Motivational mottos that will help your content marketing
Oddly, I’m one of the first people to look at a quote and find it cheesy. However, there are certain mottos that break that hard outer shell and hit me right where I need it: be it my mind, my heart, or my emotions.
Below is a list of motivational quotes and sayings that I swear by in my daily life. I hope one or more of them can help you achieve your goals as well!
KISS Method
If you’ve never heard of this one before, KISS stands for “Keep It Simple Silly” (or some variation of “silly”). The idea is rooted in not overthinking things.
If you find yourself in a position where your wheels are spinning, ask yourself if you’re doing too much. Sometimes simplifying things or leaving them as-is, may solve your problem.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
This links up with other quotes here, but I’ve famously said this one more than once because I see people who attempt to do things they should otherwise leave to someone more experienced at said task.
When I have a problem with my plumbing, for example, I’m just going to call a plumber. I can fix certain things, but my knowledge and experience with plumbing isn’t such that I need to create more issues by being stubborn and doing it myself.
Seek help where you need it: there’s no shame in admitting you cannot do something. This philosophy should also free you up to better concentrate on those things are you good at!
You don’t have to be great, you just have to be good
As mentioned above, this quote may seem to contradict what I just said. However, this is more of the KISS method application of worrying about perfection.
You may need to lower your bar as to the standard of what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Perfectionists will never get anything done because they’re always looking for things to fix. Don’t complicate the process: if it’s good, chances are others will believe it’s great… simply because you’ve already set your bar too high!
Others do not dictate what we do
This quote can be especially challenging when dealing with negative people. Whether that’s a friend or family member telling you why you can’t achieve a goal, a bad review for your service or product, a competitor copying your concepts, or just an internet troll, you have to remember that the only factor which matters in this process is YOU.
That “you” can be yourself, your company, or your inner circle of trust. Whatever it may be, anyone outside of that immediate network should not dictate the pace. If you allow that to happen, you will always be a follower: never a leader.
Always Thinking
I’m glad I have a smartphone, because back in the day I had to carry a notepad for when inspiration strikes.
You never know that moment: it could be in your sleep or while showering. Your subconscious is always working for you, so embrace this concept of “always thinking”. Also, be prepared to jot down that idea that pops into your head at that instant… or lose it forever. (And make sure that’s not using a phone or piece of paper while the shower water is running!)
Can’t be mean if it’s true
People absolutely hate when I say this, but that’s because some people can’t be honest with themselves. They don’t like to hear the truth. They seek to be in an echo chamber and gain confirmation by being surrounded by “yes people”.
Don’t be that person. Seek the stuff that might hurt you the most.
This is the only way to make sure you’re not living a lie. It will also open communication with your team and further improve the fostering of ideas, even if, initially, it may not be the most popular one.
Just because you’re on a path doesn’t mean it’s the right one
How does one know if the path they’re on is the right one?
Sometimes, the only way to find out is by getting off of that path and choosing a new direction. The new direction may be the right path; it may be the wrong one.
But the only way you’ll ever know is to try…
WHY NOT?!
Which leads me to “why not?!”. If you’re used to using negative self-talk, such as “I can’t”, you’re already defeating yourself before you get started.
When you ask yourself “why not?!” you’re opening up a world of possibilities and forcing yourself to think outside the box.
Spaceships don’t have rearview mirrors
That’s right: spaceships only move forward.
If you keep looking back and dwelling on things in the past, you’re never going to proceed. Take the rocket ship concept to heart: don’t look for the rearview mirror and move onward and upward.
Reverting back to the Classic Editor in the latest edition of WordPress
One of the most ill-advised updates in WordPress history came this past week in the form of WordPress version 5.0. The latest iteration of the software has ditched the traditional, or “classic” editor we’re familiar with in lieu of a new “block style” layout editor named “Gutenberg”.
In short, Gutenberg replaces the previous classic editor which has existed within WordPress for over ten years. It’s a modern rethinking of the entire publishing interface, however, that’s not always a good thing.
After playing with Gutenberg for several months (as WordPress announced its arrival would come some time ago) I started seeing that some custom functions I developed for clients of mine had disappeared. On top of that, copy and pasting content from other sources, and then editing said content, had become laborious.
