How do we make our online presence cohesive? How do we find the balance between posting in ways that encourage people to interact with what we post and having a longer-lasting, curated presence that gives a clear and concise flavour of who we are now?
Social media is great for starting a conversation. Practically all platforms give preference to content (a written post, an image, a video that plays in the feed) over links and with most readers scanning their feed, direct content is usually an easier way to grab attention.
At the same time, when we only leave content on our social media feeds, we have two main issues. Firstly and perhaps most importantly, we have no control over that platform. A change in rules and we’re out, new algorithm and no-one sees my posts any longer. Second, our profile collects a random assortment of posts in the order we posted them. It’s hard to get a sense of what a person is all about just by looking at their profile because so much content is lost in the feed.
I like to suggest a practice I call Harvesting and Digesting the Nutrients. You can do this on your own, with peers or with a coach to help with identifying the themes and digesting them into what serves you best.
1. Use social media for posts that share ideas, test out reactions to them and start conversations. Post and ask questions as a regular practice. This helps you to get out of your own brain echo chamber (although this is only as diverse as your social media bubble).
2. At regular intervals, harvest. Go back to your posts and sift out the ideas that still feel valuable, the topics that generated conversations, the posts that still feel alive for you, also if they generated none. Don’t let the algorithm decide for you.
3. Do some organisation so you can see themes emerge. Digital boards are great for this but you might have other ways.
4. Choose content for your blog or where you want to build your cohesive presence, perhaps posts that can be developed a little further into something more long term.
5. You can also curate a newsletter with one / more blog posts and some looser ideas. Newsletters are great for growing a stable audience.
6. What nutrients can update your linked in profile, your descriptions of yourself on social media, on your website, perhaps even the services you offer? What insights can be taken deeper?
If you don’t feel comfortable with posting regularly, you can also decide to keep a journal and follow the same process. Perhaps you can choose to have conversations with those around you about your ideas and use this as your sounding board rather than social media. There’s no one road that works for everyone.
Does anyone else already do this? Does it sound like something that might work for you? Or do you have your own practice to share?
Photo by Brienne Hong on Unsplash.
Harvesting and repurposing your content: how to make the most of what you post
