AS EASY AS 1, 2, 3! Using your captions and Canva templates

Social Marketer provides member Realtors with curated social post captions and Canva templates to help grow their real estate businesses online.

The captions, written by our expert social media strategists, are crafted to grab attention, get engagement, and build brand buzz. And, most importantly, they’re easy-to-customize so that members can quickly make them their own. Our professionally-designed Canva templates are fully-editable too.

And we’ve made using those captions and templates as easy as 1, 2, 3.
Below are some tips.

Note: These instructions may feel long, but just read through once. You’ll be armed with all the information you need to both use your curated content and implement some important social posting best practices to get the very best results from your time spent on social media marketing.

Using your captions:

  1. Grab them!
  2. Customize them!
  3. Publish them!

Grab them → 

Your curated captions from Social Marketer are presented in a simple Google Spreadsheet that’s shared with you via a link. When you click that link, you’ll be invited to make a copy of the spreadsheet:

Click “Make a copy” and give your file a new name. Doing this creates your very own fully-editable version of the spreadsheet, and no one else can view or edit it unless you give permission.

Note: You may have to create a Google Account if you don’t have one. Here’s how. 

The original spreadsheet is simple, with just three columns (post number, post type and post caption). We recommend adding as many columns and rows to your version as you need to create a Social Post Editorial Calendar that’ll really work for you. Consider adding fields for the following:

  • Planned publication date
  • Designated social network
  • Call-to-action (CTA)
  • Link
  • Hashtags
  • Tags & @mentions
  • Revision notes
  • Media (photo, video or graphic)

Tip: Include a link in your spreadsheet to the Canva graphic you plan to match up with a given caption.

Some members even turn their spreadsheet into an actual calendar, where each cell represents a day and that day’s planned post and particulars are noted.

If you’re having your Social Marketer social post captions and templates delivered weekly or monthly, you might consider adding each new batch of captions to a single, central spreadsheet. That way you’ll have all your content in one easy-to-manage place. Whatever works best for you!

Once your spreadsheet is set-up, you can start working with the captions.

Customize them → 

Social Marketer provides best practices captions appropriate for all social networks, and they’re ready to be customized to suit your brand, business and personality perfectly.

Many could be used “as is”, though we recommend some easy modifications to ensure they’ll really engage your audience. Modifications include:

  • Edit the text: Revise the caption so that it’s appropriate to your brand, product/service, theme/focus and voice/tone.
  • Consider length: Each social network has a different recommended post length and maximum character count. (Twitter is the shortest.) Tighten things up as necessary.
  • Add a CTA: Your post’s call-to-action is its most important part. Make sure readers know exactly what to do next. Some possible CTAs include adding a link to your website or online store, instructions for what to do next (ie: get in touch, give me a call), or a suggestion about how to engage (ie: comment below!)
  • And #hashtags: Hashtags help your posts get found by people interested in related themes, so make sure to add them. Note: Doing hashtags well is an art and a skill and different networks have different hashtags best practices, so try to learn everything you can about following best practices.
  • And @mentions: Does your post mention another Page, account or brand/product etc.? Wherever possible and appropriate, add a tag or @mention. That will alert the account holder you’ve promoted them and (maybe) create an opportunity for them to do the same for you!
  • And great media: Every post should include an engaging graphic, photo or video. Make sure it’s designed, sized and formatted properly for each social network.

You can “batch edit” your captions right in your social post spreadsheet or edit them as you go, right in the social networks.

Ready to post?
Publish them → 

Once you’ve customized your captions you can schedule or publish them. Simply copy/paste the text from the spreadsheet to the social network and hit Post/Publish (or schedule), or add them (one-by-one or in bulk) to a Social Media Management Tool / Dashboard. Voila!

Supplementing your collection: 

Your Social Marketer collection of captions includes a best practices combination of post types (ie: business info, value and behind-the-scenes themes with motivation, inspiration, engagement etc.)