It appears I’m not alone in this thinking, as the official WordPress plugin repository tells the whole tale:
Gutenberg is the default editor in the latest version of WordPress and doesn’t have to be installed, so the 400,000 active installation statistic is a bit misleading. However, the over one million active installations for the Classic Editor is not: the number continues to climb by hundreds of thousands daily, as WordPress users and developers reject the new block layout style of Gutenberg (illustrated by the over 1,900 reviews, currently at 2-stars as of this writing).
If you’re one of those users stuck in a rut with the new editor, not all is lost. You can use one of the following two methods, outlined below, to restore the Classic Editor as a plugin. Doing so will also revert some of the elements Gutenberg hides or breaks in the latest edition of WordPress.
According to the official plugin repository:
Classic Editor is an official plugin maintained by the WordPress team that restores the previous (“classic”) WordPress editor and the “Edit Post” screen. It makes it possible to use plugins that extend that screen, add old-style meta boxes, or otherwise depend on the previous editor. By default, this plugin hides all functionality available in the new Block Editor (“Gutenberg”).
The official link also notes that support for the Classic Editor will be maintained until at least 2022: a good sign for those of us fighting with compatibility issues within it’s replacement.
If this sounds like something you wanted yesterday, here’s how you can go back to the way things were by installing the official Classic Editor WordPress plugin.
Add New Plugin
If you click on the Plugins link on the sidebar menu within the WordPress admin area, you will arrive to a screen listing all of your installed plugins. A button at the top of the page gives you the ability to “Add New” and that’s precisely what we want to do. Clicking the “Add New” button will take you to the next screen, where you can directly install a plugin by searching for it, or you can upload a plugin you previously downloaded to your machine.
Direct Install
Currently, the Classic Editor is one of the most popular plugins in the WordPress repository and should show up on the main “add plugin” screen without searching for it. Should it not be on your screen here, a search box to the top right of the page will help you track it down.
Simply type in “Classic Editor” and you should see several search results. Look for the correct plugin (as pictured above) and click on the “Install Now” button.
In a few moments the plugin will install on your WordPress site, but you’re not finished yet: you must then click on the “Activate” button which takes the “Install Now” button’s place in order to apply changes and restore the Classic Editor over Gutenberg.
Upload Manually
If for some reason you cannot directly install the Classic Editor, another option is to download the Classic Editor as a zip file from the WordPress plugin repository. Start by downloading the file from this link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/.
Next, visit the same plugins section, as noted above, by clicking on the relevant “plugins” link on the sidebar while logged into the WordPress dashboard. You will arrive at the page listing all of your installed plugins. Just like the direct install method, you want to click on the “Add New” button at the top, but this time you will click on another button in nearly the same spot on the next page, “Upload Plugin” and then choose the zip file you saved from the step above.
In moments you will see that the plugin has installed and you will be given an option to activate it. Don’t forget to do this, as the inactive plugin won’t get rid of the Gutenberg “experience”!
Conclusion
It’s easy to see that WordPress users are initially rejecting Gutenberg due to the lack of a traditional word processing experience. Computer, and even smartphone users, have grown accustomed to a traditional toolbar and return lines (headers, paragraphs, etc.) as commonly found in programs such as Microsoft Word, social media apps, and just about any email provider or software on the planet.
The new Gutenberg experience attempts to make block layout easier for the Average Joe, as advanced web designs required knowledge of HTML and CSS in the past. However, Gutenberg makes this change by eliminating a traditional writing experience which has been around since the dawn of personal computing.
In addition, those of us (like myself) who have hand coded custom WordPress themes and functions for advanced designs, are finding that our work is broken by the Gutenberg editor: making it more difficult for users and clients to update their sites or breaking functionality altogether.
If you find yourself in either camp as someone who wants the classic writing layout or you can’t find custom meta boxes and features you once had while editing your website, then a return to the Classic Editor is just the fix you need to get right back on track!
How to handle negative comments on social media
If you’ve used social media for any period of time you may be well aware of how negative people can be when they’re behind a keyboard. At some point, your brand or business may have to deal with a furious customer or an “Internet Troll”.
But how should you handle responding to criticism?
Below are some options on what to do when things get ugly on your Facebook page, Twitter profile and more.
Don’t Respond
This may come as a surprise, but sometimes the best response is no response. It goes way back to the old adage our parents (and their parents, and so on) used to say: “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.”
Unfortunately, there are people on the Internet who feel they should be heard, regardless of how inflammatory their comments are.
