When I planned this blog post with my content manager at the beginning of last month, I fully intended to make it an office tour of the new house.

Well, unfortunately, that's not happening quite yet.

There are still things that I need to buy, things that I'm moving around, and a lot of stuff that is sitting in my office because I just needed to get them out of the box and haven't found a permanent home for them yet.

One box at a time, we are getting there.

Unpacking box after box between client meetings and events has given me a lot of time to think about social media.

The content that gets the most engagement is always the least polished, and that has never been so apparent as sharing behind the scenes as we move from one house to another.

Don't wait until everything is perfect

One huge issue I see with my students and my clients all the time is waiting for things to be perfect before we post about them.

We share photos from events full of people, show off our desk when it is perfectly clean and curated for photos, and share behind-the-scenes content in our business only when it makes us look our best, instead of sharing to connect and build trust.

I was thinking about this while unpacking the kitchen.

It's like people are willing to share photos of a beautiful loaf of bread when it comes out of the oven, but they aren't willing to share the process of making it and all of the messiness that goes into it behind the scenes.

I'm not saying sharing a big reveal with your new product sitting perfectly on the shelf or that curated desk with demos of your new service isn’t a good idea (and hugely satisfying!). I'm just saying that all of the content that went into those special moments is also worth sharing.

The messy middle is where the story is

I want you to think about your favourite before-and-after content and why you love it so much.

I would bet it's not just because you want to see a beautiful end product. You probably also want to see the transformation, with what decisions were made and what went wrong along the way.

Social media for your business can work the same way. It's a great way to build trust online without needing to shoot a lot of extra content.

Everything is content

If you're launching a new product, don't wait until launch day to talk about it. Take people behind the scenes while you create the product.

If you are opening a new location, show the empty space before you move into it. You could share the paint samples or the sign arriving, or show the first box being unpacked.

If you're preparing for an event, you can bring people along while you're setting up.

If you're creating a new service, talk about any challenges that arise or issues you stumble across.

All of these little moments give your audience a reason to follow you, and they build trust while you're at it. People buy from people they know and like and trust.

You don't have to have every step figured out before you take the first one

This is so important for us small business owners because sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves to look professional and established online.

Many business owners, myself included, sometimes think that showing something unfinished makes us look disorganized, but there is a big difference between being unprofessional and showing the process.

Your audience knows that you are a human being and that, like the rest of us, you're making mistakes along the way.

It's always more interesting to see what someone learned from a mistake than thinking that they've never made one in the first place.

There is work happening behind every finished product and service and experience. Showing some of that helps people to understand the work that you offer.

Keep your camera at the ready

There's also a very practical reason to start documenting everything for social media, and that's because you need the content. If you only photographed the finished product, you created one piece of content from many hours of work.

If you document the process, suddenly you have 5, 10, maybe even 20 pieces of content.

Just because you've recorded the content doesn't mean that you have to use it, after all.

You don't need something big to happen to be worth sharing

We've talked about this before, but honestly, it's worth repeating again. A big, huge announcement doesn't have to be happening in your business for you to have something worth sharing. Sometimes the best content is just showing people what you're up to today.

This is especially true during seasons when you're building or preparing for something.

Right now, my office is not ready for a house tour, and I'm not going to pretend that it is.

However, I can show you the process.

I could show you the boxes, or the corner that I actually have finished, or maybe I'll ask for opinions on paint swatches.

Then eventually, when I do share the office, you'll already know the story behind it because you'll have watched it all come together.

That's way more interesting than pretending I woke up one morning with a perfectly curated office.

Document everything without the pressure of creating something with it

The easiest mindset shift that you can make when it comes to your social media is to stop thinking that every piece of content has to be created into something.

You can start documenting what you're already doing.

If you're packing an order, take a picture.
If you're setting up for an event, record 10 seconds of video.
If new inventory arrives, show your audience.
If you're planning something, take a picture of your notebook.
If you're decorating for the holidays, show the boxes before everything goes up.
If something doesn't go according to plan and there's a lesson you can share, that's a great post to talk about.

You don't need to share every detail of your business or your personal life, but there are absolutely things happening behind the scenes that can build trust for you.

It's fine the way it is

Social media platforms have spent years convincing us that we need to show up perfectly finished, with the perfect home, the perfect office, the perfect product, the perfect business, but that's just not how real life works.

The middle is messy, with planning and experimenting and changing our minds and moving things around and making mistakes and figuring things out as we go.

If you take that away, you take away the story that helps your business connect with PEOPLE.

So I'm not going to be waiting for the perfect reveal to share my office, and I hope you'll come follow me on Instagram as I make decisions, change my mind, and change my mind again.

Sharing The Messy Middle To Build Trust Online