Be Consistent, Not Perfect
Social Honeycomb offers some tips on creating genuine, relatable and effective social media content.
Do you waste time perfecting your posts and so don’t post as often as you could or should? Are you comparing yourself to other accounts and so don’t think your posts are good enough? Do you wonder why you aren’t getting engagement and your account isn’t growing? Are you keen to grow a community but no one wants to be your friend? If this sounds familiar you’ll be pleased to know that you re not alone and that it’s easy to fix.
How? By showing up more consistently. Who wants perfection? I certainly don’t. I want real, not fake, I want human, not robot, I want to engage with the real you not who you think you should be.
Be the true you
In years gone by Social Media was about being seen to be perfect, about having common themes throughout and looking “professional” but now it’s about being authentic, being relatable and being yourself. Yes, we still need to come across as professional (ie knowing our stuff) so aim for good but not perfect, and I guarantee you can get more posts out there that are good rather than perfect and that will make you consistent not nonexistent.
Who are you?
Your audience wants / needs to know who you are, they want to engage with real people, warts and all. By showing up on a regular basis they will get a true understanding of you and your business and this will help them to forge stronger links with you and a better understanding of you. This is why you need to be real and not perfect. By coming across as too perfect you may find that you scare your audience off, you will intimidate them and if they aren’t intimidated their expectations of you and what you can deliver will be higher than you can reasonably fulfil.
Just do it.
People often tell me that they haven’t started showing up consistently just yet because their posts aren’t good enough. Well, how do they know how good they are unless they try? Once you get started your posts can only get better and you will only get better by trial and error. So the good news is that things will get easier but then the platform will bring out a new feature and you have to start all over again. I am going through this process with Reels on Instagram. When it first came out I had a play and a laugh with them but I wasn’t that confident, now lots of people are doing some really great Reels and I’ve been left behind, but by staying quiet I will never get better so now is the time to keep on practising, laugh at my own mistakes, ask for help if I need it but just keep going.
Don’t try and wing it!
Your aim is to be relatable so why not share with your audience your learning experience. If you are launching a new watersport venue talk about what went right and what could have gone better, or if you are looking for new coaching clients why not ask your existing audience to help you find new ones? We are all human and we can tell if someone is talking rubbish. You are not expected to be perfect first time around. One of my pet hates is when someone tells me that their workshop or product has almost sold out and that I need to buy now. If, further down the line, I realise that this is not true I lose trust in that person and am unlikely to work with them again. No one has gone from zero to hero so they can’t expect you to. This is one of the reason why I love Janet Murray and her approach. She is always trying something new and then weaves her experiences, both good and bad, into her podcasts and courses. Real-life, relatable stuff!
Don’t compare yourself to the others
Every social media platform is different from the others and every person on each platform is different from each other. So please don’t compare yourself to everyone. Get your inspiration from them but don’t compare. They are a different person, with a different background or back office support, a different product, a different service, they have a different audience with different needs and therefore their success will be different. There are no set rules on social media platforms, no one is right or wrong. Speak to one “guru” and they will tell you one thing and another will tell you something different. Focus on what works for you, and if it doesn’t work try something different but whatever happens make sure you turn up.
The algorithm isn’t looking to see if your content is perfect, if you have typos in your text or if your images are outstanding and related to the content. It is looking at consistency and engagement so be more consistent and you will get more engagement. I know this because last week I was consistent and my engagement was brilliant and this week I have been distracted by other things and hence not consistent and my engagement has bombed!
Ok so that’s enough from me, I’m going to read this once, check for errors, grab some relevant images and then just put it out there. Let me know what you think by clicking here. Or jump on my platforms and send me a DM and don’t forget that if you want some specific help why not book a Power Hour with me.