Brainstorming for success
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
I’ve used this phrase many times since I started my business almost 7 years ago, and I continue to live by it today. When I talk about social media marketing with my clients and students, I often find that many of them are winging it when it comes to their online presence. While that might work for a short period of time, it’s unreasonable to try to keep up with everything long term without a plan. Eventually, balls will start to drop and one of the first ones to hit the floor is often your social media marketing.
So what do you do to help pre-plan your content for social media and bring more leads in for your business?
It might seem like oversimplifying, but you brainstorm!
Brainstorming in 2021
The word “brainstorming” might automatically make you cringe, if you’re recalling painful hours spent scribbling ideas for social studies class, you can let out a sigh of relief.
The kind of brainstorming that I’m talking about is creative brainstorming. It’s taking some time out of your busy schedule to just think.
Nothing else. Just you, your hopes and dreams, and a blank sheet of paper.
According to Mind Tools, Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem-solving with lateral thinking. It encourages people to come up with thoughts and ideas that can, at first, seem a bit crazy. Some of these ideas can be crafted into original, creative solutions to a problem, while others can spark even more ideas.
When you start a new project or want to add a new income stream, brainstorming is a way to get to the best ideas quickly. Instead of coming up with an idea and then assessing the risks of it, you can dump all of your ideas onto the page and move toward a solution or a product more efficiently.
Why brainstorm and how often?
Whether you’re brainstorming on your own as a way to collect ideas or working with someone else to facilitate your exploration, the point of brainstorming is to write your ideas down! If you don’t have time to tackle one idea now, you can always come back to it at another time when you do have the energy needed for it.
I’m not the only business owner who has suffered from burnout over the past year or so. When you have so many ideas floating around but aren’t able to do them all at once, it can feel like you’re falling behind—and make your burnout worse.
When that happens, it’s easy to push everything aside because you’re too tired to think about it. Without writing it down, that idea will be gone by the time you’ve recovered enough to tackle it.
You can keep a notebook with your brainstorms or you can use this Brain Dump worksheet to get all of your ideas down on paper.
As for how often? That depends on you! You can brainstorm any time you:
Feel uninspired
Feel stuck
Need to come up with a lot of ideas, fast
Need to feel less anxious about work
Feel creatively blocked
Traditionally, brainstorming is a group activity. The energy of the group helps each person feed off everyone else. In addition to generating ideas, brainstorming can help you weave connected ideas together to form a cohesive whole.
However, there is no one correct way to brainstorm. Some people like to storm on their own, a pad of paper and a pen in hand, a cup of coffee close by. They like to get their ideas on paper before they consider discussing them with others.
How to brainstorm with others?
If you have a hard time brainstorming on your own, you can use the following technique to brainstorm with others:
Get together with a group of friends and pick specific topics to discuss
Hot Seats: 1 person has 5 minutes to tell you their issues/problems/ what they need help with, the facilitator has 5 minutes to tell you their advice and then the other members there have 2-3 minutes to give advice
Join a mastermind group with other like-minded people, you will get ideas from others and they can help you with your issues.
1-on-1 with a professional (Click here to book for September)
It doesn’t have to be hard, and it definitely won’t be boring. If you understand brainstorming, you can make it an invaluable part of developing marketing strategies as well as new digital products.
How to get comfortable brainstorming?
Make sure you set yourself up for success by creating a good atmosphere for brainstorming.
Remove time constraints - don’t book a project afterwards.
Privacy - create a safe space to work
Comfort - comfortable place to sit, comfortable clothes
Notes - either take your own or have someone record them for you
Ideally, if brainstorming with others, everyone will be able to contribute evenly to the discussion so you might have to set up rules for letting people speak.
In 1957, advertising executive Alexander Faickney Osborn came up with four rules of brainstorming:
Generate as many ideas as possible before considering any of them.
Never criticize another participant’s ideas.
Avoid censoring seemingly “crazy” ideas.
Evolve existing ideas to expand on them.
When you’re brainstorming for social media ideas, start writing your ideas based on your audience. What do they want to learn? How do they want to learn it? What format would make the learning most effective?
With each question, your idea could go in a whole different direction. The goal is just to get as many ideas down as possible.
Make time to plan for your business
Brainstorming isn't just for high school students who need to write a research paper. It's an extremely effective technique for small business owners/entrepreneurs and professionals who want to take their businesses to the next level and new directions.
Remember that you can brainstorm by yourself or with a group. The decision is entirely yours.
Do you or your group want a brainstorming session and need a facilitator? Now booking for the fall!