Many marketers will tell you that sharing content consistently is the key to growing an audience. But I don’t do this. And you may not need to either. Here’s why.
The best time to share
is when you have something worth sharing, whenever that is.
If you’re starting from scratch with 0 followers, then yes: try and share daily or weekly. You need to establish trust. But if you’re already years into creating content (a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, email newsletter, and/or social media posts) – I don’t think a set schedule matters anymore.
The algorithm will surface your content to the right people even if you don’t post every Tuesday. Media has evolved and your behavior can too. As long as you’re not commenting on market events or current events it’s fine to make somewhat evergreen content on a less rigid schedule.
To be clear, I’m not giving you permission to check out; content marketing is key to your business and brand. In any category. But producing it shouldn’t deplete your ego, it should be fun for you and valuable for your audience.
For example, below is a video I made for fun. It’s also helpful. I’m not selling anything. I do have a light ten-year chess strategy behind all the content I create but you’ll have to follow along and see what that turns out to be.
Your Content Niche
You should have a theme or niche. It doesn’t have to be extremely specific. I post about business, marketing, personal finance, or tech. These are fairly broad but it gives greater appeal and variety to you as a reader. Because if you’re into something I do, you’re probably into some or all of the other areas of interest. I am much more than “voice marketing” so why limit what I share?
Again, I’m not here to appease the algorithm or traditional content marketing advice and you don’t have to either.
Your niche can be somewhat broad. I have about five keywords in my “niche.” Look, real talk: I made a video in August 2020 that has nothing to do with my businesses but was a topic I just wanted to help people with: starting their first business, filing an LLC by yourself.
That video has netted over $2500 in YouTube ads revenue, unintentionally. The point here is DO YOUR OWN THING, break some rules. Who even made the rules? Technology plows ahead daily and rules change.
How much content is shared each day?
- Worldwide emails sent and received per day in 2021: 319.6 billion, which is 4.3% more emails than in 2020.
- Emails are set to increase by the same margin this year, hitting 333.2 billion.
- Every 24 hours, we publish 500 million tweets.
- Every day, we create roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data.
There is too much content out there. Most of it’s noise without signal. Across all media (blogs, social, video, podcast, email), I try not to add more unless it’s worth your time and mine.
That said, I’ve probably veered too far to the “less is more” side of communication. Some of you may feel like you missed orientation. I’ve never been in 35 years but dream of going! (But really that is a life feeling.)
Why I don’t share content on a schedule:
Blogs are usually once a month, tops. Sometimes it’s once a quarter. I no longer do my minipod on a set schedule either (it’s 5 minutes, about once every 1-2 weeks… play the latest episode).
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Many marketers will tell you that consistency in content creation is key.
“Publish every Tuesday to establish trust by fulfilling expectation. Commit to creating content on a schedule so it drives traffic and brand equity over time.”
At first, yes. When you start from zero you need to give 6 times for every 1 ask.
Once you’re established and have an audience, you can get away with more flexibility which is great if you actually perform better when given flexibility.
A Little Mystery Goes a Long Way
Let’s be honest about human nature: a variable reward schedule is inherently enticing. If Robert Greene wanted to help you seduce someone he’d probably suggest more mystique and fewer appearances at the theatre (The Art of Seduction is a great read ICYMI). Much like a narcissistic boyfriend you just can’t quit, let your content excite and entice someone, then ghost them, then reappear and love bomb them, then pass-ag insult them, then repeat the cycle again at inconsistent intervals. 😉 … I’m joking but look for the nugget.
I think my as-inspired / as-needed content approach makes for better content but it only works because I don’t respond well to forced structure or rigid timelines. You might.
Human Design is my favorite personality framework after diving into Myers Briggs and Enneagram and all the other hits. Human Design explains that Projectors often have an inconsistent energy system: they’re not made for structure or consistent daily productivity or output. Forcing it goes against their nature. The world tells you to be consisten because it’s a Generator system but your natural rhythm might not match that. Made a video about Human Design for entrepreneurs here.
Feeling less pressure and more freedom makes you more creative and less resentful of the work, IMO. Others take more of a Morning Pages view and just say “force yourself to write.” Know thyself and you’ll find what works best.
Topics you can expect:
I blog & vlog & post about whatever is interesting or useful in these categories:
- business / startup (WealthVoice startup story video playlist)
- marketing and voice marketing
- technology
- psychology
- personal finance (YouTube playlist here)
I’ve been writing on emilybinder.com since 2009. Some of you have been with me since the beginning (thank you). Some of you are new (welcome!) The fastest and easiest way to get my updates is on my minipod (see the Plink podcast widget below). Talk soon.
