5 CONTENT TIPS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR IMPACT
The world of content creation changes fast and furiously and you may feel like it’s challenging to keep up with the many shifts.
You desperately want to optimize your content, develop a content strategy that works, and follow ALL. THOSE. CONTENT. TIPS. being pummeled at you regularly, but it’s easy to feel behind in your content creation.
This blog is a chance to relax a little and just soak up some insights and reflections I’ve gathered throughout the past several years that you can apply starting today to improve your content.
These tips to improve your content will add a little rocket fuel to your blogs, social media, podcast episodes, emails, and whatever else you’re creating.
These are general lessons from personal experience and things I take in. If you want to go deeper on any of these and get into specific and personalized support and resources, let’s talk!
#1) Improve your content by being consistent
Consistency, in my book, is even more important than frequency.
The two are often (and easily) confused. But to break it down for you:
Frequency: number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time (generating MORE content).
Consistency: an act that does not vary greatly in quality over time (generating more QUALITY content).
Consistency doesn’t always look like showing up the same every day. It’s showing up with a level of quality when you do. Any level of consistency is better than nothing at all. Choose a consistency that works for you and prioritize being consistent over increasing your frequency.
I know for me, I have a hard time being consistent with something I dread. So, I’ve given myself permission to let some of those things go and instead focus being consistent with what I enjoy.
I’ll give you a few examples:
- I LOVE podcasting
- I LOVE writing emails
- I LOVE having FUN on Instagram
I don’t love creating videos, reels, doing Lives, and a few other dreaded “marketing” methods. If I commit to doing all those things I dread, I’m far less likely to be consistent.
A word on frequency: As I write this, the Instagram algorithm in particular is valuing frequency and posters that post multiple times a day. I’ve seen influencers who’re doing QUITE well for themselves who have committed to posting several times a day. Keep in mind, they also have lots to say several times a day and they have teams behind them.
There are benefits to this method, and if you decided to post multiple times a day – I say go for it! More power to you! And, remember you don’t NEED to post five times a day, five days a week in order to improve your content, unless that’s what you choose!
Whatever you decide, make sure to give it enough time, attention, and experimentation to see if it’s working. Strive to be consistent so you see what’s working and what’s not.
Being consistent builds trust with your community builds trust in yourself, and helps keep you top-of-mind with those following you.
Small, regular, consistent steps are better than a giant step once and can improve your content and its impact.
#2) Improve your content by being more YOU
“Most people are trying to hide who they are when they really should be amplifying it” — TINA BRINKLEY POTTS
When it comes to your content, let your personality shine through!
This is what my podcast, Content with Character, is all about – showing up authentically in our marketing and content.
I’m a HUGE fan of showing more of yourself, your heart and soul, and the human behind your business.
This does not translate into me asking you to share #vulnerable pictures of you with tears streaming down your face, and you don’t have to share your deepest darkest secrets.
I’ve heard people say, “Oh, I don’t want to share anything personal…”
You get to choose what personal means to you. You get to decide what that looks like for you and how much you want to share.
For me, I’m fully committed to showing up as myself and only adding to that MORE in the New Year. It’s just not really fun for me to try to pretend to be someone I’m not. And it’s not entirely sustainable.
As humans, we’re fed a lot of fake stuff on social, bot-generated content, and AI-written blogs and posts. As a result, our brains are on the search for REALNESS and human-to-human connection.
As a society, we’re gravitating towards the REAL DEAL.
How do you do it?
Be conversational in your content. If you’re a bit quirky, be quirky! If you’re more buttoned up, get right down to business. Let out your personality! Whoever YOU are, make sure you’re using YOU as the example of who to sound like. Don’t be someone online that you’re not in real life. BE YOU.
A word on templates: I go both ways on this. I’m not entirely a fan, but if it helps you get started and you’re able to personalize it and make it yours, go for it. I’m all about sparks of creativity and impetus, and creating more ease around your content… but please infuse it with YOU.
We want YOU!
And for those of you who are outsourcing your content creation, make sure you have a quality writer. I believe quality content writers – just like interior designers, graphic designers, brand designers, and web designers can put themselves into your character. Make sure you find someone who can capture your voice as they help improve your content.
