Barrie entrepreneur creates hard-copy planner for digital world (6 photos)

Staying organized while running an online business is challenging, especially when you’re trying to juggle a million things at once.

Barrie-based fashion and lifestyle social media influencer Georgia Allison has designed a new content planner to help with just that, something she is calling a “game changer” for Instagrammers and influencers. It provides them with a variety of different tools to create, organize and schedule all content for anyone who now creates and works from their social media platforms.

“There is nothing like this out there,” said Allison, who launched her new business, Carol & Claire, on April 13.

The content planner, she noted, is the first product released by C&C, and they sold nearly half of their stock on the first day. 

Allison, who was born and raised in Australia, told BarrieToday she actually “fell” into a career as an influencer, adding she started off managing Instagram business when the pandemic first hit. 

“We were locked down in Australia and couldn’t fly to Canada until November, so during that time I really just learned how to take good photos and I became an influencer. Then that became my paycheque,” she said.

It was then that she realized there was nothing on the market to help people like herself plan their digital days.

“I think there are apps where you can schedule, but there is no physical planner that lets you plan out everything. I know for me, we use apps to curate what our feed will look like, or what brands will be reaching out to us, but I am someone who is old school and likes to write things down… whether it’s a weekly planner or a yearly planner,” she said.

Allison said she quickly realized from talking to others that many were wanting the same thing.

“It’s such a physical thing. You’re up and running, going from location to location to shoot… so the physicality of this was needed so you (can) take it with you wherever you wanted”

The content planner includes 50 pages, one page for each post.

“It allows you to schedule up to 50 days, and write down which brand or campaign post you have to do. It has a scheduling way of doing it, which is what we do, especially when you have a bunch of brands that are lined up and they all have scheduled dates they want you to release a photo or a reel, or a TikTok,” she explained.

“If it isn’t a campaign then you can write which event you’re posting for…  Valentine's Day or Earth Day or Christmas. Then it gives an opportunity to dress up the mannequin, write a to-do list of what is needed to plan your shoot. … You have to have all the right gear, lighting, etc. There’s just so much that goes into it that is behind the scenes.”

Despite what some may believe, Allison said being a social media influencer is a legitimate full-time job, and she hopes creating this product will help validate that.

“This is my paycheque, and we want people to feel like they are validated in this job if they are a creator or influencer.”