Several years ago, I opened LinkedIn to find five screen grabs and a DM that said, "why did you post this" from the COO of a company I was working with. (Well, gm to you too!) We were looking at four *nearly identical* posts about a holiday, and then mine, which in that lineup, looked purely rebellious.
The COO wanted to know why I didn't post the same thing as the other competitors. This company was still fighting for name recognition as a new product in a tiny and conservative market. I explained that several hours on a post just to look like everyone else was not a fruitful use of our time when we had other acquisition channels that could get qualified leads on the phone.
You have to grease the ramp that brings you business. And for this particular company, it wasn't social media.
Step away from the Canva holiday template.
Don't feel bad if you can identify with the COO. Posting a canned image and caption for every movement and holiday has become normalized by corporations with whole marketing departments and agencies that make money by selling you full content calendars.
You may be worried that you'll be seen as uncaring if you don't post about the same holidays and events as everyone else. Of course, if something feels important to you, don't hesitate to share that authentically! However, unless there is a purpose and a mission that underwrites all your company's activities, most holiday or social movement canned posts will not land.
Your time is expensive, and you don't want to waste it. So, what should you do instead? Break up with that boring content!
Make the time you spend on content count. Otherwise, it's just busy work and a distraction from activities that can bring you business today.
The key to resisting the urge to post stuff just to post is to have plenty of content ready to go when you sit down to write. To do this, you need a plan, consistent action (i.e., write something every day), and the courage to put yourself out there.
Your greatest source of inspo is your audience!
Look at the content you've created in the past year and see what was popular. Was it a specific format, such as video? Was it a short post or a particular topic? What do your customers and audience ask you about all the time?
To create a relevant content plan, focus on 2-3 themes that mean something to your audience. These could be obstacles, misconceptions, mission, purpose, aspirations, etc. Pull your popular content and FAQs to brainstorm topics you can discuss within each theme. Write them down and then create a set of questions that you'll use to walk through the topic. For instance:
What do you think your industry gets wrong?
Where do you think your customers are confused?
Focusing on 2-3 themes and then digging deeper into each topic to determine what makes you different will help you create a stellar bank of content.
Time is your most precious resource. Don't waste it on meaningless activities. Watch your business grow as a result.
You don't have to go at it alone. And you don't have to be dependent on an agency. I can show you how to create things you are proud of that get you where you are going faster. Two ways I can help:
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