of style for a while, and you can use it whenever you’re fresh out of creative content ideas.
Where do you start when creating your content bank for social media?
As with most things, you start at the beginning, and in this case that means taking stock of what you have.
A good starting point is to look at you/your brand and do a high-level inventory. Brace yourself, I’m going to give you a ton of inspiration for how to create your own creative content on social media.
Brand and Personal Inventory:
- List out each of your products or services
- Write out your company tagline or slogan if you have one
- Describe your brand personality in 2-3 sentences
- How do you want your clients to feel working with you?
- What’s your story? Why did you start your business?
- What’s your mission and/or your why?
- Who do you like to work with?
- What makes you unique? What sets you apart?
- What are your clients struggling with before they find you?
- What are your most frequently asked questions?
- What brand assets do you already have to pull from?
Content Inventory:
- Do you have existing social media platforms with past content?
- Do you have a blog or an articles section on your website?
- What content is living on your Home Page on your website?
- What content is living on your About Page on your website?
- Do you have a podcast, YouTube channel, past Facebook Lives, or other media?
- Were you a guest on any of the above?
- Do you have a book or e-book?
- Do you have an opt-in or lead magnet on your website?
- Do you send a weekly newsletter or have past newsletters?
Prompts for Creative Social Media Content Ideas:
- A big misunderstanding about my industry is…
- Before finding me, what I see my clients struggle with is…
- After a tough day, I unwind by…
- What I love most about my work is…
- One thing I’m celebrating this past month is…
- People need my product/service most when…
- My favorite tool or resource right now is…
- Something I make sure I do every day is…
Client Stories for Content:
- Tell about a recent client win
- Tell about a time you helped a client overcome a struggle
- Tell about your FAVORITE client to work with
- Share a client testimonial and the results you got for them
- Share your past five clients and what they had in common
Bonus: You can also share oodles upon oodles of timeless personal stories and turn them into content. But that’s a lengthier conversation, so we’ll touch on that topic another time.
Now, let’s talk about how to turn all these ideas we just generated into an organized social media content bank.
How to organize your social media content bank (your personal content library)
The reality is, that you can organize your social media content library however you want. I’ll share what I personally do for my client’s content banks and you can take that and run with it. Or do your own thing.
I start by going through that inventory we just took and writing posts. All in one document! Sometimes, this will be you cutting and pasting something you already have. I’m going to give you THREE examples below from my own content:
Here’s an evergreen post from Instagram about how I work with clients:
SCIENCE REPORTS were my favorite subject in school 😂. I loved figuring out WHAT on earth caused photosynthesis 🍃, and then telling about it in a more colorful way than the encyclopedia did.
Yesterday, I had a kickoff call with a client where we started digging into who her DREAM clients are. 😘
When I’m done, this client will have a ready-to-go, copy-and-paste, custom-to-her-brand-and-voice piggy bank full of social media posts. 📲
Before we even get to our first call, I put on my researcher’s hat.
🕵🏻♀️ I start researching what her ideal clients are wondering about her offers. What are people’s questions and concerns when looking to hire someone like this?
🕵🏻♀️ I start diving into her competitors to see what they’re doing well, and where there are opportunities to do it better.
🕵🏻♀️ I put myself into her ideal client’s shoes (metaphorically speaking, of course) and learn more about what they’re feeling and struggling with.
🕵🏻♀️ And, I ask my clients a lot of clarifying questions to dig up even more data.
Then, I roll up my sleeves and put the science to work to make sweet, pretty, and effective word art. 🔥
Whether you write your own content or hire it out to someone like me, it’s more than just slapping up some witty captions and fancy copy, it’s a perfect blend of science and art. 👩🏻🔬
Do you agree?
I don’t need to do much at all to this post! I might change up the call-to-action at the end, and I’ll definitely change the picture. But this is definitely going in my social media content bank!
Info from the About Page on my website
Why choose me to provide you with content (over some random person on the internet).
- I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2014, and have experience running a brick-and-mortar, as well as an online business
- I love working with coaches, creative entrepreneurs, soul-centered entrepreneurs, and service providers
- I’m the Owner and Founder of She Built This, LLC™
- I’m organized, creative, and professional. I have strong communication skills and a proven reliable work ethic.
- I’ve written for 96 industries (a number that grows every week)!
