Memes...are not content!

Every now and again I just lose it.

Memes. They are not clever, insightful or funny. They add nothing to my newsfeed but noise. A vacuous waste of everybody's time. The problem with memes is that they are in the same ball park as a constant stream of selfies.

Why? Why do people do this? You should post a selfie every now and again...going on a trip? It's selfie time. Taken delivery of your new car? A selfie is good. Had a major problem you have overcome? Share it with a selfie for sure.

But every day?

No...unless you look like David Gandy or Christie Turlington forget it.

So, a content and posting strategy need to be really complicated and complex yes?

No. Your posting strategy needs to do just 3 things.

1. Visibility - your posting needs to keep you in the line of sight of your network because if you never post they will forget who you are. Everyone is far too busy to remember everyone of their 1000, 2000, 5000 connections so you need to make it easy for them to remember YOU.
2. Show you are an expert - if you want to have a conversation with me you need to convince me that you "know what you are talking about" and the way you do this is by sharing original content. NOT re-sharing company posts because that doesn't show me that you know what you are talking about it shows me (you hope) that your company knows that they are talking about...but you don't want me to speak to the company, you want me to speak to YOU. Your content needs to be smart, helpful, observational, entertaining, easy to digest and regular and it needs to ask no more of me than a minute or two of my time because I am, frankly too busy and important to give you any more of my time until you have won my trust.
3. Show you are human (selfie time). If I am going to have to work with you and your company for the next 6 months I want to be sure that not only are you competent but that I actually like you too. This is why personal posts are so vital and should be part of every person's content strategy.

When you are considering what to post you need to remember that no matter how good you are and how good your products and services are...I don't know that. You do (because you work there) but I don't, to me you look and sound just like everyone else which, if true, means it doesn't matter which person/company I choose.

So you need to have "snackable" content. Something that is quick and easy for me to consume. Something that doesn't take too long. Something that is pleasurable to read/watch. Something that educates me or helps me.

To assume that I need to read a 30 page white paper to understand why I need to buy your (and only your) product is a huge ask when I don't know you, like you or trust you.

Winning that trust doesn't happen overnight.

To be successful you need to have a plan and you need to execute on that plan. Posting something today and not posting again for 3 weeks is a waste of time and effort. Posting every day is the answer. Posting something short every day is REALLY the answer.

Over time this will activate your audience, it will keep placing you in front of them and it will uncover the opportunities that exist.

Nail this and your some way towards having a nice stream of calls with interested (and interesting) people.

If you would like to understand more about structuring a content strategy that really works read my other posts and posts from the DLA Ignite team.

The next challenge to overcome is your network. Is it in the right place? Are you connected to the people you need to know (and to know you)? Are you having conversations with those people?

To find out about the basics of network watch out for a follow-up article.

#socialselling #digitalselling #digitaltransformation #socialmediastrategy #contentstrategy