Ask Jupiter No. 9 - 'I hate all of my content ideas, now what?'
To reheat or not reheat your own social media nachos
Help! The IG content ideas I brainstormed 3-6 months ago all suck after I got through the best ones, and now I’m stuck. Is this a me problem? Energy problem? Mindset problem?
related q: if I can recycle old content, how do I rewrite things without sound like I’m rewriting things?
— Stale Nachos
Nacho, my sweet reheated Nacho, before we dive in, I want to let you know that you’re so not alone.
I’d say a majority of my clients (and myself tbh) express something similar, like “I’ve hit a wall,” “I’m just so uninspired” or “I hate it here1”
On an internet that flattens nuance and showcases only the highlight reels of deeply annoying competitors, it’s easy to think that you’re doing something wrong or missed the memo on a magical key that unlocks an endless well of good post ideas.
Like every thing in life, there are ebbs and flows. You’ll have weeks where you are the most prolific poster on planet earth and then other weeks where you’d rather dig a 5x5 foot hole every day as a child prisoner than open Instagram.
Instead of planning for your Best Day Ever where you have soo many Great Ideas, you have to plan for the worst. Plan your social media calendar for the days when the Regina George that lives in your brain writes a burn book entry about your marketing plan.
First up, what got you here?
As Chief Pattern Noticer, I want you to notice what led you to this episode of “I hate it here.”
Is it the time of year? Are you contemplating your existence on Meta? Are you holding yourself to a super intense standard that would make even the snottiest art teacher say “uhhh, chill out2”
I find when my clients are in a posting rut, there is usually a source for the angst. Instead of just band aid posting until inspiration/god complex strikes, can you explore an Instagram strategy that doesn’t cause you to crash out every 3 months?
For some (literally me), this means embracing the 9-grid life to better show up on stories and on other marketing platforms.
Brief aside: if you missed the 9-grid memo, I wrote my previous Ask Jupiter about the 9-grid! I got such a wonderful response from it that I created a whole ass service for planning yours with you — learn more about Content Constellation here. Beta slots sold like Lorde tix and now there is a waitlist for the new offer. Okay, back 2 the main piece.
For others, it means cutting back on number of posts per month or committing to recycling past popular content (reheating their own nachos).
Your content strategy cannot and should not be “do what the Mormon mommy blogger says to do” because you are not a Mormon mommy blogger (unless you are, in that case I’d love to know how you ended up here).
I like to work with my clients to develop a scaffolding strategy that can operate whether your ideas feel like gold or suck big time.
WTF is a Scaffolding Strategy for Social Media?
Okay, quick soapbox moment 🧼📦
Social media strategy gets a bad rep. I find a lot of people think it’s only for big brands with marketing budgets that could fund a school system, or they think it only works if you adhere to a rigid schedule. I know for a fact that social media strategy using “content pillars” and “KPIs” makes your average small business owner’s eyes glaze over.
In reality, most strategists working with small biz know that sustainability is the most important part of the strategy for a business owner that already wears 32 hats.
I take this a step further and set my clients up with a strategy they can adhere to, expand upon, or most importantly, pick back up when shit goes by the wayside. I hope the scaffolding metaphor starting to make sense.
Whether it’s life, business, or your Saturn return, shit regularly goes by the wayside!! With a strategy that makes space for chaos, both benevolent and evil, you’ll always have a true North to get back to when things level out.
If you’re like “KP that’s well and good, but what do I do before I figure my strategy out??” Who do you think I am? Of course I have actionable steps.
Quick fixes to get you through
It ain’t that deep3
Before you approach creating any amount of content, I want you to remind yourself that you are not doing brain surgery or fighting fires. I find thinking that your ideas suck is often a symptom of taking social media too seriously.
You could post something that sucks (barring encouraging war crimes or whatever) and it won’t impact anything. We really overestimate the amount that people are paying attention.
Does the idea actually suck (some do!) or are you just being very hard on yourself?
Give the people what they want
Dust off the cobwebs off of your old content!
Look at the best performing posts over the last year or so. Do those posts have a theme? Why do you think your audience liked it?
Under the umbrella of that theme, do you have more to say? Any hot takes related to that topic? An example you can put to use?
Don’t even have the energy for that?
Straight up, time to recycle baby!
You do not need to rewrite it at all. People liked it the first time. You could breathe new visual life into the post if you felt moved or just repost the original content, nobody will notice.
You could post the same photo of Greta the Gremlin every day for a week and it’d take til day five before folks would catch on.
If you gotta be offline, be offline
You can let your audience know or just disappear and come back in 3 weeks like “heyyy how y’all doing?” Social media is not the Cadet Kelly cinematic universe. No one will call you out for going AWOL.
✌️ Prompts for inspiration
Constraints often yield better creativity.
Think of your IG feed as a Zine or your Myspace page or your Neopets shop. Instead of waxing poetic about what you are going to post every day until the end of time, what are 3 things you want to say right now? It could be as simple as, “check out my new work,” “book for q3 now” and “our capitalist overlords can kiss my [REDACTED]”
Leave it up to chance
If you’re a witch like me, a tarot or oracle deck can serve as great inspiration. Ask your cards “what does my ideal client need to hear right now” or “what does my ideal client want to leave behind” and use that as inspiration for your posts.
If you aren’t a witch (boo, hiss jkjk), create a list of potential topics or industries you serve and use a random number generator or one of those cool D&D dice sets to let the fates decide what you’ll post that day.
☝️ One more thing
Nacho, whether you are working from scratch or reheating what you know already slaps, I have full faith in you! Anyone who is thinking about whether or not their content sucks is already LEAGUES ahead of those random tech bro accounts that post 12 times a day4
💌,
KP @ Jupiter Content Co.
Have a question for Jupiter? You can fill out the form here or DM me on IG.
If you have made it this far, I have a gift for u 🤲 🎁
What is it about social media that makes us feel like angsty teens? Is it because we cut our digital teeth on LiveJournal?
I’m gonna guess its prolly a lot of the latter 😇
they could unplug the internet tmrw
who told them to do this?? we do not need to see anymore of you!