[Creator Briefing] Is social media simply too much or is it a tool writers need?
A Q&A with Nicola Washington
This is THE CONTENT BRIEF đŒ where youâll find actionable strategies to help you simplify your content strategy and system (and stay sane as the editor in chief of your content)âdelivered in brief, straight to your inbox.
I like to say being online today can easily feel like youâre swirling in the eye of the content storm. đ”âđ« Thereâs so many things you âshouldâ be doing, so many ways you âshouldâ be showing up that it can easily feel like too much.
Which is exactly the premise of
.Nicola is a social media strategist for writers and is often told by her clients that the demands of social media are just too much on top of everything else youâre responsible for.Â
Iâm sure thatâs why so many creators (vocally
) are leaving it behind altogether in favor of focusing on all-things Substackâwhich, yes, has its own demands, too.However, Nicola says if youâre a writer and want people to read your writing, social media remains one of the best ways to get in front of your people. (See her writerâs guides on everything from going live to stories, reels, carousels, static posts and more.)
So in todayâs Creator Briefing, sheâs sharing her thoughts on creating content, using social platforms effectively while respecting your creative energy and keeping one goal front and center: making connections.
What does âcontentâ mean to you? What part does content play in your business? How do you approach it?
In some ways, anything in life can be used as contentâideas, thoughts, opinions, expertise, insights, experiences, or imagined worlds, the process and the outcomeâbut crucially, this is very different to everything in life has to be used as content.Â
I often get the impression that âcontentâ has become a loaded word that makes us imagine chopping our lives into tiny, bite-sized snippets that we throw out onto the internet for strangers to consume and judge. But I always stress the importance of boundaries to all of the writers I work with. Whatever dominant social media cultures would like us to believe, we do actually get to choose what we share on the internet!
For my business, content is how I reach and connect with writers, some of whom become clients. Itâs how I show them I understand the challenges they are facing, and how I might be able to help. It is where I showcase my expertise and tell people about my services, but itâs also a way of offering support to a broad spectrum of people.
How did you become a content creator? In short, whatâs your story?
I donât really think of myself as a content creator. I think of myself as an Instagram strategist who uses content to reach her audience, but I suppose this does in fact automatically make me a content creator!
Working in social media marketing is my second career. I was a secondary school teacher for 12 years but, after my children arrived, circumstances led me to retrain as a social media manager in 2016-17.Â
At that point, I was blogging and promoting that blog on Instagram, which was my first foray into being a content creator. I then worked with small businesses for six years as a social media manager, creating content to connect with their target audiences, managing online communities, and nurturing them toward becoming customers. Toward the end of 2022, I decided to pivot my services to support writers as I wanted to move my work life closer to my personal interests.
Most of my work with small businesses came via word-of-mouth but changing niches means Iâve started creating content to market my own business for the first time. Iâve been working full time with writers since July 2023 and although it hasnât been easy to switch lanes, working with writers has given me a fresh injection of enthusiasm for my business.
In some creative circles, thereâs an exodus from social media apps but Instagram, especially, is a core part of your work. How do you think of the platform? How can Substack writers use it effectively (and feel less lost doing so!)? What do you wish more writers, especially those here on Substack, knew on this topic?
For a long time, weâve been passive consumers of Instagram at best; at worst weâve found ourselves participating in dopamine-fueled cat-and-mouse games that make us feel irritable, anxious, inadequate or all of the above.
This isnât our faultâour attention is the commodity Instagram trades in so it shouldnât be surprising that its developers have found ways to keep us using it, even when we stop benefitting from doing so. But I do think itâs possible to take more responsibility for how we use Instagram than we perhaps have in the past.
In my work, I find myself reiterating the same message often: Instagram is a tool and you get to decide how you use it.
For me, community and connection are more important than âgoing viralâ or âblowing up,â and I reject the idea that the size of an account is any indicator of the value of the work, orâperhaps more pertinentlyâthe person behind it.
Whenever I get caught in patterns of comparison, or feelings of inadequacy, I return to this philosophy to reframe my relationship with Instagram as one that serves me.
I like Instagram because itâs a platform where community can still thrive, and meaningful relationships can be developed. There is also huge potential for the platform to act as âword of mouth with a megaphoneâ for writers as the user base is so large.
Although I enjoy the Substack experience, it does not yet have the broad user base of traditional social media platforms. I think itâs well known and popular among people who work in creative industries but Iâm not sure itâs yet a tool for âmassâ marketing.
If writers want to take advantage of the strengths of both platforms, it can work well to explore an idea in long-form for Substack, and then use that to create a series of Instagram posts, breaking down your thinking into smaller, more easily digestible âmoments.â You might even take your punchiest quotes or most beautiful sentences and turn them into reels or memes.
In this way, youâre not constantly having to expend yet more creative energy to keep the content treadmill turning.
Finally, for anyone whose book or work is already or soon to be out in the world, think of Instagram as a way to make connections, not sales. If you define your ideal reader carefully, and post relevant content that interests and engages them, the sales will take care of themselves.
Youâve said if you want more engagement, you have to be more engaging. Whatâs your best advice for doing so?
Meaningful engagement on Instagram looks like people being motivated to leave a comment under a post, reply to a Story with a DM, save your post to refer back to later, or share it in their Stories (or directly with a friend in their DMs).
The first step to generating this kind of engagement is to take a step back from individual content ideas or posts, and consider who your ideal reader is. What are they interested in? And where do their interests overlap with what you are creating?
The sweet spot where your book or business and your ideal readerâs or customerâs interests overlap is where your content should sit. Create content your ideal reader finds useful or educational and they are more likely to share or save it.
This is one of the most-saved posts Iâve ever created because it addresses a problem I know many of my audience struggle withâcoming up with content ideas.
To generate conversation in your DMs or comments, share personal stories that are relevant to your writing. This often generates a reciprocal sharing of experiences between you, the writer and your readers, which in turn creates spaces where you can connect on a really human level and deepen your relationship with them.
A light-hearted version of this dynamic can be seen in this reel where I posted about the frustration of working for years on my writing but not yet being published or represented by an agent. This personal experience overlaps with the experiences of many of my audience and the post created a space for us to commiserate together, support one another, and also showed my audience that I understand what it is like!
A slightly more serious and vulnerable version of this kind of personal storytelling to connect with my audience can be seen in this post about rejections. It generated lots of lovely comments with people sharing words of encouragement or stories of their own and again made it clear that even though my day job is social media, I understand what itâs like to try to be a writer, too.
What are you currently feeling inspired by?Â
My sources of inspiration change all the time but at the moment Iâm feeling especially inspired by
âs series âTen Important Thingsâ on her Substack, , as she brings meaning to the domestic and mundane in a way that awakens thoughts and memories of my own. ÂIâve also started visiting art exhibitions more often this yearâas part of a promise to myself to start putting myself in places Iâve always felt like I donât belongâand Iâve been stirred and moved and inspired recently by the work of Lubaina Himid and Evewright.
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Thanks! I pour a lot of love into this space and I hope you can feel it. It wouldnât be the same without YOU!
Thanks so much for inviting me in, Christin. I enjoyed answering these thoughtful questions and hope your audience find them useful!