INSTAGRAM CONTENT BATCHING

Hey, guys, and welcome back to my channel. It is a great day to create something beautiful, and today we have something very special we're going to be creating that is beautiful, and it is your Instagram feed. If you are new here, this is the perfect place for bridal hairstylists and makeup artists who want to fill their inbox with their dream bridal clients. If you ever find yourself saying, I never have anything to post on Instagram, I'm never able to get great content whenever I'm at a wedding, it's always cluttered and I feel rushed and yada yada, yada, and you feel like you can't get great content, you then keep on. If you're someone who is saying those things to yourself. And when you're on location at a wedding party and you find that the hotel room's cluttered or you don't have time to get the good photos that you want to post on your Instagram to show the beautiful work that you do, most likely when you're getting content for your Instagram, you're working harder and not smarter. I am all about working smarter and not harder, especially when it comes to Instagram and marketing your services. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you guys my top secrets on how I batch create my content and how I'm able to stretch one hairstyle into 14 different pieces of content. So if that's something that you're interested.

In, then keep on watching.

So the first tip that I have for you guys on content patching is to, well, get good content. Now, there is a few different ways that I go about getting good content of my hairstyles. And for the sake of today's video, I'm going to be going over one of my content batching strategies that I use for hairstyles. But, but all of these tips can easily be applied to makeup artists as well.

So.

So how do I go about getting great content? The number one mindset shift that I had when I thought about creating content, I have to credit to Cara Klein. Many of you guys know I was a part of her program, Hair Boss University, which was the absolute best program I have ever been in. So if you're thinking about signing up, definitely do it. One of the things I walked away with that I thought really changed my perspective. I mean, there were so many good things in there that Cara helped me with along my bridal hair journey. But the one thing that stuck with me was for your content, especially to get most of your content at your bridal hair trials. Now, I know a lot of us are like, yeah, I do that. But do you really, do you really take that time to those extra steps to get great content for your feed in forms of video, photo, all those different things, or are you just kind of running along and rushing off to the next appointment? When Cara put it this way, it really helped me shift my mindset. And think of it as for getting content on a bridal trial day as opposed to the wedding day. On a wedding day, think your time restricted and you are not in a controlled environment. For me, I do all of my trials at a student studio space that I rent. And for you, you might have the same. You might have a studio space or a bedroom in your house. That is a controlled environment. When I say controlled, I mean you have lighting controlled, so you're able to go by a window and get really good lighting for your photos. Not time restricted. So there's not a timeline and the bride has to be ready by 12pm and you don't really have that time stop and take all those different photos to move her around to do different videos that you want. Whereas at a trial you're in that controlled environment and it's not time restrictive. If you're leaving yourself buffer and giving yourself enough time between each appointment where you can really dedicate your time to your brides in the first place for their appointment. But also you have that time to take the great photos, videos, get all the different angles you want, switch things up and really make sure she's comfortable. So when I switch my perspective, and I did it that way, the way that Cara explained it to me, I was like, wow. And it's really one of the ways that I've been able to get great content for my Instagram. So thank you, Cara. Always use your bridal trials to take a lot of really great photos, not only for your Instagram. So that way you're able to promote the styles that you want to do, also to give them to your clients so that way they have to look at them for later on. Now if you're someone who doesn't have a studio that they rent, or maybe you have a home studio, but you don't really love it for photos. It's not really set up wise or with a background or anything like that that you love, that worry, because my second tip is to have a content batching day and before you guys overthink it, don't worry, I've done plenty of these and I'm going to walk you guys through Step by step, exactly how I plan out my content date. So how you're going to do this is figure out how many pieces of content you like post. Touring the week. For me, I usually like to post about five pieces of content per week. Whatever that is for you, figure that out and multiply that by four so then you can get a month's worth of content within your batching day. So for me, if I want to post five pieces of content for a month's worth of content, I would need 20 pieces. Next, you're going to want to figure out what types of content you want to post. So I say types. I mean reels, carousels, photos, stories, all those different content pieces that you want to post. Then next, what I did is I research hairstyles or when I was doing makeup, I would research makeup looks that I wanted to create that were always inspiring me, that I would do. This is on Instagram and just seeing things that people who inspire me, that I love. Or if you're on an online course, like for me, when I was in Hair Boss University, there was a lot of new styles that we were learning all the time in the course, so I wanted to make sure I could recreate those. So those were always my inspiration when I first started these content batching days. Also a great way I found to really practice the look so that way you can nail it. The more times you do a style, the more times you do a makeup look, the better you're going to get at it. Each and every single time you do it. As I'm researching different styles or if you're researching different makeup looks, narrow it down to like two to three or three to four different makeup looks or hairstyles that you want to do on your content batching day. The last thing you're going to want to do within your content batching plan. I think this is the most important one, at least for me, I found this was the most important. I think some of us will forget. And especially if you're new to this industry and you're just starting out or new to a content batching day can get overwhelming. So the last thing you're going to want to do is practice the looks you want to do either on yourself. If they're makeup, practice those makeup looks on yourself first. Or if they're hairstyles, practice them on a mannequin first. As chances are, if they're looks you've never done before and you go right in and you're practicing it either on a model or a friend on your content batching day, you might get a little bit anxious and you might be a little bit frustrated if it's not coming out exactly the way you wanted it to. So say you're researching different makeup looks and you see these amazing, like, feline flick eyeliner, but you've never done that before. Practice it on yourself like a few times or the week of whenever you're doing your content batching. For me, when I would find those two to three different hairstyles, I would pull out my mannequin and I would make sure to create those looks on my mannequin first. That way those first practice jitters are out on my mannequin and not on my model when it's important and it's my content batching. Okay, so you got your content batching plan set up. Now the next part of the content batching day is you're going to want.

