Written by: Katherine Mackenzie-Smith, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
For years now, the messages around content have been this: Content is King. We all get it, we know that a great way to grow a business, brand, and online presence is through aligned content that connects and converts, right?
But the idea of creating content and the reality of getting it done are often two different things.
I know Gary Vee gives everyone a hard time about it and their excuse often is that they don’t have a team to help them. My clients, who are mostly solo business owners and introverted ones at that, often have the same challenges too:
“It’s a lot of work for one person to do.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“It feels overwhelming trying to be everywhere.”
Here are a few ideas to make creating content for your business this year easier than ever.
Keep A List of Questions From Your Audience
It’s impossible to constantly and accurately put yourself in the shoes of your audience, because often you’re not exactly where they are. But the benefit is that they are people and you have endless ways to connect with them and ask them to tell you what they need.
If you have a Facebook or Discord community, you can set up simple entry questions. This allows you to directly ask your people why they’re joining the group and what they’re looking for. You can also use any one of the social media platforms to create simple polls or ask questions. There are so many ways to collect questions and ideas from your specific audience to get ideas for content you could easily create and share with them.
Keep a list and refer to it whenever you need to. Not only will it take the guesswork out of what you’re creating, you’ll build rapport with your audience that you’re really here to listen and support them.
Repurpose Everything
Every platform is different, and our people are on those platforms for different reasons. But it’s easy to take one piece of content and break it up into pieces to share in the right places. Blog posts and articles can easily be turned into quotes and carousels to share on Instagram. Longer videos and podcast episodes can be turned into clips and shared on LinkedIn and Facebook. Outtakes and behind the scenes bits and pieces can be great for TikTok and Instagram stories.
Once you get into a habit of thinking about how your content can be shared and repurposed in different ways, it starts to become part of a greater workflow.
YouTube videos can be transcribed and turned into articles. Blog posts can be recorded as podcast episodes. This means you can create more content across different platforms, without having to come up with more ideas. I call it a Content Ecosystem and have created a really simple process for making the most of your content without burnout and overwhelm.
Reshare Old Content
Just like repeating outfits has become a big thing in the sustainable fashion movement, resharing old content needs to be thought of like this as well. What you have to say and the time and energy you put into your content deserves the respect to be seen by as many people as possible.
Whether it’s resharing viral videos and memes because they always do well, or busting out old content that’s relevant to current trends, events, or what you’re launching or offering, no one will remember if they saw it a year ago. And, your audience has likely grown over time, meaning that some people won’t have seen your old content.
Create less, share more is a ridiculously easy way to get more content in front of more people, but without the extra work involved to start something brand new.
If you have a plan to create more content this year to get your business, your work, and your message in front of more people, work smarter – not harder. Make the most of getting the content you’ve already made in front of as many people as possible. Don’t overthink it. And take time to reflect on the content that seems to do well on which platform. Because that will give you so much information on what to keep doing, what to change, and what to schedule in to reshare every 6-12 months.
Katherine Mackenzie-Smith, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Katherine Mackenzie-Smith is a business coach and strategist for introverts and highly sensitive souls, an ideas alchemist, energy and soul medicine practitioner, and host of the popular League of Extraordinary Introverts podcast.
Through her 1:1 mentoring, Emerge and Expand business membership, speaking and writing, Katherine supports quiet leaders to create successful, sustainable businesses through their own innate wisdom and strengths, without feeling like they have to change who they are.
Katherine has been named a ‘self help guru’ by Elle Magazine, featured on the covers of Happiness and Wellbeing magazine and Inspired Coach magazine, as well as being featured in a number of publications, podcasts, and websites including Cleo Magazine, Collective Hub, The Introvert Entrepreneur, and One Woman Shop.
