Be King of Your Content

“CONTENT IS KING” is the message that resonates through the social media know-how kingdom. What does that even mean? There are so many thoughts out there on what one should think about when preparing content for social media that I found it difficult to sift through it. “Connect emotionally with your audience”, “use video on your site”, “be sure to use as many ‘keywords’ as possible to ‘optimize’ your ‘search engine optimization’, “use a content calendar to strategically post at times when your audience is online”, “use plenty of images”, “don’t use too many images”, “use other’s content”, “don’t use other’s content”, “hashtag everything”, “be careful how often you hashtag”, “here’s 22 things to include as content for your blog …” etc. etc.

I thought “there’s too much to know, I can’t do this effectively, why even bother”. Despite those feelings of inundation in the beginning, I carried on. I eased myself into the vast, evolving and ever-changing world of social media much the way one might enter the water from a sandy beach; step-by-step, adjusting to the water as I gradually gained confidence to take the next step. Getting different perspectives on expectations for a credible social media presence was good but I’m glad I didn’t let the different schools of thought squash my desire or need to get out there in the social realm. From my experience so far, I’ve surmised 4 key things that keep me forging ahead and striving to be King (or Queen) of my content.

Allow Myself Time

I am of the type to want to reach perfection instantly. The learning curve is not my favourite part of a journey. I want to start out an expert. When I was reading up on content, I thought I needed to write the best posts and capture the best of other’s content so that I would sign in as a superhero of social media immediately. I wanted to have a hundred posts ready to go so that I could post continuously while creating new content. I had to take a step back and give myself permission to take time to grow as a social media persona. I know I have a long way to go and I’ve accepted that. The journey is providing me with learning opportunities. If I waited until I felt I was an expert, I’d never be here, creating content on feeling confident to create content.

Keep It Sweet and Simple.

This is one rule that I come back to again and again in all areas of my life. Content creation is no exception. I think back to my years of textbook reading. If a page was solid text, I was less enthused about reading it but if it had lots of pictures, graphs or tables with text boxes and quick bullets of information, it was much more appealing to read and digest. The same thoughts happen with any kind of media content. Visual appeal with quick points are more likely to entice me to continue reading so I keep that in mind when preparing content.

Stay True to Myself

When all else discourages or overwhelms, I stay true to me. Sometimes, I just have to ignore the hyperbole and go with what my heart tells me to write. Of course, I need to give consideration to my audience to entice them to return but if it isn’t true to me, the audience will see through it and I may lose valuable trust. In my opinion, it’s best to be transparent. You’d be surprised at how many others were just waiting to hear something that resonated and your content was it.

Use a Scheduling Tool or Calendar

It seemed scary to prepare a content calendar at first. What content would go where over the course of a month seemed like a lot of work. When all was said and done, it saved time and more importantly, anxiety. It helped me organize thoughts and keep creativity flowing because I wasn’t stressing over what to post and when. You can go online and source out content management tools or create your own in Word or Excel. It’s worth it.

Despite all the blogs, posts and information out there on all the things to consider when creating content for your social media presence, these 4 ideals have helped put it all into perspective. Are you King of your content?