#3) Improve your content by crediting the work and genius of others
I’ve seen TONS of copycatting when it comes to content creation and it’s disconcerting. I’m not entirely sure if it’s inadvertently or intentional but I’ve watched it happen to my friends, I’ve experienced it myself, and I’ve seen people build entire businesses all based around pawning off someone else’s work as their own.
My friend, Karen Kenney recently has a podcast episode on why “Giving Credit Matters” which I highly encourage you to check out! In her episode, she says, “It costs you nothing to give credit where credit is due, but it could cost you everything if you don’t.”
As a creator of content, it feels downright icky when you see something that’s almost certainly copied from something you just wrote/recorded/shared that doesn’t give any credit back to YOU as the originator of it.
It will improve your content and your credibility if you cite where you learned a lesson and got the idea from. Share who inspired you. You lose nothing when you do, but you honestly are REALLY turning someone off to your entire vibe and modus operandi when you don’t and they spot it.
If you’re reading a book and want to share a takeaway or quote, share the name of the book and the author. If you heard something in a podcast, say where you heard it. If your business bestie comes up with a killer quote – share who said it! And if you can’t remember, but you KNOW it wasn’t from your brain… say you don’t know where you heard it or saw it first!
Take a pause and ask yourself where the idea came from and make sure to give credit where it’s due.
You might make mistakes, but please put in the effort to check and see where the thing came from before claiming it’s your own.
#4) Improve your content by creating cohesion
Want to really improve your content? Three words: COHESION, COHESION, COHESION.
What is cohesion? It’s that feeling, that sense of when everything just comes together and matches in vibe and message – from your social media to your website to how you show up on a Zoom call.
Cohesion in your messaging is less confusing to people. It makes it easier to understand who you are and what you do, and it brings it all together and makes all these little content pieces click into place.
You can almost never repeat your message too many times, especially if you do it in different and creative ways.
Sometimes people aren’t in the right head space to hear how you said it the first time or the way you said it didn’t land, sometimes they don’t follow you in the place you said it, and sometimes you just haven’t said it!
My superpower is helping people with cohesion by showing them the power of repurposing.
One of my own regular content goals is to create just ONE piece of content per week and reuse it in all sorts of ways. Break it down, chunk it off, and give it the most bang for its buck! In doing so, I increase the cohesion and intentionality around what I’m sharing.
This blog is a living, breathing example of cohesion in action!
The whole topic started as a raw messy Google Doc. I jotted down all my thoughts and ideas (to the tune of ten pages or so) and created a few outlines, some bullet points, and story sparks… it began as a complete and utter smorgasbord!
Then, I took that and broke it down into this blog, a podcast that you can listen to HERE, an email, and social media posts. The result is a week of super cohesive content and going deeper on each of these points, rather than spreading myself thin on all sorts of different things here there, and everywhere.
#5) Improve your content by showing that you care
Content Lesson #5) Show Your People You Care
Let me ask you a question?
Do you care?
Do you care about your clients?
Your community?
Your listeners, readers, your clients?
SHOW them. Show them you care by turning the content back to them. Listen and learn what they’re struggling with on a regular basis, and engage with others in your content.
Please don’t just show up when it’s time for YOU to promote something or for YOU to shine the spotlight on YOU.
Show people you care and give value in whatever way that looks like for you.
Show them your big heart, and your desire to help and support them and you will feel way less nervous sharing about what you’ve got to offer!
And lastly… have FUN! This is supposed to be a way to express yourself, support the rest of your business goals, and connect with the people you want to work with. Choose ways of creating content that feel light and enjoyable for you and it’ll be more interesting to create and read/listen to!
As I said at the beginning, this is general information, overall takeaways, and pulled from my personal experiences this past year, but it’s by no means specific to YOU and your business and where you are right now. Which is how most books, podcasts, and free content are!
If you want really personalized, specific strategy for your own marketing and content, we can work together one on one, or you can join me in my upcoming Marketing Momentum Lab.
In the Marketing Momentum Lab, we get into it alllllll when it comes to increasing your visibility in out-of-the-box, true-to-YOU ways!
