Becoming a social media content creator is not a walk in the park. It’s hours of editing, driving, shopping and creating. That’s just to name a few of the things that content creators do daily.
Here is a guide on how to start your journey:
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Find a niche
Are you into fashion? Do you love yoga? What’s your specialty?
I say my specialty is fashion, self-care and lifestyle. Hence my blog, everything in my niche flows with one another and meshes all my creative outlets together.
Find a niche that you’re passionate about. If it’s cooking, create a cooking brand. If it’s fitness, create a fitness brand.
Some of my favorite creators:
Set boundaries and goals
Creating boundaries within yourself is important as an online creator.
Create and set boundaries or lines that you as a creator will not cross. For instance, if you don’t want to show your house, don’t show your house. If you don’t want to get dressed on camera, don’t get dressed on camera. Set boundaries for you.
Goals are also things that you need to have because having something to achieve through this is important. Knowing why you’re doing this and what audience you want to reach is all steps and things you need before you start.
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Research
Research tips on how to grow your account, what hashtags are trending, or how the algorithm is. For TikTok and Instagram reels, you will need to see what the trending audio is.
Gather clear advice that will help along the journey.
Check out the creator tips provided by Instagram to learn about their algorithm. Other social media platforms like TikTok and Pinterest offer tips on how to use the apps.
Know the latest features or add-ons because typically apps push users who use their latest feature.
Instagram’s latest feature is reels. There you can make 90-second videos. TikTok also introduced the latest feature which allows you to do a photo carousel. YouTube released YouTube Shorts, where you can make a 60-second video.
Have a strategy
This ties back to having a purpose and goals. Knowing why you are content creating, will determine how everything goes.
Create a strategy that sticks to the original plan and gradually start executing it.
Know what hashtags, captions and pictures you are going to post on a select day and time.
My strategy looks like this:
- Find a day and time to shoot content.
- Think of locations.
- Plan outfits.
- Gather supplies.
- Drive to the location.
- Take around 50 photos using Lens Buddy.
- Edit on Adobe Lightroom.
- Pick a day to post on Instagram.
- Find some hashtags to use.
- Create my caption with keywords and hashtags.
- Engage in those hashtags and keywords.
- Post images.
- Engage in hashtags and keywords again.
- Post story with an image for followers.
Make accounts
Once you develop a niche and a strategy it’s time to make your accounts.
I typically use TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Facebook.
Equipment
Here is some of the equipment, I use for my content creation.
- iPhone: To record and take your photos or videos.
- Camera: You don’t need a camera to start, but having one will create sharper and crisp images and video.
- Tripod: Any tripod will do and will make your life easier when you want to take photos yourself.
- Lights: A small light for your phone or camera comes in handy when you’re shooting content in the dark.
- Ring light: Used typically to record videos.
- Phone shutter: If you don’t want to use Lens Buddy, a shutter comes in handy and will take photos with your click.
- Lavalier microphone: For clearer audio, or voiceovers buy this microphone.
- SD card: Once you start using a camera, you will need an SD Card or you can use an SD Card to save your photos and videos.
- SD card reader: You can connect this piece to the iPhone and start transferring items between the SD card and iPhone.
- Laptop or tablet: To edit video or to plan content.
You don’t need all of these items to start your content creator journey but these are just a few to get started.
Apps you need
Apps are going to be your best friend in content creation. Here is a list of apps I use:
- CapCut: To edit videos.
- Lens Buddy: To shoot multiple shots at once.
- Adobe Lightroom: Editing software for photos
- Preview App: To plan Instagram photos.
- Huji: Creates a vintage edit on the photo.
- Canva: Create Instagram stories and thumbnails.
- Adobe Express: Create Instagram stories and thumbnails.
- iMovie: To edit videos.
- Adobe Premiere Pro: To edit videos.
- Picsart: To edit photos.
Stick to the script
Remember your “why” always in the journey of content creation. It’s important to remember your why because you don’t want to lose yourself.
Sticking to the script can be helpful because social media changes so much and you can easily fall into a stump of just doing trends and not making the content you want to make.
Stick to what you know and want to achieve on your journey.
Don’t overdo it
Know when enough is enough. Know when you should take a break and focus on real life.
Know when this isn’t getting fun any more and it’s time to do something else in the meantime.
Thrive and go hard but don’t do anything against the grain to go viral.
Everybody wants fame, a chance to go viral but have limits on how you achieve that fame and viral moment. At the end of the day, content creation shouldn’t have you in sticky, uncomfortable situations or have you do things that may be harmful or detrimental to you.
Know when enough is enough.
Stay true to you
Never give up what makes you, “you” for a chance at fame. No matter how badly you may want it, remember that if disturbs your peace or puts you in unpleasant circumstances then it’s not for you.
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