What do content creators do

What did you read yesterday that stuck with you? What didn't you understand? Asking yourself those questions should start the flow. One of the hardest pills to swallow as a creative professional is that you are at the mercy of your audience -- and the needs of that audience can sap your creativity.

But, at the end of the day, your audience pays your bills. And if you study your audience deeply enough, you'll find interests and creative opportunities you wouldn't have found without them. The third quality of all successful content creators: They know their audience inside and out. Examine your own readers and viewers: What do they want that you're not yet giving them? What problems do they have that you can solve for them?

Here are some other characteristics of your audience you can identify for yourself or for your employer:. Quick reality check: You're not the only content creator in your industry. That means you're not the only one offering the advice, observations, and thought leadership your industry is asking for.

There are lots of things you can do to stand out from the other content creators in your field: diversifying into a new content medium , promoting your content on different channels, and naturally gaining experience and trust over time.

But even then, the content producers with whom you're competing for attention are doing the same thing. Readers click on your content for the information, but they come back for the personality. Writing about cybersecurity? Don't just offer fresh insight on today's malware; offer analogies and personal stories of data breaches that justify your insights and that only you can offer. The brand you write for might restrict you from opinionated or overly informal content, but that doesn't mean you can't indulge in the unique perspective that inspired you to join this business in the first place.

Learn how to blend your employer's content guidelines with your own creativity, and you'll become a much more valuable content creator in the long run.

In fact, anyone on the internet can take someone else's content and retweet it, share it on Facebook, pin it -- the list goes on. But successful content creators know it's not enough to take relevant industry news and spit it back out to your fans and followers. Sharing content isn't enough. Engaging with the content you're sharing now makes it unique to you. Get in the habit of curating content when you have something valuable to add.

Now that you've started scouring the internet on a regular basis for industry news, you probably have a wider depth of knowledge than you think. So be confident, and give your readers additional, useful information or even a thought or opinion when sharing others' content. Your networks will appreciate it, and the author probably will too or it could at least spark a debate -- bonus! The internet is a big place obviously. In fact, it's safe to say it's too big for your content to be discovered by your audience all by itself.

Just because you publish content online doesn't mean you'll get the traffic your insight deserves. To get your content discovered, you first need to focus in on a key performance indicator KPI , and optimize your content for it. A KPI is a specific metric you've chosen to measure how well your content is doing against your expectations. Modern KPIs include:. If you or your employer chooses to focus on organic traffic, for example, it's a good idea to study Google's search algorithm to find out how it ranks content.

Then, optimize your content so that it performs well under the organic traffic KPI. The more knowledge you have of the KPIs available to content creators now, the more successful you'll be as a marketer. Successful content creators know their success is due not only to their passion, but also to those who taught them, inspired them, and pushed them to think in different ways.

This is one way content creators grow into successful content creators. They've accepted the fact there's more to learn than what they already know, and they're open to new ways of thinking. Networking forces you to do just that. It's a time to listen to others' ideas and take them into consideration alongside your own. Get in the habit of networking by seizing the countless opportunities you have to do it. They aren't called social networks for nothing!

Spend some time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check out who the thought leaders are in your industry and follow them. Once you do that, you can ease into in-person networking. If you're not a natural extrovert, the thought of networking can make you cringe.

The gig economy is bigger, and more robust today than it ever has been in the past. It is estimated that more than 50 million Americans now take part in the gig economy in some form.

Many freelancers fall into that boat. We recommend working with someone that specializes specifically in your industry and has the previous experience that is relevant to the content that they will be creating.

Freelancers represent a cheaper option, but also one that is more likely to fail. Putting your faith in someone that can technically move on to another opportunity at any time is a risk that you have to be willing to take when you work with a freelancer. A freelancer may or may not be the right fit for your business.

But you will also have to spend a great deal of time interfacing with them to ensure that you receive the content that you want to fit with your existing strategies. Agencies present a unique option to companies that are looking to grow their content creation output but find a middle ground between hiring in-house or having to work with a freelancer. Agencies that specialize in your industry are likely to have relationships with writers, marketers, and industry publication editors that can work to your advantage if you plan on investing in content creation.

Additionally, agencies can be flexible. They can scale their content production up and down based on your needs. Agencies can handle your entire content strategy or function as a cog in the wheel for your own in-house strategies as well. As you evaluate potential content creator options, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind to ensure that your content strategy is successful and that you make the right choice for your business.

Only quality stands out among modern readers. No one wants to read some article that someone slapped together in five minutes. They want genuinely insightful content, created by someone that is an expert in their industry.

This is especially true in B2B industries. They are looking for expert-level content, not your basic run-of-the-mill content. Always opt to pay more and work with someone that will produce high-quality content, even if it means producing less of it in the long term.

Presenting complex processes in a checklist makes it feel more approachable and increases the likelihood that readers will be able to successfully complete a task. Similar to white papers, eBooks are another type of longform content that provides value to your audience. While white papers can be used as sales tools, eBooks generally are not.

Case studies are another common type of web content. This is done by revealing the real-life application of a product or service. Case studies are a form of social proof that show potential customers the successes that your customers are having with your products and services. YouTube started in as a collaboration between 3 former PayPal workers and has grown to be the second-largest website on the internet, after Google.

YouTube is also the second-largest search engine on the internet, again, after Google. YouTube creators vary widely in the topics they cover, how they integrate into the YouTube community, and the way they approach content creation.

Here are a few things to consider when looking to become a YouTube creator or trying to find one for your brand:. YouTube channels managed by YouTube creators range from single-digit subscribers to subscribers in the tens of millions. What really matters for YouTube creators is having an active account.

This means posting regularly and engaging with your viewers consistently. While some YouTube creators have production teams with writers, editors, animators, and marketers, most YouTube creators take those roles on themselves, producing, recording, editing, and promoting their own content.

Many YouTube creators seek out partnerships with others on the platform as well as with brands and sponsors. YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly active visitors , 50 million of which are actively creating content.

More than hours of video content is uploaded to the platform every single minute. This makes the platform ridiculously competitive. And people love YouTube creators. There are currently more than , active podcasts with more than 30 million episodes, according to Podcast Insights Similar to YouTube creators, podcast creators vary widely in the topics they cover, the way they engage with their listeners and the podcast community as a whole, and the way they approach podcast creation.

Additionally, podcast creators can be entirely solo acts or have a team that works on production for them. There are few things that have changed the way we engage and communicate with each other the way social media has.

According to We Are Social, there are more than 3. Social media creators, broadly known as influencers , are great at building up engaged lists of followers. This makes them the perfect vehicle for sharing your marketing messages. The type of content social media creators actually create will depend on the platform they favor. Instagram influencers , for example, tend towards beauty, health, fitness, and fashion because Instagram is such a visual platform.

This makes it really easy to show off the beautiful imagery typically involved in those industries. Twitter, on the other hand, is an excellent platform for bloggers, politicians, comedians, and news sites due to its primarily text-based nature.

Here are a few of the different types of content social media content creators produce:. Now you know what a creator is, but what makes someone a great content creator?