If you’re using social media on any network, you know that short form video content is all the rage. Not only is it trending, but strategically it is an incredibly important format for your business.
I’ve noticed that there are tons of people talking about tactics for getting more engagement and growing your following with short form, but most of these conversations are geared towards someone who is managing one business account or their own personal account.
There is one vital group of people being left out of the conversation for short form content…
I’m talking about freelance Social Media Managers or agency owners who run accounts for multiple clients and businesses.
Recording, editing, and distributing short form video content can be time consuming when you’re managing just one account…
Now imagine running multiple accounts for different clients. We need our own repeatable systems and processes!
So how does a Social Media Manager maximize their time and streamline content distribution when multiple client accounts are on the line?
That’s what I’m here to break down for you today.
There’s no need to struggle in your short form content creation and distribution. Follow these steps and you will check all the boxes to make your job easier and your clients happy!
Prepare Your Client to Record
You want to set your client up for success out of the gate! This may require a little coaching.
To get the best quality short form video content and ease your workload down the line, make sure your client is recording in proper lighting.
Find out what kind of mic they are using before they record. If they’re using earbuds or headphones, do a test with them to ensure they produce quality sound. If it comes through muffled, you might suggest they record without headphones or invest in a proper mic set up.
Do they know what angles to place their camera? Provide them with relevant examples of other content creators so they can wrap their mind around how to set up the shot– leaving ample space for captions.
As a Social Media Manager, you can craft a list of recommendations for your clients with a range of equipment options at the price points that fit their budget. You can also send them diagrams for lighting and camera angles or work with them via Zoom to set it up perfectly.
Scripting for Short Form Video Content is Key
When you’re planning your client’s short form video content, scripting is one of the most crucial steps. Your client may want to “wing it,” but at the very minimum ensure they have bullet points to speak from in order to get a quality piece of content.
You have 60 seconds or less to connect with your viewer, grab their attention so they’re compelled to engage with your content, and hopefully accept the invitation you’re extending in your call-to-action.
In order to engage your audience effectively over and over again across multiple videos, you need a scripting process.
At Social Media Pro, we’ve created a script template that includes the three key elements you need in any short form script – the hook, the body, and the call to action.
Your hook is KEY to getting engagement on your content and training your audience to come back for more.
Your tone of voice, your text, your insight, and the concept or idea that you’re imparting all play a role in your hook and you want that hook front and center. You have just a few seconds to grab attention and help the viewer decide if they’re going to continue watching.
Remember, a hook is not a tagline or your unique selling proposition. A perfect hook is attached to an authentic and compelling story that builds trust, authority, credibility AND provides value.
In our template, we’ve curated hooks that are working and proven across TikTok, and we provide you with sample calls to action for the next action that would make sense for your client’s content. When you plug in your topics to a template, writing scripts for your clients becomes very easy.
Develop Working Processes with Your Client
Now that you’re on the fast track for short form video content creation, you’ll want to align on a handoff process with your client. In other words, once your client records, make sure they know how to hand the videos over to you for the next step in the production process.
These files are often large and if your client is batching their content, there will be many files.
Will you use Google Drive or Dropbox for file sharing? Will you have them upload their videos to your project management system or do they prefer to email you a link using a service such as WeTransfer?
Getting the Videos Edited
When you first start offering short form content distribution to your client, you might handle the editing yourself— either with a video editing tool or natively inside the social media platform itself.
But when you get to the point where managing this process for multiple clients becomes too time consuming, you might consider partnering with a media agency who specializes in video editing.
We partner with Snowhouse Media for our video editing services. They stay on top of short form content trends and are certified content managers at Social Media Pro.
Working with an agency can help with short form trends like jump cut editing, text overlays, and embedding music in your video. Utilizing these editing services can help you scale your content distribution services.
Just know that working with an agency isn’t completely hands-off. You still need to work with them to solidify your client’s style and branding and to make sure the completed edits are how you envisioned them.
Charging Appropriately for Short Form Video Content & Distribution
Now that you’ve integrated short form content into your Social Media Manager services, you may be wondering if it should be included in the original social media management package you sold your client.
The answer is no.
When you’re looking at how to price, package, and sell the creation and distribution of short form video content for clients, be sure to include the extra time it takes for you to edit and publish outside of your standard Social Media Management services.
If you do decide to use a media agency for video production, the best practice is to pass the cost of their services along to the client.
Streamline Your Content Distribution
One of the challenges of sharing a piece of content in multiple places like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok is that once it’s published you’re stuck with the watermark on your video.
Historically, the “other” social media network algorithms don’t favor content with a competitor’s watermark.
Which means the content you worked so hard to create doesn’t gain the traction it deserves. Which in turn means, you either have to natively upload your short form video content to each network which takes A LOT of time or…
You can use Repurpose.io to streamline your content distribution process seamlessly.
Repurpose.io allows you to capture your short form video content from a social network and push it out to the rest of your accounts with no watermark and without having to upload multiple times.
You can even schedule your content to be published automatically at a later date and time.
Repurpose.io’s workflows make distributing your content across multiple social media networks (including Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) effortless.
Simply put, it has become one of the most important tools we use for our own content distribution and integral to the processes we recommend to Social Media Pro students.
In fact, I’d say Repurpose.io is essential to truly scale your short form video content production and distribution.
Because Repurpose.io is such a critical piece of our strategy, we’re giving our students a coupon for a very significant discount in our TikTok Manager Pro course.
If you’re a freelance Social Media Manager or agency owner who is “already” or “beginning to” offer short form video content as a service in your client packages, you have to check out Repurpose.io as a tool to streamline your content distribution process.
Scaling Short Form Video Content & Distribution as a Social Media Manager
There are many steps to take for a smooth content distribution process, but with these pieces in place you’ll be set up and ready for success!
I’ve been perfecting strategies for managing short form content distribution for MULTIPLE clients in my new program, TikTok Manager Pro, including:
- Planning and topic creation for clients
- Systematizing video content transfers between client and social media manager
- Streamlining YOUR content distribution tasks … to help you get the most results WITHOUT having to upload natively to each platform
In the course, you’ll get access to:
- Bite-sized, easy-to-follow training videos from me
- Step-by-step process for creating a robust TikTok content plan
- Downloadable spreadsheet for your data-focused plan
- Method for streamlining your content distribution tasks without having to upload natively one-by-one-by-one
