NEW! Meet Iris, Your AI Social Media Assistant
Meet Iris, your AI Social Media Manager, who will do 75% of your social media strategy to help you grow your accounts and stay consistent.
Posted 5 months ago
Written by
Mackenzie TaylorPosted 5 months ago
Let’s face it: Trying to come up with new social media ideas and content can be time-consuming and frustrating.
As a small business owner, freelance social media manager, or agency, you have a million and one things to do daily, and constantly coming up with fresh ideas and content to engage your audience is hard work!
For the past few months, we’ve been working hard to create the ultimate social media marketing tool for you and your business.
Flick’s AI Assistant has been upgraded, and we can’t wait to introduce you to your new AI Social Media Manager bestie, Iris.
Iris will be able to take your social media strategy to the next level by:
- Planning and creating 75% of your social media marketing content
- Create weekly or monthly social media plans based on your biz
- Design and create graphics in your brand’s style
- Write captions in your exact brand voice
- Turn any media you have into engaging posts
- Optimize and schedule your content
And that’s just the start.
In today’s guide, we’re teaching you everything you need to know about Iris—from setup to tips on getting the best content for your social media in seconds.
Jump to a section ✨
What is Iris?
As we mentioned above, Iris is your brand new AI social media manager to help you automate up to 75% of your workflow. From creating a social media strategy to developing a full content calendar tailored to your exact needs, Iris helps free up more of your time so you can focus on other aspects of your brand—while still maintaining a strong online presence.
Who is Iris for?
Anyone! It’s the perfect assistant for anyone—from Content Creators, Marketers, and Business Owners. Whether you need help here and there, or if you need help from start to finish, Iris will lend you a helping hand.
How does Iris benefit you?
Iris can benefit you and your content in a variety of ways! From saving you so much time to helping you remain consistent, here are some of the best ways Iris will lend you a helping hand:
Time-saving
Iris automates up to 75% of your content creation, significantly reducing the time you spend on content planning and production. This lets you focus more on strategy and less on day-to-day tasks.
Consistency
Iris makes it easy to increase your reach and engagement across your socials with a consistent social media workflow.
High-quality content
You’ll never run out of ideas or inspiration for new posts with Iris. Your new AI Social Media Manager will deliver top-quality, engaging posts specific to your brand and business.
Cost efficient
With Iris, you’ll spend less of your own time creating social media and more time focusing on your business.
- For new or small businesses, Iris is the perfect middle ground between DIY and hiring expensive outside help.
- For marketers, Iris gives you the ability to take on more clients and still effectively grow their accounts.
How to create a content calendar using Iris
There are a couple of ways you can use Iris when it comes to creating a content calendar for the weeks or months ahead:
From scratch: Iris will help you create your content calendar from start to finish. All you have to do is give guidance on what you need Iris to create and approve the content at the end.
From existing media: Iris will create a content calendar based on your uploaded media. The AI Social Media Manager will scan your content and come up with a strategy and caption ideas, and all you need to do is approve the content at the end.
Scroll to learn more about how to use both features inside Iris to create the perfect content calendar for your social media accounts!
Add Brand Info
AI captions can be robotic, generic, and let’s face it—boring AF! You need to set up your Brand Hub inside Flick to unlock creative, engaging content perfectly tailored to you and your brand.
💡Flick’s tip: Doing this will be the thing that makes your AI captions perfect. If you don’t spend the time to make sure your Brand Hub is set up correctly, your captions and content ideas might not work for you! If you need help setting up your Brand Hub, let us know and we’ll be happy to walk you through it.
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- Head to your Content Lab inside Flick and click “Manage Brand Info” in the top right-hand corner.
- Here is where you’ll find your Brand Hub! Brand Hub will help Iris tailor suggestions to your completely unique business and strategy.
- Be sure to fill out all the information inside Brand Hub so Iris’ suggestions are pitch-perfect to your business. This will also be the time to tell Iris what words to avoid, what your exact brand voice is, what your audience is like, and more! The more detailed, the better!
- Add your products and services (if you sell those!) inside your Brand Hub, as well. Iris will use this information to come up with content ideas and write captions to help you promote this part of your biz!
Need step-by-step help in video form? Check out our tutorial video below!
How to create a content calendar from scratch
Need a helping hand with knowing what kind of content to create for your social media? Iris can help from start to finish. Here’s your step-by-step on how to get started.
Step 1: Create Content Calendar
Head to “Iris (Assistant)” on the left-hand side of the screen and click “Create Content Calendar”
Step 2: Confirm Requirements
Give Iris all the key details and requirements you have when creating your content calendar.
- When should the plan start? Select the date you’d like Iris to begin your calendar.
- How long should the plan be? Select the period you’d like the calendar to be for—from one week up to one month.
- How frequently would you like to post? Decide how often you want to post. Iris will create a plan based on every day, every weekday, 3-4 times a week, or 2 times a week.
