Every Post Is a Hollow Block

I used to post whatever I thought of that day.

I had a brand new Facebook page and a free weekend, so I filled it. A tip on Monday. A meme on Tuesday. A quote I liked on Wednesday. I was posting, which is what everyone said to do.

And the page was not growing.

The voice in my head said, you just need to post more. Post every day. Post twice a day. Keep going, it will click.

If you are posting every day and wondering why your audience is not growing, I have been there. And I want to give you the mental model that finally changed everything for me, because it took me a long time to see it.

The hollow block

Every piece of content you put on social media is a building block. Like a hollow block. When you build a house, the hollow blocks are the structure. The structure is the whole point. One hollow block is not a house. A hundred hollow blocks that are not joined together are not a house either. They are a pile.

Your content is the structure of the thing you are building with your audience. How you engage. What you talk about. What you say yes to. What you say no to.

Those are the bricks. Each one should hold up the next one.

If your message framework is not clear, if you do not know how to communicate clearly with your clients or your audience, it will be very hard to create content that actually engages. You will just be posting piles.

Why this is a theology problem before it is a strategy problem

I want to be careful here. This is not a hack. This is not a quick trick.

I think the reason most of us post piles is that we are anxious. We are afraid of being forgotten. We are afraid the algorithm will punish a quiet week. We want to be seen, and we want it now.

Posting every day can be obedience. It can also be unbelief wearing a content calendar.

Scripture keeps using building language for a reason. Paul says we are God’s building, and that each one should take care how he builds on the foundation already laid, which is Christ. He warns that some build with gold and silver, and some build with wood and straw, and the fire will test what kind of work it was.

If that is true of our lives, it is also true of the public words we put under our names.

A pile of posts can be wood and straw. A slower, truer message can be a brick that lasts.

The question is not only “will this perform.” The question is “is this true, is it clear, does it serve the person reading it, and would I be willing for God to test it.”

That changes how you sit down to write.

The slower question

So here is the question I teach every member of our community to ask before they post.

What am I trying to build?

Once you know what you are building, the next question almost answers itself.

What brick do I need today? Where does it go? What does it carry?

The process

This is the exact process we use.

Know the purpose of your business. Not just what you offer. Why it matters.
Know your audience’s world. What they are going through. What they want to see. What they want to know. What they are tired of hearing.
Write the message framework. One sentence each. What we offer. Why it matters. Three supporting facts that hold it up.
Only now, open the blank post box.

You will know you have done this when your posts start to feel saturated. Marinated.

You cannot understand your own message in one sitting. It takes weeks of sitting with it, writing it badly, writing it again, showing it to a friend, noticing where they lit up and where they did not.

Writing is practice. Do not skip the practice.

Bricks, not leaves

I see people with perfect post schedules and no audience. I see people with one post a month and thousands of comments. The difference is not frequency. The difference is whether the posts are bricks in a house, or leaves in the wind.

You do not dig the well when you are thirsty. Build your foundation now, when the audience is small and the stakes are low. By the time the audience is big, the house should already be standing.

So tomorrow, before you ask “what should I post today?” ask the slower question first.

What am I trying to build?

Then pick the block. Lay it carefully. It is going to hold something up.

- Lala