Who is the most engaged and responsive celebrity on social media?
Lately, I’ve been in awe of Lizzo’s online presence. She not only sees and hears her fans, but she engages back.
I especially noticed this on TikTok, when her song ‘About Damn Time’ went viral over the summer. During the dance challenge, you could find Lizzo dueting user-generated content from fans and even other celebrities.
I remarked on Lizzo’s impressive fan engagement with a post on Twitter. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that she liked the tweet!
Now, I of course can’t confirm if Lizzo manages her own accounts, but she seems to be everywhere. How can we do the same? This is a pressure many content creators or brands face. We try to keep up on every social media platform and we end up burning out or losing consistency.
Before we get into it, I want to confirm that you don’t need to be on every social media platform. I tend to focus on three — I post daily on Twitter, and a few times per week on TikTok and LinkedIn. Then I also publish my newsletter on a bi-weekly basis. The key is to diversify your marketing mix and avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Maybe Lizzo accomplishes cross-platform dominance because she has a team helping her out. And you may have this type of assistance too. Something as simple as hiring a virtual assistant for a few hours per month can help you crank out content more efficiently.
Like it or not, volume and quantity are a big part of content marketing success. The average creator or small business can also develop a consistent and robust publishing plan. For me, this starts with creating long-form blog content.
Prioritizing long-form content is generally my process, which isn’t necessarily the best and only way, but I thought I’d give you the run-down. Adapt this framework to whatever works for you!
No, Blogging Isn’t Dead!
Now, you may think in the age of short-form video, blog content is dead. But it’s still the gift that keeps on giving. Your blog supports all of the following marketing efforts:
- SEO
- Sales
- Lead generation and nurturing
- Email marketing
- Social Media
If nothing else, think of blog content as your opportunity to get your thoughts on paper before you distribute content via other media. Imagine it as your game plan and rough draft. It’s your place to fully flesh out your ideas and gather your thoughts so you can more confidently publish elsewhere. This step also helps you show up on video feeling more prepared.
So how does this work from start to finish? How do you bring your content ideas to life?
Typically, I’ll get an idea in my head, or make off-the-cuff observation, that I’ll tweet out. This is always my first step before I write any blog content. Twitter is almost like stream-of-consciousness, but I also consider it a sandbox for bigger content ideas.
For example, this blog post started when I tweeted about Lizzo being an engaged celebrity on social media. Other people replied to that tweet, which got my gears turning on how I can keep building upon this thought. And now, I’m taking that random observation and expanding it into a fully-baked and thorough blog post that you’re reading right now!
With a simple tweet or post as the jumping-off point, here’s what my publishing plan typically looks like.
- Think the thought
- Tweet the thought
- Discuss the thought with others
- Think some more
- Write about it in a blog post
- Add subscribe forms to the blog post to encourage newsletter sign-ups
- Turn the blog post into a podcast, or invite a guest to discuss the topic further
- Share clips from the podcast on social media, or create a video short-form video version for TikTok or YouTube
- Embed the podcast audio on my blog
- Share the link to the blog on LinkedIn
- Share the blog post and podcast episode in my newsletter with some additional supplemental content
This content strategy certainly keeps me busy, but it all starts with a strong foundation with my blog post. Once that piece is developed, the rest is about repurposing. Everything is a building block.
You can certainly rework this in a way that’s best for you. For instance, maybe you like to start expressing your ideas in a quick TikTok video. This is also a great way to test your ideas and elaborate on them with a more refined blog post or podcast episode. You can start anywhere, just make sure it’s where your audience is.
Content Creation — An Ever-Changing Game
As I share my process with you, it’s important to keep in mind that there are lots of content creation best practices, but few hard and fast rules. It’s always evolving and changing, and so are you as an individual. At the end of the day, the creative process that’s best is the one that gets you excited to create. Every time you publish is a chance to gain insights about your art and also yourself.
Create for fun, experiment, test, learn, but don’t wait for things to be perfect. You’ll gain your own wisdom along the way.
