What Is a Content Creator? | State of Digital Publishing

While content creators have been around as long as we've been sharing stories and creating entertainment, the term itself is relatively new. The term emerged during the surge in digital media’s popularity over the last couple of decades. The number of social media users now stands at 4.2 billion, with the average person spending almost 7 hours per day online. This explosion has created new opportunities for creators of all types to join the digital world. But with an ever greater number of creators entering the space everyday, it is becoming increasingly challenging for new participants to make a name for themselves. Let’s look at what a content creator is, the types of content they can produce and what aspiring entrants to this field need to know if they hope to succeed. What Is a Content Creator? A content creator is anyone who creates any kind of content for an audience to consume. The term is now most commonly used to refer to creators of content for digital channels, such as websites, social media and video platforms. The term “content” is extremely broad and covers articles, features, blogs, social media posts, videos, newsletter, emails, etc. Content creators look to entertain and grow their audiences before eventually monetizing this reach. Content creators can make money in a myriad different ways, including from: Ad revenue Brand sponsorships Affiliate marketing Merchandise Online courses Subscriptions Content Creator Types There are two types of digital content creators — individual creators and those working within a company. While individual content creators have become a new subset of celebrities, professional content creators are now an increasingly important part of digital marketing strategies. Indeed, content marketing is commanding ever larger budgets. Individual Creators The first type of digital content creator is what most denizens of the digital landscape are familiar with — the individual creator. The individual creator, or influencer, is most prevalent across social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch, etc and spawned the birth of what has been dubbed the creator economy. The creator economy, according to Influencers Club with research from Linktree, refers to more than 200 million independent creators, consisting of community management, content creation, management and operations, as well as on- and off-platform monetization solutions. These creators are spread across fields as diverse as writing, NFT-making, gaming and streaming. However, a Forbes report believes that the number of actual creators in the creator economy might be much smaller, at about 50 million, indicating that a small number of creators are catering to very large demand for content. The meteoric rise of digital content creators, in fact, has given rise to the phenomenon called the passion economy. According to the World Economic Forum, the passion economy is the large-scale rise of creators driven to monetize their passions. It believes that this content creator-led passion economy will be the future of work. The Linktree research estimates that in 2022, there were 500 million passion economy users, defined as individuals who use digital platforms in some form to monetize “non-commoditized skills”. The value of influencer marketing worldwide surged from just $6.5 billion in 2019 to $16.4 billion in 2022 with a forecast to hit $24.1 billion by 2025. Individual influencers by and large can be viewed as focusing on business-to-consumer (B2C) content marketing, as they look to build followings that can later be monetized. But not every content creator is a social media influencer. Social media managers, for example, may create content on behalf of brands, but may not be counted as influencers themselves. Content Publisher Businesses also employ content creators to write blogs, articles, adverts and manage their social media presence as part of their wider digital marketing strategy. These creators focus on creating content that improves their companies' digital presence and boosts visitor numbers to pages geared towards selling products or services. For example, companies looking to build a profile within a specific niche could choose to regularly publish relevant industry news. These content creators will either focus on B2B or B2C content marketing operations depending on the company's target market. Regardless of whether we're talking about individual or company content creators, however, the goal for both remains the same — create entertaining or educational material that engages an individual or a business, while attracting enough organic traffic to make the content creation process financially viable for creators. One of the most effective ways to ensure this is to follow the content pillar strategy, which not only makes content more easily accessible to users, but makes it more easily discoverable by search engines. We’ve delved deeper into this concept in our Publisher SEO course, which has a decided module on content pillar and strategy development. Check it out to understand how and why this strategy works for content creators. Let’s take a closer look at what it takes to succeed in this subset of content marketing and how to create great content that will drive organic traffic. The Truth About Content Creation Before starting to create digital content, a few points should be made about content creation. For all its advantages, the truth is that content creation is not for everyone. While being at the cutting edge of content creation can transform a business for the better, it also involves a fair bit of research and careful thought. Half the work — if not more — behind any great content production is gathering appropriate data, then conceiving, planning and executing an effective content strategy. All of this can take time and some fine-tuning. After all, behind every piece of viral content is not luck but, rather, a strategic content creator who understands marketing and the brand they're promoting. What Does a Content Creator Do? Content creation is a complex and multi-layered process that involves performing several distinct but interrelated tasks in conjunction with each other. A successful content creator needs to be able to weave each of these elements together into an overarching strategy. 