Beyond Emojis, Likes, and Comments — How to Use Content to Build Your Future Self
Do you dread writing, promoting yourself, or being in the spotlight? Are you currently creating and sharing your ideas in some regular way? Perhaps at company lunch-and-learns or industry conferences, on LinkedIn, in trade publications, podcast interviews, or social posts?
“Content creation” has become the new-new thing with every business advisor and branding expert eager to unpack their advice on how to build an audience, gain authority, and generate a revenue stream.
Don’t get me wrong, I love and believe in content, but I have found much of the discussion (or hype) off the mark. From experience, I believe that content creation is an incredible accelerant to improve how you learn, work, and think, but it’s nothing like what marketers or branding experts sell it to be.
Let’s explore why content creation might be important for you and how anyone can get started by taking mini, safe, realistic leaps, even if you are a newbie.
What Content Creation Is NOT About
Let’s first dispel some myths about what content creation is NOT about:
Making money. NEWS FLASH: Most people will never get rich from their content. (Even bestselling authors and personalities earn more from consulting, speaking, training programs, their corporate position, or other activities and products than their content creation.) If you are motivated to make more money, my advice would be to improve your sales skills — it’s a much faster way to grow revenue. You need something deeper — learning, visibility, creativity, influence, sharing, community-building, connections — to drive you to create meaningful content.
Building a (huge) audience. Unless you are willing to put a significant investment of time or money (or both), most people will never generate a huge audience or following (though a much smaller, targeted audience can be extremely powerful and satisfying). When you see an expert with an email list of over 100,000 people — they have worked their tails off to build it and probably spent a small fortune.
Being a substitute for other parts of your business. For most traditional businesses, content creation will not replace sales, networking, managing people, or delivering quality service. Even though I generate a lot of content (and find it extremely helpful in all kinds of ways), by far the best way I promote, and sell is through “old-school” methods of email follow-up (i.e., “What can we help you with?”), coffee dates, and scheduling meetings and calls.
Getting lots of fans who care about your content (and boost your ego). Most people won’t care about your content. Maybe this is the harshest reality. Most of your closest friends, team members, clients, business associates — even your family and spouse — won’t care either. (Yes, you will have friends unsubscribe from your newsletter ... and yes, this hurts a bit.) Accept that rejection and apathy from others is part of the game.
Beyond Emojis and Likes: 4 Reasons to Create and Share Content
With those warnings out of the way, let’s explore the real benefits of content creation — which, simply put, covers all the formats and platforms for sharing your ideas, advice, point of view, models, visuals, opinions, teaching, and experiences.
Creating content isn’t always easy but it is one of the best paths to improving your work, career, and even your life.
1. Turbocharge your learning and teach your weaknesses.
We could say that creating content is (or should be) a selfish endeavor. Write to improve yourself first. Create content that pushes you intellectually and emotionally and compels you to understand whatever you are wrestling with.
Creating content changes how you learn and absorb information. You will no longer find yourself sitting aimlessly in a conference or webinar — your ears will be perked up like a rabbit looking for gems, pearls of wisdom, and people to know. It will influence what you read and research, too.
Being selfish in the content you create isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing. It’s the problems we have overcome and the topics that don’t come easily to us that we are best at teaching to others. I am an expert in documentation, not because I had the answers at first, but because I struggled with it in my early years of work and needed to teach myself a better way.
So, who cares if no one “likes” your blog post? You’ve gotten plenty of benefits from the writing process already.
2. Make your current work a bit better.
At its simplest, content creation makes you a better version of Current YOU. Even though I have worked on hundreds of internal control programs under my firm Risk Oversight, I still find that writing an article on internal controls forces me to think about what I am doing a little better every time (and my clients, future clients, and community can see how I’m thinking and innovating our approaches).
Writing, presenting, or recording a short video about what you do, makes you more prepared to do the work better. Current YOU has thought through how to sell or communicate your approach and leads to the best, most efficient way of saying it. A win-win for your success inside and outside your organization.
3. Expand your work by building a bridge to future opportunities.
In recent years, I had been trying to do more work in the Information Management space and felt that I had ideas to add to the conversation. It’s only when I began writing more about Information Management policies that I started to get more consulting and speaking in the field. As they say, “build it, and they will come.” And I was ready for those opportunities because I’d developed and tested my thinking.
Content creates a bridge between Current YOU and Future YOU.
Content won’t get you to a “fantasy” Future YOU. You shouldn’t publish content about topics that are out of your league or element (although you can write about them for yourself, at least to get started). But for projects or topics in your reach, content will help you to cross over in the right direction.
4. Connect in new ways and join collective conversation.
Last month, I reviewed two books — one by a bestselling productivity author and another from a senior Chief Audit Executive in Washington. One year ago, this would have never been anything I would have been asked to do. But, because both had read my book, they saw me as a peer.
While it’s true that most people won’t care about your content, there will be a few that will. Content is about connecting to these few people. The funny thing that I have learned about the “fans” you find — is that they will come from different disciplines, age groups, backgrounds, levels in their organization, countries, and industries.
Content transcends barriers and opens you up to new conversations and relationships.
A side benefit is that content helps you influence your profession or other disciplines through adding to the collective dialogue. When you participate, you have more credibility, and surprising doors can open.
How to Get Started
While there is a torrent of content created every day, of the active members currently on LinkedIn, only 1% are considered to be content creators. If you are part of the 99%, you are in good company. And it means you might have a wide opening to make a mark.
For many of you with corporate jobs, creating content may not be a part of your routine and you may never want it to be. But, if you want to “dip your toe” or get better at what you’re already doing, here’s a short list of ideas you could consider.
But even before you experiment with any of these ideas below, first decide what content will help YOU:
What challenge are you working on at work?
What is a concept that you wish you could articulate better or more clearly to your team or clients?
What is a project you want to be working on but aren’t yet?
These types of questions that will motivate you to create more substantive, meaningful content that will take you way beyond emojis, comments, and “likes.”
Second, choose one of these ideas and commit to one of them, ideally with a deadline (and a buddy):
Sign-up to do a presentation for your team.
Read articles from professional organizations or leading magazines (Inc., Fortune, HBR, etc.) and then post one or two great articles with comments.
Sign-up to present at your local professional chapter.
Write a post for LinkedIn.
Create a 2- to 5-minute video about something you are good at doing and post on LinkedIn, YouTube, your company website, or newsletter.
Submit an article for a professional magazine.
Write a posting for your team’s Wiki or Intranet site.
Go on a podcast, especially a smaller one to start or one you’ve been following.
With this new appreciation (and skepticism) for what content is and isn't about, I do hope that you find some opportunity in your week, month, or year to "dip your toe" at least into the journey of content creation. The most important thing is to have fun and learn from the process too.