- What’s your strategy? Select a strategy that aligns with your aims on socials. Pick a preference between informational posts, promotional posts, or a mixture of both!
Step 3: Media Preferences
If you don’t have any media to include, click “Skip Media” and Iris will start creating ideas based on the information you’ve provided.
Step 4: Confirm Ideas & Create Posts
Now for the fun part! Iris will present various ideas for posts for you to approve or give feedback on. Scroll through the ideas, edit any ideas you feel need to be tweaked, approve the focus of the post, and verify what type of media format you’d like.
- Post Idea: The post idea explains the direction and feel of the overall post (“Highlight five actionable tips for creating social media”).
- Post Format: This explains what type of media will be used alongside the caption. You can choose from different options like B-Roll Video, Carousel Graphic, Photo Carousel, Single Page Graphic, Static Image, Talking to Camera, Text Overlay Video, and Voice Over Video.
- Focus: The focus of the post whether it is informational or promotional.
- Feedback: If the idea isn’t completely on-brand for you, give Iris feedback and explain what needs to be changed about the post.
Once the post ideas are exactly how you’d like them, click “Create Posts” to have the AI Social Media Manager start crafting the content.
Step 5: Review & Edit Your Posts
As there was no media uploaded, Iris will give you a breakdown of exactly what kind of content needs to be made and how to do it effectively.
Each post will have a detailed “How to Create” section on the exact specifications of what to make. From here, click “Add to Scheduler” to start scheduling your content.
💡Flick’s tip: Don’t want to make the content yourself and instead have Iris do it for you? No problem! Iris can create on-brand graphics and images, and provide you with stock imagery for your content.
Step 6: Upload Media and Generate Caption
Each post will be placed on your calendar and now all you have to do is click each post, upload your media (if you have it!), and ask Iris to generate a caption for you.
Review and adjust: Check the caption and media of each post. Adjust the captions if you see they aren’t quite right. Need Iris to create images or graphics for you? Here’s how to do just that:
- For stock images: Click “Get Photos” and select an image from the image library
- For AI-generated images: Click “Generate Image” and select which type of image you’d like the AI to make for you.
- For AI-generated graphics: Click “Generate Graphic” to open the graphic wizard. From here, select which kind of graphic you’d like AI to generate for you, edit as needed, and add to your calendar.
All you have to do now is schedule your content at the best time to post and you’re done! A full content calendar created completely from scratch in less than 15 minutes.
How to create a content calendar with existing media
If you have a massive backlog of content and no idea what to do with it, Iris can create a detailed content calendar that is perfectly made for you.
Step 1: Create Content Calendar
Head to “Iris (Assistant) on the left-hand side of the screen and click “Create Content Calendar”
Step 2: Confirm Requirements
Give Iris all the key details and requirements you have when creating your content calendar.
- When should the plan start? Select the date you’d like Iris to begin your calendar.
- How long should the plan be? Select the period you’d like the calendar to be for—from one week up to one month.
- How frequently would you like to post? Decide how often you want to post. Iris will create a plan based on every day, every weekday, 3-4 times a week, or 2 times a week.
- What’s your strategy? Select a strategy that aligns with your aims on socials. Pick a preference between informational posts, promotional posts, or a mixture of both!
Step 3: Media Preferences
Upload your content! All those images and videos you’ve saved on your hard drive and phone can now be uploaded to your media library. This will help Iris create a full content calendar and direction for your posts.
Note: Don’t select more media than you have posts. This can cause an error. If you want to create a carousel post with images, you can do this at a later step.
Step 4: Provide Media Context
Iris will begin to analyze each piece of media you’ve uploaded. It will provide alt-text to the side of the image to help Iris create more tailored post ideas.
- Add Relevant Information: Edit the alt-text generated to make sure Iris is using the best possible information when creating your content calendar. You can add details like someone’s name in the photo, product details, and more.
- Tag Products and Services: If the photo includes a product or service you have, tag it! Iris will use the information provided in the Brand Hub about that product to better write a caption for your post.
Step 5: Confirm Ideas & Create Posts
Now for the fun part! Iris will present various ideas for posts for you to approve or give feedback on. Scroll through the ideas, edit any ideas you feel need to be tweaked, approve the focus of the post, and verify what type of media format you’d like.
- Post Idea: The post idea explains the direction and feel of the overall post (“Highlight five actionable tips for creating social media”).
- Post Format: This explains what type of media will be used alongside the caption. You can choose from different options like B-Roll Video, Carousel Graphic, Photo Carousel, Single Page Graphic, Static Image, Talking to Camera, Text Overlay Video, and Voice Over Video.
- Focus: The focus of the post whether it is informational or promotional.
- Feedback: If the idea isn’t completely on-brand for you, give Iris feedback and explain what needs to be changed about the post.
Once the post ideas are exactly how you’d like them, click “Create Posts” to have Iris start crafting the content.
