If you’re a content creator, you’ll know how often you’re having to change up your game, or try new ideas out. Trends change so quickly, and you need to be on top of them. There’s no better time to reset and reorganise your schedule than ahead of the New Year.
Being a content creator isn’t just a case of designing pretty pictures and posting them across social media. There’s a lot more work that goes into it. Depending on your area of creation, you’re often responsible for planning, preparing, creating, editing and promoting all content made. Whether you’re a musician, small business, influencer or YouTuber, you’re still responsible for all the content made.
Go into the New Year feeling prepared. Don’t allow yourself to spend another year feeling stressed or overwhelmed. It can be daunting being responsible for so many platforms and all content being uploaded to them. However, if you ensure you have a plan, you’ll find yourself feeling far more comfortable and less stressed. Step into 2023 with a fresh outlook. Make the year run smoothly. Having a clear plan will mean you open up time in your schedule to try new things.
Here are 3 tips we’d recommend for any content creator 
1. Keep track of your statistics
This is crucial. However, surprisingly it’s over a factor that’s overlooked. Going into January, prepare to keep track of your data. It will prove far more important than you might realise. It’s all well and good changing up your social media tactics, but how do you see your improvements? What’s worked and what hasn’t?
You’ll be able to see how your interaction on social platforms differs from previous months, but you won’t have key data to measure your success. From the start of the year, try creating a spreadsheet with key statistics. From there you can continue to add your data, and you’ll start to spot trends. You’ll be able to monitor your growth closely and see what posts have worked and what haven’t.
Not only will this help you see your progress and what you’ve achieved, but you’ll also know what to keep working on. Anything that proves to be powerful and useful to you as a brand or creator should be something you then stick to. Being able to focus on your success rather than the things that haven’t gone in your favour will help you secure more success.
2. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone
Your comfort zone is where you feel safe, but it’s not where you’ll grow. You need to step outside of it to really start expanding your audience. Try new things. If they don’t work, you’ll be able to mark it down as a trial and know not to try that again. Things have to fail in order for you to succeed. No one has ever made it big by sticking to the same content ideas on repeat. It becomes stale and boring.
You might think “oh I can’t possibly try that” about a particular task or idea. We’d argue they’re exactly the ideas you do need to try. The biggest challenge is often taking the leap of faith. If it doesn’t work, move on from it, use it as a learning experience. You cannot stick yourself in the same box forever because you’ll never expand. What works for someone else might not work for you, but equally how will you know unless you try?
Don’t stick to the same content ideas constantly. Try to mix things up. Even if you start off small and save your drastic changes for when you feel more confident. What can really go wrong? If you lose views you’ll know that isn’t the content your audience want to see, but unless you try you will never know. Do your market research, see what your competition are creating and use this as inspiration to branch out.
3. Create a content schedule and get ahead of your work
The more you prepare, the more success you’ll have. Creating a content schedule means you’re aware of when you should be posting. If you haven’t already got one, this will really benefit you. Instead of posting at random, get your audience onto a schedule with you. They’ll know when to expect new content from you, and you’ll know what days you have to prepare for.
Not only will this help with posting, but also the creation process. You’ll know when you need to prepare the work ready to be published. If you’re someone that has to record content, or sit down and design your posts, you’ll need to be ahead of the game. Scrambling to figure it all out last minute won’t set you up for success. Your work will suffer as it won’t be your best quality and therefore your audience might not stick around.
Preparing multiple posts ahead of time will mean you end up with a bank of content. This allows you to have dips where you don’t create as much as other times. There will be times when you’re able to create multiple pieces of content in one sitting. Then, there will be others where you either don’t have time or just don’t have the ideas at that moment. Having a bank of already prepared content means you don’t have to go without posting.
