SOP 023: How to create social posts from a blog post

In the first part, you will learn how to create the content for your social posts based on a blog post and how to organize it. Select one of your blog posts and let’s get started. For this exercise we will use the following sample post: A Six-Figure Side Project .

You will create at least 3 social posts for each channel based on your blog post. But we encourage you to get creative and have ideally 5 or more social posts. Here are 4 simple ways to create a social post from a blog post:

By using the post’s headline.

The headline is your most powerful asset for getting people’s attention, so use it well. A good social post based on the headline doesn’t mean copy/paste. It means making a statement about the headline or inciting people to pay attention to the information in the headline.

E.g. “We have updates about our six-figure side project. Find out what we did to grow our business and where we are now.”

By taking a quote from your post.

This may seem an easy copy/paste task, but you actually need to find that quote that will get people other people than your mom to click on your post. The best way to verify this is to take a step backward and ask yourself the question “would I want to find out more about this?”.

E.g. “A few years ago, it crossed over the six-figure revenue mark and started bringing in more than my annual salary. Here’s how it went down.”

By writing a question based on the post content.

Think of a piece of interesting information in your blog post and create a question about it - the sort of question a reader would have if you just presented them with the information.

E.g. “How did he manage to get people to attend his event and give him 5-star Yelp reviews?”

By highlighting interesting stats or data from your blog post.

E.g. “100 users and ten 5-star reviews on Udemy in 5 days—and that was only the beginning.”

1. Now that you have your social posts content, it’s time to fill in this worksheet .

Start by naming the tab after your blog post. Fill in the blog post title and its URL, then write the names of the channels you are going to use. In our case, it will be Facebook and Twitter.

Fill in the post copy, based on the social posts you created in the previous step. For Twitter, make sure these posts are under 280 characters. You can use this tool to check how many characters your posts have.

When you finish filling in the copy it should look like in the image below. You will learn how to create the images in the next task.

Now that you have the copy for your posts, it’s time to learn how to easily create high-quality images using Stencil . To access the app you will need to create an account. It can be a free one (but this limits you to 10 images/ month), or you can get a paid account.

1. Check the images below to find out how the app works.

On the left side of the screen, you can see categories for your image:

Photos - In here you can find royalty - free photos to choose from, depending on what you type in the search box above. Icons - You can also add icons to your image. Just type in the search box what you are looking for. Templates - Using a template for your images is a great way of creating brand consistency. Keep in mind, though, that you can use templates only if you have a paid account. Quotes - Here is where you can find smart things said by famous people. Or simply things said by famous people. You can also add those to your image.

At the bottom part on the left side, you can see your account. More exactly, this is where you upload graphics that are specific to your business:

• Images (such as prints, ads, etc)
• Logos & Watermarks
• Saved images (templates, for example)

On the right side of the screen is where you get to see your image. There are a couple of important buttons here that will make your work easier. Check out the image below to learn about them.

At no.1 you get to see how many images you can create with Stencil for the month (unless you have an unlimited account) No. 2 is for creating a new image. Make sure that you have saved your previous one before clicking on this button. No. 3 is for adding text to the image. You can select the font, the size, and the colour of the text as well as other aesthetic features. No. 4 is for resizing your canvas. The really cool thing about Stencil is that the various sizes of the canvas are created according to the social posts sizes on different platforms. So all you have to do is select the social platform where you are going to use the image, as in the picture below.

No. 5 is also very useful because is shows the Facebook Ad grid. As a general rule, the text on your Facebook ad should not fill more than five boxes of this grid, otherwise it may not adhere to the Facebook text limit for ads.

No. 6 is for clearing your canvas. No. 7 shows the size of your canvas. When you click on it, you will see the same options as when you click on no. 4

Create a Facebook post image for one of the posts in your worksheet. In our case, we will use the first copy in the worksheet.

2. Select the Facebook size for your canvas.

3. Upload an image from your blog posts or search for a good one in the Stencil search box.

4. Click on the image to add it to your canvas.

5. Click on it again to see how can you add color filters or visual effects to your image.

6. Click on “quotes” to add a quote to your image. Simply click on the quote you like the most and the text will appear on the image.

7. Click on the text to open the settings box and decide how your quote will look.

8. When you are done, save your image and then download it. You can also share it directly from the app if you are connected with your Facebook account.

9. Get the shareable link of the visual as shown in the image below, then paste it to your worksheet in the “post image” column, next to its copy.

10. Repeat this procedure for the rest of the Facebook posts in your worksheet.

Create a Twitter post image for one of the tweets in your worksheet.

11. Select the “Twitter post” size for the canvas.

12. Upload your image or use one from the Stencil library. For this step, we will use an existing image within the blog post and upload it to the app.

13. Click on your image to adjust the visual effects.

14. You can also add icons to it, just like we did in the image below. Click on “icons”, type in your search word and then simply click on the icon you like to add it to the picture. Click on it again to open the settings box.

15. Once you are done with the image, save it, then get the shareable link to add to your worksheet.

16. Repeat this procedure for all the tweets in your worksheet.

Create social media post using a template.

17. Click on templates and check out the featured templates to select one that is suitable for your post. Make sure you choose a Facebook template for a Facebook post, a Twitter one for a tweet and so on.

