The Bolt motto when it comes to website and social content is minimum input, maximum output.
And we’re talking minimum input from the people we work with, not from us!
But what does that really mean?
Well most people product social content ‘on the day’ and as such face a never ending tyranny of ‘What shall I say today‘ and then their mind goes blank.
It reminds me of the features meetings at the Daily Mail when the editor would ask ‘So who has some ideas?‘ (there is a blank newspaper to fill every day after all) and everyone would sit there with all previous remotely viable ideas instantly draining from their brains for some strange reason.
Oh how we all dreaded those moments!
However, what also happens in the mainstream media to avoid the huge downside and risks of ‘no ideas’ is something called ‘forward planning’ which means a lot of content is produced in advance, leaving more time for ideas than just the immediate moment.
And it’s these principles borrowed from and learned within mainstream media which we now use at Bolt.
This means some of our clients right now have their social and website content produced and scheduled through to mid January, and it’s only December 1st. Others will be in that position too this week.
Just like a media outlet though, we’re not sitting back relaxing for the rest of December, we are working on February’s content.
It’s all about being highly efficient and able to produce content at scale…without wanting to set your computer on fire or pull your hair out!
Here’s the formula we use, which I explain a bit more in the video below:
We usually take a day to go and film each of our clients. While we’re there, we take photos, plan content, and gather enough stuff to last us for a month or two.
This works for two reasons.
One is that it gives us the content to work with all at once. We’re not waiting around for someone to send over a photo or for a video to come through. We can then go into production for that client’s content and give it all of our attention rather than hopping between clients.
The second is that it works better for our clients. It causes the least amount of inconvenience for them. We show up, we take some footage, and then we’re off. They only have to record with us for a few hours but they’ll get around 6 weeks worth of content.
That’s the ‘minimum input’ part.
When we get back to Bolt HQ, we unpack all the material we gathered and edit it into useable posts, videos, blog and newsletters.
Some of our clients do weekly YouTube videos. We upload them, and turn the transcripts into weekly newsletters and blog posts. We’ll also re-edit videos for social media, like cut them down or break them up into what we call “social shorts”. We take the filmed content and repurpose it in as many ways possible.
Usually, one day of filming can yield anywhere from 10-45 different videos, depending on the client and the content they need.
This is the ‘maximum output’ part.