1. Perform Industry Research Good content is that which provides some value to the reader or content consumer, and this is possible if the content creator has performed in-depth research before creating content. This is especially important as the amount of content on the internet increases exponentially each day. To give an idea of the volume of content on the internet, 7.7 million blog posts were published every day in 2022, while 500 hours of new video content was uploaded to YouTube every minute. The only way content creators can provide more value to their audience amidst this glut of content is by creating content that is well-researched so that it either tells the reader something new, or presents already known information with a fresh perspective and more insightful detail.. 2. Perform Keyword Research Creating great content is of little value if it is not discoverable on the internet. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. Whether you’re creating blog posts or making YouTube videos, to make sure that your content reaches its desired audience, you need to be mindful of two things: What is your audience searching for? How intense is the competition? In SEO parlance, these two are generally referred to as keyword search volume and keyword search difficulty respectively. In other words, creating great content for things no one is searching for on the internet will only lead to wasted effort. By the same yardstick, creating great content for topics where a lot of other content creators are already publishing content would mean Good keyword research helps content creators uncover keywords and topics that are in high demand. It also lets them know what level of competition they can expect for when creating content for the specific keyword. There are several keyword research tools such as ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Trends that content creators can use to arrive at a measure of search volume, keyword difficulty and other search-related metrics that can help them get an idea of the lay of the land before they commit time and resources into creating content. 3. Create the Actual Content Creating great content is a creative process that can be likened to an art. However, it can still be broken down into its constitutive elements, which, if performed correctly, will deliver consistent and predictable results. Here’s how you can eliminate the element of uncertainty out of content creation and ensure that you create great content at scale. Prepare a brief or an outline: Whether you are creating the content yourself or outsourcing some or all of it to other creators, it is always a good idea to create a brief or a content outline. A brief typically specifies the following: The structure of your content The length or duration of your content The main topics/headers you wish to cover. This includes the list of primary and secondary keywords you wish to target, which our research in the previous step uncovered. Links to internal or external sources you want to include Elements of your content monetization strategy such as an affiliate link or a product placement Create the first draft: Once your brief is ready, creating that first draft becomes a lot easier and faster. First drafts are rough and messy, and that is perfectly fine. Worrying too much about getting everything right at this stage can be counter productive. As long as you stick to the outlines defined in the brief, it should be good. Leave the polishing and ironing out the kinks to the next step. Edit the draft: This is an essential and often overlooked step. Irrespective of whether you’re writing a blog post, making a video or creating an instagram or TikTok post, it is important to revise and edit your first draft before posting. With content, the magic only comes out in editing. Hit publish: Finally, hit publish. 4. Distribute Content The role of a content creator does not stop at creating great content that is optimized for organic discovery by search engines. While search engines remain the most important entry points of most consumer journeys, other platforms such as social media channels and discussion forums are also important for content discovery. Content creators working specifically with certain channels such as Instagram, TikTok, or YoutTube would necessarily need to focus on optimizing content distribution for these channels, and may thus need different strategies than those for web content such as blog posts. Content distribution platforms can generally be classified into three broad buckets: Owned: These include the various social media channels that a publisher or creator owns such as instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on. Paid: These include making use of display ads, paid search, sponsored content, or paid partnerships. Earned: These include instances where users find your content so useful that they recommend it to others. User reviews, testimonials, and other kinds of social proof too fall into this category. Creators may make use of one or more of these channels in conjunction. At the end of the day, the goal is to increase the reach of the content as much as possible. How to Become a Successful Content Creator The barometer to measure the success of content is not just views, but also engagement. Great content creators know how to create content that's shared widely, simply because of its audience value. Here are five habits that the best content creators practice to ensure the content they create engages their audience. Whether working on social media posts, blogs or a general marketing strategy, these five habits will lead to the creation of engaging content. 