How often should you share with your platform audience?
Whether you’re a podcaster, blogger, speaker, writer, or any other type of platform builder, you probably wonder how often you should share your messages. Do I blog once a week? Three times? How often should I podcast? How long is too long of a blog post?
This is a concept I’m trying to master. I once blogged well over 200 times in one year and saw tremendous results. I tried continuing the same pace the following year and saw a decrease in engagement. Now, I post 3-4 times a week, but I’m starting to change that frequency as I refine my new platform focus.
It’s important to find the right message frequency and content length to best fit your platform audience. Think of it like using the recommended dosage or the boiling point for water. If you only need to take 500 mg of Tylenol, taking 2,500 mg is a bad idea, even deadly. Water boils at 212°F so expending the energy to heat the water to 300°F wastes energy and still only boils the water. If your goal is getting boil water, use the right energy to get to the boiling point, no more.
Share less with your platform
Some platform builders need to share less frequently. Quantity never guarantees quality. If you’re doing two podcasts a week, your audience may not have the time, nor frankly the interest, to listen to two podcasts, Trim down to one podcast and now you have twice as much content to parse down to only the best of the best. Your overall podcast quality will improve and your audience will appreciate a more sustainable listening rhythm.
If you’re a blogger, pay attention to your audience engagement. This is way more than Google Analytics or site stats. I don’t pay hardly any attention to analytic stats, but I pay huge attention to email responses, comments, shares, and likes. This means people are actively engaging with my blog posts, not just opening them.
How to find the right content dosage for your platform audience
The key to finding the right frequency and content dosage for your audience is trial and error. If you’re posting every day, Monday through Friday, trim down to M-W-F and see how your audience responds. If you’re posting once a week, try posting a few more times a week to see if it bumps up your engagement level. A simple readers’ survey is another great way to get feedback on what your audience wants.
You’ve been given your platform to serve people, not trumpet your message and tell the world how great you are. Use your platform to share the right size and serving of your content to best meet your audience’s needs. It doesn’t hurt to leave them wanting more, so err on the side of less is more.