Creating anything of consequence or magnitude requires deliberate, incremental and consistent work. At the beginning, these efforts might not look like they are amounting to much. But with time, they accumulate and then compound on each other. Whether it’s a book or a business or an anthill or a stalagmite, from humble beginnings come impressive outcomes. – Ryan Holiday
All too frequently I come across articles about how to ‘build your content strategy.’ Instead of grand plans, think about the above quote. Your strategy should be to try and rack up, as Holiday puts it, a few small, authentic wins every day. That’s it.
If you are doing something worthwhile, like the guy running the Steak-umms Twitter account people will find you. Not only will they find you they will write about you in the Washington Post. Whether that sells more processed beef products, we’ll find out.
When I first started blogging, there was no Twitter. Any interaction you had in public with readers and other bloggers occurred in the comment section of the blog. That worked for a while. Eventually blog comments became unworkable due to bad actors. So the blogs you read today are more like monologues.* Less interactive, but truly representative of the writer’s voice.
This works, but it is not the only way to create worthwhile content. Now podcasts and videos have the most potent way to engage in a dialogue. It is direct and provides the viewer (or listener) with another way of engaging with someone’s views. It is this engaging with our other senses, like sound, that adds a whole other dimension to the process.
However creating quality audio and video isn’t as simple as banging out a blog post. It requires additional upfront costs and technical hurdles, but it opens up a new world for content creators. You can see this evolution happening here at Ritholtz Wealth Management. While blogging it still important, other channels have come to the fore.
Sometimes it involves one of us talking with a notable person outside the firm like Barry talking with Dave Nadig, Josh talking with Rob Arnott, Ben talking with William Bernstein, Michael talking with Cullen Roche or Blair talking with George Kinder. It could involve us talking with each other like Josh talking to Michael, Michael talking with Ben or Dina talking with Dan. Interacting on camera or the microphone involves using different creative muscles, which is also one of the benefits as well.
The point of this isn’t that you need to do video, audio, blogs, Twitter, Instagram and/or something else. The point is that you have options. Do what works best for you. It may take some time and experimentation to figure it out, but that is just part of the process. Whatever path you take, whether it be writing on a blog (monologue) or doing a podcast (dialogue), or some combination thereof, it is going to require ‘deliberate, incremental and consistent work’ to get to other side.
*Blogging is at its best when it does engage with other people’s work and ideas. That is in my mind a dialogue, but we’ll leave that argument for another day.