A general rule of thumb by anyone in the social media marketing field is to not silence those voices by deleting their comment. It may just fuel on the fire. In some cases, responding to negative comments can do the same.
I don’t always advocate ignoring comments, especially those that are warranted and may need addressed to foster good will and better customer service. However, if someone is trying to goad you into an argument, it may be best to leave it be.
Delete/Ban/Report
A mentioned above, you don’t want to silence your audience. If they find out you have deleted a comment, it may make matters worse, as the entire concept of social media marketing is to amplify your messages across different overlapping circles of people.
Infuriating someone who already has an axe to grind may amplify their negative message. Regardless if that message is true or not, you may want that fire to spread as low as possible.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to tolerate messages that harassment, cursing, or other derogatory comments. Take constructive criticism into consideration before you go as far as deleting or reporting a comment, or outright banning the user who made it.
Obviously if the account making the comments is a fake user, or is created with malice in mind, this should weigh even less on your conscious. You’ll see more of these fake accounts on places such as Twitter and Instagram, as Facebook has cracked down making sure their users are genuine, real people.
Don’t be combative
If this were a fire, the last thing you want to do is have it blow up in your face. Be careful with your choice of words and how you handle responding to critical comments. You can be formal or informal depending on your industry and style, however, also be aware that text doesn’t always convey emotion and your best intentions to use humor could be taken the wrong way.
The last thing you want to do is engage in a back-and-forth argument, as it will quickly spiral out of control regardless of your best intentions: it’s literally a no-win situation.
Take the conversation offline
Sticking with the fire analogy, another way to respond to a commenter and make sure their voice is heard, while also keeping that fire from spreading all over your page, is to ask the person to contact you directly. That could mean a personal/direct message, email, and/or phone call.
However, you approach it, taking the conversation offline puts it into the private realm where it will no longer negatively impact you be being in the view of the general public.
It should also help calm an individual with complaints as they get to explain their issue and hopefully have it corrected.
The careful balance between slow trickle content and spamming
One of the toughest juggling acts when content marketing is producing enough content to fill your schedule. It can feel like feast or famine: sometimes you don’t have enough content, but other times you end up with too much!
The latter is a good problem to have, but it can also be a hindrance. You don’t want to overwhelm your intended audience with too much of the same thing. Thus, you must find a balance between meeting your posting obligations and not overdoing it by stretching the same content too thin.
What is a content trickle?
Ever see a leaky faucet? Notice how there’s a drip here, a drip there? Well, that’s what I refer to as a content trickle. Others have used the same term in various marketing aspects, such as email, where they drip content bit by bit.
When you have a large piece of content that you can break up into several pieces, it never hurts to do so. This will give you multiple ways to use your initial piece of information as separate, individual posts: filling out your editorial calendar.
Beware of breaking it up too much
Keep in mind, you might reshare this content later, so you’re already getting some “juice” out it more than once. However, if you go too far and are following my advice on resharing down the road, you may inundate your audience with the same thing, over and over, so much that they stop responding to you.
A good example is breaking a lengthy blog post into 2, 3, or even 4 iterations. A series is never a bad thing, but think if this is something you should logically trickle out or not. Is each part of the series worthwhile on its own merit?
If not, you may have broken it into too many pieces. Your followers may find no value in continuing to read the series, leaving your best parts and conclusion with less response than your initial post.
Spamming the masses
Another example, and sometimes the easiest to get carried away with, is event photos. Sharing a photo here or there to promote, or later brag about a successful event, is fine. It’s when you start to individually post those photos outside of an album or gallery where you must heed caution.
Posting ten photos individually isn’t as good as posting all ten at once, or five-and-five in two individual posts. There are exceptions to the rule, but generally, you may not want one specific series to dominate all of your website or social media posts. To the unknowing, they may see these photos, in the individual spammy way, and believe this is all you do.
Circus mentality
I always go back to the geniuses who ran circus tents in a bygone era. They knew that people may come to see elephants, clowns, or trapeze artists, but they may not buy a ticket to see them all.
You must appeal to a broad audience by casting your net far and wide. This is why a small trickle of breaking down your content to generate a few extra posts isn’t a bad idea. But like the circus, you don’t want to only showcase the clowns!
