There’s More to Consistency Than “Showing Up” on Social Media

If you’ve ever searched for business advice online, I’ll bet you’ve been told that you should be focusing on consistency. That being consistent is the key to success!

And sure, I can agree with that. It’s the next part of the advice that I’m not a fan of: that being consistent means posting on social media every single day, or sending your marketing emails every week without ever skipping one, or some other version of being “always on” with your digital presence.

It’s not that these things are bad. But there’s so much more to consistency than content marketing. If you want to be more consistent in your business in a way that will have a real impact on your customers, your profits, and your well-being, stop worrying about posting and start thinking about consistency in a whole new way.

Keep reading to see where consistency matters most in your business.

What it really looks like to be consistent

If you enjoy posting or emailing and your business benefits from it, then go ahead and do those things regularly. However, these are the areas where being consistent has a concrete, make-or-break effect on the success of your business:

Whether your work reflects your stated values. One of the best things about being a solo business owner is leading with our values and making decisions based on what feels right to us. But once we’ve committed to those values, our customers expect us to honor them. If you position your business as eco-friendly, or community-focused, or inclusive to all, your actions need to consistently match those commitments.

The quality of your work and customer service. Whether we’re crafting necklaces or drafting contracts, our customers expect us to put the same level of care and quality into every single instance of our work. Providing that level of consistency requires solid systems in every aspect of your business, from finances to time management to customer communication.

The depth of your integrity. Integrity isn’t just doing what we say we’ll do or living our values. It’s continuing to do those things even when it’s difficult. It’s refusing to source inferior materials, even if it means you have to raise your prices. It’s spending the necessary time perfecting your client’s logo, even when you’re slammed with other projects. That’s what a consistent commitment to the integrity of your work looks like.

Consistency = Trust and reliability

Consistency about building trust with your customers and audience so they believe that you are who you say you are, your work is as good as you make it look, and that you can actually deliver the results you claim to be able to deliver.

It’s the work you put in to create and uphold your professional reputation. Posting sporadically on Instagram does not make you inconsistent. Breaking promises or delivering poor results to your customers does.

Here’s an example: There’s a business services provider I follow who posts hot takes and often gets reposted by some big meme accounts. They’ve achieved a sort of “Instagram fame”, and I admit I’ve wondered if the increased visibility translated into increased profits. Should I be trying harder to go viral, or posting more??

So I was surprised to hear that one of my clients had actually worked with this person a few months ago, and she thought it was going well until she received some bizarre emails from them and then they ghosted when she tried to clarify the situation. She never did figure out what happened. All the while, the hot takes kept coming on IG.

This person was clearly great at posting consistently, but failed to deliver on the work they’d promised to a real-life client. What a great reminder that going viral online is pointless if you don’t make the effort to keep your professional reputation intact within your community.

Reputation consistency before social media consistency

I talk with people all the time who feel bad that they’re not posting more, or putting more time into content creation, or changing their email marketing cadence, or some other version of so-called “inconsistency.”

But what they ARE doing is hitting their project deadlines, fulfilling their obligations to customers and partners, and taking the time to make sure their products or services are high-quality.

This is the work that really matters, the work that will keep customers coming back for more, encourage them to tell their friends about you, and get them to leave you a fantastic review or testimonial.

No one really notices when you “miss” a post or an email, but they definitely know whether they can count on you to follow through on your commitments.

So next time you see the ubiquitous advice that consistency is the key to success (and it makes you feel bad for not posting more) remember where consistency matters most. It’s not in your posts, it’s in your reputation.

Cover image from Unsplash.