Never Struggle for Content Ideas Again!

There's a reason people are constantly checking their phones. As a society, we've become conditioned to get our daily "fix" of content from social media, so for a business if your audience is there - speak to them there!

The growing number of platforms provide you and your organization with an opportunity to build personal and brand awareness as you connect and share with the audience you wish to serve, the influencers, and decision-makers for your products and/or services.

However, this only happens if you can produce a consistent stream of good content that engages your audience.

And this is where most people run into difficulties… Have you ever hit that ‘content wall’?

Creating regular content is like running a marathon. There will be a moment when you hit the wall and want to stop but you know you need to push through and keep going.

So, how do you push through the ‘content wall’ and keep going? After all, your inspiration has dried up and there seem to be no words left that have not already been written.

That’s when you fall back on your training and strategy.

This topic of content generation and hitting the ‘content wall’ comes up frequently in our LinkedIn training courses and programs.

"What am I going to post on social media?“

“What topics are there left to talk about?“

“What are the themes I should be focusing on?"

Most people just starting out on LinkedIn, they hit this wall within the first month. They get excited about reaching their target audience and telling them all about their business… but then the ideas for relevant, engaging content dries up.

So, what do you do?

After all, you’ve committed to sharing content consistently on the platform to build your presence and engage your audience.

You've fully embraced the best practice for generating content consistently, so you really need to post something…

If hitting the content wall becomes a daily cycle you will very quickly come to the decision, that it is not worth putting yourself under this pressure every day… and then you stop posting. PHEW, doesn't that feel better!

Yet this is counter-intuitive and detrimental to your goals of building strong personal and brand awareness!

At Maverrik-North America, we have a number of ways to tackle this issue so that you'll never run out of content again.

The one that I am going to share with you, we call TASTE.

We use the acronym TASTE as a framework to create content that engages our audience to educate them about who you are, what you do, and more importantly how you can help them.

T - Teach

You need to appreciate that people will not know whom you are and may never have heard of your company. So, you will need to educate them on who you are, who the company is, what you do.?

A - Advice

What are the tips, hints, and recommendations you can offer to people free of charge??

It’s those quick wins that you can make happen for someone through sharing small nuggets of your knowledge and expertise. To you, they have low value but to the person implementing the advice, it has a greater value.

Sharing actionable advice in the form of tips, hints, and recommendations.

For example, this week we presented a webinar on "How to Create a Great LinkedIn Profile" that guided people through 6 steps for them to implement on their profile to maximize their visibility and impact. Whoever implements these tips will see the outcomes we promised.

What does that person now do? Upon seeing the desired outcomes from their profile, they come back to the source of those tips looking for more. Now you are growing an audience that finds value in following your content.

S - Solve Pain

S is my favorite. This is all about addressing the pain point with a solution.

Here is our opportunity to talk about the common issues that your target audience experiences, and that you know you can solve.

What are their common challenges, issues, frustrations, or pain points??

Paint the picture of where they are right now and elaborate on it. What is the situation? Why is it important? How can the pain points be addressed?

For example, if the issue is your prospect is really struggling with cash flow in your business, then that is what you focus on…

“Is your business experiencing cash flow problems?”?

In their mind, they answer "YES", since this is a common issue that many small business owners wrestle with every day, week, and month.

“Do you feel the weight of responsibility each month to meet the salary budget?”

In their mind, they again answer YES …that is where I am at

Is the cash flow problem causing you sleepless nights and anxiety?

In their mind, they again answer YES …this person understands my situation. Once you hit on the emotional effect of an issue your audience starts to pay you the attention and your value is elevated in their eyes. They are now looking to you for the answer, or why else would you be talking about this issue.?

T -Transformation

Talk about the work you are doing with other clients and show the results of your work.

Use case studies, testimonials, and client reviews to show people what they can expect when they engage your product or service.

Images of you celebrating with clients, collecting awards, or screenshots of reviews work well on social channels and help to make what you do more real to your audience.?

The transformational content helps your audience see the outcomes of your product or service in a real-life situation, promoting thoughts like ‘That might work for us’ or ‘Would that be a good solution for my company?’

E - Experience You?

This is the one where most people get really uncomfortable. Why? It's because it puts the spotlight on you.?

Remember, whatever channel you are on whether it's LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc… people need to experience you.?

They need to get to know you, to identify with you. It really helps in the relationship if they get a little glimpse into your life.?It's hard for anyone to choose to do business with you if they either don't know, like, or trust you.

Now, what does that look like??

We are not advocating laying out your entire life on social media, rather just sharing little snippets of moments that people can identify with.?This s no different than what we'd share if we met someone at a networking event, for lunch, or on the golf course.

For example, do you volunteer, are there causes that you support, sports fan or passionate about a hobby, places you've visited or a celebration of a recent graduate, etc.

Another example is was when we visited a few competitor websites and were surprised to find that our company was being plagiarized.?We wrote a post on LinkedIn, sharing our perspective of simultaneously being outraged and complimented.

In the post, we asked, "How do you respond when that happens to you?” and started a conversation online that invited advice and sharing of experiences in business.

Let people experience you. Create short 10-30 second video clips that you can post on social media. There's something about connecting as a human being, hearing that voice, seeing that face, that really makes you relatable. Talk about your expertise, your company milestones, and your achievements.

So, next time you get stuck and you find yourself staring at the screen in front of you thinking ‘what shall I post?’... think about TASTE.?

Think about TEACH.?

What is it that you need to educate and teach people about who you are?

Don't get naive to the fact that you think everybody knows who you are.

There is always a new crowd. Keep teaching and educating people in one or two of your posts throughout the week.

Think about the ADVICE.?

What's that free advice, those tips, those hints that you can give away? You just do a post about that. Help people see you as someone who can help them, the go-to person for advice and tips and hints.?

Think about SOLVING PAIN.

Be intentional about creating content that talks about the issues you solve, how your products relate to that, how your services relate to a problem or a situation.?

Think about TRANSFORMATION.?

Use the feedback, case studies, all of those things that just help people see your solution or your product in a real-life situation.

Help them visualize it in their context and imagine it working for them.

Think about EXPERIENCE YOU.?

Don’t hide behind the company logo. Let your audience identify with you as a real and genuine person. Talk about the things you are passionate about and the causes you support.

Give people a glimpse into your life so they can relate to who you are.

I hope this has helped and given you a framework to help you create content.

So, next time you get stuck, just think TASTE.

Still, need some help? Let's have a conversation…

https://calendly.com/grahamriley/discovery-call