Spread the love and mix in some other posts if you do plan to be a bit more spammy with a specific topic than usual. My rule of thumb is to have a least two other pieces of content to put in rotation with the main point you’re trying to drive home. Doing so will mix up your posting schedule and may help bring others to your “Big Top” rather than only shouting into a megaphone (i.e. spamming content) that you have the “World’s Tallest Man”.
Common mistakes to avoid when producing a podcast
As a big advocate of marketing your brand by leveraging the popularity of podcasts, I wanted to pull back the curtain and give any current podcasters, as well as aspiring ones, a head’s up on what to look for (and what to avoid) when recording shows.
While one of my motto’s is “be good, not great” I can’t help but sound the alarm on these eight items that will drag your podcast into a blackhole, never to be listened to again!
Follow these bullet points and your podcast will instantly be upgraded to a professional-sounding program.
Bad sound levels (i.e. “volume”)
If you have to turn the volume on your device up all of the way to hear you, or, your microphone settings while recording are so loud they’ll blow out a speaker (and sound distorted) you’ll have to adjust levels to make sure your audience can you hear you: and clearly.
There may be multiple areas to look while adjusting your levels and they will be different for each person speaking. The first place to look is if you’re using a sound mixer. Adjust the individual microphone channels, but also the “master” out to make sure you’re not sending an imbalanced signal to your recording device.
If said recording device is a PC or Mac, your operating system may have individual input settings for a microphone “in”. Check this setting next before making further adjustments within your recording software.
Finally, as part of post-production, you can “compress” some of your audio wavelength but be careful to make it still sound natural. Cutting your peak levels to an acceptable high, in the range of -3db, ensures a positive listening experience for your audience.
Poor audio quality
Following the adjustments made above, make sure that your audio sounds clear and crisp. Poor quality can arise not only from levels, but other pitfalls such as a shoddy microphone or interference from another device.
Be sure to not record near noisy appliances in your home such as a refrigerator or air conditioning unit. If possible, turn off fans to limit any sort of constant “noise” in the background of your recordings.
Unwanted noises
If you’re recording a podcast at home, you may need to kick everyone out!
Pet owners and parents of small children may struggle to find some quiet time to record a podcast. Be aware of noise from rooms above and below you, as well as the neighbors deciding to mow their lawn or work on a car next door as you’re in the middle of an episode!
There’s a certain level of forgivable noises that your listeners will accept. However, some major ones that have to be edited out, or can be prevented, include loud bangs or a cellphone ringing in the background. Putting your other devices in silent mode will go a long way in making sure your followers don’t shut your show off… perhaps for good.
Edit, edit, edit!
Achieving a perfect podcast in a single recording session can be difficult. You may get an itchy throat, need a glass of water, sneeze or any number of unwanted noises could disrupt your recording.
Don’t worry: simple stop, save your progress, and continue from where you left off. You can string the individual clips together later with editing software, cutting out the noises you don’t want left for your listeners to hear.
You may also want to snip the beginning and ending of your podcast so it doesn’t take ten seconds of silence before your listeners hear you. This is also true for areas with long pauses. Some natural breaks aren’t the end of the world, but you won’t want your fanbase to believe there’s a technical issues with your program, or worse, shut it off because they think it’s over.
Get to the point: faster!
Hand-in-hand with starting your show ASAP, make sure you get to your talking points and the benefits of listening to your episode within the first minute. Make sure listeners know what you’re going to talk about and why they should continue listening.
Too much small talk, or for those of you with sponsors, too much advertising, can ruin a podcast before it begins.
Self-deprecation
One of my main reasons for having anyone start a podcast is to position themselves as an expert in their field.
So why would anyone say “I’m not good at (insert topic)?”
Beats me!
Avoid saying things like “I’m not an expert at” or “I don’t know this” or “My show sucks” while recording. You’re going to validate why your potential audience should not listen to you!
It never hurts to be honest if you’re not entirely sure of something, such as being caught off-guard in the moment. That’s human of us. However, a pity party is the last thing people want to listen to when they’re searching for advice or seeking an escape by listening to your podcast.
No show notes
This is an important item to note: you must use show notes!
Show notes appear with your program and are the description of a single podcast episode aside from the title. They don’t have to be elaborate and in many cases, you can copy and paste the same vital information (such as your main website or social media links) within the notes, saving you time.
