Don’t know what to post? We’ve all been in this situation, and it may be due to a couple of factors. Maybe you aren’t done creating your personal brand yet. If that’s the case, then this is a wakeup call for you to get up and start working on those brand pillars now! But what if you think you’ve already gotten that work done and you’re lacking ideas on what to post? Join in as Tracey Pontarelli shares three simple but powerful tips that will help you come up with useful content every time!
—
Listen to the podcast here
Don’t Know What To Post? These 3 Practical Tips Are Worth A Try!
I’ve been asking a lot of you for your questions. What are you still struggling with? I’ve got a couple of different topics in the next couple episodes to help you knock some things out. The number one biggest question, “I don’t know what to post.” We’re going to start at the beginning. I’m actually going to give you three practical tips.
The first thing is if you’re struggling with what to talk about on social media, I want to know whether or not you’ve done the work in creating your personal brand in your brand pillars. If you haven’t, now is the time. Now is your wake up call to go get that work done. My Magnetic Marketing Academy is open. I have given lots of trainings in earlier episodes on personal branding. Go back and read to any one of those. You could jump into the Magnetic Marketing Academy. It’s there as a self-paced course. It starts with personal branding because that’s where it all starts.
Getting clear on what you’re passionate about, what you want to share and add value on, who you’re talking to is critically important. This is the first work that you want to get done. If you do not have a clear brand in your brand pillars, you will always feel frustrated. You’re always going to feel like you’re throwing it up on the wall to see if it sticks. It’s not going to feel good. You’re going to feel disempowered. When you get your brand work done, you feel empowered.
If you have been doing your brand pillar work and it’s still feeling like a struggle, some of these stuff will help. Maybe you need to go back and revisit your brand pillars, and see if what you’ve put down as your brand pillars are authentic and congruent for you. Or was it who you thought you should be on social media? That’s a big one. Is it really who you are? Are you trying to pretend to be someone that you actually don’t want to be? You’re feeling like an imposter because it’s not authentic to you.
If you say, “Tracey, I’ve done my brand work. I know this is who I really want to be,” then it’s time to decide to become the person that you’re becoming. Go become a more educated person on the topics that you want to share with. That’s on you. If you say, “I want to share on mindset, but I don’t know what to talk about,” it’s time to do some research on mindset. It’s easy to find information, and then share the information that you found.
This is my number one skill. Write this down. Learn it, teach it. You do not need to be the originator of content. There are very few things out there that are brand-new ideas. If you know some, go ahead and let me know in the comments because I can’t think of one right now. Everything is built off of other people’s wisdom. It is your interpretation, your take, your perspective on those topics that adds the value. You don’t need to be the expert in all topics. You need to be a resource and a value to people.
Once you’ve done that, you’ve got your brand pillars. I’m going to give you a couple of different things that you can do. I’m going to give you three practical things that I do all the time. The very first one is a website. It’s called Answer The Public. If you haven’t heard about this, you’re welcome in advance. Answer The Public is a worldwide collection of all of the main searches that people do on any given topic. It’s brilliant. What you can see are the main questions that people have about this topic, then you can do research on that topic.
Let’s say it’s on homeschooling. That’s a big topic. When I search it, it’s going to give me all the questions: where, why, what, which, “Which homeschooling program is the best?” I’m reading a couple here. “Can homeschooling help social anxiety? Can homeschooling be tax deductible?” That’s good. Our homeschoolers are smarter. “Who monitors homeschooling? Will homeschooling increase after the pandemic? Will homeschooling affect college?” There are many questions.
If you’re somebody who talks about homeschooling, you can find what the major questions are. Then you can take that, and you may actually be like, “I already know the answer to that question because I’ve done this research before.” You immediately go and do that research. Answer The Public is number one.
Can I tell you something funny about Answer The Public? My mother is amazing. She always gets the name of something a little bit wrong. Sometimes it’s confusing because I’ll say, “I feel like that’s right, but it’s not.” Then I’ll remember that it was something kind of like that, but a little bit different. When I first wrote this down as my notes, I wrote Ask The People, and it’s Answer The Public. I’m turning into my mother.
The next thing you’re going to do is you’re going to go find experts on different topics. Let’s say you already know the topic that you want to do. My two favorite places are number 2 and 3. My number two is go to TED Talks. I watched a TED Talk. I’m going to recommend it to you all right now because it’s fantastic. It’s called Sleep is Your Superpower. As you know, in addition to being a branding and marketing expert, I’m a wellness entrepreneur. I’m a wellness coach. I am obsessed with sleep and the power of sleep.
I sat and took notes on the power of sleep. I did several Facebook Lives and Instagram Lives. I have done Reels on the topic of sleep. I’ve done an email to my email list on the topic of sleep. I’ve done multiple posts on the topic of sleep because I took down all of these notes, and then I was able to use them again and again. TED Talks are usually no longer than twenty minutes. They’re packed with information because that’s the whole point of a TED Talk. A TED Talk is you don’t waste any time. You deliver an amazing presentation filled with information, impactful, and then you’re done.
I love TED Talks. I subscribe to the weekly TED Talk newsletter to give me ideas each week. I try to watch one TED Talk a week on any topic just to keep myself interesting. The more you know, the more your brain starts to make connections to other things. Listening to smart people talk about topics that they love, that’s inspiring. TED Talk is number two.
Number three is your favorite podcast. You could also do a YouTube video for sure. I love podcasts because I listen to them all the time. It’s my favorite thing to do when I’m walking Mabel in Central Park, New York. If I find a good podcast, I can have a lot of information that’s useful for other things. The top three are Answer The Public, TED Talk, and your favorite podcast.
What you can do with that content, first of all, is take very copious notes. You could do them in a notebook, but I would do it in Google Drive, so that you have that content again and again. Don’t write it down somewhere where you’re going to throw that notebook away or lose it like I do. Make sure it’s in a place where that content is saved. I love the Drive. My laptop died weeks ago, and a lot is gone, so put things on the Drive.
Once you do that, you can do live videos with your five top tips. You can do live in your Stories. You can pull out quotes and facts and statistics for posts. You can do a carousel. There’s a lot you can do. If you do a blog, you can do a blog post. This is what we call repurposing content. You take the macro content, which is your notes from whatever you watched or listened to, and then you’re going to slice and dice that, and then you’re going to repurpose that over and over again.
Once you’ve got fun content, you will start to see, “I can do a Reel on this topic. I can do a graphic on this topic. I just saw a graphic from somebody else that’s about the same topic. Let me use their graphic, give them credit, and then add the information that I learned about this topic.” Do you see how this works?
The big thing to, loop back, is to get clear on what you want to talk about. There’s never been a better time to find great content. It’s all there. You don’t have to go to the library and pull out the Dewey Decimal system. You don’t have to look at microfiche. You don’t even have to read a book. You could read a book, but you can actually go listen to other people and take notes.
If you haven’t started with your brand work, now is the time. This is your wakeup call, friends.
Reading a book is also a great idea. I always recommend that you’ve got a great book to read, but you don’t even need to to create content, so stop waiting. Get those brand pillars done. If you have not started in that brand work, now is the time. Now is your wake-up call. You can do this. I’m rooting for you. I love you to pieces. I want you to tag me on a piece of content that you do using these strategies, so that I can see your great work. I love you. I’ll see you back here next time.
Important Links
