It’s easy enough to put the odd blog out, or show up ‘adhoc’ but how do you get consistent and create with ease and frequency?
We’ve all heard it before — you have to show up ‘consistently’ in order to get any traction or be seen as a force to be reckoned with. You have to put out content and show up and be seen. But how do you do that in a way that works for you?
Firstly, let’s make sure that you understand what the definitions are — because even that is a minefield. In this instance, what we mean by ‘content’ is anything and everything you use to shine a light on your business — all your marketing materials, all the posts, the comments you are putting out in the social ether. Anything that provides people with a little more information about what you think, feel, and care about. A Pew survey in 2014 described content creation as the creation of “the material people contribute to the online world.”We think that’s pretty apt.
The great thing about that it takes all the forms that Speakers, Authors & Coaches love to use. Typical forms of content creation include maintaining and updating web sites, blogging, photography, videography, online commentary, the maintenance of social media accounts, and editing and distribution of your digital media.
So, let’s define content as: anything you publish and contribute online (and offline) that allows you to be noticed and helps people ‘get’ you / understand what you & your company are up to. That means that you already have some clues about how to show up ‘consistently’ — which is what ultimately creates the trust and connection they feel around you.
That gives you clues to what to pay attention to in your content:
- The Brand: Every piece of content builds a picture of you, so you need to build in some consistency around the look and feel — can we recognise it as ‘you’ or ‘yours’?
- The Messaging: The underlying ideas you share need to be seen in your posts, your pictures, your lives etc. — all contribute to how you are being received
- –The ‘Voice’: consistently talking about the core ideas in your style so the messages are ‘felt’ as distinctly yours — it becomes clear what you stand for and also WHO
So now, let’s define consistency.
Your aim is to be showing up consistently — in message, in brand and in timing — so people get used to how and when they see you and how it works to be around you. Consistency is about creating a schedule of ‘presence’ that allows you to show up where and when that works for you, in the places that you understand and love to use, that your avatar also hang out in.
Consistency comes in 3 areas:
1. The Themes — what you say, talk about, create conversations around, your concepts, teaches, rants
2. The Medium / Brand / Style — how it looks and the format of your interaction
3. The Timing — when, how often, what — e.g. weekly blog, daily posting, monthly podcasts etc.
People get used to routine, people like it (much as we rail against it, it gives us a sense of security around what can be relied on). Getting people used to how you show up but also WHEN you show up is a key to building deeper connections.
Ultimately you want them to want to see you, the ultimate being that they show up for the regularly scheduled things you do as a ‘norm’. These three areas will help that happen.
So for now, do an honest review of how consistently — across these three areas. Once you have an idea of what the picture is today, you can start to tackle the content piece and start to create with more ease.
For some great training support on building your content and your consistency scheduled, come and join us inside The Connection Hub.