Pause That Keyboard: Content Creator or Content Curator?

I have an important question for you.

Are you creating content or curating content? Are you a content marketer?

In other words, how much time do you spend on Facebook sharing the latest Upworthy video, your best business girlfriends’ brilliant blog posts and someone else’s guru program?

How much time do you spend forwarding memes and graphics of other people’s funny insights and creations?

I challenge you to think about what you could be doing for your own business if you just gave up 30 minutes of being a content curator to create your own content (and then share it yourself of course… so others can be content curators of you).

It’s A Social World, Content is Queen, You are the Ruler!

Let me curate content for a minute. I’m sharing an article by Eleventy where they have extrapolated some very recent stellar statistics from 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses was written by Michael A. Stelzner.

I really find points 10-15 resonate with me where they reference less than 6 hours a week sharing original content as being valuable to businesses studied, and original written content (with original video content as a second) being a priority.

So, other businesses see the value. Here is the thing… some of these businesses are bigger players than you or I. The sandbox is big enough for all of us, but as small businesses we must continue to do better and do more to connect with our niches. And the truth is, we can. We are still more nimble, flexible and able to be deeply present in conversation with our customers when we solo operate. This is our advantage.

So if content is STILL queen (it is, it is not going away)… you must be the ruler of your business conversations with your current and future customers. It’s simply the best marketing strategy for online businesses today. As mobile device use has increased dramatically in the past three years, so has the access to content.

Business Growth: It’s a Trust Factor Based on Your Voice

Written content, shared by friends, anchors opinions and beliefs. I believe we have become an audience of deep critical thinkers, which is stellar. But if your audience is critically analyzing ideas related to your industry… and you are not opting into that conversation by sharing your ideas through any format of “content” (video, blogs, guest blogs, podcasts, e-books, interviews, quotes, etcetera) then how can people build trust with you most, over someone else, who may have a different opinion than yours but equally compelling. Or a similar idea you can collaborate with.

Building trust will forever be the basis of great long-term business growth. It leads to lower cost, higher output marketing. But most importantly, trust-based business relationships feel best to you and your customers.

You cannot build trust by being silent or invisible. Your voice, whether shared with audio or written language or art or other form of communication, is the foundation of trust.

So less than 6 hours a week is the new Canadian norm for creating content. Can you shift some of your time curating content into creating content that connects with your consumer in 6 hours less a week? (Sure you can)