If Everyone is a Content Creator — Is Anyone?
Quick riddle for you: What do you have in common with podcast hosts, YouTube sensations, TikTok stars, and Instagram influencers?
Stumped? Okay, okay. I’ll tell you the answer.
Statistically speaking, you probably also consider yourself a ‘content creator’, at least on some level.
Recently, HubSpot’s Blog Research team ran a study and found 30% of 18-24 year olds and 40% of 25-34 year olds call themselves content creators.
That number might seem high at first, but when you consider how deeply ingrained social media has become in our lives, it starts to make sense.
What did surprise me, however, was this: When asked how many followers most of these content creators had, 84% reported less than 10,000, and 39% reported less than 1,000.
This confused me. In high school, I had roughly 100 followers. But I’d never considered myself a content creator. I guess, as it turns out, maybe I should have.
To investigate whether ‘everyone is a content creator’ is true — and what it means if it is — I spoke with three content creators and influencers about their relationship to the ‘content creator’ label. Let’s dive in.
Is anyone who creates content a ‘content creator’?
Li Jin is an investor and co-founder of Variant Fund, a venture firm investing in the ownership economy. Jin, who’s been called ‘The Investor Guru for Online Creators‘, believes everyone is a content creator.
As Jin told The Information, “No matter which industry you’re in, people are all going to be creators … This embrace of virtual brand-building is already starting to happen but will accelerate in coming years, as doctors, CEOs and other established professions, including venture capitalists, realize the importance of cultivating online profiles.”
Jin adds, “Everyone will have to build influence online, because we’re living more of our lives online … All of us will have to adopt some of the skill sets and behaviors of creators in order to be successful.”
If a content creator is defined as someone who “produces entertaining or educational material that caters to the interests and challenges of a target audience”, then it makes sense to label anyone with a social profile as a content creator. It doesn’t matter whether it’s just me posting a funny Instagram video to share with my 300 followers, or a major TikTok influencer doing the same thing for her 3 million fans.
Leslie Green, HubSpot’s Senior Social Strategy Manager, agrees. She says, “Nike believes ‘everyone is an athlete’, and I also believe everyone is a content creator. There may be varying levels of skill, but if you have a phone with a camera, you’re a content creator.”
A few years ago, being a content creator — or influencer — required a certain follower count to earn the title, and it was a relatively exclusive club, reserved for brands, mega-influencers, or celebrities.
Now, anyone with a smartphone has the opportunity to become one. There’s something incredibly freeing …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
