What is Content Creation and Why Should You Do It?

When it comes to describing what good "content" is for a business to put out, Patagonia, the company, is my go to.  I went to YouTube and searched "Patagonia," looking for videos by the company, not about the region in Chile, and this is one of the first videos I found.  There's the "patagonia" logo in the beginning.  That's it.  There are no Patagonia commercials in the middle of the video interrupting you.  There are no fashion videos at the end, promoting a certain jacket or shirt by the company.  People in the video may be wearing clothes Patagonia clothes, but I didn't notice.  There were no close-ups of logos that they sneaked in to the video on the down low.  This is a well made video about a group of surfers looking for huge waves they'd heard rumors of near Selkirk Island, off the coast of Chile.  This video is a gift to you from the company Patagonia.  No strings attached.  That's the mark of great content. 

When we talk about "creating content" for today's media platforms, "content" is simple.  It's written words (text), spoken words or music (audio), photographs, or video.  To create content, you make something with text, audio, photo(s) or video, and you put it on some platform where people can experience it.  That's it.  

You personally, or your business, makes some kind of content, and you put it out on a blog, a website, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Instagram, a podcast, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, Linked In, TikTok, Medium, Reddit, or one of the other platforms out there for content.  Then you let people experience it.  That's content creation.  These platforms, by and large, are available for free.  Millions, in a some cases, billions, of people check out these platforms.  With today's internet and technology, you can put content that has the potential to be experienced by a huge number of people.  In most cases, you make this content available for free.  You give a gift of some cool photo, thought provoking piece of writing, funny photo, interesting audio bit, or cool video. 

Why?  Why would you "waste" time and money to create pieces of content and give them away for free?  Because people like gifts.  That's it.  You give people gifts of content, and you hope a bunch of them will come to believe in you or your business.  People begin to have a favorable opinion of you or your business, you "build brand."  When people need a product or service you supply, whatever that product or service is, you want your business to be the first one they think of.  People who have enjoyed your content then become customers.  If you continue to do a good job as a business and a content creator, people have a tendency to be fans, and customers, for a long time.  That's why you create content.