I'm writing this blog in the glorious sunshine of South East Spain which is where (for now) my Wife and myself have chosen to live, and work from.
Last week I was in the UK attending a couple of speaking engagements, networking, and getting a couple of new clients up and running with an aligned brand and social media strategy, all very hectic but very rewarding.
If your a regular reader of my blogs (thank you) you will have seen I produce quite a lot of stories, or 'content' as some call it, I produce and publish 2/3 articles each day, except weekend when I know we're all taking time out.
And I'm usually 1.5 weeks ahead to allow me to do business as usual stuff.
During my visit to the UK I was asked many times what's the secret to producing so much content?
As with most things in life there's no such thing as a magic bullet, and the same can be said for writing blogs and articles. I have always had a passion for reading, and some 15 years ago I started to write a book, this was/is a combination of personal and business stories, but for one reason or another its been a constant work in progress.
One of the reasons its never gotten finished is because I subliminally kept telling myself "I'm not a writer, and no one would be that interested in reading it anyway".
And then last year I suddenly found my 'why'.
For many years I chased money, success, and all the trappings that came with it. But when I was diagnosed with a form of Cancer (all sorted now BTW)) it made me stop and think about what's important in life, and what I really enjoyed, so I set out to align this with my business knowledge and just got going.
My focus for my blogs is based around a combination of subject matter that I'm extremely passionate about. This ranges from writing about the significant changes in the 'Social Media' landscape, my ongoing annoyance at the intrusive advertising industry, ad fraud, and helping to raise the profile for what 'Social Selling' really means in today's digitally connected, socially savvy world of 3.5 billion people who are active on various social platforms.
I come from B2C, but have also worked in B2B land as part of many turnarounds, brand realignment, and 'go to market' strategies for numerous international organisations, so when I see blogs like the one in the link below looking to provide people with tips and ideas on topics to write about I have mixed feelings, partly because I think anything that helps give you direction to get going and start writing has to be a good thing, but it also can lead people into thinking that you can write about anything, which is completely wrong.
Blogging with out a strategy is just a hobby, nothing wrong with that but if its all just tactics you will lose heart very quickly.
For you to become a producer of content there are a few things you need to sort out first, otherwise, and based on my on experience you will simply not enjoy it, and most likely give up.
- What's your passion - where do you have subject matter experience and expertise?
- You need to understand your purpose - what's the subject matter?
- Whose the audience - who is it aimed at?
- 'Why' are you doing this?
- Content Calendar - align your output and timings, the input will be aligned to this.
- Don't sweat the grammar - try and be authentic, use natural language.
The reality is that producing content is hard work to start off with, if you ever went to a gym or chose a weight loss program the magic didn't happen overnight, you got better at it, as you got better at it, if you get my drift?
Social media post ideas are one of those things that seem easy, but when you sit down to post it suddenly becomes very difficult and can feel overwhelming.
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