 Hey guys, it's Wilson here. Today we're going to be diving into how you shoot one month's worth of social media content for your restaurant or cafe. When we first started, it was really kind of confusing for us because we were spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on social media agencies who comes and shoots these pictures for us. We don't even know if it's worthwhile. We see the likes, we see people commenting, but is it really driving people through the doors? Is it really worth the investment that we're pulling through? And that's the reason why after months of doing that, we decided to put everything in house. We decided to train one of our staff to shoot the social media content for us and it has been working like wonders. And that's the reason why today we're doing this video. I'm going to be sharing with you all the tricks, all the templates that we have and all the systems. So then that way you can train your staff and you can save thousands of dollars within that year on social media content and that's what we're going to be doing today. Let's dive right in guys. When we're doing social media marketing, there's basically four parts. Planning, shooting, distributing and engaging. So if we want to be able to shoot all the content in one day, the number one thing we need to do is to plan. Understand why are we shooting this? Are we shooting it for a new product or are we shooting this for a new campaign? Whether it be a Valentine's Day campaign or a new product that you're about to launch, it is so important to us to understand what types of contents do we want to grab and what types of contents do we want to shoot. And the reason for that is because on the day of your shot, you're looking at crunch time. You want to make sure that it saves you time and energy so you don't have to double the amount of work that you're going to be doing. Condense everything together. Right now, we're planning our shoot to go product. We're shooting for our new product as well, which is the new Tainaki sandwich that we're shooting. We're shooting for our April Fool's campaign and we're shooting for our new waffle cone item as well. So we're planning all of these items and shoots and content that we're doing all in one day. That's exactly what we're doing right now. So after understanding the goal of why you're shooting, it is very important for you to have a shot list. And when I talk about shot lists, we're talking about lists of different shots that you're looking for for your output. So when we're talking about social media content, if you're looking for 20 different posts for a month, then you need to plan 20 different shoots. Or if it's 15, then it would be 15. But at the end of the day, understand that you would need a shot list because on the day of the shot, you don't have time to think. You would want to have these shot lists composed and designed beforehand. A lot of times what we use is Pinterest for us to find inspiration on different shots that we'll be looking for. And this is a very good resource that you can use to plan your shot list. Now that you have planned for your goals, you understand your shot list, it is very important for you to have your props. Because these are the items that would really elevate your ingredient and your items and your food menu. For us, it would require on these props to emphasize on why is it so good about a project. And this is something that a lot of times is overseen and overlooked. So when you're planning for your shot, make sure to have your props ready because on the day of your shot, you do not want to be missing props. Because that's going to also take a lot of your time and energy and money. After you figure out your props, it is very important to make sure that you have all your equipment ready. So many times in the beginning when we were doing this, we actually do not have our equipment ready and we actually had to reschedule for another day. When it comes to shooting and when it comes to actually planning, you want to have everything in place. Because there are so many different variations and variables involved, you do not want to miss things. Camera is super important. We have, for example, a camera here with a tripod. We have memory cards. We have battery. Everything needs to be charged. Memory needs to be in place. I still remember this time, we actually was not able to shoot because our memory card was full. We did not have battery. We arranged for actors. We arranged for the store to be closed so we can actually have a day of shot. But we had to reschedule because of these mistakes. At the end of the day, if you don't have these equipment, it's okay. You can actually use your iPhone to shoot and it still comes up to be very, very nice. Now that you have planned for your shot, we're going to go into phase two, which is the shooting part. It is super important on the shooting part. You have all your props ready. You have basically your shot list. And it is very important for you to be able to have your shot list and follow it. If you have everything planned out, this process should not take you any more than two or three hours. Because you've done all the work already on the day of your shot, you're going to be able to go through all your shots. And you're going to follow these shots in advance and prepare for it all in advance. That's the reason why we did all the homework beforehand. And as you can see with the shooting, do not forget the lighting is super important for us to do so. At the end of the day, having a shot list is super important, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be creative. Some of our best shots with the most engagement, with the most comments are the shots that we became creative with. Use your surroundings. Use lifestyle shots. Use hero shots. Use shots that really tell your stories. People enjoying your products. Just because once again you have a shot list, it is only for referencing. It is only to make sure you have all the shots you need for your month. Be creative. Have fun with this whole process. And you're going to be able to shoot all your shots within one day. One thing to look out for is lighting and composition. I cannot stress how important it is to understand the basic of lighting. Natural lighting always affects. Composition of your picture is always very important as well. So at the end of the day, if you would want to find some resources online, and I provided a few different resources that I find super helpful in the link below, that teaches you the basics of composition and lighting. This actually makes your photo so much better. It makes it look like a professional photographer that actually took these pictures if you can actually understand the proper lighting and proper composition of your picture. So that's the reason why it is super important. It's going to save you tons of money with professional