Social Media Writer? Get off the Computer

Behind every great social media content producer is a person who isn’t on the computer 24/7. We all know the adage “the more you practice, the better you get,” and in some situations that’s true, but when does "more" become too much?

Social media writing requires knowledge about your audience, and the more time you spend writing to that specific audience the more you will probably know about it. You’ll learn the ins and outs--what garners feedback and what gets ignored like the weird looking potato salad at the family barbecue. Following this line of logic, it would make sense that the longer you are online and engaging with your community, the better you will be at, well, engaging with your community. To quote the legendary college football analyst Lee Corso, “not so fast my friend!” Sitting online all day isn’t only detrimental to your health--it's detrimental to your job.

Social media writing requires creativity. You know that word; it’s the one that you stressed when you were in the interview process for your current position. Creativity, at least for me, often comes by drawing on personal experience and social interaction. While you may be able to draw on your life experiences for the first few weeks of content production, if your client is in an industry you could care less about then you’re probably going to run out of inspiration in a hurry.

The first sign of trouble is when you recognize you aren’t producing quality content. The second sign of trouble is when you go back to try to improve the content and you can’t. The third sign of trouble is when you realize you have nothing new to contribute because you’ve already tapped all your creative sources. New content is the essence of the internet age, so repetition is not an option.

Once you’ve discovered that you are in this predicament, the next step is to find a solution, which can be found by evaluating your life. I generally have distaste for other people telling me to evaluate my life, but seriously, this is important for keeping your job. If you can’t provide anything new as a content producer, you bring nothing to the table.

So what’s the solution? Get offline. No, that doesn’t mean mind-veg at the beach. That means go do something with another person and talk out new creative solutions. You will be absolutely amazed at how quickly new ideas come to you when you are able to just talk to someone. Sometimes they won’t say anything at all and it will come in an “AHA!” moment of ingenuity. More importantly, you will have new experiences to draw on for your posts.

If you can’t get out of the house, open up a Word doc and type your thoughts down, sort of like what I just did.