At the minimum, however, you must make sure you describe what listeners will hear on your podcast. Doing so also gives you an opportunity to increase your SEO by utilizing industry keywords which will help others find your podcast, and potentially become advocates of yourself and/or your brand.
Copyrighted materials
Finally, using copyright materials will harm you in many ways. This should be obvious to most, but in case it isn’t, unless you have permission to use a popular song in your podcast, don’t do it. You can find yourself in a lawsuit, with your archive of shows taken down and all of your hard work lost.
Worse, you could face financial penalties on top of it.
Avoid the temptation of using copyrighted materials. If you’re a news source, you may be able to use small clips within the limitations of “Fair Use”, however, unless you have legal counsel to determine you are using others’ intellectual property legally, I suggest avoiding the risk entirely.
How to improve your brand’s perception by fixing inconsistent and poorly structured writing
When writing blog posts, I know that many people worry about things such as spelling or the length of the article. However, one typo won’t get you in hot water so much as the structure of your article. That is, the overall presentation of your writing is just as important as spelling and grammar.
If you’re using some of the tips I’ve suggested while typing your blog posts, spelling and grammar shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Programs such as Microsoft Word or Grammarly will often correct punctuation as well, but what they lack is the eyeball test for readability and consistency.
Below are some of the items I see standout when editing articles. Looking out for these potential inconsistencies will improve your articles and their readability while also giving a boost to your brand’s perception. (Note: these same tips can be followed when posting to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.)
Commas, periods and punctuation
This is something I even struggle with to this day, but it’s not something that can be easily fixed. Running your text through an application like Word or Grammarly will root out errant uses of commas, colons, and semicolons. Ditto for periods (or missing periods).
Consistent lists and headers
One note about periods, however, is that you may not want to use them in headlines or bullet lists. If you do, be consistent and make sure that either all of those items follow the same pattern.
Proper case, title case, and sentence case
Here’s another tip for those headers: make sure they’re following the same case structure. If something is a proper title, make sure that it’s also in proper case throughout your entire article. If you’re unsure if something should be made into proper case, a quick Google search is your friend.
Hyphens
The overuse of hyphens, en-dashes, and em-dashes can also plague your article and make it unpleasant to your reader’s eyes. Be careful to only use these conventions as necessary.
Run-on sentences
Another bugaboo of mine are sentences that never stop. If you find yourself adding words such as “and”, “but”, or “or”, you may want to consider breaking those sentences off at that point and ending them with a period; then start the next set of words as a new sentence.
Think of this as the equivalent to stopping to take a breath while running: give your readers a short break by using natural breaks within your writing.
Formal vs. informal writing
If you haven’t already noticed, I’m big on having a writing style. That is, I don’t want to bore my own readers to death by not being somewhat entertaining and down-to-Earth. However, it can be overdone and in either direction.
If your writing is akin to reading a technical manual of fixing an automobile, you may want to inject some of your personality into it.
If your writing is similar to a phone call, with lots of “so’s”, “just’s”, or “really’s” you’ll want to go in and tame it. Also, be wary when using slang: consider whether your audience understands what is you’re trying to convey. It may be best to stick with formality in those situations.
