October 3, 2023
Don’t “Steal” My Content Strategy — Take What works for You and Iterate Your Own
Don’t “steal” my content strategy — take what works for you and iterate your own. Drawing on my experience working with entertainment…
By Emma Bennett
5 min read
Don't "steal" my content strategy — take what works for you and iterate your own. Drawing on my experience working with entertainment giants like Sony, Hulu, and NBCUniversal (plus my own 5+ years of business experience & neuroscience) I'll spill a splash of the insider tea, followed by my epic TED talk to you on how to succeed and blaze a creative trail like no other, in a way that has never been seen by the world before, in a way only you could pull off.
Bank It, Baby
Inspiration doesn't always strike on command but it will strike when you are in an ALPHA creative brainwave state. Whenever that spark ignites, jot it down on paper (digital devices will disrupt your brainwave state). Create a vault for your brilliant ideas noted in shorthand and stored in a Google spreadsheet repository to extrapolate later. This treasure trove will be your go-to when you're in need of creative kindling.
Regulate (your nervous system) & Create
You absolutely will not produce your best work in a fight, flight, freeze stress response state. Creating from a survival-driven fear response, the reactivity of an over-active amygdala, is way different from creating from your Zone of Brilliance, which requires more prefrontal cortex activity. Let's shift from fear to genius, shall we? Create content that lights you up, that flows effortlessly from your highest, most expanded self.
Don't Be a Content Regurgitating Lab Rat
Don't be under the influence of social media trends. Break free and be the outlier rebel creator who blazes their own trail. Craft content that's as unique as you are, leaving an indelible mark on your audience.
"The Net's interactivity gives us powerful new tools for finding information, expressing ourselves, and conversing with others. It also turns us into lab rats constantly pressing levers to get tiny pellets of social or intellectual nourishment." ― Nicholas G. Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
Hashtag Diversification
Let's talk hashtags! In your content strategy vault, create a "hashtag bank" tab in your Google spreadsheet dedicated to niche-specific hashtags at your fingertips and mix them up with the "randomize range" option to keep things fresh. This way, you'll avoid the dreaded algorithm penalty and keep your content reaching new people and you won't have to keep Googling or otherwise researching relevant hashtags.
Use AI As Your VA
AI-powered tools like Hashtagify, ChatGPT, or RiteTag can help you with generating relevant hashtags.
Others to consider and use intentionally:
- Jarvis.ai: Jarvis is an AI-powered content creation platform that can help with tasks like blog post generation, ad copywriting, and more.
- SurferSEO: This tool uses AI to analyze top-performing content and help you optimize your own content for better search engine rankings.
Project Management 101
Managing your content flow can be a breeze once you get the hang of it. I have been doing this from 2015, so it's easy for me to forget that this may not be as easy peasy for entrepreneurs and business owners who do not have the industry experience that I have. Try a Jira Kanban board for an easy graphical user interface (GUI) that moves projects from "In Progress" to "Done" on a visual board along with an analog planner to manage your content . Set priorities, track progress, and build confidence through competence.
Imitation is Cheap, Crass, & CRAP
When you go to the store, how does imitation crab compare to real snow crab legs? How does imitation vanilla compare to legit Madagascar vanilla extract? Trying to mimic others' success is like wearing a mask — it's unsustainable in the long run. It takes a toll on your energy and creativity, making you operate in a way that's not true to yourself. Instead, lean into your authentic self, and let your content flow from there. That's where the magic happens, and what will carry you forward in the most sustainable and fulfilling way.
Use In-House Content Management Suites
YouTube Creator Studio offers a comprehensive suite of tools for video creators, providing insights, analytics, and editing capabilities all in one place. TikTok Creator Center empowers creators with valuable resources, trends, and insights to enhance their content strategy. Facebook Meta Business Suite is a powerhouse for managing content across Facebook and Instagram. From scheduling posts to accessing in-depth analytics, it's a must-have for businesses looking to make a mark on these platforms.
My epic TED talk to you: on how to succeed and blaze a creative trail like no other, in a way that has never been seen by the world before, in a way only you could pull off:
We possess the unique ability to integrate the best of both worlds — logic and creativity, structure and flow. This is where brilliance is born, and our true potential is realized. This process is not about needless and redundant complexity, but about elegance in simplicity. It's concise, yet filled with depth. It's like a mind and heart alliance that serves your creativity as a unified goal, allowing ideas to flow freely and soul-inspired ideas to strike like synchronistic lightning.
Creation and innovation in step with lean product methodology provides a flexible, scale-as-you-go approach that supports fast evolutionary adaptation pivots. By crafting a minimal viable offering and releasing it into the wild, we forgo dithering about and being on the fence waiting for perfect readiness. We test, refine, and iterate, allowing the essence of our vision to emerge and evolve organically. Alongside this, we honor our unique voice, recognizing that this will ensure not only standing out but a more easily sustainable, scalable track of success.
The Universe has set us up for success with every experience being a stepping stone towards our purpose, and it is up to us to take each step to find out where it takes us. As we go along, we gain mastery. We grow and develop more into our true, highest potential. Through honing and mastering our craft, we cultivate a refined skill set and gain clarity on our unique offering and signature of success. We uncover our style, our expertise, and our brand of leadership — elements that only we can bring to the table. This process leads to creative direction and execution that makes the very notion of competition defunct, where our offerings are not just products, but a reflection of our authentic selves, our authority, and our unmistakable mark on the world.
Creative discipline, direction, and execution requires an integrated and concurrent harmonious interplay between logic and creativity, structure and intuitive flow, past metrics of success and innovating by creating extemporaneously on the spot, adopting a beginners mind and owning your experience. It's about finding the sweet spot where structure becomes the river bank of creative flow that accompanies its journey to join the ocean of all possibilities, where past metrics of success may help to inform our steps, but never restrict or impede innovation and originality.
I have seen metrics and analysis paralysis hitting creative performance like a Mike Tyson thunder rollout in the entertainment industry. It ain't pretty and the results are always subpar. Experience has to pull out the chair for improvisation on the dinner date — accommodating rather than being arrogant, domineering, and offensive to creativity. Approaching creative strategy with a fresh perspective and an openness to possibility means that, while we own our experiential expertise, valuing every lesson learned, we remain unafraid to pivot, adapt, refine, and iterate in pursuit of greatness. This is how the magic happens.