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"The problem with social media is that everybody is just talking to and about themselves," a friend of mine once said, "Nobody is listening to each other!"
At the time, I agreed with her, though it made my neck break out into splotchy red spots, as it does whenever I get anxious. I was just becoming a content creator myself, as I was in my third year working as a freelance social media manager.
Despite creating a shit-ton of content every single day for my clients across multiple platforms and accounts, it often felt like an uphill battle.
If I wasn't getting paid to do it, I probably would have stopped doing it.
If you're a content creator or an aspiring one, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
In the beginning, creating daily content to feed the voracious social media beast feels like some weird techy form of sadomasochism. You have to keep feeding it to keep it alive, but on most days you feed it, you get no sign of any life!😭
No comments, reactions, shares, nada. It feels like a thankless job serving a digitally dead void. The ass-crack of the internet. Where all you hear back is the occasional fart of some stupid spam bot.🍑💨
Any sane person will start to wonder if it's worth it.
Well, I'm here to assure you it is TOTALLY worth it because there's a little-known fact about the internet that will blow your mind (maybe). 🤯
It's kinda one of those things you think you know until you KNOW-KNOW it for certain after you hear it confirmed by a study or statistic. (Unless you're a bat-shit crazy 'alternative facts' kind of person, that is. Those people already KNOW-KNOW with no need of any confirming facts!).
ANYWAY...to the FACT!
Becoming A Content Creator Takes Balls
Ladyballs if you're a woman or identify as one, but yea, it takes GUTS.
The fact is, out of every 99 people online in an internet community, only 1 will participate.
ONE!🤯
For every 1% of the users of a website that creates content, the other 99% of the participants only lurk.
It's called the 1% Rule of Internet Culture on Wikipedia (do check it out).
And it should immediately light your brain up with OMG! lighting bolts. ⚡
Because IF you are creating consistent content, you, my lovely creative reader, are what is known as a superuser.
The suspicion that everybody is just out to blab on about themselves is statistically incorrect - by a loooong shot.
Very few, do, in fact, have the courage/time/skills to create content and put themselves out there.
Most people are just consuming content.
Living their lives vicariously through others, consuming news or culture, seeking a belly-laugh, more cat videos, whatever.
The majority of people are not creators.
And isn't it so easy to not even know that - because you never see or hear anything from a lurker, do you?
So I hope this blows your mind as it did mine and you'll be encouraged to start creating. To keep posting. Keep practicing your content creation skills.
You, my dear creative, are a rare gem, indeed. 💎
You are in the 1%!!
Rise Up, Superuser Content Creators!
If you're a creator, battling with the silence of zero response to your content, even when it feels like you've slaughtered a sacrificial goat of your life energy to create it, I have a simple message for you:
Keep at it.
Know that more people are reading, scanning, and seeing your content than you'll ever realize.
You will still have your data. And I encourage you to hone your skills in understanding Google Analytics, Facebook Page Insights, Instagram Insights, and the like. These tools are your secret weapon to seeing that you are, in fact, being seen and heard. Silently.
I encourage you to keep improving your copywriting skills, messaging, graphic design, and photography.
But I also know what little joy those bring when you've put so much damn time into content, and you want to feel recognized, proud, heard, and seen for your creative efforts.
Know that you already are, simply for being in this teeny-tiny minority of people who dare to create and publish at all.
But don't let your ego lead the way forward, either.
The path forward to having any true impact that will make even your most avid lurker come forward is having a meaningful, purpose-driven message.
Say Something Worth Saying. And Keep Saying It.
As a student of English Literature, studying Faulkner and Joyce like a verbal surgical operator, I learned that the #1 thing that makes a great novel is a universal message.
Something that all people could relate to and get behind.
Love, hate, envy, pride, loss, ambition...what everyone feels, everyone will respond to.
Your job as a content creator, representative of the 1%, is to say things worth saying.
You must:
1. Justify Failures
2. Throw Rocks At Common Enemies.
3. Encourage Dreams.
4. Alleviate Fear.
5. Inspire Hope.
These are the 5 universal themes of purpose-based marketing to infuse in all of your content, dear lovely 1% of creators reading this.
There are more people seeking life-changing messages than there are people willing to stand up and make life-changing messages.
Now, more than ever, the world needs creators with compassion, critical thinking skills, imagination, and hope.
If you're becoming a content creator right now, we need you to be that kind of content creator.
We want you to - that's the key. That's the secret.
Learn How To Become A Brilliant Content Creator
Crafting content that makes people click, react, comment, and follow is my jam.
If you're keen to learn how to create better content that works like witchcraft (and you're a feminist woman or gender diverse creative), join my Facebook community, Marketing For Creative & Unconventional Women & Gender Diverse.
It’s where I help creatives overcome their ugly-duckling imposter syndrome and learn to kick-ass with their marketing to fund their DREAMS! 🪄🦢