photography. A second thing that you should also note out for is the styling of the food. A lot of times the natural picture and the natural state of the food is not going to be good enough. A lot of times we actually add in extra ingredients to make it better. So if it's cheese, we add in extra cheese to make it the gooey effect. Or if it's a smoke effect, we can actually amplify those different effects just so that we can get the shot that we're looking for. So when you're looking into your shot, make sure you understand the nature of your ingredient and make it amplify it through pictures. Because at the end of the day, you're telling a story through your pictures and if it looks better, more people will buy it for your shot. The third process in planning your shoot is distribution. When we're talking about distribution, post-production of your picture is so, so, so important. It is a night and day difference. When it comes down to this, you can actually check this picture out and this picture out. Night and day difference. So when you're talking about post-production, a lot of times it's really intimidating, but it doesn't have to be that way. You can actually, if, for example, the staff that does it for it, if they know how to do it, great, if they do not know how to do it, use services like Viver.com. To pay $5, people will be able to edit the picture for you to make it much nicer. Or if you do not want to pay for any of these services, your Instagram filter does wonders as well. There are a lot of different apps on your phone that actually teaches you and allows you to be able to do some quick touch-ups on your photos. And they are definitely a must-do for your shot. Now that you have your shot ready, now that your picture is ready, captions and everything, we're going to be talking about distribution. We're going to jump right into it. Hey guys, now that you have your shot ready, post-edited, now you can actually figure out how do you distribute this. A lot of times we are not consistent because we're bombarded with day-to-day operations and it's just, at the end of the day, you just totally forget to post and you don't have time to be on your phone dealing with the captions for 30 minutes while there are people walking through the doors. So that's the reason why we use one day to plan for the whole month of distribution. And a really good software that we use is called Later.com which allows you to schedule the post in advance and you can actually see the grid of how it looks like so then you can actually make your Instagram feed super nice. This is something that we use. So basically you can just go and sign out for an account. It's completely free and then you can put all your posters or your pictures in there. As you can see, these are the pictures that we have been taking and we're just throwing them all in here. We add the tags so we know exactly what types of product that we are actually uploading right here. I mean this tool is super helpful for us and it allows us to plan and distribute the content on a monthly basis. This is the calendar view of what it's going to look like. So what we do is we can actually just drag. Let's say for example we want this picture to be distributed on a certain day. Let's say March the 31st. So we drag it, leave it here and right here now I can post a caption. You are beautiful. And then there's hashtag suggestions. You can tag people with this offer. Super amazing software to use. So now that you can actually plan everything on this board instead of your small bit of iPhone or whatever phone device that you're using. So this is super, super effective when it comes to planning the month of your content. Now that you have your content distributed now that you have your content scheduled the fourth step of this whole process which no one really talks about no one really spends the time to emphasize is engaging. It is so important for you to engage with your audience. Now that just because you have a picture post it up with your hashtags a lot of people are liking it, commenting. It doesn't mean your job is done. Now is the real work. You need to engage with your customers. That's how you're going to be able to build your loyal fans. Why are we even doing social media marketing? It is only one element. It's a strategy for branding. This strategy of building a community of your rating fans. That's the reason why we're doing this. And a lot of times we think that social media marketing is one and all of marketing. Hey, I'm doing social media. That's completely fine. No, that is not the case for us. That's a mistake that we have done. We basically took pictures, threw it online. We never really thought about creating a community and engaging with them. That's the reason why we were slipping. And we realized that, first we need to align with our customers, understand why are we doing this and then we connect with them through actually engaging with them. Actually caring about this community. I'm actually merging it. That gave us so much brand loyalty. That's what keep people coming through the doors and that's why we're able to thrive. So if you want to thrive, make sure that you engage with your customers. That's the key to successfully using and utilizing social media as a platform to grow your community. Now that you understand the importance of engaging, engaging is basically actually having a conversation. It's no more than really showcasing your characteristics as a brand. You can be funny. You can be professional. It doesn't matter what it is. Just be unique to you. So when someone is commenting on your post, hey, you know what? When are you open? Tell them when you're open. If they ask you what ingredients did you use? Or is this, let's say, non-GMO, then you can actually answer them with your specific character. It does not always need to be politically correct. Have your character. A lot of these big brands are actually doing a really good job as you can see. So when it comes to engaging, have an open communication with them. You do not always need to take it so seriously. Put in your character. Answer as if you're a human. You do not need to become a corporation. Even corporations are doing the same thing as you can see. So that's the trick with engagement. All in all, I really hope you enjoyed this video. This is basically our secret. And the planning, our 30-day social media content for our IRI Scream Shop, and this is something I'm sharing with you. You can actually check out the template below into how do you plan, how do you shoot, how do you distribute and engage with your customers. This saved us thousands of dollars. So I hope this resource can save you that much as well. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up. If you have any questions, leave it in the comment section below. Otherwise, subscribe to be sure you don't forget. I'll see you guys in the next video.