1. Read Widely and Deeply It's worth reading both widely and deeply to form new connections between niches or industries that might not, on the surface, seem connected. There are five steps to this approach. Step 1: Create a Feed System Whether relying on an RSS feed or an app such as Feedly, content creators need to create reliable information streams they can regularly tap for different news and trending articles. Another good idea is organizing the content on social networks by subscribing to pages run by publications such as The New Yorker, Medium, The Atlantic and BuzzFeed. Step 2: Schedule Official Reading Time Content creators are particular with their time — and this includes time regularly set aside for reading. Spending the time to check out the latest news in social media posts, blogs and other media, even if that means getting up an hour early, will pay dividends. The time needed to complete such reading can vary from creator to creator, but once an amount has been set that time should be considered non-negotiable. Step 3: Use Social Media Platforms to Search for Conversations Reading widely and deeply is also about understanding customers' and audiences' reactions to different issues. And one of the best ways to gauge readers' thoughts on a matter is to check out their posts on social media. Use the hashtag function on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to search for relevant conversations to understand customer or audience views. Step 4: Use Long-tail Search Words To Find Related Articles Use a Google Chrome extension such as Keywords Everywhere to help suggest terms for new searches. This not only can provide insight into audience search habits but it can also help find other high-quality content. Step 5: Keep a Digital or Hard-copy Reading Journal Reading is not a passive activity. To benefit from the steps mentioned so far, any successful content creator also summarizes or reviews the articles they've read, as well as any other media they've consumed. This is a key part of their ideation process. The best way to achieve this is to keep a reading or commenting journal. It can be something as simple as a GoogleDoc, where thoughts and links can be stored. Or it can be a hard-copy journal in which to ideate and create a few concept maps. 2. Write as a Practice Content creation is also about consistency. Stephen King, in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, emphasized setting a writing goal that is initially “low” at 1,000 words per day to develop a habit. Content creators can better focus on their craft if they set a daily goal to get the writing process started. James Clear, who published about the importance of developing habits in his book, Atomic Habits, on the other hand, wrote twice per week at the beginning of his career. A strategy he recommends to start developing habits is following the Two Minute Rule. Consistently setting aside two minutes to start habit forming can help anyone achieve their goals. The first two minutes become the ritual at the start of every routine to “reinforce your identity”. Establishing a regular writing practice involves these four steps. Step 1: Set a Goal for the Year Content producers will struggle to follow through on anything without a specific goal. Having a yearly goal will serve as a motivator, because writing anything will, in one way or another, bring that goal closer. Step 2: Identify Optimal Writing Hours As part of the content creation process, creators should set aside a particular time each day to write and preferably when they have the most energy. While most argue — and understandably so — that this will be in the morning, this may not be a set rule for everybody. Instead, creators should look to the research conducted on circadian rhythms to understand the impact biological rhythms have on the creative process Step 3: Brainstorm Content Types Remember that writing is the foundation for all content creation. Thinking of creating case studies? That begins with writing high-quality, informative and instructive content. Or perhaps the goal is to assemble an FAQ list? That will require concise questions and answers. Brainstorm the preferred format, then focus on the specific language most suited to each. Step 4: Create a Content Calendar Once the content type has been selected, create a content calendar that will help organize production. Let's say, for example, that it's August and planning for September content is underway. To create four videos in September, releasing one video per week, requires planning the number of days that will be spent on scripting those videos. This will then allow for the organization of production days. 3. Create, But Also Curate Becoming a great content creator is as much about monitoring what's working and what isn't as it is about creating great content — selecting only the best content for the audience, then ensuring regular delivery. Such