Being a content creator isn’t as simple as setting up social media profiles and uploading photos and videos. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. To be successful you need to find your niche quickly and stamp down on it. Otherwise, no one will be able to tell what you’re creating content for.
1. Find your niche
Decide what you want your content to be about. Accounts that post bits of everything get really confusing, and it’s hard to gain a strong follower base because no one really knows what you’re about. Think, does your interest lie in fashion, sport, music, adventure, nature or are you looking to post about your diet plans or life as a new parent. Whatever it is that you decide you want to hone in on, make sure you have that in mind from the very beginning. Now, that’s not saying if you post food pictures and rate local restaurants that you can’t occasionally throw in a puppy pic or two. However, make sure you’ve got a niche that is clear when someone clicks on your page.
Once you have found your niche, you can start exploring other accounts that do the same thing. Take inspiration from them and think about how you can adapt ideas to suit your own lifestyle. Remember, it should be fun. The idea of being a content creator is that you enjoy what you do. You’re creating content that you hope other people will enjoy as well. It’s hard to gain followers when your content hasn’t come from the heart. It looks obviously forced because there is no passion going into it. Whether this becomes a full time thing, or just a side hobby, you should be having fun creating ideas and content for your social media accounts.
2. Consider your tone of voice
Do you want to come across as laid back and chatty or are the topics you’re hoping to discuss a little more serious? It’s important you consider how you intend to address your social media platforms before you jump into it. Otherwise, you might struggle to find your natural tone of voice. Of course, you want your tone to be as authentic as possible, so don’t force things. If you’re not someone who can naturally crack jokes and come up with witty puns, then maybe steer clear of this option and focus on something else. People can sense when something isn’t natural, and it might put them off following you if they feel you aren’t being true to yourself.
Of course, the counter side to this comes when your content is serious as mentioned above. If your account has been created with the purpose of informing people about matters that aren’t light-hearted and funny, then you need to include this thought in your tone of voice. It would be highly insensitive to talk about various topics in a joking manner. So, make sure you have first thought about your niche and the type of content you intend to create. Then you can move on to how you want your followers to interact with you.
3. Be active
Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting to get up and move around, nor do we want you to go for a run. I mean, that might help get those creative minds flowing, but when I’m talking about being active, I mean online. You have to be regular to get your name remembered. It doesn’t matter how great your content or ideas are. If people aren’t seeing your name appear, they won’t know who you are. Start off by commenting on other peoples accounts. If you’re on Instagram and this is your main focus, try following people with the same niche. Allow other creatives to interact with you and teach you things you might not already know.
If you like someone’s work, tell them. It will boost them and also mean you’re more likely to get them checking your account out. Who knows, you might even end up with collabs through these comments. It’s important to give out compliments if you hope to receive them. You want to see how people deal with ever-changing trends and how they incorporate these into their own content. Once you’ve started adding your own content, make sure you’re active in responding to comments on your posts. It will show people you care about their opinions and they’ll be more likely to return.
4. Understand your target audience
Again, this won’t come overnight. Trust me, it might take some time to get your head around likes, dislikes and how different people use social media. However, it’s really important you focus on your target audience and understanding them. After all, they’re the ones you’re creating content for. So, if you’re a fashion content creator, what type of fashion? There are so many avenues you can go into with fashion. It’s something you’re likely to need to scale down even more, because a target audience for high street fashion, aren’t necessarily the same target audience as high-end runway fashion. Think about the type of people coming to your platform and what they’d be interested in.
The same goes for understanding the times your particular target audience are online. This will come over time because you’ll need to start monitoring your statistics. However once you have started to notice the times of the day your followers are most active, you can plan around this. If you’re perhaps a new parent account, your followers could be looking at your profile throughout the night as they’re up with a newborn. Or, maybe just after the school run for older children. It all depends again on your niche and everything will continue to come back to that. Typically, evenings tend to be a time that social media gets the most traffic, but of course, this can vary.
5. Practise makes perfect
I’m sure you’ve heard it many times before, and you’re possibly sick of hearing it. Sorry, but it is true. The more content you create, the better you will become. This is because you will make mistakes. Things will go wrong, and that is ok because you’ll figure out why and be able to move past it. If you’re only creating photos or videos once a month for your account, then you’re not being active enough on the platform, and you’re also not practising enough. So, two of the points spoken about within this article won’t have been fulfilled. That’s why so many new accounts struggle to take off, because people aren’t always willing to put in the time to grow them.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. I could probably come up with these sayings all day, sorry. But, seriously, the more you get out there and take photos or videos trying out new trends, the better you will become. You’ll also start to find your feet with what you enjoy and what you don’t. Not everyone is going to enjoy creating reels and that’s ok. Reels perform really well on Instagram so definitely give them a few tries at least before writing them off. However, if they really aren’t for you, move to something you do enjoy. As I mentioned before, people can tell when your passion isn’t there, and it will negatively affect you as a content creator.
