I remember being 15 years old and watching all these youtubers do crazy stuff and live such an exciting life. I admired Jay Alvarrez so much that I even tried to start my own channel and become one of them, but it was hard to post consistently so my dream ended pretty quick.
I'm now a 20yo guy doing college, still amazed by what creators do, trying to understand in depth the booming Creator Economy in order to build for them, the courageous creators. (if you are also into the CE I'd love to connect β please reach out)
This is the first article of a 5-part series about the process by which most of the top creators go through in order to turn themselves into businesses and later into empires β and can also work as a guide if you are thinking of becoming a creator or are already in the journey!
Before we get started, last week I wrote a piece about the different types of people and entities that are part of the content creation and consumption process, and their roles on the Creator Economy... You'll probably find it useful if you are new to to the CE β check it out here!
Okay, so where do we start? How do young creators go from a few thousands views to millions of dollars in their bank account? What is it that they do differently in order to amass such a big following and turn themselves into businesses?
EXIST β CREATE
0. Exist
Being mere consumers
It all starts with our digital presence. There are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, everyone of them consuming content daily. We all spend huge amounts of our time staring at our screens and enjoy watching others lives through images, videos and even texts. What many don't notice is that they are being part of a massive economy.
This is a market with a huge amount of people to target, but not all of us see this opportunity, or we don't want to take the leap, so we stay as merely consumers.
However, there are a few that decide there's a different way to spend their time online, and that's creating content and living out of it. This is a tough and risky path, and one that only the brave ones take. It takes time, skills and research.
0.5 Research
Although this is an important step for everyone trying to become a creator, it's not a required one. Doing research before jumping into a new activity is always a good way to know what to do and how to do it, and in this case, which space should you start creating in (probably a space they are passionate about or have skills already). But what is also true is that doing research can sometimes delay your start with creating content, and it's common to find out where there is more opportunity to stand out later in the journey.
1. Create
Creating content is easy. Creating content that resonates is not.
The barriers to create content have been lowered these days and now everyone with a smartphone can do it. However, it's not easy to get started, and it's even harder to create great content. In a world with so much to see, listen or read, how will your content stand out?
If you want to create content that resonates, the first step you must take is knowing your audience. From there, you can target them by producing content that is informative, readable, provides value, and is visually appealing. When you check those boxes, you position your content to succeed.
The second step β and their main goal while creating content β is to create pieces that hook their audience. But how do successfull creators achieve this? It all comes down to emotions. This are some general concepts and practices that help trigger your audience's emotions:
Help your audience achieve their goals.
Make them feel in a way that they are part of the experience, special or powerful.
Tell a story β especially those that your audience can relate to.
Create a feeling of belonging.
Use humor
Surprise your audience
There's one more thing that can help produce high quality content and capture your audience's attention, and that is the tools you use. Finding tools that suit your creation style and process is not easy, and it takes time to get used to them. Hugo Amsellem wrote a great piece a while back where you can find lots of different tools that can help you on your journey as a creator. I recommend you check it out if you are thinking about creating content.
Okay so, creating great content is probably the biggest issue. But it's only the first step into becoming a creator. You can create the best content out there, but if you are not capable of reaching an audience that likes what you do you won't go anywhere.
You may wonder what is it that creators do to make strangers consume their content, turn them into followers and later into actual fans? Let's see...
2. Share (+promote)
Many would think this step only involves tapping the "Post" button and that's it, but there's much more to be done. And there's probably a huge difference in the results. There are 2 main goals creators aim for in this step:
reach new people/audiences
strengthen the relationship with their existing one.
In order to achieve these two, a few things can be done when they share their content:
Define the best platform for the content. Drive people from other platforms to that main one.
Almost always, creators have a platform where they stand out βmainly due to the type of contentβ but the way they get to this can vary (2 approaches: vertical first, then horizontal ; horizontal first, then vertical). Many times creators just start creating a certain type of content in one platform and they go viral (vertical first), but it's also pretty common to see creators test a few of them and then decide on which one to focus their efforts based on performance (horizontal first). It usually depends on where their audience prefers to consume such content.
Once they find the "content/platform/audience fit", creators try to grow their presence in other platforms and drive their audience to the main channel, so that they consume their main content.
Create buzz before and after you share new content. Make your audience feel excited about it.
Foster engagement + shareability.
Algorithms are pretty complex nowadays. Try to establish a relationship with your audience and let them do the work for you: ask questions, make people comment, make them create or share similar content to that topic, make them share your content with their peers, etc...
Drive people to the most desired action.
Make sure you let your audience know what you want them to do β consciously or unconsciously too (i.e. follow me for more content about...; subscribe to my channel and turn the notifications on, retweet for...)
3. Analyze
Last but not least, it is important that you understand who are you talking to and what content resonates with them. There is a lot of stuff that creators need to be aware of when they create and understanding their audience is definitely one of them. You might want to make content for them, or create pieces that you enjoy and find the people that are interested in such space.
Also, make sure you:
Review any current data and analytics.
KeepΒ anΒ eye current trends in your space
Look to previous successes amongΒ your audience.
MonitorΒ audienceΒ feedback, comments, and engagements.
Make polls where your audience can directly tell you what they want
As I mentioned before, researching (and analyzing once you have already created your first pieces) is important but don't get stuck on it.
And again, check out this article from Hugo Amsellem if you are a creator looking for an analytics tool that suits you.
π Repeat
Consistency is the key.
This is a never ending process. It's a flywheel, and the only way to get better at it is by doing it very often, consistently. This is how successfull creators got to where they are today. More pieces, more chances of going viral, more chances of getting to know what your audience wants, more chances of getting better at creating, more chances people want to work with you. There's no other secret.
Okay this is the first step on a creator's journey to becoming an empire. Creating content [ Create β Share β Analyze β π ]. Sounds simple, but it's hard to get started and do it consistently. Next step is the βGrowthβ phase, and we'll see how that works on Part II next week so stay tuned πβ‘οΈπ€πΌ
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