It’s well into the third week of the month and everywhere I look, people are talking about their lack of content ideas for social media. They’re stressed that they haven’t uploaded a grid post in weeks and have lost all motivation and know-how.
This tugged at something in me, because while I could agree and fell into this category of people too, my own grid-shadow goes back far longer. Maybe it’s the prominence of Instagram Stories, the effort that goes into Reels meaning content takes longer and more planning, or just that I’ve had my head buried in client projects for too long to give it any attention.
But there’s something else going on here – the elephant in the room of content, perhaps. When we say, ‘we haven’t posted for ages’, we use Instagram (or whatever our personal primary platform is), as a cover for something bigger.
The last time I blogged regularly was over two years ago. My core web pages need attention too. Yet I’ll prioritise time every month for creating regular, rich, SEO content for my clients. Blogs are so valuable for our businesses, yet we focus on social media daily. The content we scroll past so quickly is the content we’ll spend hours over, but the stuff people stick around and read in detail is dismissed easily, often because it seems like a lot of work or we don’t know what to say.
The thing is, this isn’t about not knowing what to say, it’s about staying in the habit.
If we liken content to running, we’re essentially forcing ourselves to think we should get up and sprint 5k immediately. And maybe you want to – launches and planned out milestones definitely will feel like that – but our day to day, ‘we’re still here and we’re still doing great work’ content is a marathon, not a sprint. Nobody runs a marathon by being sat down five minutes earlier and just going for it. We need to train and build up to it. Then, once you’re going, you’re simply going. And you’ll keep going because the habit is fixed.
What stops us getting into the habit? If my conversations with business owners tell me anything, it’s just that – anything. We prioritise basically everything else. Client work is an obvious number one, but everything from our accounts to home life creeps up the priority list and takes over your content really easily, until you realise you haven’t said anything for ages and your audience doesn’t remember you or what you do.
So, this isn’t about what to post, but getting in the habit. If that’s something you need to kickstart or renew this month, have a look at some quick tricks to start posting content for your business again:
· Think back to school, university or a creative brainstorming exercise – how did you prefer to get your ideas on paper? I like a mindmap, personally. Lots of bubbles of ideas that connect to each other or don’t, it doesn’t matter. I’ll form it into something organised later, this is just about getting ideas down. You might prefer a bullet point list, Whatapp voice notes to yourself, Trello or a spreadsheet you add to over time.
· Take baby steps. Worried you’re not posting but telling your audience this? Then you’re already posting, just maybe not the most valuable stuff. What worked best last year? Can you recap your best posts?
· Done is better than perfect. i.e. You don’t need a perfectly polished Reel or carousel, what’s important is what you’re saying. Whip out Stories and talk to camera for a minute, just starting is what’s important.
· Think about the main reasons people choose to work with you. Can you condense this down into content that encourages this?
· This is a favourite of mine to cover in my mentoring sessions with freelancers – figure out what time of day you’re best at tasks like creating your own content. It might not be when you’ve been trying to do it, or even in office hours, but the important thing is that it gets done, right?
While the content marathon is all about forming great habits and regular practice, it can also really help to have the right equipment and support in place. If this is what you’re lacking and you’d like support in making your blog, newsletter and web content the best it can be, get in touch for an initial chat or any questions.
You can find more info about copywriting support options here: https://www.ellastcommunications.com/services