Breaking the Rules of Content Strategy

There are a lot of 'official' content strategists out there. People that get paid to help you develop the types of posts you should do, at what time on what day. They go into things like the algorithmic differences between text posts and picture posts, long form and short form, articles vs. newsletters etc.

I am not one of them. I do not get paid to produce or strategize content. Yet...in spite of all of that I am likely one of the most consistent content creators you will find on this platform. I may also be arguably one of the most successful.

To provide a bit of context. Here is the data from my last 4 posts.

That works out to:

• 310,931 impressions(views)
• 2,702 organic reactions
• 1,457 comments

Oh...and those numbers are still growing.

I am not telling you this to pat myself on the back...far far from it. I am telling you this because many content strategists will tell people to pick a lane and essentially stay between the lines. If you are a tv personality, talk about that...If you are a teacher, talk about that etc etc etc.

I do not abide by those rules, in fact I ignore them almost as much as New Yorkers ignore the law that prevents you from crossing the street on a red light or French Canadians ignore basic politeness. (Hello my fellow jaywalkers!)

Of those 4 posts, three are completely different subject matters and the 2 that are similar I included to show what consistency can do for content exposure.

Let's go over the posts to show what they were and how they are different.

First up, we have the post that had the most organic reactions. This was a post I did this past Monday. I didn't plan it ahead, nor did I have any intent on having it do this well. What happened was that I saw a ton of people with posts stating that they had gotten jobs...I then remembered the angst, desperation and despair I felt when I was unemployed seeing the same thing. I wanted to encourage my audience and make sure that they felt seen and heard.

Clearly it resonated. I have never had a post gain as many reactions in the first hour as this one did and the crazy thing is it is still going.

What the stats do not show is how many people privately messaged me saying that they needed to see my post and how it gives them hope.

This turned a post I didn't write during a period of emotion, into a very emotional post.

Next up we have this one...

This is one of the few posts that I wrote 100% selfishly purely because I needed to express my emotions and I had no other outlet. I was extremely vulnerable and shared a very down day as a father and husband. The thing with this post that I believe stood out was its relatability. All parents have days like I had, we just rarely express it. Like it or not many parents hold a ton in and I just had reached my limit.

The last two posts should not come as a shock to anyone. They are the Job Connection Tuesday posts. I am only going to link 1 because they are the same and are both found in my featured section.

This is an example of a post that has been consistent for a year and a half and gets over 80k views every single week with well over 500 comments. The reason these posts do so well is they serve a purpose, provide people immediate connections and results and they know every single Tuesday rain, sleet or shine I will be here posting. It has become a hub for recruiters from every type of company small and large.

Looking at this as a whole, this should tell you that content creation is not boxed in by creating one type of content. It is ok to be yourself, to be unique...to dare to be different. It should also show you that when you do not force things and go with your gut, more often than not they go right.

Now I do want to provide a bit of a disclaimer. As of yesterday I hit 30,000 followers. My content is exposed to a lot of people. That does not mean however, that it should make any bit of difference in what you are doing. I have created the same content since I started on my journey a year and a half ago.

I would also mention that these are just three examples. I do a ton of LinkedIn Lives, I speak to Women's Empowerment and Neurodiversity... I wrote an edition of this newsletter about being Anti-racist....which should only prove my point further.

Outside of that, I admire a lot of content creators that do different things.

I was very purposeful about who I included in the banner for this newsletter. Sonal Bahl, Kevin D. Turner, Michele Olivier, Rachel Beck and Future Cain are all featured.

Between these people you have the preeminent LinkedIn expert in Kevin, you have Sonal who is a job search expert with 100,000 YouTube subscribers, Michele Olivier is a no nonsense unapologetic bad $%$ woman who swears, writes resumes coaches and places people in jobs that they are happy with. Then you have Rachel Beck...my mispuche. This is a woman born in India, raised by Indian-Jewish adoptive parents who has overcome adversity and is a world renown author and media personality...Finally...Future Cain...my mentor...my friend...someone that causes people to sit with themselves by exposing historical and emotional truths that society likes to hide behind a layer of systemic oppression and Cheesecake Fact.. desserts. (I don't know where I was going with that last comment but I will roll with it.)

Each one has a different viewpoint and has never held themselves to anyone else's standards. This is what makes them great, what makes them...forgive me...iconic. Most of all it is what makes people listen.

In closing...for those of you that are getting a million suggestions and a million directions, please remember that success for one doesn't equate to success for another. You and only you have the ultimate say in what feels right.

In the last 18 months that I have been doing this, one thing I have absolutely come to understand is that when we let go...when we free ourselves from the shackles we constrict ourselves in, that those are the times we find our greatest success.

Thank you for reading.

~The Honest Recruiter

Dan Roth