How to handle perfectionism with creating content for business and social media
Perfection is a word to describe something that brings joy and delight to the lives of others. The word perfect is “as good as it can be”. But this word STOPS us from posting and delivering the content our audience needs! So how do we actually handle perfectionism when it comes to creating content for our business and posting on platforms like social media??
Perfectionism is the word that prevents us from hitting “send” or “post”. It stops us from launching and it can really take its toll on our business. The podcast “Life as a Freelance Writer” brought on the amazing Hannah Blamey (a communications and marketing expert) to chat about this topic “perfectionism” and she gives the insight into how to handle being perfect when it comes to content.
She gives the tips on what to do instead!
What is the recipe for perfect content?
Well, what is the recipe for PERFECT content? I’m just going to give you the answer now and then explain what you can do moving forward. Well, if I’m going to be honest with you. There is NO such thing as the perfect piece of content.
The perfect blog, podcast episode, social media post, image, video, email - whatever it is. It doesn’t exist. If it is perfect for you it might not seem perfect to someone else. Someone will always think it needs to be improved (in all cases this is generally the person with the most emotion attached to it, the creator).
As soon as you come to terms with this, the easier it will be to start creating content. Like I mentioned in the podcast episode. I had a client who was opening back up post COVID. This is how the conversation went:
Me - “Why don’t you create some video content for the reopening.”
Client - “Yeah, I bought this good camera with mic etc. I just don’t think I will have enough time to learn how to use it before we open.”
Me - “What about your iPhone.”
Client - “That isn’t very professional though, it will look crap.”
Me - “If you make it look authentic to your brand, it won’t look crap. What are the values of the business? Is it to be upmarket? If it is, sure a good camera will work well. But if you want the business to be community-oriented, then your iPhone will work great.”
The word “perfect” stopped them from creating video content that would have worked really well for the reopening of the business. The key message from this, work out what your brand stands for and create the content that works to those values!! This was spoken about if a previous podcast episode and blog with Suz Chadwick.
There are a lot of dangers associated with perfectionism and content, if you don’t believe me, maybe Rosie Writing Space can convince you too!
Alright so if you can’t create “perfect content”, well how else are you meant to get the engagement of your audience??
How to get the attention of your audience instead
When you are creating a piece of content. Remember, what your objective is with the piece of content is to spark an emotion in your audience. Even if your piece of content is there to spark joy, it doesn’t matter.
As Hannah mentioned in the podcast episode, when you create a piece of content, you are borrowing the brain of your audience. You are asking them to read, engage and digest your content - don’t take this for granted! Now, this doesn’t mean you now have to go into meltdown and think it has to be perfect.
NO ONE LIKES PERFECT! Let’s get this clear. You know what people want?! To be YOU. To see your authentic brand! Like how amazing is it when big brands be funny, or they comment back on your comment?? This is showing you the brand is authentically engaging in you!
The perfect piece of content doesn’t exist, but your authenticity does. Have the energy around your content, not the worry it isn’t perfect! When you start to love what you create, your audience will see this and resonate with it a lot more!
Perfect stops you from posting. If you aren’t posting, how is your audience going to engage with you?
To get the attention of your audience you need to always think about the content you are publishing and think “would I show this to my friend” or “am I posting this piece of content for the sake of posting”.
It is all about losing the fear and posting the content that you know will resonate, even if it isn’t aesthetically perfect.
Lose the fear around content creating
You know what is more freeing than having “perfect” content? Losing the fear around what you are creating.
When you remember that everything is a lesson and post anyway, that is when you will truly lose your sense of being perfect.
Some of the most successful entrepreneurs have made themselves a huge success because they made mistakes, they had big failures. But what they did is, they learnt from them and they shared these failures with the world!
Lose the fear of creating content. Lose the fear of it being perfect and you will find you create this content that is authentic, raw and that is when you will really build the audience you want!
But how do you even do that?
Strategies to overcome perfectionism and fear
Losing fear and losing the art of being perfect isn’t easy! It will be something we all battle with unless we put the right strategies in place and have the right mindset.
As Hannah mentioned in the podcast, she had an old boss who loved creating content that was messy and might have failed, because there was ALWAYS a lesson from it. If you don’t measure those failures, you won’t learn. If you don’t learn, you can’t move the needle. As Hannah said, “you don’t know what you don’t measure”.
So how do you overcome this??
Well, here is a few things I have learnt over the journey:
Discover the limiting beliefs: work out WHY you feel you need to be perfect or why you have fear to post a certain piece of content! Here are some for mine - confidence and the fear of being annoying. These things can come back to your childhood! Work them out, journal on them and remember, you will never get over them, but you can work on them when they come back up
If you don’t post, your audience can’t engage: if you are too scared or let perfectionism stop you, well no one can engage in what you have to say. If you don’t post, you won’t know if it will resonate or not
You can apologise: you know the saying, ask for forgiveness over permission. Do that with your content. If it doesn’t work, ask your audience why, never be afraid to admit something flopped, it makes us human
Think about your audience: forget your ego of being perfect, think about your audience! If it adds value to your audience (even if it just brings joy), if you don’t post, you are robbing your audience! Don’t be selfish (not meant to be said in a savage tone)
Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes it a lot easier: the more you push out of fear and perfectionism, the easier it gets! So just keep working at it, build the muscle up. Just like a muscle, you need to continue to build on it
If you get caught up in perfect, you will struggle in the entrepreneurial world and here is why! Don’t stress, you can overcome it!!
Things to remember when creating content
Before we wrap up and you embark on your journey of overcoming perfectionism, here are some things you need to remember.
Be obsessed with your audience! As Hannah said, not a 5 stage clinger (no one wants that), but understand them more than you thought possible! When you really know them, you know what content works! You know what they need to know. You can read more about the target audience in my last blog and podcast here.
If you know your audience you can spark the conversation with them, and once you purely start reaching the right people, you will feel motivated to create more!
Perfectionism and fear will be irrelevant when you know your audience loves your content! This is what happened to me! I was dancing around the content I wanted to create because it wasn’t “perfect” or I was worried what people would think. Do you know what I did?? I created a content strategy, once I had the strategy, I had WAY more confidence to post, because it had purpose.
Once you have the right measures in place, you realise it is all about the content rather than the perfection of the content. It is about the value you provide, not how it looks or if the word “I will” or “I’ll” should be used.
Final thoughts
Are you ready to beat perfectionism?? I think you are!!
What you need to remember is that it doesn’t have to be perfect but it has to be worth the wild of the audience!! If you know your content has value, you will have the energy to show up. That energy is infectious, people will want to know MORE and will want to see more of you.
When I go live or create a story with big energy, it is amazing what type of engagement it brings in! What you need to remember is, authenticity outweighs perfect content EVERYDAY of the WEEK!!
If your content doesn’t get the engagement you wanted, look at why this is so and adjust it! It doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect, it means it is a lesson and one step closer to you creating the content you love!! Lose the fear of content creating and post it up anyway, it is best to apologise than to not post based on fear.
What it comes down to is, knowing your audience. Knowing what they resonate with and creating the content they love! This all takes time, measurement, a lot of failures and practice and that is okay, it is all a journey! Fear is good, failure creates success and there is no such thing as perfect content!