To find a studio space.

So if you don't really have it within your budget right now, you can always do it in your dining room. You can do it, you know, set a space aside within your house for just one day to do like different aisles for your Instagram feed, or if it is within your budget, rent a studio. I've done this multiple times. Always have really good luck with it and I always love it. Usually I'll do like a half day rate and I've always had really good luck with the website peerspace. As you guys can see, I'll show it over here on the side of my screen if you just type in your location. For me, I'm located even though I'm in South Jersey. There's a lot more photo studios for rent over in Philly. So anytime I need to rent a studio space, I'll do it in Philly. You just pop in your location wherever you are located or wherever you want to do your content batching. And you can find different studios from either like half day rates or they go per hour. So normally I'll do like a half day rate, which is four hours. And Philly, I've run in a studio for as low as $45 an hour with a max of two hours. I run it one for a half day and I think it was around like 350. So that's usually pretty typical. So whatever is within your budget, whether you want to do it in a second bedroom or whether it's within your budget to take it outside of your house, for me, I have dogs and I just have a very small space, so it's better for me personally to take it outside way, I'm in a professional space, in a professional mindset. I'm not worrying about my dogs running around. I'm not worrying about any of that. So for me I just find it is well worth the investment just to spend, you know, a hundred dollars or something just to run a studio. Whatever works for you guys. Okay, you got your plan, you got the looks you want to do, you've got the studio space or the room within your house that you want to do. Now the most important part, we need to find models. So there's two kinds of models that you can get. There's agency models or you can do a family friend. Obviously there's pros and cons with each. And I'm just going to speak personally from my own experience. This is totally up to you guys. There is no right or wrong answer here. Obviously if you are just starting out and is again not within your budget, you can go with a family friend. But I just wanted to give you guys the real talk and my personal experience. The pros and cons with going with a paid agency model versus using a family or a friend. I personally, personally love to go with agency models. I would rather pay someone for like a half day rate or 2 hours of their time because for me personally there are so many pros to working with a professional agency model. The biggest pro being that they are comfortable in front of the camera. This is huge. The whole point of you doing a content batching day is to get portfolio work for your Instagram, sell your services to more brides and get more bridal booking. So for me I find it well worth it if even if I'm going to pay a model, I've personally paid for between $100 to $350 for a model for their time is well worth it for me to pay a model $350. If that one photo is like booking me say like four different weddings. And by having that one model knowing that I'm able to get like 14 different pieces of content from it, it is well worth it in my eyes. Some of the other pros of hiring a agency model versus having a friendly friend is when you are hiring someone and you're paying for their time. More invested in that project, they're more invested in in you, they're more invested and willing to show up. I can't tell you how many times I've done one on one lessons and the students need to bring a model and it's a family friend or something. And then the night before they cancel is always heartbreaking and we always wind up figuring it out. When you're paying someone and you're paying an agency model for like a half day rate or even a few hours, she's going to want to show up for you as opposed to a friend who's just doing it for free just to help you out. I'm not saying that friends don't want to help you out or anything, but they're more likely to cancel or ditch or find better plans. Whereas with a model, even though they might not be a hair model full time, it is their job, they're more inclined to not want to ditch you for the day. Agency models that I've worked with are always so friendly, so professional, amazing photographs so well, always have such great hair. They listen to the prep tips that I give them for the night before they show up on time. They're just all around amazing. I love working with professionals. So when you choose to hire a professional model for the day, they're more inclined to show up for you. They're professional, they're going to create amazing content for you because they're comfortable in front of camera as opposed to a family friend who's a little bit awkward and stiff. You can pose someone who's a family friend or something like that, but a model, you don't even have to tell them. They're just already working it, doing their thing and you