Someone said to me recently, “Boy, you write an insane amount of content.” I had to pause, because it rarely feels like a lot. But I have been posting for clients for such a long time that I have processes for putting out consistent content even when I don’t want to.

I recently wrote about how to get content fast when you have none, and honestly, that’s a great start. However, having processes in place so you have consistent content is vital to success. You don’t want to have one week where you have put out all the content and then the next you barely have anything. It’s overwhelming to fans, and you will likely lose some.

So how do you get there? Find out a bit of how I do this for myself and maybe there will be something you can do as well.

Know Your Audience

I have different audience segments, but I focus on those who are most likely to bring money in (sorry, friends and family who just want to read my writing). In my case, that’s other social media business owners, social media managers and small business (including nonprofit) decision makers.

Knowing that I have these three segments focuses topics. Each topic doesn’t have to appeal to all three segments, but it should appeal to at least apply to one or else it’s not appropriate.

Get a Pattern

Patterns have been my bread and butter since I started working in social media. If you start every day with infinite possibilities to post about, you probably won’t post anything. You just have too many choices to post about.

If, on the other hand, you have a pattern developed, you have far fewer choices and you can concentrate more on the execution, rather than what to post.

In the case of this blog, every day has a upper level category assigned. Most would call these pillars.

On Monday, I post under the category “Running a Business.” This is meant primarily for social media business owners. Tuesday is “Social Media Tactics” and is directed towards social media managers. On Wednesday, it’s a little different because I’m writing under “Social Media and Mental Health.” This is really for anyone who works in or around social media to bring more awareness to the toll this kind of job can take. So although it can definitely appeal to all three segments, it’s more of a personal mission. Thursday is for those business decision makers to give them more insights into the client-contractor relationship.

Finally, on Friday, I talk about what I’m reading. This is for all three segments. The social media articles are for educational purposes. That includes potential clients since my best clients are very well educated on social media, and I am trying to attract the best clients. I then close it out with the books I am reading. This might seem a little weird, but most who work in social media are also big readers. I also think you should be looking for a big reader if you want to hire in social media, so this is also demonstrating that’s me.

Honestly, this pattern is enough to get my brain to come up with loads of topics without trying too hard. I have lots of lived experiences and draw from my everyday life as much as possible. But there are days that I stare at the assigned category and my brain goes blank. I am human after all.

Use AI for ideas

On those days when my brain just doesn’t want to work, I turn to ChatGPT. When AI first came out, I was super resistant. I wanted my content to have lots of me in it to make it stand out and AI just can’t replicate me. I didn’t even like the blog posts or outlines it would produce when I played with it. So it wasn’t a part of my content creation process for a very long time.

Then my brain went blank and I couldn’t come up with anything to write about.

I asked it for some blog topics to fit a specific audience segment to see what it would tell me. Since then, this has become a regular habit every time I can’t come up with a topic.

Most of the topics aren’t great for my knowledge or voice. Even worse, some of these topics have been done to death (which is probably why AI is suggesting them in the first place). Reading through the list is what gets my brain thinking again. Frankly, that’s all I need to then come up with my own topics for my blog.

Would I feel differently about AI if I paid for it or used better search terms? Maybe. But for now, it does work for me during the consistent content creation process. I know it’s not in the way it is intended, but does that really matter? Definitely not to me.

Am I still possibly a machine despite all of these shortcuts I have? Yes, the way my brain works is not normal. I just need a germ of an idea and I am off to the races. Still, you can do parts of this and still create way more consistent content than you are already doing. The biggest thing you need to do above all else is to stop starting from scratch every day and have some sort of pattern (or better yet, a plan) in place that gets you started. You will have a much easier time from there.