curation is an important part of creating and maintaining audience relationships. Here are the four steps for achieving just that. Step 1: Research Content That Others Produce Research 5-10 businesses within the industry that produce a steady flow of original content for their audiences. They can be direct competitors or businesses that share some similarities. Analyze the content they produce, including any feedback from their audiences. Step 2: Identify the Target Audience's Desires Content is directionless without feedback. Set up a tracking or a dashboard system that allows for real-time feedback on how the target audience is interacting with curated content and what is most popular. There are many software to choose from, including the likes of Hootsuite and Brandwatch, which can collect and analyze performance data from both social networks as well as blogs. These tools can help creators understand the type of voice their audience loves to listen to or read. Step 3: Create an Editorial Calendar for Curated Content Creating an editorial calendar can help organize the postings of different content, keeping track of work across different platforms. Step 4: Value Add Curating content works best when using it to add brand value. To achieve this, add a distinct take on various topics, question the audience, send newsletters to email subscribers, and then actively engage with the ensuing conversation. 4. Stay Curious — the Secret to Content Creation Another thing that successful content creators understand is the importance of curiosity — the need to learn more about the world around them in order to create exceptional content. YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the mastermind of creating viral, share-worthy content. He has launched multiple channels that have more than 200 million subscribers. However, he has repeatedly stated that his success was built on the back of thousands of hours of researching YouTube content. He and a close group of peers studied anything and everything that could contribute to a successful video, from story ideas to video titles and even the color vibrancy of a thumbnail image. Here are three steps that will not only help foster ideas but will also help underpin the creativity pipeline. Step 1: Use Tools As part of the content creation process, include a source for brand ideas. A couple of media monitoring tools that can help are NewsWhip and Talkwalker, but there are many other options. Also consider checking relevant industry news for statistics and other data about the people and companies that can add value. Step 2: Specialize in One or Two Mediums When starting out in the digital world, it's best to pick just one or two mediums for cross-purposing content. This will help to build an actual following on a particular platform, while greater experience opens the door to creating various pillar and cluster forms of content. Step 3: Use Social Media Networks, Product Reviews and Customer Service Surveys These three sources are like goldmines of feedback and ideas. They can give content creators a unique insight into their customers' pain points, product expectations and experiences. While reading customer service surveys and Amazon product reviews can be an effective way to find new content ideas, social media platforms can give a window into the latest impressions that an audience has of a brand or business. 5. Deliver Fresh and Quality Content Every good content creator knows that holding the audience's attention across multiple posts requires the addition of fresh elements. This isn't as hard as it may seem. Step 1: Keep it Updated Good content creation is all about keeping things up-to-date. Readers value the latest info on a topic, meaning that the inclusion of outdated information in a blog runs the risk of losing their interest. Therefore, it is vital to keep “check the pulsing” of both the wider industry as well as anything else the audience cares about. Step 2: An Eye for Detail Another thing any content creator worth their salt knows is that details matter. They proofread their content before publishing it, while also keeping an eye out for any interesting facts or figures that could make their content even more appealing. Step 3: Reformat, if Needed The material that a content creator delivers to their audience should be easy to understand. Such ease of understanding includes presenting information in a way that makes it easy to follow — think bite-sized paragraphs and plenty of white space on the screen, along with fonts and a general appearance for content that will resonate with readers. Step 4: Refocus the Content If the way a content creator has delivered their content doesn't align with the perspective their readers need, they shouldn't hesitate to rework the content according to the required perspective. Final Thoughts The role of a content creator is to find information that might be useful to their target audience, then to fashion that information so it will resonate with their readers. Successful content creators understand that if information is to resonate with readers, then the right ideas have to be communicated in the right way — regardless of whether that’s via a blog post, an Instagram post or some other content. There are now a variety of tools available that allow users to create more engaging content at a greater scale and do it faster. When these tools are used in line with a proven content strategy, creators should expect good results. For more on how to devise a content strategy that works, check out our Publisher SEO course, which provides best practices for creating engaging content that has broad reach.