Producing content.
What does that even mean?
I started out last year with this grand *MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS 2016* plan, but it wasn’t practical for our team of two with a full design schedule. I was struggling to keep up and feeling like a failure. This year, I don’t have a marketing plan - or pan for communications or content. As it stands, we have 6 months of work waiting to be blogged, formatted into case studies and added to our portfolio. (2016 was quite the hustle year for us.) Our social channels are quiet and I don’t quite know how to break the silence there.
It’s hard not to look at that stack of “we should’s and should be’s” and feel overwhelmed. Producing content feels like homework.
A business coach once taught me this awesome way of reframing things. You get up out of your seat and literally move around the room and think about things from a different perspective. It’s so helpful to take time to think of things in a different way. If I feel stuck, I try to move around. See what things look like from over there.
Maybe producing our content should feel more like a celebration. I want that.
Aha... Now, how do we get to there?
Most importantly, how do we get to there without burning out, without throwing our other systems into chaos, and without destroying the joy I want it to bring?
I tend to go 180% full throttle into new things. This makes me an excellent learner, a great problem solver and a good consultant. But that full throttle can wreak havoc on my inner peace if I don't keep it in check. I have a hard time scaling my goals to my capacity.
Lately my solution for this has been writing out everything I want to accomplish and choosing 5%. I identify what the most important items are and scale them back. By just working on the 5%, I build momentum. After I successfully, non-stressfully can accomplish that 5%, I’ll add another 10%.
My 5% looks like:
- crafting an email once a month for clients and people in on the behind the scenes newsletter
- posting to Instagram 1x a week, I’ll have it auto push to Facebook
- posting a blog post 2x a month
- continuing to add work to our portfolio, scaling back the intensity of our case studies, 1-2 hours/week
Let’s see how it goes. How do you handle your social media and producing content? What would be your 5%?
Any tips, tricks or questions?
P.S. If you’re ever looking for help on the writing front, let me suggest Signify! We recently designed their branding and site. I can tell you, Kristi is on point!