How to Find Your Creative Voice on Social Media

Quality vs Quantity

GUYS, I needed (okay let me rephrase this: needed) to start with this point. I get it, social media feels like a beauty contest, we are all trying to look good and perfect to win the crown, but my personal *very personal* point of view is, I much rather have amazing content, than numbers that don’t matter, a lot. When Instagram was created, I remember posting my first picture, a shoefie in 2010. Maybe I didn’t have the best camera, the best light, but slowly, I built up a content strategy that created a voice. A cute tiled floor, cute bathrooms, everything colourful and pastel, and things you see and think, that’s so Maca! right? Just always remember, the more quality and time you invest creating content in social media, the bigger your engaged community will be.  

I adore thinking of what creativity means to me, the compositions I innately take, the things I love and even not following an exact formula to fit in, I found a way to produce quality content playing, learning, testing and having fun. I know I’ll continue evolving my work into something else and this is what I want you to take away from this, never stop learning. 

My pillars

So, after learning quality is key, developing a voice and a particular creative aesthetic across your platforms, the next step is learning how to understand what your pillars are. They will be your vision, the way you want to project your content strategy and the “topics” you want to cover. I have these main pillars in the cute Heymaca world:

• Colourful travels 
• Interior design (this includes tiles, cute spots, my studio, my home)
• Colourful & whimsical fashion
• Cute food & cocktails
• Stop motion video!
• Easy breezy DIY projects
• A tiny bit of motherhood & life

How it works? these 7 pillars have defined what my personal brand is all about on social media. I consistently post them (alternating them of course) on my blog, my Instagram account, Facebook page, and Pinterest. Your community will instantly familiarize with your brand, and you’ll be present everywhere they go. I often get messages from readers, friends, family saying “this is SO Maca” and that’s how you know your pillars are in place and well defined. Your homework today? Set a list of your pillars.

How do I get the audience I have here to stay and care?

This is my number 2 priority (after the quality content). Instead of focusing like crazy in growing your account on social media (especially Instagram), the big question should be: how do I entertain aaaalll the people that are already here so they stay?  I keep asking myself this:

• What do they love about my content? 
• Why are they here? 
• What’s my best performing post? 
• How’s my voice on social media? (I show myself the way I am in real life, a mix of funny/candid)
• WHY WHY WHY?

Usually, I analyze what my community liked the most (aka everything pink), if they loved reading travel guides on the blog, if they enjoyed stop motion animations vs lifestyle videos and a lot more. Check your engagement, how your readers react to certain colours, to your captions and voice, and learn every-single-day.Always remember, YOU are the brand. yes, you read that right, YOU.

The IG algorithm

The HOT topic of the yeaaaaar is here, the IG algorithm!, and we could talk about it in a bazillion blog posts, but in all honesty, I am SO over it. I don’t consider myself someone near close to the hip term of the era: “an influencer”. Instagram plays a big role in my business, but it isn’t everything, and you should see it the same way. Creating beautiful imagery will, somehow influence people to make an action (it can be a sweet comment, one like, a DM or buying what you own) and over the years,  I’ve learned to pick up my battles. Instead of losing my time questioning why Instagram decided to show my hashtags or not each post, I concentrate all my effort in developing a lifestyle brand. HeyMaca is WAY more than Instagram coverage (of course it’s an essential part of my strategy as a content creator, read more here) but, you should spend all your time in things like:

• How can I evolve as a brand BEYOND Instagram? (I’m currently creating real, REAL products) if you don’t have a blog, a video channel, something you control, now it’s the right time.
• Video! video! video! I created a Vimeo account where I post most of my video work and planning, creating and producing cute stop motion videos is just SO much fun! 
• Create useful and informative content you can use in multiple platforms: I do illustrations, video, guides and more.
• Be unique and STOP comparing to others. They have more likes? engagement? that’s so 90’s you guys. Focus on your REAL community, those candid messages you receive are way more important than anything else.
• Stop doing the things that won’t bring you joy for once.

How I curate my content

If you’ve been following on Instagram, you know how much I love design, branding, and photography. I see my Instagram account as my portfolio (imagine a magazine) and my blog as my hub where you get to know me even better. I have a content strategy for each platform:

• Blog: where I can express myself in deep, with tons of tips, ideas, loooots of photos (because I can’t simply post just one), and video.
• Instagram posts: very editorial and planned. some accounts are more “on the go” and natural while I’ll plan my content in advance before posting. I use Plann a scheduling app that helps me organize my weekly content calendar but I’m still posting everything manually. 
• Instagram stories: this is where I have fun, dancing with outfits, showing silly things and showing you Maca on the go.  
• Vimeo: Just my video portfolio (not intended to be a youtube channel) but something more “design”
• Pinterest: I’m SO late in the Pinterest game (let’s be besties here!), and I just started working on it as a traffic tool with the help of tailwind, another scheduling tool that helps you post pins on a daily basis.

Consistency and frequency 

Two magic words, right? like any job, you have to be consistent in what you do, and this includes:

• Posting tons of stories daily so your community can see your life, they want to see more!
• Develop weekly scheduling, in my case, I post every day (up to 2 posts) and Sundays on social media. Saturday is my official day off (YAY I have a day off!) and I try to have two blog posts every week (I tryyyy)
• Use the same editing in your photography, I picked a bright, colourful and airy style you’ll see in all my work.
• How do I keep it up and get more inspiration? I religiously spend a decent amount of time on Pinterest and have endless secret boards (even classified by colours), reading design books and dedicating a day a week to seek the beauty in the city (SO useful).  
• A few years ago I hired a graphic designer (a lovely friend of mine) to create my branding. I’ve defined: the font I use, my logo, media kit, ending reports for sponsored content, one pager sheets, and yes, I even have a colour palette I use everywhere (have you seen my Instagram story highlight covers?) that’s just a tiny example.
• Remember your pillars? they play a big part here! Be consistent and ALWAYS remember to rotate them.

Invest in equipment

If you’re building a house, I’m sure you’ll go crazy with all the tools you’ll get at home depot to make it happen right? well, friends, this is the exact same over here. This job is a creative and a visual one, so the better equipment you have & the more prepared you are, your content will show well, just THAT. If you love photography, invest in a good camera and lenses (I did it years ago and it’s been the best decision I’ve done to date.