Get off the content creation hamster wheel
As a marketer who loves to write and who understands the power of good content, I know the hamster wheel of creation is addictive. But content creation is only half the work done.
Hello,
After more than a month :).
Was I too busy or was it a purposeful pause?
Purposeful actually.
Sometimes we need to stop chopping the tree, take a step back, and sharpen our axe.
And when we are too busy in action, stepping back isn’t easy. It requires restraint and willpower.
Of late, I had started to get this feeling that the whole content industry is operating like a hamster wheel.
As a marketer who loves to write and who understands the power of good content, I know this wheel is addictive. To add to that, in order to beat the algorithms, there is strong favoritism for the word “more”.
Create more, post more. More, more, and more…
It’s overwhelming for a person like me who always believed in - less is more, as long as it’s delivering value.
So, this pause has been a conscious effort to reflect on “more or less”.
To contemplate, plan, and figure out “what next”.
Creating good content is time-consuming and tough. And making it reach its target audience is tougher.
Gone are the days, when the audience would come and read, just because we have created a good piece of content.
This acceptance hasn’t been easy for someone who has been writing online for two decades now. It’s one of those activities that I enjoy. Maybe that’s why I am not bored of it to date. Back in early 2000, when I started my first blog, good writing took care of many things. To be honest, even average writing got noticed just because there were very few content creators in that era.
But today, everyone is a content creator. Which in a way is good. As we have access to some of the most engaging & inspiring content these days. Though the democratization of content creation has led to various other issues like plagiarism and visibility.
And I am not surprised.
Some numbers to ponder over
With 7.5 million blog posts written every day, and 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, visibility will be a challenge.
Distribute, Repurpose, Calendarize
I have spent the last three months researching & analyzing the process of some of the successful content creators whose work I admire. Here are three key learnings that are worth remembering. A lot of it we already know. But if you are like me, who implements these for the brands that we work for, and not for our own brand, then these will be a good refresher for you too :)
Content creation is only half the work done. Distribution matters equally. Check out any successful author or online content creator whose work you like. You will realize the ratio between creation and distribution is 1:1. In fact, in some cases, the balance is tilted towards distribution more.
Repurposing is powerful. I definitely need to remember this. Many posts that we create may not have an expiry date. For e.g., one of my posts on Medium gets fresh search traffic & share every month, as the topic is still relevant to the industry. A closer look at your posts, and you may find some old posts that can be shared with new insights.
Calendarizing brings clarity. Planning our content in advance helps. It provides a direction and sets us up for milestones. Most importantly it brings consistency. A quality that most content creators need.
Please note, I am saying “consistency”, not “frequency”. You can decide what’s a comfortable frequency for you where you won’t end up producing content just for the sake of producing and stick to it.
Additional link to listen to:
If you would like to listen to a good podcast on striking a balance between creation and distribution, you may check this 8 min episode of Growth Machine here or here.
A post that you may like to read:
Does subconscious bias in advertising fascinate you? If yes, you may check one of my recent posts here.
A request
As mentioned, I am in the process of figuring out “what next” for my blog and newsletter. It would be great if you can help me answer these two questions. Thank you in advance.
On that note, let me sign off here. In case you are also getting the hamster wheel vibes for your work, I suggest you pause and reflect.
And what better month than December to begin your reflection journey :).
Have a delightful December.
Cheers,
Kanupriya
P.S: If you are new to my newsletter and would like to check my 10-post series on Marketing for Small Businesses and Solopreneurs, you may start with the first post here. And if you think it delivered value to you, it would be great if you can help me spread the word by sharing it with others. Thanks a lot.