By Kayode Adebayo
From a hobby to a big-time career, content creation has become a vital part of the social media marketing that few people envisaged. The art of content creation transcends location, age, race or identity, yet it relies on these and more, for it to be impactful. As consumers of content, it is difficult to fully appreciate the struggles creators go through to produce the various content with relevant messaging.
Creative Block
There are so many different challenges that hinder content creators. Every content creator has their peculiar struggles. The most common amongst them all is referred to as the Creative Block. Creatives will, particularly, find this position very familiar as it is a stage that seems to confront most creatives. Creative Block can last days, weeks or even months. When it occurs, creators find it almost impossible to create content. At this point, creators would usually take a break from work to do other things such as exercising or meditating to overcome it. To jump this hurdle, some creators say reading inspires them while others believe in sleeping their way to creative recuperation.
Procrastination
As a content creator, there is also the tendency to procrastinate depending on one’s concentration capabilities. Procrastination delays meeting deadlines, cannibalises productivity and makes you believe in the illusion of abundant time. In the midst of all of this, one needs to dig deep within oneself to be motivated and disciplined to be productive. Some of the best ways to overcome procrastination are to, primarily, understand the reason for deferring tasks. Then, schedule one activity each day with clear deadlines and rewards. In between the big activity, one can execute low priority activities as a break from the big activity. Successful outcomes of projects bring satisfaction and invigorate content creators to produce more, eliminating delays and procrastination.
Generating content consistently
Every successful content creator has to be consistent both in messaging and output. Once a community of audience is built, you cannot afford to disappoint and that scares many content creation enthusiasts. Unfortunately, 60 per cent of marketers say that this is their biggest content marketing difficulty. In this digital age, content has become easier to publish with many platforms and tighter competition for audience attention.
A major reason content creators struggle with content is the unavailability of a content strategy. Having a defined content strategy will help to guarantee that your content is prioritized and is communicated to your audience in the best way possible. To structure your content production, develop a content calendar for the next six months as part of your content strategy, and start monitoring your competitors’ output. This will provide you with a baseline for how much material you’ll need to develop to have an effect in your market.
Constant Criticism
Anything you say or do, some people would criticise you and such is life. As a content creator, you will be judged on everything you produce, language, message, appearance, talent, quality of content, sound and so on. There is no way to prevent this. As an individual, you must be aware of the distinction between constructive and negative criticism. On paper, it may appear simple, like ABC, but tackling it requires a strong intellect. While some people may use criticism to motivate themselves, for the most part, others take offence to it. The best way to approach criticism is to acknowledge it. Acknowledging them does not always imply that you agree with them. For instance, you can say “Thanks for the feedback, I truly appreciate it”. You have the option of simply acknowledging their critique and moving on or applying it to your work.
Monetisation
The surge in content creators from developing or third world countries is providing an outlet for young creators to express their ideas and creativity. It has, over the years, transformed into another career option for young, creative, entrepreneurs. Terms and conditions for monetising content on the leading streaming platforms are crippling to the potential income generation capabilities of content from third world countries. Few platforms that monetise content originate from third world countries. One of such is the Ckrowd platform which offers greater support for global content creators who can now receive revenue in foreign and local currency simultaneously for the same content. This will provide greater visibility and increased global appeal to creators in the Diaspora and emerging markets, where local based revenues are often ignored when discussing monetization; http://www.ckrowd.com platform created by Ckrowd Africa Tech & Solutions.
Not everyone is cut out for content creation. Consider the type of content you would like to see and produce it. Be bold; content creation can be entertaining for those who patiently learn the craft. So, experiment and figure out what works for you, and the specific platform to reach your audience. Take time to absorb what you observe in the environment around you and save any ideas you think you could turn into something useful.