OK, I admit it, I’m a bit of a control freak. I mean, after all…
- I have two sock drawers with dividers to keep my black socks separate from my blue/purple socks (drawer 1) and my gray socks separate from my brown/tan/green socks (drawer 2).
- I like to plan our vacations with military precision (I even schedule in times for spontaneity, LOL).
- I have an emergency “back up pen” in every room. Hey, you never know when a brilliant idea will strike and you’ll want to write it down.
- When I notice a typo in a printed text (and if it’s there, I WILL notice it), I have to correct it. You can take the English teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the classroom out of the English teacher!
- I’ve even been known to make to-do lists of my to-do lists (level 10 boss move: crossing “make to-do list” off your to-do list).
Now, full disclosure, being in control isn’t always the same thing as being neat or organized.
I mean, as I type this, my desk (aka kitchen table) is covered with books, folders, and papers from a number of different projects. It’s a mess.
But it’s MY mess. 🙂
And heaven forbid that anyone would try to move anything or “tidy it up.” Because, as chaotic as it is, I know under what pile to dig to find the exact file I need when I need it.
(My wife, after living with me for so long, knows not to touch my stacks of stuff. Wise woman.)
Anyway, you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about my control freak-ishness in this blog post.
It’s because, when it comes to creating content and messaging for your educational consulting business, you need to be in control.
And I see many educational consultants (especially younger and/or newer consultants) making a serious mistake when it comes to their content.
That mistake? Using social media as their main content platform.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Social media is a wonderful tool in many ways and it can definitely help you grow your business if used the right way (as a secondary marketing and lead generation channel). But using it as your primary content platform is NOT a smart move.
Here’s why:
- You don’t own the platform, which means you’re only “renting” your audience. What happens if a platform is sold to another owner who makes major changes, turning it into a place you no longer want to be associated with (ala X)? Or what happens if the platform disappears altogether (remember MySpace? Vine? Google+?). If a platform disappears, you lose your audience. Poof!
- You might build a list of followers on LinkedIn or Facebook or X, but those followers can be taken away at a moment’s notice by a change in the algorithm. So, even if the platform continues to exist, some geek in some backroom chugging a Red Bull can tweak the algorithm and suddenly your posts are only appearing in front of a tiny fraction of your followers.
- Even when the platform stays around and the algorithm doesn’t change, the very nature of social media platforms means that anything you post will disappear down the feed in a matter of minutes, meaning that at best only a fraction of your followers will ever see anything you post.
It all adds up to this: if social media is your main content channel, you don’t have control of your messaging and who sees it.
Now that I’ve dissed social media as a main content channel, you’re probably wondering what I recommend that you do instead. Glad you asked!
When it comes to the best channels for your thought leader content to help you grow your credibility in your field, there’s a clear hierarchy, and it’s based on the amount of control you have over your messaging.
Here it is:
- Your own in-house email list. Nothing beats having a list of people who have signed up to hear from you whenever you have something to share. Have a new book coming out or a new workshop to offer? All you have to do is write an email and hit Send. Everyone on your list gets the message delivered instantly to their inboxes. Now that’s control!
- Your website. If you have a blog on your site, anyone who lands on your site through a search engine like Google can see your content. And you can send out an email to your list (#1) to tell them that you have a new blog post up so they can go see it, too. If you create content via podcast episodes or short videos, you can also post this content on your site. While not as direct as your email list, this is still a solid option and has the benefit of catching new people who find you via search. And you have complete control over what you post on your site.
- Social media channels. While not a good choice for a primary content channel (for all the reasons listed above), social media platforms work well as secondary channels. Meaning, you send out content to your email list or post it on your website (preferably both whenever it makes sense to do so), then you take excerpts of that content and repurpose them as social media posts.
So, if you’re using social media as your primary place for posting content related to your business, it’s time to rethink that strategy and take control of your messaging (hey, maybe you can take control of that messy sock drawer at the same time and get everything nicely color-coded).
To Your Success,
Willy
CEO, Ed Consultant Marketing
www.edconsultantmarketing.com
P.S.–If you read this post and found yourself thinking, “Holy cow, I don’t have an in-house email list” or “Dang, I guess I really do need to finally get around to creating a website for my business,” we’ve got you covered.
We can work with you to create your very own in-house email list and lead capture process. Or we can write all the content for your brand spankin’ new business website. Or both.
These are just two of the many types of done for you projects we provide for our educational consultant clients.
Interested?
Just hit the link to schedule a call to talk about it or give us a shout using the form on the Contact page.
