I have been writing online for the past six years. Sharing my posts across platforms comes naturally to me now.
I joined the coach.me monthly promotion challenge in October this year. It renews every month, and here’s one basic rule of it: you share one post every working day for the whole month, and you show support to three other posts shared by other members.
This helps you exercise your marketing muscle, check out what others are publishing in your community, and get some additional engagement on your posts.
That’s what I did in October. That’s what I have been doing since then. It’s been more than 75 days, and I am sharing one post every weekday (usually on weekends too) because it feels like I am growing a muscle.
James Altucher shared his “idea muscle” theory in a blog post. The theory is that “the way to have good ideas is like weightlifting. When you lift slightly more than you can handle, you get stronger.”
I have a similar theory about our marketing muscle too. If we don’t market ourselves or our products and services, our marketing muscle atrophies.
The marketing muscle provides us the ability to be vulnerable and transparent in public. Being vulnerable is how we stay human.
Our marketing muscle is how we serve this world. We offer our services via marketing, and that’s why if we let our marketing muscle die, we are doing an injustice to humanity.
Marketing is crucial for creatives because creatives are promoted as “broke professionals.” Marketing every day is how you promote your business, develop relationships, and eventually, how you don’t end up broke.
This marketing muscle seems like a logical reason as to why I have been sending regular weekly newsletters to my email list for more than two years now.
How to Grow Your Marketing Muscle?
The simplest answer: market every day.
Even if you’re not a marketer, market every day. Marketing will become like an additional soft-skill for you. You don’t have to be preachy. You can share what you learned from a book, like a book summary.
Here’s what I am going to do with this post — the one you’re currently reading.
Standalone posts
I’ll be taking two or three sections from this post, like “marketing muscle idea,” and “how to grow your marketing muscle,” as well as “ results of successfully posting for 75+ days” and I’ll be posting separate posts on LinkedIn and Facebook. I will find relevant questions on Quora and publish my answers there too.
I might have to make certain platform-specific changes, such as more spacing between lines for LinkedIn, but apart from that, I‘ll maintain the same basic structure on each platform.
I might also post screenshots of these standalone LinkedIn posts on my Instagram profile.
Notice how I converted the “marketing muscle” concept into a standalone post on Linkedin here. A quick tip — ask an open-ended question at the bottom to increase engagement on your posts.
Share links across platforms
Apart from standalone posts, I’ll share the link on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter once this post is published. That’s another post.
A point of caution: instead of posting the link directly, I rather copy-paste the introduction of this post and then attach the link at the bottom with a note saying “read my complete post for full details.”
Repost older posts
I am confident this post is going to inspire and help a few readers. So, I’ll be sharing it again after a few months as a new post on LinkedIn and Facebook.
To be transparent, you can mention in the post, “This is a #repost of my previously published post.”
Other less time-consuming posts you can create
Here are a few ideas for less time-consuming posts that have the potential to boost your business :
- Share screenshots of client feedback.
- Announce and publicly celebrate new milestones your business is achieving.
- Conduct AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with your audience.
- Click a selfie, or post a picture of what you are working on.
- On Instagram/LinkedIn/Facebook, you can share screenshots of your previous posts as the “Stories” feature on the respective platforms.
- Recommend your favorite books, videos, and courses to your audience.
Join a community
I formed a WhatsApp group with Anangsha Alammyan and Shreya Badonia. I’ve shared the group description with you in the screenshot below.
Having a group of people who are doing the same activities as you help you grow. It’s one of the six gates of growth, as mentioned by Coach Tony.
You see others struggling and succeeding in the same activities you’re interested in, and it becomes inspirational.
I didn’t have this theory up until I participated in October’s promotion challenge. I have been posting regularly and intentionally for more than 75 days now, and my marketing muscle is growing strongly.
Here’s How You Can Start Exercising Your Marketing Muscle
- Make a commitment that you will publish at least one post every weekday.
- Start small. Aim at posting on two platforms only. LinkedIn is my favorite at the moment.
- See if you already have written some content. Edit it, make it better, and then share it.
- People might tell you to schedule your posts in advance. Maybe try that. Or maybe try spending 10–20minutes every day in posting. Your wish.
Before You Try Any of This
If you’re new to this world of marketing and publishing, you may feel a lot of resistance at first. That’s natural if this is new for you. It’s okay.
It will be the same as if you’re going to the gym for the first time. You will feel awkward lifting weights, you might be terrified when you see how amazing others are at doing the same thing you’re struggling with, and you may even doubt your progress.
That’s okay.
Keep pushing. Keep exercising. Keep learning. And keep getting better.
Originally Published on medium here.
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