know you're going to get incredible portfolio pictures that are going to lead to more wedding bookings. So those are just a few of my pros and cons with having a friend as a model or an agency model. Those are just a few of my personal preferences pros and cons with hiring a agency model or working with a family friend as a model for your content batch. Okay, so let's say you decide you want to hire an agency model and you're like, where do I find a model? Or you want to have a family friend? One of the ways that I've always been super lucky to find models for content batching days is to just post something on my stories about. So I'll go over all my stories and I'll create something about my content batching day. Let's just say you have it set for July. So whenever I'm doing a post on my story, you want to give that person the information so that way they can figure out if they're actually available for that day. So figure out how long your day is going to be if you have a Student studio books. Let's just say you have it booked for four hours. So in your story post you're going to put a few things. You're going to put where the photo shoot will be so the location just like the city. I would just put like center city for myself. That way they have a general idea and how far away it is from their house. Then you're going to put the date. So you book the studio so you have a date and then put the time frame, if your time frame is from 12 to 4, maybe put your time frame for the model from 1 to 4. That way you have time to get in there to set everything up. Model doesn't have to sit around and wait for you, you to set up all your products and tools. Lastly you're going to say like DM me if you're available. And lastly you're going to want to put pays and then put like some dollar signs. You don't have to put exactly what you're going to be paying. Maybe you could DM them what the rate will be or whatever you're comfortable with. Maybe ask them for their rate, but I wouldn't put it on your story. I would just make sure you put that it is a paying job and then you can just say DM me if available. And then whenever someone DMs you, you can give them all the actual DM details like the location, how much it pays, or ask them whatever their half day rate would be for say three hours. That's just a strategy that I've used that I've had good luck with that you guys can use as well to find models for your content. Okay, let's say you got your studio books, you got your model books, got the content that you want to create. The most important part, let's make a plan of the types of content you want to create for that day. Why it's so important to have a plan of exactly the types of content you want to create. Such as as reels, feed posts, before and after story posts. All those different things is because from personal experience when I've done these, if I don't have a plan and I go in there, I forget all the things that I wanted to do. To be honest, I will just totally blank and I'll just go in and I'll take a few pictures and I'll totally forget to take videos. I don't want that to happen to you. So the way that I've been able to have so much success with my content batching days is to create a detailed plan. I'm going to walk you guys step by step on the plan that I create for all the different types of content that I'm going to get on an content batching. And before you do this, the first thing you're going to want to do is research trending things where you kind of have a general idea already of things that you want to create for your own feed. Let's head over to my Google Docs so I can show you guys exactly how I plan.

Okay guys, here we are over on my computer. And this is just a Google Doc that I named IG Content batching day. You can name it whatever you like. It's just how I like to format. I plan for my content. I know exactly what types of content I need to create. I section it into reels, carousel side by side. And then over here is filming. These are all the things that I need to film, such as different transitions.

Or shots or things like that.

So how I create this table is actually pretty simple. I'll give you guys a little tutorial. So you're going to come over to insert, you're going to go to table for going across, just like I do. You can come and do four by two and it'll look something like this. So then when you guys are creating your own, type in the different types of content that you want to create. Maybe it's different from mine, maybe you just want to keep it simple and do feed posts and do videos and maybe something for your stories and then maybe your filming tips. So what I like to do is have a concept. Remember if you did the research and you got inspired by other things, maybe it's just the way that people take their photos by having flowers in them. Whatever your concept is, you want to have a plan before you go into a content batching day. So for each type of content, you want to have a concept for each one of those so then you can get the most out of it. So for your feed posts, type in concept and then what's your concept for it?