18. Click on your selected template to add it to the canvas.

19. Click on the image to edit it

20. Click on the text to write something else or decide what the text should look like.

21. After you are done, save your template and get it a shareable link.

22. Add the link to your worksheet.

23. Repeat this procedure for all the templates you want to create. When you are done with Stencil, your worksheet should look like in the image below.

Now that you have all the images and the copy for your social posts, you need to verify how your post will look when other people share it on social channels.

1. Test your Facebook card by clicking on this link .

2. Paste your blog post’s URL in the box and click “debug” to see the results.

As you can see in the file below, the results for A Six- Figure Side Project are not ideal. The description is cut-off and the featured image is not exciting at all.

To repair this, go to your Wordpress blog post and click edit to go to your dashboard.

3. Scroll until your reach the bottom of the page where you can see the Yoast plugin.

4. Click on the social button to adjust how the blog post will look on social channels, then click the Facebook button.

5. As you can see in the image above, there are three features you need to use to make sure your post looks great.

• Its title on Facebook
• Its description
• Its Facebook image

6. Fill in those boxes and select the Stencil image in your worksheet as the Facebook image for the post.

7. Update your blog post to save the changes.

8. Go back to the Facebook Sharing Debugger tool and test again how your post will look like.

9. Go to this tool to see how the link preview card looks for Twitter.

10. Paste the URL of your post in the box and click on “preview card”.

If the title or the description are cut-off as in the image above or if you feel like there would be a better image for Twitter, then go back to your Wordpress dashboard and edit your post.

11. Scroll until you reach the Yoast plugin, click on the “social” button and then on the “Twitter button”.

12. Type in the boxes your Twitter title and description.

13. Select your Twitter image based on the images in your worksheet.

14. Update your blog post.

15. Go back to Twitter card validator and check your link preview card again.

1. For distributing posts, you are going to use Buffer and MeetEdgar, so make sure you have created your profile on these websites.

Use Buffer to distribute and schedule your posts.

After you have created your Buffer account, link it to your social media accounts, as shown in the picture below. Make sure you connect to the pages you are managing and not your personal profile.

2. Once you have connected to your accounts, you can start posting and scheduling social posts. Click on the dashboard, then go to your worksheet, copy your desired post and paste it in the app.

3. Go back to your worksheet, download the photo from the link and upload it to Buffer.

4. Paste the link to your blog post as well.

5. The social icons above your post show where it will be distributed. Click on an icon to prevent the post from being distributed on that channel. For example, we will not distribute the post on Twitter since the photo is the right size for Facebook only.

6. After you have prepared your post, you have a couple of options for distributing it.

You can add it to the queue in case you want to revise it later or show it to your manager for approval. You can share it now - pretty self-explanatory. You can share it next - which means that it will be shared right after your next post. You can schedule it - again, self-explanatory.

7. Use Buffer to schedule all of your post and choose the appropriate channel for them. We recommend scheduling one post per channel, every two days.

8. Use MeetEdgar to schedule your evergreen posts. This tool is very useful if you have recurring promotions or you simply want to recycle your social media updates more easily and in less time.

Once you have created your MeetEdgar account, it’s time to organize your account. The MeetEdgar setup guide is very easy-to-use.

9. Add your social media accounts the same way as you did with Buffer. You can add up to 25 social accounts.

10. The next step is to add your content. Click on “Add new content”, then select your channel from the left side of the screen.

11. Paste your content, the URL of your blog post, and upload the image you have created with Stencil.

12.  Next, select your desired category. MeetEdgar uses different categories to recognize posts and distribute them at the right times. In our case, the selected category will be “My blog posts”. Please notice that if you select the “use once” category, the post will not be recycled.

13. Scroll down until you get to “schedule settings”. Expand it to see your options. You can set up a specific time and date for your content and you can also choose when to stop distributing the post. If you don’t choose any of these options, MeetEdgar will distribute your post based on its algorithm.

14. Once you are ready with the settings, save your post to library.

15. View your library to see all your evergreen posts. When you click on the “history” of a post, you will get to see its performance on your social channels.

16. Once you see your blog there, select the category (in this case it will be “My blog posts”), how you want new items to be imported and on which channels the content will be distributed. We recommend choosing the “pending content queue” option as opposed to the “directly to your library” one because this way you get to approve or edit the content before it’s posted. Click “add feed” once you are done with the settings to link your blog to your MeetEdgar Account.

17. Next, you will set up the account schedule. Click on “create a schedule” in your setup guide.

18. If you click on “quick setup”, MeetEdgar will decide upon a schedule for your post, based on popular times for your specific category.

19. You can also click on “add time slot” to manually setup a recurring schedule for a category. Select your social media channel, day and time for the category and, of course, the category itself.

20. Once you are done with adding all the categories of evergreen posts, review your schedule to see if everything is correct.

21. Click on “unpause queue” to be redirected to the next screen and have MeetEdgar start posting content.

22. Review the items in your queue. You can also choose to skip certain posts or edit them before unpausing the queue.

23. After you’ve reviewed your posts, click “unpause the queue” to have MeetEdgar work instead of you as you get paid :)

That’s it! Now you have an easy and streamlined process for creating social posts from your blog posts. As they say, lazy people always find a smarter way to do things :)