What I can do better than most is staying consistent on social media for clients. There are a lot of secrets on how I do it, but the first one I recommend to those getting started is creating patterns.

What do I mean by that? And how can you create your own pattern? Let’s get into it.

The creation of the pattern

The pattern starts off by doing all of my preliminary research for a client. I then take that research and pile it into categories. I have master categories and some sub-categories if necessary. Then I look at the different kinds of content that could go under each category. Are there videos I could create? Are people sharing user-generated content under any of these categories? I comb through every kind of content I will be looking at and decide if it’s applicable under the different categories. I then create a framework to test different timings and frequencies, so I can develop a pattern that I adjust for the client as needed. You don’t necessarily need to get this complicated.

If you know your community well and what they respond to, I would combine that information with your particular needs to come up with a set of categories you should post about. From there, you can have a basic pattern for each day of content. It will get you started when you are trying to figure out what to post each day. You don’t have to stick strictly to that pattern. If breaking news happens, then that obviously supersedes any pattern you might have. But it’s there for you to lean on when news is running short.

Arguments against patterns

I have had a lot of people bristle at the idea of patterns for social media. The arguments are many, but let’s just focus on a few of them.

The biggest one I hear is that your fans will get tired of the repetitive content. Oh they absolutely will. That is why you have subcategories and different types of content under each bigger category. You should not be doing the same kind of content with the same kind of messaging over and over again. If you put together a good pattern, even if it is a simple one, you will end up with a multitude of options to post under each category. And in the end, your audience will have no idea you are posting according to any kind of pattern with such a variety of content being posted.

The other argument is that it will hamper your creativity. I don’t know about you, but the worst thing for my creativity is to have absolutely no constraints. When I can do absolutely anything I want, I have no idea what to do first. I’ll probably do a whole lot of nothing. Meanwhile, I thrive under constraints and will do something far more interesting while working within those constraints. It’s one of the reasons why I think some bootstrap organizations end up putting out far more interesting content than most big national organizations. Constraints create direction and more original content. They’re not a bad thing.

Then some people might say you’re posting just to post. Yes, posting just to post is a bad idea. But if you are posting to work the algorithm and grow your community, that’s a little different. Posts that are working the pattern you have created are doing just that. They should connect with your audience in some way and are therefore getting them to engage and come together. That is then working the algorithm to get your posts seen by more people. This is not willy nilly posting because you have to. It’s posting because you have a plan to get your message to more people. And these supportive posts will get your more important posts seen.

Patterns in action

In the end, the biggest argument for a pattern is that it keeps you going and consistent with your posting. You never have a question about what you are posting, because you always have a start to a post ready to go. It saves you loads of time.

Working with a pattern in action is super easy. What I do every day is look for any breaking news that I need to work with. Then I’m looking for anything that is top of mind for our community. That could be a particular pain point or even a meme that is relevant. If none of that is relevant that day, then we go to the pattern. It’s never the first thing you grab for. It’s always just quietly working in the background, waiting for you as you need it.

So if you are finding that you can only post breaking news or something that is top of mind for your community, it’s time to start looking at what patterns can do for you.

Are you using patterns for social media? Do they keep you more consistent?