So You Want To Be A Content Creator
Picture this — it’s a mundane Tuesday (seriously though, somehow Tuesday manages to be the most mundane of all seven days, but I digress). It’s Tuesday and you’re mindlessly scrolling through Instagram.
*scroll*
Pretty girl sitting in the latest “it” café talking about their seasonal menu. Quote <YY20> for 20% off your total bill! #sp
*scroll*
Cool cinematic video of the Singapore skyline looking like it belongs in 3020 instead of 2020. Pretty cool.
*scroll*
Bunch of millennials with exaggerated expressions doing some sort of challenge in their swanky new age office. People actually get paid to do these? I could totally do that too.
I get it — every other person on social media with a decent following calls themselves a content creator and while everyone *technically* is a content creator, actual content creation goes way beyond slapping a filter or text on an image and calling it a day.
So what does it take to be a content creator?
Consume, consume, consume
Content, that is. Not snacks.
Part of the content creator job description is the never-ending consumption of content. Nobody starts out being a content guru who knows the exact type and style of content they want to create. Therefore, one way to find out is to have conscious consumption of all sorts of content while figuring out what works, what doesn’t and why. It allows you to observe how different creators approach their content with varying styles and POVs. It gives you inspiration and builds your very own personal idea bank that you can tap on for future projects.
Producing high-value content
“What’s in it for me?” In this day and age, it’s time to steer away from the “me” mentality and focus on “them” — them being your audience. Content that have value drives conversations and engagement, it becomes topics that people share on their Facebook feed or bring up for discussion with their friends.
Consider these before creating your next piece of content:
What value does this bring to my viewers?
What do my viewers want to see?
And more important for creators and brands — how do I strike a balance between what I want to tell them and what they want to see?
Be authentic
“Fake it till you make it.” this holds true to a certain extent, but it can only get you so far. Internet users are getting savvy and can smell crap from a mile away (as one local photoshop expert influencer found out the hard way a couple of years ago.)
In essence, it’s really just about being upfront about who you are. The audience follow a creator for a simple reason, they like the unique brand of content they see. This is also why so many content creators place a heavy emphasis on their personal branding and not creating content that they don’t believe in.
Don’t chase the numbers (for now)
Focus on building a solid foundation while experimenting to find out who are you as a content creator. Carve out your niche but be warned that it takes time, because not everyone “goes viral” overnight, if ever at all. More often than not, the famous creators that you see have been in the game for a very long time, carefully honing their craft and building a strong community. If you’re in this for the long haul, it’ll be more prudent to have a foundation built on skill and experience than hope for instant fame with no sustenance plan.
That said, social media is still a numbers game and for any channel to be monetised, the need for numbers will eventually catch up. It’s just not the priority that you should be worried about at the start of your content creation journey.
Just do it
As Nike so aptly puts it. You could read all the books there are, go for all the courses and classes but there’s nothing like rolling up your sleeves and just getting your hands dirty. Nobody starts off being super professional, or even at all. But that’s how everybody learns and how everyone gets better through time. Trial and error is the only way you truly improve, learn what you can do and what kind of creator you want to be.
And with that, I leave you budding creators to explore the infinite world of content creation and I’m excited to see the thumb-stopping content you put out there.
This post is not sponsored but I spent a few hours on this article so let me have two seconds to plug this — if you’re a content creator, check out Bloomr.SG MCN, the first and only Singaporean official Youtube Multi-Channel Network!
