Creating content for your community and not an algorithm
It’s time to admit that I’ve been a bit of a hypocrite…
I’ve been telling my clients, to create content for their community NOT for an algorithm, and I’ve not been taking my own advice.
I’ve been so focussed on trying to create content for the different social media algorithms, that I’ve starting hating, yes HATING, creating for myself.
This has resulted in a distinct lack of creativity, and no content being published.
Which isn’t ideal when you work in two creative industries and your businesses are based around creating content. So growth for the business has been stunted to say the least.
I came to this realisation today whilst doing day 3 of Daisy’s 5-Day Creativity Challenge. I’ve treated each day a bit like a journaling prompt and it’s allowed me to really dig deep into what is and isn’t working.
And my creativity isn’t flowing, and content isn’t shining purely because I’ve not been enjoying it, and I’ve not been intentional with it as I’ve been trying to play too hard into an algorithms hands.
But, it’s never too late to start again and here are the questions I’m asking myself to make sure that I’m creating the best possible content for the communities I’m building (and myself), consistently.
Step 1: What do I get most excited about creating?
I’ll admit, this has been hard when I’ve been so focussed on creating content we’re told we need to post to please the social media platforms. But, when I sit down and really think about it, I go back to three main content formats. Blogging, the podcast, and photography.
Blogging is where I started, and I’ve always been a much better writer than speaker. I’ve always found that the words seem to flow better, I can better articulate what it is I’m wanting to say, and when I’m in the zone I can write for days. Sometimes I even get frustrated when I have to stop. And now the aim is to get back to that. I used to have the mental capacity, and drive to blog on a weekly, if not twice-weekly basis, at the moment I’m lucky if I blog more than once every few months. How will I do that? Set aside dedicated time to blog rather than wait to have time. It’ll also make social media content creation easier, because I’ll have more long-format pieces of content to turn into multiple social media posts. It’s time to make content creation feel easy.
I’ve released two seasons of a podcast, and I’ll admit I’ve not been great at sticking to it. Which seems bizarre because I’ve loved the conversations I’ve had on my podcast. I’ve also had some great conversations and feedback from people off the back of the podcast episodes, so it seems a shame not to pursue when I, and others, love it so much. On reflection the sticky bit is finding the time to edit them. I’ve got some thinking to do about how I pursue this, as I do really want to continue the podcasts, so do I go for a raw, unedited podcast because at least I’m getting the content out there, or do I wait a bit and hire a podcast editor when funds allow? I’d love to know your thoughts. The plus side with the podcast is that it is ready made video content, I just have to select the best clips and schedule them on social media. Once again it’s repurposing content at its finest.
Finally photography, using images to help tell a story has always been something I’ve loved to do. It’s time to start using the bank of images I’ve created more within my content, and keep creating regardless of whether I have photoshoots booked in, as I’ve noticed I’ve shied away from doing so as a lot of social media platforms aren’t as receptive to images as this photographer may want!
Step 2: What content will my community want to consume?
This is where I’ve got to go back to the data. When I say this, I’m asking myself:
Which content has driven the most views?
Which content has resulted in the most comments, or direct DMS?
Which content has resulted in the most sales?
Which content has reached the largest proportion of new accounts?
By asking myself these things, I know which content is both popular with my community, but also which is bringing in the most new community members (brand awareness) and which is meeting my business goals of growing the business through sales.
Step 3: Where is the cross-over?
By working out where there is cross-over between the content I love creating, and the content my community love to see, I can start creating more of that. It’s important here though I still create for myself and include the other content formats too, in order to keep me feeling inspired!
Step 4: How can I create a realistic content schedule that I will stick to?
Here I need to work out my time, and what time I realistically have to create high quality, engaging content. In an ideal world, I’ll be creating and writing every day but that’s not always feasible. So I need to find a happy medium where I’m creating enough content (aiming 3-4 days a week) that’s of the best quality, without burning myself out.
Step 5: How can I continue to create for myself as well as my community?
This is where creative projects will play a huge part. As will writing more personal posts that I’m excited about and feel inspired by. Because creating for myself will keep the creative energy flowing, and allow me to feel creatively fulfilled and help grow my own, and my clients businesses through content creation.
And that, in a nutshell, is what has been going through my head this week. I must admit, doing this deep dive on my creative blocks and how I can get my creativity flowing again has been enlightening. It’s also been super inspiring and I can’t wait to create consistently, with intention.