Step 6: Review & Edit Your Posts
On this page, the AI Social Media Manager breaks down your content for each post. Using the media you provided, you’ll see a base caption for each post along with the media of your choice.
From here, click “Add to Scheduler.”
Step 6: Approval and Scheduling
Each post is placed on your calendar, complete with media and a caption. Here’s what to do next:
Review and Adjust: Check each post’s caption and media. If you need to add or change media:
- For stock images: Click “Get Photos” and select an image from the image library
- For AI-generated images: Click “Generate Image” and select which type of image you’d like the AI to make for you.
- For AI-generated graphics: Click “Generate Graphic” to open the graphic wizard. From here, select which kind of graphic you’d like AI to generate for you, edit as needed, and add to your calendar.
Schedule Post: Once content and timings are finalized, schedule each post at your best time to post.
And that’s it. Simple. Easy. A fully planned content calendar, created and scheduled in less than 15 minutes!
How to find social media trends
Being able to jump on a social media trend while it’s still popular can make your content reach a whole new untapped audience. But digging around and finding the trending content every week can be incredibly time-consuming! Iris has made it easy for you to find and create trending content on the fly.
There are two ways you can find viral trends on Iris:
- You will get sent a notification of a current ongoing viral trend. If the trend seems like a good fit for you, click the notification and you will be brought to the Viral Trend page inside Flick.
- Log into your Flick account and click “Scheduling” on the side of the screen. At the top of the “Content Calendar” page, select “Viral Trends.”
On the Viral Trends page, you will be shown a list of current trends that you can choose from. Once you select the trend you like, Iris will explain exactly how your brand can be part of the trend by giving a detailed step-by-step on how to create the trend specifically for your brand/business.
How to create a social media strategy
When it comes to social media, you need a social strategy if you want to be clear with your audience and also have the opportunity to grow your accounts. If you’re unclear about what to post, your audience will be unclear too!
With Iris, you’ll be able to create a streamlined social media strategy in seconds. To let Iris know what you want your social media strategy to look like (and to help her better tailor your content completely to you and your brand), here is what you need to do:
- Login to Flick and click “Scheduling” on the left-hand side of the screen.
- On your Content Calendar, click “My Strategy.”
- Under “My Strategy,” you will be able to tell Iris how frequently you want to post, what your content aims are, what percentage of each type of content you want to post, your content themes, and more.
- Once you have updated the strategy to be exactly what you want, click “save changes.”
With your strategy updated, Iris will start creating content to your exact specifications. Want more memes? She’ll make more memes. Want more educational posts? She will provide you with those posts.
Under My Strategy, you can update:
- Posting Frequency: How often you want to post to reach your goals.
- Content Aims: The percentage of posts that are geared towards different goals. Ex: Informational, business, or promotional posts.
- Media Distribution: The percentage of posts that will use each different media type, like graphics, images, and videos.
- Content Theme Usage: How much each of your content themes should be used for your informational posts.
You’ll also see a tab for “Post Templates.” Here, you’ll see a list of different templates Iris uses to create your social media posts. Edit and update these templates to ensure Iris correctly creates content for you. If you don’t see a template that you want her to use, you can create your own!
FAQ
Why should you use an AI Social Media Manager tool?
Using an AI tool for your social media has lots of benefits—especially Iris!
- Efficiency: AI tools can help you automate repetitive tasks that are time-consuming to do like content scheduling, content ideation, monitoring engagement, creating graphics, and analyzing performance.
- Personalization: AI can analyze vast amounts of data to understand your audience’s preferences and behavior, allowing you to tailor your content and messaging to better resonate with them.
- Optimization: These tools can optimize your social media strategy by identifying the best times to post, the most engaging content formats, the most effective hashtags to use, and the captions your audience will resonate most with.
- Data-driven Insights: AI tools can provide valuable insights by analyzing data trends, and helping you make informed decisions about your social media strategy.
- Cost-effectiveness: While there may be an initial investment, AI Social Media Marketing tools can ultimately save you money by streamlining processes and improving the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Why don’t my captions sound like me?
Uh oh! If your captions don’t sound like you and your brand, you might need to update your Brand Hub. It can take a few tries for Iris to get your caption generated perfectly, so be sure that your Brand Info is completely up-to-date and has all the information required for your captions to sound like you!
Will alt-text be added to my caption?
Nope! The alt-text is there to provide Iris with further context on what each of your pieces of media is about to provide you with better captions and post ideas.
Why do all posts appear at 1pm in my calendar?
We add all of your posts at 1pm so you don’t miss them on your calendar! You need to go through and schedule your content at your preferred time—we recommend using the Best Time to Post feature to make sure you’re posting when your audience is most active.
Will Iris schedule posts without asking?
Nope! Iris will never post anything on your social media accounts without first asking for your approval. The AI Social Media Manager will create draft posts and content suggestions, but you will always be in control of what is scheduled for posting.
Start a free trial of Flick today and experience everything Iris can do for you!
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