For those who tweet, blog and YouTube regularly, the hardest thing to do on a consistent basis is have something interesting to say. Some celebrities get a pass; the light of their flame is so bright that a description of them buttering toast is “interesting” to millions of followers. But to the rest of us, we have to come up with new and interesting ideas, observations and spins.
A part of this comes from being creative, but a part comes simply from regularity. Seth Godin is a prolific blogger and writer with a gazillion New York Times bestsellers under his belt. I am in awe of a number of his books. And I read his blog daily. Yet I’m shocked by how trite, superficial and unoriginal some of his posts are. But by producing every day, he is able to churn out a lot of good stuff along the way.
I tire of overused sports analogies, but great social media content creators really are like star baseball hitters who have a .295 hitting average: both fail miserably more than 70% of the time.
Of course, if you are unable to see a baseball thrown faster than 40 miles per hour or if everything you write is trite and uninteresting, simply having more at-bats won’t help.
But for many people in many industries, simply creating more content on a regular basis will help. That’s why I recommend giving yourself content creation goals and sticking with them. I try to do 1 or 2 blog posts a day on topical issues, one on an evergreen topic, one marketing web post and 1-4 YouTube videos a day, if I am not traveling, plus a book every other year or so.
Not everything I create is great, but if I can bat .295, that’s enough to get me in the media trainer hall of fame. What will it take to enter your own hall of fame?
TJ Walker is president of Media Training Worldwide. You can reach him at 212.764.4955