It's been said that "consistency is the rarest of all traits." You may have also heard the phrase "consistency is king." They’re not just catchy sayings. They’re true, and if you want to grow your presence on social media, consistency is the tool you need to be able to really make a difference to your following.
You might be wondering why consistency is so important. Consistency is a great way to build trust with your audience because they will rely on you to post regularly - this is key to helping you grow a loyal following. Consistency is also a fantastic way to build strong brand awareness through your content, as the more you put out, the more you’ll be in the front of people’s minds. And it’s also the best way to create quality content that your audience will love - because the more you do, the better you’ll get at it!
In this blog, we're going to go through 10 ways you can be more consistent on social media. We use these tips, and we think that you should too. They will make your social media presence flourish and your content creation smoother and easier. After reading this blog, you'll be able to use these tips so you can spend more time improving your content and finding success on social media. Let's dive in.
Have Clear Goals
Setting goals is a great way to know what to aim for. They will give you direction and help you stay on the right path. Ask yourself, what would you like to get out of your content? What type of post are you creating? Asking yourself these questions will help you define your goals which will help you stay consistent on social media. An excellent way to remain consistent would be to use Instagram's recommendations as goals (of course you can adapt them to what makes most sense to you, but once you set your goals, try to stick to them).
- Post at least 4 to 7 Reels per week
- Post photos 3 to 5 times per week
- Create 8 to 10 times per week
Consistency vs. Frequency
Many people confuse frequency and consistency, but they are different. Frequency is how often you post, but consistency is how well you stick to the frequency over time. It's always a good idea to look at your week and see how often you can post throughout it. Pick a manageable number and try that frequency. See how you go for a few weeks, and if you can post more, try out a few more posts. If, on the other hand, you're struggling with the number of posts, then there's no shame in posting less frequently to be more consistent. Consistency is maintaining your frequency of posts long-term, and infrequent and inconsistent posting will make your followers disinterested in your content.
Always plan ahead
Planning ahead is a great way to keep consistent on social media. It will be easier to plan your posts weeks in advance rather than making posts on the day you want them to be posted. Creating content and captions on the spot can be pretty tricky sometimes. If you're posting like this daily, you're putting yourself under a lot of pressure to perform creatively. And if you don't perform, you may miss a day's post, causing your feed to become inconsistent. Ideally, plan your social content a month in advance, giving you time to create high-quality posts and making for a more sustainable approach to content creation. The best way to do this would be to create a content calendar so you can see all your posts for the upcoming month before publishing them. Couple this calendar with your content strategy to ensure all your upcoming posts align with your goals and branding for maximum engagement. While we’re on the topic of content strategy. If you need help building one, check out our blog on creating a winning social media strategy for your business.
Dedicate a Day for Content Creation
When it comes to content creation, consider writing your content in one or two days rather than daily. This is particularly useful for those of you who work a regular full-time job and only have the weekends for spare time. This way, you can dive into a flow state while writing your content, as you'll have the time to really get into writing. You'll likely find yourself writing one post after the other quicker than it would take you to write content on the fly, because you’ll be in the zone. A good tip is to have your topics lined up in advance, which will help you write your content more easily. Having all your content written in advance will give you a chance to be able to better organize your content and plan your posts. This will help you stay consistent over time, as you’ll better understand when to publish which post for the best outcome.
Have a Plan for Stories
People often see Stories as something to be produced on the fly and made up as you go. This does work for some people, but it's not the best way to consistently produce quality content for your Stories. Having a plan for your stories means you can plan your content in advance and link it to your current topics. Plan Stories where you show and dive deep into a topic or answer some audience questions. Also, write down some bullet points for your stories if needed, to get the right message you want to send to your audience. These tools will help you keep the quality of your story content consistent and take the pressure off your daily content creation.
Show up for your audience
If we don't show up from our audience, how can you expect them to show up for you? It's essential to put some time into your calendar to engage with your audience. Respond to your DMs, talk to your audience on your stories, and respond to your comments. Doing this consistently will let your audience know you value them. Don't just leave your posts to your scheduler and forget about engaging with comments and DM's from older content. Showing up will help grow your following, as your audience will appreciate your taking the time to respond to them. This makes your followers more likely to share your content, which will help your pages reach.
Use a Scheduling Tool - if you have to
When it comes to scheduling tools we are a bit torn to be honest. It can be an excellent way to keep on top of your posts and remain consistent, on the other hand you might lose the factor of being there in person for your audience. Of course, tools like Later or Planoly allow you to easily upload your content into a calendar so you can schedule your posts to be published automatically. This is a great way to take the publishing side of your content creation out of your hands, so you don't need to worry about it… making your life easier, and guaranteeing that your posts are consistent. However, what happens to the engaging? If you don't post live, who will interact with your followers? Who will reply to all these comments? Especially within the first hour of when you post it is super important for you to be active on Instagram and to engage with your community. So if you need to use a scheduling tool because you just like to have everything ready and set up go for it, but we would advice you to also set an alarm for the time that you post, so that you can go online and reply to all your comments and messages.
Learn from Your Audience
It's not easy to keep the flame of creativity burning all the time. We can get tired and uninspired occasionally, and your content can suffer at times like these. To keep you inspired and updated with fresh ideas for your content, you have a large group of friends out there willing to help. I am, of course, talking about your wonderful audience. Take a look at your analytics. They'll have much to say about what content your audience has enjoyed the most. From this, you can see which posts have performed well and use this information to make similar posts in the future. You could always ask your audience, and you might be surprised at the ideas you get from them. In your moments of writer's block, ask your audience what content they would like to see in a story. This is an excellent way to remove pressure from constantly coming up with content ideas. This is also a great way to get more audience engagement and many ideas for new content. Remember, a big part of remaining consistent is learning to work smarter and not harder.
Stay positive
You'll find as your following grows, you won't always have a long, endless list of positive comments. As much as we would like to only have positive comments, you'll sadly have to put up with a few negative comments every now and then. It probably goes without saying that any hateful comments you receive from people should be ignored. We suggest you block the accounts that comment hatefully on your content. There have always been cruel people in the world, and there always will be. But don't let this bring you down. Remember it's challenging to create and very easy to destroy, so don't let these people ruin your ambitions and put you off your goals. You might also come across criticism every now and then in your comments and DMs that isn't hateful. You might find it unfair or unfounded, and you might even take it personally. But criticism could also be a way to discover what your content has been missing. Maybe your critic has a point. If so, consider it and think about how you can use this new information to improve your content. Either way, keep your chin up and your eyes on the prize, don't let anything hold you back.
Perfection is not your friend
Perfection can often get in the way of production. Because you're looking to produce quality content, perfectionism might sound like a great way to create quality content, but sadly, it's not. Perfectionism will slow the rate you produce quality content, as you will fixate on one post rather than writing the rest of your content. Instead of focusing on perfection, focus on making high-quality content. This way, you'll be able to finish a post. And finishing a post is much more important than being perfect. So don't let perfection get in the way of posting.
Consistency is the key to your success
Keeping consistent isn't easy. It will take time and patience to learn how to work smarter so you can go the distance with your content creation. Over time, you'll be able to make little improvements to your routines and ways of working to make your life easier. Growing an audience is a long game. If you consistently put in the effort to make your content work for your brand, your audience will grow to love your work as much as you do.
Good luck!
