XXXVI is the Roman numeral for 36. It’s also the model number of the most recent pair of Air Jordan sneakers.

36! Feel old yet? That is indeed the number of Air Jordans that have been released since the line’s 1985 inception. Air Jordans have become flagship fashion statements, but the real reason for their invention and continued dominance is simple.

They’re a remarkable tool for those that need them. The greatest basketball players on the planet need the best tools on the planet.

Knives for a chef. Guitar for a virtuoso guitarist. Binoculars for some admiral who really just wants to appear important and analytical.

The point is that a great tool makes an astonishing difference in completing a goal. In the world of small business, you need great tools for a newfound requirement in the 21st century - content. Content’s messy, ever-changing, labor-intensive, and often a timesuck. But the right strategy with the right tool, makes content a catalyst for boomin’ business. Let’s tackle five.

Canva

When Canva came on the scene, it did to graphic design what Robinhood did to investing - made it much more accessible and simplified, thanks to a less-intimidating learning curve than Adobe’s Illustrator or Photoshop. Now sure, it may not be the most exhaustive app on the planet - but its basic presentation & features do not mean basic results, as evidenced by the exponential popularity it has enjoyed since its 2013 launch. With an array of royalty-free photos, graphics & videos, templates galore and shocking affordability, Canva is the gold standard for your social content creation.

If you’re a business that needs content, but don’t necessarily have the design skills to hang with the best, use Canva to get the visual components you need to reach your target audience. It’s simple, easy, and made for content creators like yourself.

Native Tools

No no, not like Native American tools. Rather, tools native to their respective platform.

You won’t be overwhelmed with customization, and you may even feel frustrated on occasion. But you can get a good job done while not paying a dime. Instagram reels are probably the crown jewel and you can tack on a number of excellent complementary apps. If Facebook is more to you and your customers’ liking, they have by far the simplest photo editing available, which is a great help when you already feel too much time has gone toward other aspects of content. TikTok offers basic editing along with stickers, effects, & filters to your short video content as well.

Take a photo of a relevant subject to your business, pop it into one of the many social platforms, and explore the editing potential within the platform itself. Play around with it, you might find a boost in contracts and color makes a big difference in your imagery. Most native tools allow you to resize & save the photo as well, allowing you the potential of cropping the image to right dimensions for other platforms - like your Google Business Profile, for example.

Copy Trends

Satire goes a long way (Mark Twain was in part a writer, but in full a satirist). A terrific hack for your content is to draw inspiration from broader trends that have caught fire. Imagine the potential of a dynamite campaign framed around Squid Game last year, or Mambo #5 in 1999, or that tea party thing in 1773. 

Point is, the best way to engage people is with what they’re likely already engaged in. And what’s more convenient than getting a free launchpad of ideas? Now, there is skill needed beyond just creative content. Pay close attention that whatever spoofing you might do remains on-brand, and not just funny for the sake of funny.

Even if you loathe doing it, as most business owners do, get on the social media platforms (that you want your company to have a strong presence on) and learn what others are doing. See the trending content that is popular at the moment. And if it’s applicable, copy that content with your own message. Make something humorous, informative, or relevant and you’ve succeeded. No stress, you got this.

Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom

Even if you’ve never used it, you’ve heard of it. Photoshop started the digital design revolution, and yet are still on the vanguard of all things creation & enhancement: A.I., 3D, and just about anything you can think of, and a slew of stuff few can. Two things to think about though:

1. The more advanced features typically require their own suite

2. You’ll want a fairly new/powerful computer. Not your dad’s 25 year old desktop.

Their basic subscription is the Photographer Plan, which will run you just $19.99/month and grant access to Lightroom (as well as Photoshop), an outstanding digital playground for your photo-editing dreamscape. To get going with Photoshop and Lightroom, you must first register on Adobe’s Creative Cloud. There is much to learn, no doubt. But YouTube has an abundance of tutorials to accelerate the process. Here’s a video tutorial we found interesting, learn the basics of Photoshop in 13 minutes or less!

To reiterate, Photoshop allows you edit, cut, mesh, and combine any imagery to your heart’s desire. While Lightroom has various features, its primary purpose to batch edit images with basic alterations, like enhancing color, cropping, etc.

Trusty Old Companion - Radio

That’s right, the “social content” powerhouse that’s been around roughly as long as numbers 1-4 combined. No, it’s not “social media” per se - but it as social as media gets, thanks to an uncanny ability to engage locals, which is precisely who small businesses ought to be targeting. Beyond that, when you team up with smart, fun, & caring teams like Iliad Media Group, the very same wordsmiths handling your radio campaign are happy to tend to any content desires you have for your business. And it’s not some closed-off setting where the team disappears and you hope for the best. You can guide the campaign, from core idea to underlying tone. We just do the hard stuff, and get you heard on the radio and found online using storytelling that makes customers eager to buy.

What’s great about radio, is how well it partners with other mediums. Every good marketing strategy has energy, movement, and large scale excitement. Imagine your future customers hearing your ad on the radio and then seeing it on their go-to social platform. That’s a quick and easy 2-point touch on the marketing richter scale. Now they’ve heard AND seen your business. If the content was engaging, you may either convert right away or become an evangelist of the brand. Either way, you’re happy.

Extra Credit: Small Business Social Content is Only as Good as its Tool

Take some time in choosing your content plan.

Just like SEO itself, it’s a long game, so rapid decisions have high odds of backfiring. While technology has opened a number of options that’s almost daunting and cause for decision paralysis, it really just means the perfect one for you, your brand and your campaign idea is out there - you may need to just peek around a bit to find it. You can always of course save the time, energy, and money - call us and get your message heard on the top-rated radio stations in Boise.

It would make our week to chat with you or someone you know whose small business is ready to shine.