Why creating content matters

At tonight's, penultimate, Comms School session, Stephen and I explored why creating content matters and how to get started.

Why creating content matters

There are lots of benefits to creating content and developing your own personal brand. The job market is crowded and there are a lot of bright graduates finishing university with top degrees and competing for a limited number of jobs. Here are some top advantages of being a creator that we highlighted.

• It helps you develop your skills: You get to write more, if you're blogging, and get to learn the craft

• It shows potential employers your capabilities: In the 21st century, it's so much harder to differentiate yourself. Content creation is one of the ways to stand out from the crowd

• It connects you with others and helps build and maintain your personal brand: Good work brings more people together

• It can help and inspire others: Sharing content can not only benefit you, but also many others. Be generous and it'll pay off

Where do I start

Here's the hardest bit. Starting out. We've shared a few pointers about it.

• Identify your strengths:

  • What are you good at? Are you a visual person? Explore your talents with photography on Instagram

  • Are you a writer? Start a blog about an area of interest

  • Do you like exploring ideas using your voice? Try podcasting

Throughout the Comms School term, Stephen and I emphasised hugely how important it is to just start, and not to overthink the process.Overthinking will only slow down your process and it’ll be disheartening. Your first post/episode/photo will never be a good one – publish it and then just keep doing it until you get it right.Don't forget about the power of community either. Seek help from others and don’t be afraid to ask for their opinion or advice.

Inspiration

It's never easy to get constantly inspired and keep at it. A while ago, Stephen shared 75 ideas for blog posts. Here are the first ten. For the full list, head here.

1. Share content from a speech

2. Write an open letter to a person or community

3. Learn openly and publicly

4. Set yourself goals and report on them regularly

5. Take a contrary opinion on a topic or an issue

6. Seek out the opinions of someone that you respect in your network

7. Interview someone disruptive in your network

8. Talk to someone with a big job

9. Ask someone for their reflections on an industry event

10. Start a new project and share the highs and lows

Crowdsourcing content and conversation

Finally we covered crowdsourcing. This is a way of engaging your network and inviting people to contribute their thoughts and opinions. Your role is to facilitate the conversation and compile and share responses.

We shared examples of topics for crowdsourced blog posts:

• Opinion: comment on an issue or news story

• Products and services: tools, social media services

• Book recommendations: reading lists

• Best practice: how to get the best out of your work

• Shared experiences

Homework

Last week, we've asked the community to action the following, in order to strengthen their participation in community.

• Follow 20 new people related to your future career

• Listen to conversations and then engage

• Participate in a Twitter chat related to your future career.

Jessica Pardoe had a busy week and completed all of it. Keep up amazing work, Jessica!

Your final homework

• Because it’ll be our last session in two week’s time, tell us what are your key take-outs from Comms School

• Write a blog post about it and share it with @wadds and @marcelkl, using hashtag #CommsSchool.

This was our penultimate session. In two weeks' time, Comms School will come to the end of its first term. We'll recap everything we did. Join us on 21 May 2019, 6:30pm BST:facebook.com/groups/CommsSchool

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If you have any suggestions, would like to guest post or give me a feedback, feel free to email me at kl.marcel [at] gmail.com, tweet me @marcelkl or connect with me on LinkedIn. Thanks for stopping by, have a splendid day!