For my content batching day that I'm.

Using as an example feed post, it was showcasing different ways that you can wear half up style from the front. So that could be my concept. Okay, great. I have my concept. Now what are the different types of videos that I'm going to want to take?

When I have my model there and.

I have the hairstyle all set to go, I'm going to type each one of those out. Maybe for you, if it's for Makeup, you want to showcase different lip colors that they can wear. So your concept could be something like summer lip colors or something like that. So then you just want to brainstorm what kind of videos that you want to get for your feed post. Now I'm going to copy this and paste it on each one of these and have a different concept for each. Maybe for videos for hairstyles, you want to showcase different hair accessories and then you're going to write out exactly what videos that you want to take for them. Maybe even do photo. So what kinds of photos do you want to get for it? In filming tips, what I like to do is break it down for myself. That way I don't get nervous or anxious and forget anything day out. As you can see here, this was a previous one that I did and it just says film the first reel as I style the waves or and also be sure to take photos. So that's just a little reminder to myself. Remember, in order for you to get this reel that you want to create, you want to take a video of you doing the waves or take photos before. That way you have more content to post later.

And here I really break it down.

Have models spin while sitting to show full look, show up the tops that I have, just to change up the style anyway. So you're going to want to brains on all those different filming tips. Why? You just don't forget anything.

Breaking it down like this, it really.

Makes your time worth it. And you get the most out of your content. So let's get back into the video, guys.

Hey guys. The day has come and it is the day for your content batching. You're at your studio or you're in your home space and you're setting it up. You have your model coming over. So let me walk you guys through a few easy ways to transition makeup looks into more than one look, as well as easy ways to transition one hairstyle into multiple different hairstyles. So you get the most out of your content batching days, especially if you're paying for it and you get the most money's worth. So let's start with hair first. If you're doing a content batching day, and let's just say you have three different hairstyles you want to do, you're going to want to start your first one, you want it to be a down style, whatever down style you decide, that's fine, but you want it to be a down style. That way, your second look, you can easily transition it into either a half up and up style. You already have all that prep work in there. From doing the down style, whether it was a soft glam wave or whether it was just a down curled style, you're able to show your range of looks and you're able to get more content. Start out simple and do something down, and then you can easily transition it into a half up and then transition that from a half up to an up style. That's three looks right there. Boom. The next easiest way to transition it to get more looks, just one style is to have some hair. The hair accessories that you guys see on my page, I have purchased. Yes, I have spent probably over 7, 800 on accessories. Don't worry, you guys don't need to do that. You can go on Amazon and find any kind of hair accessories or whatever you want to do. I just love having them for my client as well as content batching days. But if you throw on a hair accessory onto an upstyle, that is two different pieces of content that you can have. Boom. Now I got four pieces of content. Okay, now let's talk about easy ways to transition one makeup look and stretch it into about four different kinds of look. When you're doing your model, the first look you want to do on your model would be a natural look. That way you're able to build, build up on it. Start out with a dramatic look, and you go in with a smoky eye. You don't really plan it out. You can't take off the smoky eye and go to a natural look and transition it and do something different.

Find.

It's always easiest to start out natural. Same way with hair, you start out with a down style, and you can build up and do different looks from there. Same with makeup. Start out with a neutral eye, maybe a liner or a simple shadow. Do like a nude lip, and then you can build up from there. You can change the lip color to, like, three different kinds of colors. You could do a nude. You could do a pink color. You could do a red color. You could do just a clear gloss. Boom. That's like four different pieces of content right there. Those are just a few ways that I find is super easy to transition when you want to show multiple different looks. So that way you can get the most out of your content, and you can stretch just one look into about four or five different styles by just these few little tweaks, these few little transitions. All right, so now maybe you guys did your content batching day, had a great time with your model or your friend, whoever you had in your Studio and you are just on a total high because you got so much great content. You got videos, you got stuff to post for reels. Now the fun part, editing it all. I personally will set aside like an hour or two each or maybe even just one day. On Mondays, which is my day off, I'll usually take an hour or two and just go through all my photos from over the weekend and I'll organize them. I'll show you guys right here exactly how I organize my photos. I create two albums. All the photos especially was a content batching day. I'll put it into an album called To Edit Way. It's just not all lumped in there with all my other photos. I can easily go in there and apply my simple little edits that I like to do. And if you guys were wondering, most of my content that I shoot, I take on my iPhone, which makes editing even easier because it's already on my iPhone. Or lately I've been using my Sony A6000 and that has a WI FI on it. So I can easily transfer the photos from my camera over to my phone within like two seconds. And then I'll just apply my edits onto those. Once I edit my photos, I'll put them in an album called Edit it. That way they are always in one album. So that way I always have stuff to post on the fly. I want to put something on my stories or whether I want to put something on my feed. So once you edit your photos and you organize them into the few different albums, if you guys decide to do that, makes your life so much easier. But you've got all your photos edited. So now it is time to plan. Planning your content is the best way to have a stress free experience. With Instagram, you save so much time posting and you can do three weeks worth of content all within this one app. I use the app called Planoly. I'm using it for years now and I absolutely love it. There's other apps out there such as Later. Both of these apps I believe are paid apps. I know with plan only. I think with the basic plan it's like $7 a month. Honestly guys, it is so worth it for your business. So let's just head over onto my plan only and I'll show you guys exactly how I plan my content.

