When it comes to content creation on social media, brands and creators often find themselves at a crossroads- finding a balance between consistency and creativity!
Content creation is a rewarding and dynamic skill- one that requires careful deliberation, an elaborate thought process, and all the creative effort and work that goes into producing something the audience will like!
So, how do you find that balance between producing exceptionally good content and maintaining consistency? When we say consistency, we mean maintaining the same tone and style and, more importantly, a dependable schedule so that your audience knows what to expect.
If you, too, are facing the dilemma of establishing your presence with some solid content and remaining consistent so you can grow online, this post is for you!
Establishing a Strong Foundation
If you are a brand, especially a new one, that is trying to gain a solid footing on social media, consistency is a must for you! It helps create that dependable rhythm that your audience comes to rely on over time. They know what to expect from you and when! This keeps your brand relevant and fresh in their minds.
Hence, before anything else, you need to establish a strong foundation for your brand. For this purpose, you need to establish your brand’s personality, voice, purpose, and values.
This foundation will then guide all your creative endeavors and will facilitate consistency as well as brand recall. When your target audience comes across your content while scrolling through their feed, they will immediately be able to associate that content with your brand.
Developing Flexible Brand Guidelines
Creativity is about exploring new ideas, perspectives, and approaches! So whether you are a creator or a brand, there must always be room for creative freedom.
For brands especially, it is important to set certain brand guidelines that may help guide the direction of the creative process. Yet, you should allow enough flexibility to let creativity shine through.
While the intent of your content is to put your brand and offerings in front of the audience, the content must be appealing enough to make the audience want to stop scrolling and check out your content.
Developing a Content Plan and Strategy
The next consideration to ensure consistency with a good mix of creativity is to come up with a carefully put-together content strategy.
A well-defined strategy should ideally identify your target audience, the chosen channels, your content style, tone, theme, and the voice you want to convey. This will help ensure your content is in line with your brand values and personality.
At the same time, you need a content plan that clearly outlines your content formats, topics, and your posting schedule. This will help you effectively manage your time and resources and keep you consistent in terms of posting content online as well.
Informed Experimentation and Innovation
One of the biggest perks of using social media to connect with your target audience is that you can gather data related to your prospects, gauge their perception of your brand and content, and assess the effectiveness of your campaigns.
You can use data analytics to determine what type of content performs better and is appreciated more by your target audience. This will guide your creative efforts and enable you to try out different formats to see which ones are received well.
This allows for efficient allocation of time and resources and will help you improve your social media marketing ROI in the long run.
You can also use data to optimize your posting schedule by finding out when your target audience is most active on social media. Over time, you may experience that your content is better received and yields more engagement when you post it at optimal times.
Remain Adaptable and Open to Changes
Content creation on social media is always a work in progress! As a brand or creator, you must accept that nothing remains the same and what works at one time may not do so later. Hence, it is important to embrace the changes and adapt accordingly.
Continue to check and analyze your content for clarity, accuracy, relevance, and appeal, and refine it as and when needed. You may also need to ensure your content is optimized with the relevant keywords and use hashtags to ensure it gets maximum visibility at any given time.
Consistently reviewing and improving your content helps you remove inconsistencies, redundancies, and errors and establish your credibility. It also facilitates engagement and keeps you relevant in what is otherwise a very competitive and crowded market.
Final Thoughts
As social media is extremely competitive, you may feel pressured to come up with fresh content frequently in a bid to get ahead! However, quality must never be compromised in this process.
Your target audience on social media has a myriad of available choices and will easily move on to the next option if they do not find your content engaging, valuable, or relevant. Just posting for the sake of it no longer works, considering how discerning today’s average social media users are.
That said, when you consistently post quality content that keeps showing up with something of value, you will automatically imprint it on the minds of your target audience. When you offer quality, the numbers will follow.
Sources
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-do-you-balance-creativity-consistency-4e