5 of the best podcast recording programs for any device
Recording a podcast doesn’t have to be difficult. Whether you have a set of earbuds or a fancy microphone, there is one component that can make or break your plans to dominate the on-demand radio spectrum: recording software. I’ve chosen five recording programs for a variety of devices to help you get on the right track. These applications span different devices from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS X and smartphones too. Here are my choices to for the best of the best to get your podcast going.Adobe Audition
For those of you with a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, this is the no-brainer option. A full commercial application used by major corporations, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than Audition. The interface, as with most of these programs, may take some getting used to. However, editing and exporting a final high-quality file becomes second nature not after long. The other benefit if Audition is that you may already have it as part of a subscription, costing you nothing extra. It also plays nicely with the rest of Adobe’s editing suite and works on both Windows and Mac OS X. Download Adobe Audition: https://www.adobe.com/products/audition.htmlAudacity
On a shoestring budget? Even if you’re not, the next option is free of charge… but you’d never know it! Audacity is my favorite application to work with when recording a podcast. It’s available on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and more. The open source software has many of the same features as the big boys like Adobe Audition and in many case is the go-to for serious podcasters to get their shows recorded digitally. As with the first three programs listed here, you can visually see your waveform as you record and export to a number of different audio formats. Audacity even saved my butt once during a laptop crash, offering to recover an unsaved file! I highly recommend it. Download Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org/GarageBand
An Apple-only application, GarageBand is widely available free-of-charge to most Apple users, but it’s not exclusive to only Mac OS X: Garageband is also available on iPhone and iPad, opening a world of portability for podcasters on the go. My only gripe with Apple’s recording product is that it can be a bit fussy to setup for each use, and the mobile versions (phone and tablet) often restrict the length of your track. Then again, when you’re looking for something free or low-cost to record a show, you’d have trouble finding something better than Garageband. You can download GarageBand here: https://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/Griffin iTalk
If you try searching for recording software in Apple’s App Store you’re going to be barraged with a ton of useless apps that won’t get the job done for podcasts. It took me a long time to find this, but iTalk is one of the best iPhone apps you can use for recording audio. (It also works on the iPad too!) There are so many solid features which make iTalk great. First, it’s easy to use: just tap a big red button. Hit the red button to stop and you’ll have a number of options to get the resulting MP3 file off of your device. The premium version will even allow you to upload to cloud services such as Dropbox. However, the biggest selling point of iTalk for iOS users is that it has a studio monitor feature to hear what you’re recording via headphones (with the proper equipment, of course) and also visually see your levels as you speak. I’ve also found that the app you use also helps with picking up ambient noise. Garageband was notorious for a consistent “hiss” in the background of my iPhone recordings while iTalk sounded much clearer and natural. Download the proper version of the program here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/italk-recorder/id293673304Audio Recorder
Developed by Sony, this free app available to Android users offers many of the same benefits I mentioned above with iTalk. Recordings are saved to the device, audio from microphones have less noise, and while it’s not as simple as the iTalk’s one button interface, it’s about as easy to use of an app you’ll find anywhere. Did I also mention it’s free? Download it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonymobile.androidapp.audiorecorder&hl=en_USStay out of my way in the morning!
I’ve never been a morning person. I don’t like crawling out of bed, I hate lacking sleep and I’m an overall grumpy person first thing when the rooster crows.
However, the real reason to stay out of my way first thing in the morning is that it’s my most productive hours of the day. I want to get at the day and attack what I can with a clear mind before distractions set in.
That can also be a reason for adding a “back after lunch” sign to your door too. Honestly, it’s nothing against others, but I tend to get derailed from my projects by answering calls, emails, and having to go on social media for my work: just one joke email or cat meme on Facebook can sidetrack your progress… and you may never regain that momentum.
So, here’s an exercise in what I do to be the most productive first thing in the morning: ignore everyone and everything. I know that sounds easier said than done, but if you can help it, a text message or email reply can wait. Even in this age of instant gratification, most things are not an emergency to address.
Settle in. Make that coffee. Attempt to ignore that inbox, and go directly to what it is you need to accomplish.
Within an hour or two, you will feel like your morning has become much more productive. Start stacking those mornings into days and weeks, and you’re going to be so efficient that you can afford to waste time filtering through your email inbox in the afternoon, a time when I generally lag.
If you need even more help with managing your time and productivity, don’t forget to head over the resources area of this website, where I outline some tools that will help save you time and stress, plus also keep your management and organization on track.
For those who need even more help with balancing their time, several computer and phone apps, many free to use, offer ways to track your time and keep you on pace with your goals. Even a simple stopwatch or kitchen timer can be the difference with sticking to a set time before jumping to your next task.
But when all else fails, stick to my adage: leave me alone in the morning! When you start thinking about distractions and how to limit them, I promise you’ll feel far less pressure throughout the day associated with the usual stress of not getting things done.
All because you took care of business first thing!
Struggling for new content? Look to old content for inspiration
We’ve all been there: writer’s block. You lack the drive or creativity to come up with new content and then obsess over not having something new for your audience.
“Oh no, they’ll stop following me” or “I’ll lose progress” are often the thoughts which come from stressing out over supplying new content to your readers or listeners. This type of anxiety isn’t all too uncommon among creative types and entrepreneurs, especially if content creation is secondary to running a business or other priorities in your life.
Furthermore, if this is something you’ve been doing for any length of time, you may already have a nice stockpile of content you’ve already published: it’s there you should look for inspiration.
