Your Audience vs You

No matter who is posting the content on social media, whether for a personal brand or for a company, there is always an individual behind the screen.

During this process of posting content, especially for an established brand, there is a lot of work that goes on behind-the-scenes.

Right from the strategy, to the planning, to who the target audience is and their likes and interests, to planning the days on which the content should be made.

In all of this, no matter how much plan, you can never know how the audience is going to accept your brand or just the content of your brand.

That is not in your hands to decide. It could be a success or a total failure.

What you can control is, whether you have put in your all. That is the only thing you can decide.

Whether your best version of yourself is driving this process forward, right from ideation to execution, you shouldn’t have a thought in your mind that you could’ve done better.

From your side, it should be up to par. Then let the audience decide whether it is or not, then you can take that feedback and accordingly make changes later on.

But initially, the question is whether you like your content and whether that is the best you can do or not.

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What do you want from social media?

No matter who is creating content on social media, every one does it with an agenda.

Without an agenda, no one would do it and no one would have any meaning or motivation to carry on.

In such a scenario, if you haven’t figured it out yet, or if you don’t have a clear pathway for your future, you must ask yourself what is it that you want from social media?

And not just social media in general, but when you market yourself or your brand, what is the outcome that you’re expecting?

Having a clear outcome decides the path that you’ve to take, the journey that you’ve set yourself on.

Usually, what you want from social media boils down to these 5 scenarios,

– sales
In a scenario of sales, you’ve approached the platform (any) with a single mindset of selling your product or your service.

With everything that you post, the agenda is one, to sell to your target audience.

This type of approach is effective for some, but short-lived because the audience wants to get some sort of value, something meaningful, informative or entertaining, but something that connects them with you.

– influence
Where influence can also be clubbed with sales and/or popularity, the reason I see influence as a separate category because the power of influence is enormous, and not everyone with influence needs to be popular.

Nonetheless, your influence can make or break someone’s product or service, where mostly the influence is seen over positive experiences, a negative experience could hurt someone as well.

– attention
Isn’t attention a part of all the other scenarios as well, it’s a part and parcel of all of them, right?

There is a category of people who use this attention towards a cause or a movement, making people aware of them and/or driving people towards that change.

That approach on social media is a unique one and not seen on a mass scale. However, the aspect of attention is usually combined with one or two more scenarios and thus approaching the platforms with that intent.

– popularity/ fame
Intent is an essential factor along with your approach and for some is to become popular and famous.

That popularity may lead to sales and influence, but the initial intent is popularity and fame, to have a following, to gather an audience for your name.

– impact
Impact, can also be approached as purpose, drives change.

In this scenario, what you want from social media, is to impact people, make people aware and/or drive change. This impact can be for any sector, and in the due process of it can be combined with another scenario, but the macro goal is to create impact in the society.

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You should choose the one that you know is truly right for you, and be clear with your agenda right from the start.

Adding to that, you also can have a mixture of things that you want, and not just end up choosing one. Different individuals, different needs and wants.

However, you must be clear in your mind, so you can then communicate with authenticity and honesty with your audience.

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You don’t need to have a blog or a podcast

Whenever it comes to building a brand, or creating content, it often boils down to, where all should I be present?

Social Media, of course.

What else?

Should I do a blog?

Or, should I start a podcast?

What are the current trends?

Where should you align towards?

And the answer’s really simple.

You don’t need to have a blog or a podcast, neither of it is compulsory for you.

Neither is a guarantee that your brand will be a success.

Neither defines your brand either.

The two forms of creating content, via text or audio, are just forms of the process through which you can choose to express yourself.

If you feel comfortable with either of them, or both of them, it’s up to you personally, whether you want to go down that road or not.

Sure, those paths have their own journey, the strategies are different, the outcomes are different when you do it vs when you don’t.

However, no trends or no numbers should force you into doing something that you’re not comfortable with.

Proceed with creating content and building your brand on your own terms. Not on anyone else’s.

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Trend after Trend

When it comes to creating content and marketing your company or your personal brand, one often gets lost in the trends.

Day after day, week after week and month after month, and sometimes for years, various kinds of trends keep popping up time and again.

Because these trends are always in the talks, especially from the consumers’ point of view, is when the brands or creators decide to create some form of content in that direction as well.

Since the topic is trending, their content piece might also become the talk of the town, and even if not, it would certainly get more engagement than usual.

Usually, the brands alter their content to the trend and yet keep it specific to their brand, so there’s a mix of both when it’s out there.

But what gets annoying is the amount of Trending Topics that keep popping up and then the ones creating the content try to jump at every opportunity, in order to get in front of the audience.

Sometimes, this applies to both types of brands – company and individual, they need to maintain a balance between the content they usually post and the ones aligned with the trending topics.

Also, being on the hunt for those specific trends which somewhat align with their brand values as well. Doing that then actually is a boost to the brand when one is able to do that.

Nonetheless, the steps while creating content need to be a smart one, thinking more about the brand and less about the engagement.

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I have a daily podcast too, Mindset Marketing Movies – an RTH24 podcast – daily digestible episodes on mindset, marketing and movies.

You can listen to it at –
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