Okay guys, we are over in Anole, which the app that I like to use to plan all my content. Like I said, you can use apps like Later. This is just my personal preference. You can use it on your desktop as well. As on your phone and it is about $7 a month. Uploaded all the pieces in there. To upload a certain piece of content you just go to add to grid and you can do my computer wherever you have them stored.

So if I am posting videos or.

Reels or anything like that, I do.

Like to just take a screenshot.

That way I can see how it's going to look within my feedback. That's what these two are right up here. Already edited and created the reel and.

Then I just took a screenshot of.

What the COVID will be so I know exactly what it looks like within my feed. And then what I can do is select these and I can drag and drop them wherever I want so I.

Can rearrange my pieces of content to.

Exactly where I want them to look. Pick out my feed aesthetic and then I'm going to click this one and I can create my caption right in here. Maybe I'll do low little bun for long hair. And then the great thing about this is you can hit right here and you can save all your different hashtags and I can just click add and it's going to put all my hashtags in there. So then I can just hit save. And then when you want to plan your content just go over to here. It's going to show up in a calendar view. So let's say this is the first piece of content that I want to plan. I'm going to go over here, schedule date. Let's just say I want to do Monday. Select your time. So I'm going to go to 3pm Hit save. You can do auto posts.

I just personally don't do that.

Then it's going to show up here.

So you can figure out all the.

Captions for each one of these posts and then just plan out your feed when it's ready to post. What's going to happen is you're going to have an app on your phone and it's going to send you a notification the app and let you know that it is time for your post. What you do is simply select the photos within your album. They're going to download from the app to your personal photo album and then it'll take you over to Instagram. You're going to choose those photos and you will just paste your caption within Instagram and you're ready to post. Super simple, super stress free. And that is how I plan my content using planoly back into the video guys.

So as you guys can see after being over in my plan only different pieces of content. Just one content batching day. How I was able to stretch one hairstyle into about 14 different pieces of content or having content days you always want to optimize doing videos photos before and after. That way you're able to get the most out of your content by batching day. Okay, so let's look at exactly all the pieces of content I was able to create from one day of batch. Also, special shout out to my girl Gabby for being my model on this day and for being my model a few different times. She is the absolute best, friendliest, most genuine model I've worked with. I absolutely love working with her. She is so comfortable in front of the camera and has the most amazing hair to work with. She is an agency model in New York and Miami. Of course I've shouted her out within the description box. Again, thank you to Gabby for being my model on this day. I was able to create multiple different reels as well as short videos that I'm able to post on my feed as well as all my stories carousel posts that I'm able to create. This particular day I wanted to showcase different half up half down hairstyles from the front, so I was able to create grid posts within that. Alright, I hope you guys are ready to post with confidence. Maybe you're someone who did your batching day. You had fantastic results. You had the best photos, ready to write a caption and you. You don't even know what to say or you're completely unaware that you're still making these few major mistakes that are blocking wedding inquiries from your inbox. So be sure you subscribe. Hit that notification bell for next week's video because I'm going to be sharing with you guys three major mistakes you might be unaware that you're even making that are blocking bridal inquiries from your inbox. As always guys, I appreciate you and thank you so much for tuning in to today's video. It's a great day to create something beautiful. Bye guys.