How the game of chess convinced me to have a strategy for my content
A strategy versus a plan: is there a difference when it comes to your online content?
This is a question I have previously spoken about it on my Facebook page. It was time for me to repurpose it and put it into a blog. The timing couldn’t have been better! It was because of a book that landed on my lap.
If you would rather listen than read then push play below to hear how the game of chess convinced me to have a stratgey
Have you ever read a book that grabs you: one that you can’t put down? Recently, I read a book just like that.
My husband bought it for me at a secondhand book shop when we were travelling
The book’s description didn’t grab me, to be honest, it was about Chess.
A game that I know is very tactical, and I definitely have never got past the very basics. To be honest I would rather be in the gym sweating it out than working on my chess moves but having no other book options I decided to give it a go.
A few pages in I was completely hooked!
Couldn’t put it down, the Game thrilled me!
What has this got to do with content strategy and this blog you may ask? This quote appeared on the pages in front of me and I knew it was time to write this blog.
Quote:
“Tactics (or Plan) is knowing what to do when there is something to do
Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do”
(Savielly Tartakover, Polish Grand Master Chess: The Eight by Katherine Neville)
Savielly’s comment was simply brilliant.
To me, when you are thinking about the end result you want to achieve, this comment makes so much sense. In chess, you have a plan to play and a strategy to win.
With your online content, you have a plan to get your message out there and a strategy to have it heard.
Keeping things as simple as possible is always my goal.
In the online world, there is plenty of jargon that can confuse us and the question you may have is:
Is there a difference between a plan and a strategy?
The simple answer is yes. If you take the concept from the quote above, it looks like this:
A plan is a series of small individual steps.
You know what to do and you do them every day, every week or every month to get to your end goal. In chess, It’s making the next move.
A strategy is how those steps work together.
It’s where you look at all the influencing factors both seen and unseen that will affect your outcome. It’s your big picture or your end goal. It shows you what to do when there is nothing to do. Your plan is in place. In chess, you look at your moves ahead and try to interpret what your opponent will do.
If you have never played chess before or like me are not very good at it then you will start playing with only a basic plan.
You may know the pieces and how they can move, but that is about the extent of it. With your online content, you may already have some sort of plan. It could be simply having a Facebook business page which is a great start but you may not be very organised.
You know what to do when you have something to post about or you may only post when you feel like it. Like when an idea comes to you in the shower or perhaps you have a new service or product, you want to share.
You may start out with this basic content plan, but without the strategy behind it, your plan can stall and stumble.
Creating overwhelm and discouragement. You may end up with that familiar feeling of being stuck not knowing what to share today because you have a blank, or life happens and you’re busy looking after that unforeseen emergency.
Having a strategy in place guides your plan, takes away that feeling of overwhelm and keeps you moving forward towards what you want!
This is where if, you have your strategy in place, it will tell you what to put out there.
Especially when you don’t have a clue what to share today. when you don’t get any ideas in the shower.
A good strategy makes implementing your plan that much easier.
When you start to formulate your online content strategy you look at every influencing factor, seen and unseen that can affect you delivering the right content to the right customers.
It’s the big picture of what you want to share online. It comes to terms with the whole situation, not just the end result.
And a strategy allows you to connect with your why.
Why you serve your audience.
What you want to educate them about,
which problems you can solve for them.
Your strategy will give you the focus factor for your online content.
Your plan will help you deliver the consistency.
Your plan.
Here you are zoning in on the how-to steps. These are steps that you repeat persistently and consistently.
The repetitive actions that need to be done like a well-oiled machine to get the job done. That job being to give your content purpose.
It may feel boring and unattractive but that’s great! It’s the mundane repetitive things that get your message out there each and every day.
The trick here is for you to fall in love with the mundane. Repetition, repetition, repetition can be a challenge for the ideas people who love to see and do something new every day.
If you know that you are not going to love the mundane then it may be time to consider using a scheduler or outsource it to someone who loves to do that kind of work.
It’s really important to note here to keep a hold of your big picture strategy and not the actual steps in the plan.
In other words, keep your strategy in place and adjust your plan on the fly.
For example, you want to help women live a healthier lifestyle through better choices, not simply diet. You want to reach them via online platforms where they hang out and you want them to sign up for your program. This is your strategy.
Your plan may start with weekly posts on Facebook, but then you discover your audience is actually corporate women and they are on Linked In.
During your strategy creation, you considered all social media platforms and already have a LinkedIn presence. So you adjust and become more visible on LinkedIn. You still have the same goal, but you’re able to adjust your plan as you grow.
Strategy versus Plan
1/ Your strategy is your big picture. Getting your strategy in place requires you to connect with your why know where you are and where you want to be. This stays consistent. It means you will know what to do when there seems nothing to do
2/ Your plan is repetitive tasks that deliver. Schedule these activities in your calendar. Remember these activities in your plans can change on the fly as needed, to get you where you want to be.
3/ With BOTH your strategy and plan in place, you will have online content going out consistently, that has purpose.
So in conclusion there never was a strategy versus a plan.
It is a strategy that creates your plan
and
A plan that delivers your strategy.
You can have one or the other but that won’t get you where you want to be effectively. Together they work in tandem to produce the results you want.
If you need help with your strategy so you can implement your plan and get from where you are now to where you want to be then jump on a call with me and lets chat about how we can make this happen for you.
Photo by Zuri Benitez on Unsplash
