Content creation, or more specifically, the wide-open sea that is social media, can be a huge time suck.
Kinda like email, but with a never-ending-sparkling-dopamine-rollercoaster added in.
Business, some real friends, “friends,” family, “followers,” events, debates. It’s like going snorkelling in the middle of the bottomless ocean – how deep do you want to dive?
And, at the same time, for most businesses, content creation is a helpful way to build relationships and trust. We can share our story, and interact with others who might be interested in going where we’re going.
So the balance.
Matt Church has a mantra “Do work you love, with people you like, the way you want.” It resonates. So, unless social media itself is the work you love, we have some thinking to do.
Of course there’s no “right” way here, but there are some decisions you can make that can help you get the most out of it, and still maintain time to do the work you love.
Here are five ways you can get a bit more intent:
- Know the story you’re creating. If you know the direction you’re going, or the story you’re creating, you have a huge head start. You can start to communicate this. Content is really a form of communication, which can help you make a change.
- Decided what it’s for (for you.) Content creation is one thing. Entertainment or consumption is another. Socialisation is another again. Are you trying to share with a specific group? Build an audience? Teach? And what will you share or teach? Again, getting clear on the story you’re creating overall, and letting that drive your behaviour can help.
- Listen to (and watch) your audience. If you’re in business, your customer is already giving you ideas on what they want to talk about – this might be happening online, or offline. What are they saying? What are they doing? Go ahead. Steal an idea from them. Now you can talk about it in the content you create.
- Consistency reduces decision making load. If you’re putting content out there, knowing something small is going out each day is a lot easier than dropping everything: “you know what, today is the day!” Going by how you feel is a one way ticket back to that rollercoaster.
- Don’t sweat the little numbers. It’s easier to spend more time wondering what people will think of the work (and the little numbers that follow), than the content itself. This is a trap. Simple is fine, and allows you to focus on your work.
Sure, there are a lot of other hacks, tricks or tips to navigate this stuff and save time, but overall most of the tactics probably won’t match the story that you are looking to create with your business or life.
Everything we do influences brand and tells a story. And if we go too far astray to cut corners, we just end up with tactics that cost us time rather than save it.
