What are Contents? What is your Life Story?
For many, producing contents is deemed to be the right thing to do.
Yet we don’t, because it takes up too much mental capacity to do so.
I am here to say this.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Are you ready to listen?
I previously wrote about Content Strategy and how people mentally bleed just thinking about it. That would be a standard initial response of sorts, and rightfully so because the act of engaging in creative production is one that well, requires effort for production. Occasionally that gets mixed up with the need to keep up periodically with fresh contents for posting.
“I don’t have so many things to post about!” is the common pushback I get.
In truth, it doesn’t have to be excruciating. What we need are ways in which we can harness endless contents from our mental well. One method that I endorse is sharing our Life Stories. That is right — Simply sharing to the World who we are, what we do, our personal trials and tribulations, what we aspire to achieve.
You might be wondering why we are using our Life Stories as Contents and you might be thinking of this at the back of your head.
“I am not comfortable sharing my Life Story!”
Now, before that gets out of your lips — Give me a couple of minutes from this point onwards so I can explain why.
Whether we are operating in an Industrial Age or Information Age business, we have to network. Sometimes that comes in the form of physical networking events, something it comes in the forms of digital contents.
The common thread? Introducing ourselves.
Naturally, introducing ourselves is a scalable activity in response to the amount of time we have. In a physical setting, Elevator Pitches is King.
That is about us in 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute.
It needs to be concise.
Creating a deep impression is a one-time affair and it takes effort for one-time introduction to stick when the person we are introducing ourselves to are those who speaks to hundreds of people every single day.
So we need to be etch a deep impression in order for our name-cards to come in useful.
That is a physical setting.
When it comes to the digital setting, there is no particular someone that we are introducing ourselves to.
We are introducing ourselves, period.
We need to ask ourselves a different set of questions.
“How can we get 1% of the digital population to see us and remember us?”
That, in itself, is a different ballgame.
That requires, consistency in content creation and publication, and consistent in the message we put forth.
I believe that the most effective way for the digital population to have an impression of our existence is to share our Life Stories. Below are the ways showing how this can be done.
Are you ready?
1. Who are You?
This is probably one of the most complex answers to our minds and the easier to respond when we have a structure in place. These are my simple pointers.
- Are you a parent?
- Are you an undergraduate?
- Are you a copywriter?
- Are you a book author?
- Are you a business owner?
You can see from here that we assume multiple identities on a daily basis.
A Business Owner may be a parent at home and studying for part-time college programs in the evening. When we dissect our identities, we can peel our personal onions from our life experience.
Maybe you had a bad day in office as the Chief Financial Officer showed numbers in red? Maybe your kid showed you a result slip draped in red? Maybe you were late in submitting your assignments as there is simply no time to attend to them?
We have so many stories within us that we can produce multiple pieces of contents a day.
Don’t fret.
With that, the question then swings to …
2. Why Share Our Life Stories?
Because we are real people.
And because people are attracted to stories.
Have you ever read a product whitepaper?
Have you ever read a company’s Initial Public Offering prospectus?
I assure you one thing.
They are incredibly boring and it takes tenacity to go through them, not to even mention active thinking and engagement as we race to comb through. If you remember our extremely dry History lessons in school which we can’t wait to sleep ourselves out of it — Yup, that is exactly what I mean.
Life Stories are different. They engage.
We are naturally attracted to good and entertaining Life Stories. Struggles of a single parent dad for instance. Or entrepreneurs who work hard to build their business without earning a single dime for 2 years and have multiple holes in their underwear. Maybe even undergraduates who have to work 5 concurrent part-time jobs in order to pay for their school bills and therefore are frequently caught snoring at the back of the lecture room?
These are stories we can relate to because we have experienced these pieces of Life ourselves.
We can resonate and therefore naturally engage.
And that brings us to the final leg of this story.
3. How do We Share our Stories online?
We have many stories and also different types of stories.
This section serves to explain in which platforms we can publish our stories into relevance, without leaving others scratching their heads wondering why.
Personal stories work well with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as the social media blue chips are not orientated towards a specific use case. Henceforth, personal stories are relevant when they are posted here.
Oh, of course, TikTok as well.
For stories pertaining to the professional realm, go for Linkedin. This is one of the few social media platforms that are a clear orientation as it is targeted at Working Professionals. This is also the platform for Personal Branding as people tend to network and do business with people they trust and remember.
When it comes to helping others sorting out their life problems, we can look into Quora as the platform to spread our thoughts and ideas. There are many million-views for popular questions pertaining to Life, post-graduation, work-related woes and relationship matters. It is a good place to establish our status as an expert of a niche, if we want to.
Simple Takeaway.
It is important to realise that we will never run out of contents if we continue to develop our life story.
As our life story evolve, our contents evolve.
Content marketing is not marketing for marketing sake, and it should not be regarded that way.
It is about us, and sharing with the World who we are.
We have a voice and deserve to be heard.
Related Stories from the Author.
About the Author:
As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.
Because simplicity adds value.
Simplicity helps us gain clarity, and clarity helps us to grow.
And if we are not growing, then what’s the point of anything else?
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