Why You Won’t Find a Content Marketing Mentor

But you can find something much better

Like most of our unrealistic expectations for life, our desire to seek out a mentor for our career likely comes from hollywood. The movie business uses that trope to perfection over an over. Luke had Yoda, The X-men had Professor Xavier, and even Bud Fox had Gordon Gekko. By the time we enter the workforce we expect to find the Morpheus to our Neo because every movie from our childhood has told us that’s what will happen. The reality however, is often quite different.

The workplace has changed dramatically in the last few years. It used to be that when you accepted a job, you were planning to be with that company for life. These days it means your planning on being there roughly 4.6 years according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, and even that seems a little high to me.

The Age of the “Self Starter”

As this new generation of workers becomes more and more comfortable with jumping between companies, managers are also shifting their hiring criteria to match. It no longer makes sense to invest heavily in an employee that might not be around in 12 months. That’s why you often see “self starting” and “takes initiative” on job requirements these days. Your boss doesn’t want to hold your hand because they just don’t have time.

This isn’t all bad however, as the millennial generation tends to be more resourceful than the generations that came before us. That’s a pretty easy feat as we grew up with Google at our fingertips, but is a huge advantage in this self-starter culture.

We are also on the cutting edge of new technology which makes us much harder to mentor.

We are also on the cutting edge of new technology which makes us much harder to mentor. For example, in 1986, graphic designers were doing everything by hand, using rulers and pencils and scissors to graft together their work using traditional paste-up techniques that were the industry standard. By the time the class of 1990 graduated, they had learned how to design using computer software. There was nobody there to mentor them. Content marketing is the say way.

There are no content marketing mentors. The discipline is still being discovered and defined.

Your Network is Your Mentor

For new content marketers like myself, discovering the lack of content marketing mentors available to me was a bit startling. There would be no wizened boss to teach me the tricks of the trade and point me in the right direction? Was I really out on my own, left to figure this out as I go? The answer I found, was quite comforting.

While mentorship doesn’t exist in it’s traditional format any longer (i.e. the hierarchical boss to employee relationship) the internet has given us something much better: our networks are the new mentors. You have more access to professionals around the world than ever before. There’s no longer a need to tie your fate to one all-powerful mentor when you can build a network of mini-mentors, from all industries and experience levels, to share their experiences, advice, and knowledge. If two heads is better than one, imagine what 100 heads or 1,000 could do if they were all sharing and supporting one another.

Creative circles aren’t an entirely new concept either, and have been the secret to success of many creatives for decades: French post-impressionists like Seurat, Signac, Picasso, Cézanne, van Gogh and more had the Société des Artistes Indépendants. Prolific writers like Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Barfield made up the British writer’s group the Inklings. With names like those, it’s hard to ignore the effect of this type of mentorship.

Finding Your Content Mentor(s)

Now that you’ve stopped frantically searching for a higher ranking or more experienced content marketer, you can start to build your own network of mentors. The process is surprisingly easy. Here are a few suggestions if you’re just starting out.

Find content you love: Not sure where to start building your network? It’s easy: find content you love and connect with the people that make it. There is no such thing as a content marketing celebrity. We are all facing the same challenges and focused on the same goals each day. Reach out. The person on the other end of that content will likely be more than willing to connect with you.

Share your work: You can’t improve without feedback, and you can’t get feedback unless you share your work. Make it a habit to show your network what you’re working on and reach out to specific people when you get stuck or need feedback. This is the best way to push your network and be pushed forward in return.

Forget boundaries: Content marketing isn’t made up of one particular skill set and you shouldn’t limit your network to one either. Add designers, writers, developers, and marketers. Even if you don’t personally engage with each discipline on a daily basis, all of them are part of content marketing and should influence the way you think each day.

About the author: Matt Wesson is the content marketing manager at Salesforce. Follow him on Twitter or see more articles on his LinkedIn page.