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Being an entrepreneur requires creativity.

Every business owner has a creative streak.

They have to. It’s a matter of surviving entrepreneurship.

So, you would think that as creative people, entrepreneurs should have no problem whatsoever coming up with social media content, right?

Not true.

The truth is, creative types often have a hard time putting out social media content.

The reason for this is usually tied into their high standards and sense of perfectionism.

Being a perfectionist is tricky. On the one hand, it is the entrepreneur’s secret weapon, their superpower, if you will.

But, it can also be their kryptonite.

Perfectionism and having high standards can have adverse effects. They can cause writer’s block and stage fright.

They can keep a would-be content creator in an endless cycle of preparation, never executing.

So what is a creative person to do? Compromise their standards?

Of course not.

But here are a few measures that creative people can take to make sure their high standards and perfectionism doesn’t stop them from putting out social media content on a regular, consistent basis…

Keep things in perspective.

It’s good to be inspired.

It’s great to have access to so much online content and have social media heroes you can follow, admire, and learn from.

The problem becomes when we compare ourselves to these social media mega personalities.

We all want to be the next “so-and-so.”

But, so-and-so is SO good at what they do, and every blog post you write, or every video you shoot, pales in comparison to what so-and-so is doing.

Stop it.

First of all, you cannot establish a brand by trying to copy or be someone else.

And second of all, how do you think so-and-so got to where they are?

It wasn’t by planning and overthinking.

It was by doing.

And failing miserably. And then, trying again.

Do yourself a favor and go to the YouTube channel of your favorite social media darling and check out their old content. Look at the videos they were putting out 3 years ago.

Not as great as what they’re doing now, right?

Instead of comparing your starter efforts to what someone who’s been at it for 3, 5, or 10 years is doing, compare yourself to what they were like when they were starting out.

Compare apples to apples.

Aim to be better than so-and-so was 3 years ago. Keep in mind that you have the tremendous advantage of learning from so-and-so’s trials and errors. And now, see yourself as being less than 3 years away from being the next so-and-so. Why not?

Get constructive feedback.

You have to be careful about feedback.

On the one hand, constructive feedback helps us grow, but if you ask for feedback from the wrong person, it can set you off track.

It’s very important to ask only the right people for feedback.

For this reason, it’s helpful to have a think tank or mastermind group in place. Many entrepreneurs are a part of these groups in any case.

You need a small group of people you can trust and who you know have your best interests at heart.

In most cases, it’s a bad idea to include your mom or life partner in this group. The reason being, they are too close to you and will worry too much about hurting your feelings. If you need a cheerleader, these are likely your go-to people. But, when you need constructive feedback on your social media content, you need to go to someone who is more critical.

But, not TOO critical.

You don’t want someone who is – either subconsciously or maliciously – has fear or jealousy towards your entrepreneurial mindset, and will be overly critical, thereby crushing your enthusiasm to create more content.

Start small.

Where does it say that you have to charge out of the starting blocks, like a racehorse, with a full series or blog posts, or memes, or videos scheduled and planned out for months at a time?

If you think too far ahead right from the start, you will overwhelm your perfectionist mind.

Start small. Start with one blog post or video, if you have to. Get some feedback, and then make some adjustments.

It’s wise to start small because there will likely be a bunch of tiny details you didn’t initially think of and would be able to fix by the second time around.

For instance, maybe you shoot your first video and your mastermind group lets you know that your lighting wasn’t so great. Or maybe they felt your video ran a little too long (or too short). Or maybe you need to work on making better eye contact with the camera. These are things that are easy to fix for next time.

And now, you can improve by the second video, instead of wasting your time scripting and producing 12 of them off the bat.

Deconstruct your process into a repeatable workflow.

In order to ensure consistent productivity, you are going to have to break down your content creation process into manageable, repeatable steps.

Creative people don’t typically work this way. They normally create when they feel creative.

But – as in business – with social media marketing, you have to accept that you are under the gun to produce on a regular basis.

Failure to create reliably and on schedule will be detrimental to your credibility. It will hurt your brand’s credibility.

Breaking down your workflow into manageable and repeatable steps will reduce the decision-making and mental energy required to producing content, so you can turn more of your attention towards being creative.

So in other words, being methodical and regimented about creating content frees you up to become more creative.

Ironic, right?

All your mental energy should be reserved for coming up with new ideas and creating.

Producing, or executing, should feel routine and not so taxing on your mental facilities.

You might even be able to delegate certain aspects of executing. But whether you do everything yourself or hire someone to execute for you, you still need to break down the steps and create a manageable workflow so you can produce.

To see an example of a repeatable workflow to repurpose video content, click here.

Stick to a social media content schedule.

You have to get in the habit of creating on demand, when it comes to social media marketing.

This often goes against the instincts of a creative individual.

Nevertheless, it is in your best interests to put together a social media calendar, and stick to it.

Above all, make sure the schedule is doable. There is no point in creating a schedule you can’t possibly stick to.

Take note of whenever the schedule seems like too much to handle and make adjustments. Delegate tasks if you have to.

Observe if your schedule is getting you results. If your Friday posts get little engagement, you have to move those posts to Thursday, and then everything needs to be executed a day earlier leading up to it.

Making changes to the schedule to get better results is okay.

Bailing on the schedule on a regular basis is NOT okay.

Creative people often struggle when it comes to creating social media content, because of their high standards and sense of perfectionism. In order to prevent these otherwise great qualities from halting or impeding the production of new social media content, it is important to keep things in perspective and get constructive feedback from people you can trust. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, so start small and branch out from there. Deconstruct your workflow into manageable, repeatable steps to get the most productivity while expending the least amount of energy. And finally, create a social media content schedule and stick to it.

 

If you’re ready to take your business blog to the next level, check out my FREE eBook, “How To Blog Like An Entrepreneur” here…