However, there are some posts that should be added by you each week or month to supplement your Social Marketer posts to ensure that you’re providing maximum value to your followers:

  • Your Industry → Find and share informative articles, blog posts or social posts from trusted (non-competitive) members of your industry. Always credit the source and, if possible, include an @mention/tag. Think: A handy resource about your product/service written by a thought-leader in your industry, or a shout-out to a non-competitive mover/shaker or business from your industry. Aim for 2 – several of these each month.
  • Your Community → If appropriate to your business (ie: you are a Realtor, have a physical location, are a brick-and-mortar business, or are in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry), find and share information about your local community and fellow, non-competitive local businesses. As above, credit the source and, if possible, include an @mention/tag. Think: A round-up of some of your favorite local businesses (with tags/@mentions), information about an upcoming event, or tips about your favorite things to do, places to eat or spots to see around town.]
  • eNewsletter Sign-Up → Do you collect email addresses and send out a regular eNewsletter to prospective and current clients/customers? (Hint: You should!) If yes, encourage people to sign-up by social posting about the benefits of subscription and linking to your website’s sign-up page from social posts.
  • Podcast / YouTube → Do you create and publish podcasts and/or videos (ie: on your website or a YouTube channel)? Make sure to social post about those too. They’re a great value-add for social fans, and provide you with something other than static images (photos and graphics) to share on social.
  • Blog → Does your website have a regularly updated, optimized blog? (It should. If it doesn’t, make that a goal. Optimized blog posts can help improve your site’s search rankings and give people a reason to keep coming back! Blog posts also make excellent social post content.) Consider teasing just the blog post’s creative title, or include an excerpt, or tell people about some of the valuable take-aways they’ll get, and always include a “Read More” or “Learn More” link.
  • Social → Don’t forget to cross-promote your own social channels. On Facebook, for example, encourage people to follow you on Twitter and Instagram too! Make sure that you include a link and show there’ll be value in following on those other accounts.
  • #HumbleBrags → Help people to know, like and trust you by sharing positive reviews/testimonials and mentions of certifications, awards received, and involvement in professional organizations. Wherever possible, tag or @mention the business or organization related to the certification, award or association.

Exploring different kind of posts:

Your Social Marketer captions and photos make great Newsfeed, Timeline and Gallery posts/updates. But remember that each network offers a variety of different kinds of posts too (like Stories, Questions, etc.).

Your curated captions can be used to inspire and create any of those kinds of posts, and you’re encouraged to include them in your posting plans. Mix things up!

Using your Canva templates:

Social Marketer members get access to an always-growing collection of fully-customizable Canva templates, designed to complement your Social Marketer captions perfectly.

Even if you’ve got zero design know-how, you can modify the templates in minutes to match your brand.

Here’s how:

  1. Create a free Canva account
  2. Find and click the link to your Canva templates
  3. Click “Use template”. This will open a Canva file that’s now yours and fully-editable
  4. Scroll down to check out all of the graphics in that file

Options:

You may choose to keep everything in one place like this, editing en masse, or go back to your Canva Homepage, create a new graphic (“Create a design”) and then copy/paste some or all of the template’s elements into your new graphic. However you work, remember that every element of every template can be changed to suit your personality perfectly.

And it’s easy!

Check out these Canva tutorials for beginners:

When you’re finished designing in Canva, whether from your Social Marketer template or a graphic you’ve created from scratch, save your creation to your computer or device and then upload it to social media as you’re creating your post.

A note on sizing/dimensions:

Social Marketer provides templates sized for Instagram (square; 1080 x 1080 px). If you’re preparing posts for other networks, you should size them accordingly. Here’s how:

  1. Open your Social Marketer template in one window/tab
  2. Go back to the Canva Homepage and click Create a design and select the design dimensions (ie: Facebook post). That’ll open a blank canvas in a second window/tab
  3. Now find your Social Marketer template and copy the elements you want into that blank Canvas, shifting things slightly so they fit into the new dimensions. So simple!
How to use your Social Marketer captions

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