Repurposing Old Content
If you’re in a line of work where information may change or expire, it’s well worth your time to look back on something you may have posted months ago or even years ago, and then using that as the source of a new piece of content.
Even if the information hasn’t changed, a rewrite to freshen information that’s still relevant easily gives you something “new” to share with your audience. You can also feel free to copy and paste some of the lines you’ve already used, especially quotes and sources, in the new blog post.
Chances are your followers may recognize some of what you wrote if they’ve followed you for a while, but a revision will still appear as new material.
Those who started following you after your blog was posted may have never seen the original item, which means this is brand-new in their eyes…
Reposting Old Content
If time is your enemy, you can still take your old content and repurpose it: but this time only for social media.
Chances are you may have only promoted your article once, maybe twice, on social media around the initial time that you published it. If that was months ago, you can now come around and simply share it again.
The concept is the same: it looks new to those who are new to you or your brand.
However, if your content was posted a week ago, you’ll want to be careful not to spam your followers. They may think you only have this one item. (We all know those commercials that run over and over… and over. Don’t be like those!)
What’s old is new again
Hopefully this was a valuable lesson in how to reuse things that worked for you in the past to help you achieve your goals in the future. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with reusing content, but just be careful that you don’t use this as a crutch. That is, you still need to mix in new ideas or else you will suffer from appearing unoriginal.
However, when you are struggling for something new, it never hurts to revisit old content to bridge the gap. As the old adage goes, what’s old is new again!
3 Fundamental principles for promoting your brand or business on social media
When perusing Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform, most people don’t realize they should have an underlying strategy to posting for their business or brand.
Unlike making personal posts, where photos of your children, pets, or food are the norm, you should incorporate these ideas into your social media campaigns. Doing so will not only keep your content fresh, but it will help further engage your audience.
I always like to think of these three principles like a circus: everyone doesn’t go to the circus to see the lions, so you need a trapeze act, clowns, etc. In the same way everyone isn’t visiting your Instagram, Facebook or Twitter profiles for the same reason.
That’s why it’s important to shake things up by following these three principles for promoting your brand or business on social media.
Inform
The most basic principle of posting to social media is to inform someone of something.
That may sound basic and it is. If you have an event, you should notify people of when it’s happening and all of the pertinent details: when, where, why, and how. The “how” can be any associated costs, such a fee at the door, entry fee or even if your event is free. (Which is often a determining factor for families to plan to attend your event.)
Informational posts can also include product or service announcements, deadlines or pretty much any other details that are important to share with your followers.
Oftentimes the informational post you create on social media will lead back to somewhere on your website. If it’s for a product, you will want to link where to buy it. If it’s an event, you may have more details than can possibly (or neatly) fit within a social media update.
Educate
A little different than simply informing your following of an event or announcement, educational posts do as they indicate: they teach someone about a topic.
This too seems like a no-brainer; however, you’d be surprised at the number of missed opportunities I witness where someone can position themselves as an expert in their field by sharing a link that educates their audience about a particular subject matter.
Almost always this should be a link back to your own website: it’s a lot wiser to send traffic your way than to someone else!
Educational posts usually have a lot more value to your target audience but they may not always strike a chord with everyone. Have some patience, as your informational posts and the next category, will help shake things up and keep everyone engaged with your brand’s social media.
Entertain
Entertainment posts are listed last because it’s incredibly easy to get too carried away with them. Sharing photos or videos is fun, and it may get you that quick satisfaction of a like or share, but if that’s all you do you will lose the entire purpose of your social media accounts: which is to help build your business’ presence with the goal of converting followers into advocates and purchasers of your products and services.
It doesn’t hurt to have an occasional fun item on your social media pages. It helps break up the monotony of virtually yelling to your followers about an event or an announcement, and assists in my making your page less boring.
Granted some business ventures will almost never have anything entertaining to say or do. This (and not your TV or radio spots) is an opportunity to share photos of the grandkids or pets, or get employees and coworkers involved in your pitch. If you have a special day at the office, such as Football Friday or a company picnic, sharing pictures of these events can further help others relate to your brand.
But again, don’t get too carried away with this. All it takes is for a joke to be taken the wrong way to destroy your credibility, so be careful what you post.
Once again, I emphasize making it about yourself, especially when it comes to entertaining updates. Sharing another page’s amusing post does not make youentertaining. In fact, it may make someone question why you aren’t the ones having fun!