- I’m a huge fan of fun facts and want to know yours!
Enough about me. If you’re ready for some content, I’d love to learn more about YOU!
I’d probably zhoosh this up if I were using it as a social media post. But it’s almost ready to go as-is. In the social media content bank, it goes!
Past Blog About Podcasting vs. Blogging and Which is a Better Choice for Your Business
This blog can be broken down into MULTIPLE reusable posts. If I had to guess, I’d guess any number of your blogs have the same potential. Into the content bank with this! Note: I’d go the extra mile at this step and actually break down each of the posts Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3, etc.
Once you get started, you’re not going to want to stop! You’ll want to keep going and filling and filling and filling this content bank! It’s so much fun to see just how many creative ideas for social media you already have at your disposal!
After you get everything into one big, happy place, you officially have the makings of a social media content bank.
Then, structure your social media content buckets:
When I’m putting together a client’s content bank for social media, my second step is to arrange it into social media content buckets.
Because I’m a sucker for a good analogy, especially one involving the outdoors and pretty flowers, I liken our social media content to a garden and organize the content bank as follows.
SOIL: Foundational Content
These are posts that fall into the WHAT you do, HOW you do it, WHO you help, and WHY. You’re laying the foundation and setting the stage to build the know, like, and trust factor with people.
WATER: Educational Content
These are your creative social media ideas that offer tips, education, and resources. They help your clients to feel nurtured and that you care about their growth!
SUNSHINE: Personal Content
Make sure your social media content bank isn’t short on showing off what makes you YOU! You can sprinkle light, inspiration, fun facts, and your personality into your content through quotes, humor, motivation, and more. These are posts that add a little sparkle and sunshine to your followers’ lives and keep them coming back for MORE!
WIND: Promotional Content
These are the posts that guide people directly to your products, services, discovery calls, workshops, optins, podcast, and whatever else you have going on. Remember, if you’re NERVOUS to include the WIND content into your social media content bank, you can reframe to coming from a place of service. You’re HELPING others by spreading your message and directing them to how they can work with you. And there’s a ripple effect too… just like in a garden.
Think of a dandelion. When the wind spreads those fluffy white seeds, it makes it so that MORE dandelions can crop up and grow!
Be as resilient as a dandelion, propelled by the wind, when spreading your message.
Now what, Emily?
After all this work, you’re probably going to:
- Want to reward yourself with a pat on the back, a happy dance, a self-high-five, a piece of chocolate, and whatever else you do to celebrate massive progress.
- Need a nap.
After your celebration and nap, you’ve got your very own social media content bank, a library jam-packed with content unique to you that’ll ensure you get that Summer you were hoping for, rather than the social media Summer you were dreading.
For my copywriting clients, I compile social media content banks using this method, and so that their library could go head-to-head with the National Library of Russia, I generate TONS of fresh posts for them to take and run with.
I write:
- Blogs,
- SEO website copy
- Emails
- Social media posts
- E-books
- Opt-ins
- And more!
I organize it for you into a social media content bank and a calendar unique to your business and goals.
You didn’t start your business to come up with creative content ideas and put together content banks for social media, blogs, emails, and website copy…
I did. Let’s chat about my done-for-you, ready-to-implement content for YOUR business!
A social media content bank (also called a social media content library) is a pre-written, organized collection of social media posts that are unique to your brand and ready to copy, paste, and publish at any time. It includes evergreen content, promotional posts, educational content, and personal brand stories.
A content bank saves time, reduces the stress of coming up with daily content ideas, and ensures consistency across your platforms. Instead of staring at a blank screen, you have a ready-made library to pull from whenever you need it.
Content buckets are categories that help you organize and balance your content. A useful framework uses four buckets: Foundational (who you are and what you do), Educational (tips and resources), Personal (your personality and stories), and Promotional (direct calls to action for your offers).
There’s no magic number, but a good habit is to add to your content bank any time you publish a blog post, send a newsletter, record a podcast episode, or get a new client testimonial. Think of it as a living document that grows alongside your business.
Your content bank can include original social media posts, repurposed blog content, website copy adapted for social, client testimonials, promotional posts for your offers, personal stories, educational tips, quotes, and seasonal or evergreen content. The more diverse the library, the more flexibility you have.
